Assessment of Local Public Finance Performance in China When Undesirable Fiscal Phenomena are Taken into Account

Making use of the data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique and taking undesirable fiscal phenomena into account, this paper comprehensively quantifies the public finance performance of local governments in China during the course of fiscal decentralization reform. The introduction of undesirable fiscal outcomes into this assessment makes it possible to identify meaningful and informative characteristics of local public finance performance in China. When reforms are first implemented, local public financial performance improves because undesirable fiscal phenomena have not yet become too serious. The tax sharing system reform did not work well in its early stages, and negatively impacted public expenditure efficiency. The reform started to play a substantial role between 2001 and 2005, when local governments experienced better public finance performance. Corresponding to the deterioration of the financial sector in recent years, local public financial performance worsened after 2007. Further reform of the current fiscal and taxation system is necessary in China, to ensure a brighter future for the nation.     

我国市场经济条件下公共财政的困境及出路

随着我国改革开放的不断深化,我国已经进入了全面建设小康社会和构建社会主义和谐社会的新时期。公共财政体制的完善是构建社会主义和谐社会的基础,公共财政通过发挥其固有的职能,从财力支持、政策推动、体制保障上推动社会主义和谐社会的实现。该文以近几年国家审计报告所暴露出来的问题为例来说明我国目前公共财政体制存在的问题,并在此基础上借鉴西方发达国家一些成功的做法,提出改革我国税制、转移支付制度、公共财政支出结构等来完善我国公共财政体制的建议。     

Redistribution and Federal finance

A key issue of taxation policy since the 1980s is how governments can raise sufficient revenue for social protection and redistribution and to respond to the needs for public spending associated with rapid economic integration. A unique aspect of Australia's federal finance arrangements is horizontal equalization. This paper examines its origins in the federation debates and draws parallels between Australian economic history and the current experience of globalization. It assesses the impact and implications of the neoliberal transformation of the 1980s and 1990s on key institutions of Australian public finance, and suggests possible principles and solutions for tax policy in the twenty–first century.     

A theory of privatization,or why bureaucrats are still in business

Privatization is a dynamic phenomenon, and changes in ownership arrangements require explanations based upon changes in background variables. Without movements in these variables bureaucrats are likely to stay in business, even if reform would increase efficiency. It is argued that changes in one such variable, the cost of government finance, have played a particularly significant role in trigerring privatizations and related reforms. The increasing cost of government finance, resulting from higher levels of general public expenditure and taxation, also explains the policy sequence, observed in many countries, in which comprehensive ownership reform is preceded by a period of increased financial stringency for state-owned enterprises (SOEs).     

政府财政政策对经济增长的影响——基于一个资本积累与创新相互作用模型的分析

政府财政政策对经济增长和社会福利的影响,是经济增长理论和宏观公共财政理论研究的重点,已经有大量的研究。本文在一个资本积累与创新相互作用的框架下内生化劳动力供给,假设政府通过征收平滑的收入税为公共支出融资,并且将政府公共支出区分为资本性支出和研发性支出,从而考察了税收和财政支出结构对经济增长的影响及其作用机制。研究发现,当政府通过征收收入税为生产性公共支出融资时,收入税税率与经济增长率之间存在一个倒U形的关系,从而回到了Barro(1990)的结论,尽管本文强调的政府财政政策作用于经济增长的机制与Barro(1990)差别较大;在基准经济(benchmark economy)的参数环境下,财政支出结构与经济增长率之间存在一个倒U型关系,从而经济中存在一个最优的财政支出结构。     

房地产新政对地方财税的影响和对策分析——以江苏南通市为例

近年来,国家对房地产市场采取了一系列宏观调控措施,长三角地区更是作为被调控的重点地区,身处其中的江苏省南通市房地产市场也受到一定影响,进而造成地方财税的增幅出现下降态势,今后应通过稳定住房价格、鼓励房地产交易和严格税费征管等对策在促进地区房地产市场健康发展的同时使地方财税得到持续增长。     

我国财税政策支持农村金融的制度缺陷

目前我国初步建立了农村金融的财税支持体系,但现行财税支持政策与金融税制结构和财政管理体制不对称,与农村金融体系和新农村建设不相适应,也与我国农村金融面临的主要约束不相符合,上述制度缺陷影响了农村金融的财税支持政策效果。本文针对上述制度缺陷从明确政府职能定位、优化财税扶持政策、建立多层次的农业信贷风险分担体系、提高财政支持政策的规范性和层次性四个方面提出了相应的政策建议。     

私营企业经济绩效、参政意识与浙粤现象

改革开放以来,我国私营企业取得了令人瞩目的经济成就,成为我国经济增长的引擎、税收的重要贡献者和就业的主要吸纳器。与此同时,在体制边缘艰难生长起来的私营企业在经过了最初的求利阶段后,参政意识和政治地位明显提高。一方面提高了财政支出的公共度,另一方面增强了地方人大对于政府预算的监督力度,从而促进了我国公共财政的发展。     

Market Substitution and the Pareto Dominance of Ad Valorem Taxation

Based on product homogeneity and Cournot competition, past literature has uniformly shown that ad valorem taxation welfare dominates unit taxation in noncompetitive markets. This paper allows goods in a market to be heterogeneous and firms to be Bertrand competing. We confirm the short-run findings of others that consumer welfare and overall welfare are always higher under ad valorem taxation. However, ad valorem taxation generates larger profits (hence Pareto dominates) only when market demand is elastic, perhaps explaining the persistence of unit taxation in markets with inelastic demand. The effects on ad valorem Pareto dominance of within- and between-market substitutability, number of firms in the taxed market, and the level of taxation are also investigated. In the long run, an equal-revenue substitution of ad valorem taxation for unit taxation reduces consumer price, which is welfare improving, but also reduces variety when market demand is elastic, which is welfare decreasing. Nonetheless, ad valorem welfare dominance still holds in the long run.     

证券投资基金评价方法探讨

针对目前学术界热烈讨论的税制改革 ,本文提出对现有的消费税的结构进行调整 ,包括税种以及税率的调整 ,从而弥补由于将现行GNP型增值税改为消费型增值税后所造成的财政减收 ,并试图运用RAM SEY的最优化物税模型来确定最优的消费税税率。     

New Wine in Old Bottles: A Meta-Analysis of Ricardian Equivalence

A quantitative review, or meta-analysis, of 28 empirical studies of the Ricardian equivalence theorem (RET) gives persuasive testament of its falsity. Although there is great dissonance concerning the validity of Ricardian equivalence among contributors and reviewers alike, my meta-analysis reveals that the testing record, as a whole, entails a strong empirical rejection of RET. This conclusion is further strengthened by the fact that both a study's degrees of freedom and its proper econometric specification increase the likelihood of rejection. A meta-regression analysis identifies nine study characteristics that help explain the large study-to-study variation found among reported RET test results (R² = 83%).     

The Incidence of Deficit Finance with Imperfect Capital Markets

The purpose of this paper is to examine the possible differential welfare implications of deficit finance using a portfolio allocation model. To analyze the incidence of changing the time path of taxation in an economy with heterogeneous agents, I develop a two-period, general equilibrium extension of work done previously to analyze the effects of taxation on risk-taking at the individual level. Constraints on short sales of assets are introduced, and fiscal policy, changing the timing of taxation, will indirectly determine which of these constraints bind as well as alter relative tax burdens. Changes in the timing of a flat-rate tax will also alter equilibrium asset returns, and because preferences are such that agents differ in their tolerance of risk, a Pareto frontier can be derived over a range of different levels of deficit finance.     

Banks and securities markets: Corporate financing in Germany and the United Kingdom

This paper compares corporate financing in the German bank-based and UK market-based systems. Large German firms pay out a lower proportion of their profits as dividends and finance a larger proportion of their investments from retentions. German banks extend more long-term finance to medium-sized firms but UK firms raise more new equity. The paper tests alternative theories of corporate finance. It finds no relation between finance and taxation, and information theories only receive limited support. Instead, it concludes that control models of corporate finance are consistent with observed patterns of finance.     

Tax evasion as a<Emphasis Type="Italic">de facto</Emphasis> vote of disapproval of PAC contributions

In this study, it is hypothesized that higher (rising) real PAC election campaign contributions may lead the public to increasingly distrust and resent politicians because of the perceived political influence that these contributions exercise. It is further hypothesized that to express that distrust and resentment, the public may make greater efforts to evade income taxation so as to deny tax revenues to the Treasury and “influence-peddling” politicians. Instrumenatal Variable (IV) estimates in first differences that allow for income tax rates, IRS audit rates, IRS penalty assessments on detected unreported income, and the public's dissatisfaction with government per se, find strong, albeit only preliminary, empirical evidence that tax evasion is an increasing function of real PAC election campaign contributions. The author is indebted to Jim Alm, Mike McKee, Joel Slemrod, and Thomas Stratmann and to the University of Miami Economics Seminar faculty and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Economics Seminar faculty for ideas and helpful comments.     

The making of a fiscal state in Song China, 960–1279

In light of the Schumpeterian paradigm, this article explores the rise of the tax state in eleventh‐century China and its further transition towards a fiscal state until the Mongol conquest in 1279. By the late eleventh century in the Song dynasty, two‐thirds of state revenues came from taxing non‐agricultural sectors, especially from the collection of excise. The Song state became the first sustainable tax state in global history, as manifested in three major aspects: monetization; indirect taxation; and centralization and professionalization in the tax administration. The boundary of the Song tax state was largely confined to urban settlements. In rural areas, the state gave up the collection of commercial taxes by farming out this right to local elites. In the twelfth century, as traditional tax revenues fell far short of supporting military defence, the Song administration utilized credit instruments. Around 1200, the amount of redeemable promissory notes first exceeded that of annual tax revenues. This shift from tax‐based public finance to credit‐based public finance completed the transition towards a fiscal state. Nonetheless, this development in the fiscal state was still at an early stage and proved to be unstable. Toward the end of the Southern Song, hyperinflation caused by the over‐issuance of promissory notes seriously threatened the economy.     

促进中部崛起的财政政策选择

改革开放以来,我国相继实施了东部开放和西部大开发战略,而中部地区却一直没能成为国家发展的重点扶持对象,加上政府在财税政策制定上出现偏差,致使中部地区经济发展相对迟缓。改革和完善现行的某些财政政策,制定有利于中部发展的财税政策,是促进中部崛起的必要条件。     

Current Account and Fiscal Policy in Japan: 1885–1991

This paper explores the empirical relationship between the current account balance and macroeconomic series for the Japanese economy over the years 1885–1991. The long-run equilibrium depends on which series (public debt or budget deficits) affects assets relative to a capital stock rate. Departing from the Ricardian Equivalence structure (no bequest motives), fiscal policy in Japan is shown to be more related to the current account when policy is introduced by shifts in tax revenues rather than by changes in national debt.     

推进我国公共财政建设的若干问题分析

公共财政建设是一项复杂而艰巨的系统工程。我国公共财政从无到有,从不规范到规范,从不完善到完善,必须经历一个痛苦过程。围绕着公共财政公共、公平、公开的基本要求,对如何推进我国的公共财政建设,本文针对财政资金投放的公共性,分析了民生领域的资金投放现状,提出增加民生领域的资金投放的主要对策建议;针对财政分配的公平性,分析并提出了解决财政分配不公的对策;针对财政预算的公开性,提出政府财政预算要公开更要透明的具体建议。     

农村税费改革后公共服务型乡镇政府构建的思考——以四川省为例

税费改革在取得农民负担明显减轻的同时,也涉及到了乡村利益格局和政治民主权利的调适,乡镇政府及其功能的重新塑造。因此,迫切需要合理定位乡镇政府职能,推动乡镇政府职能转变,构建公共服务型乡镇政府。本文以四川省为例,探索了乡镇政府的职能发挥状况,阐述了构建公共服务型乡镇政府的必要性,提出了要构建公共服务型乡镇政府,就必须理顺乡镇财税管理体制,妥善解决乡镇政府机构臃肿、人员过多等问题,合理划分职能,理顺各级政府间事权关系,强化乡镇政府提供公共服务功能,同时改变乡镇政府的工作模式。     

Fiscal Policy Effectiveness in Japan

The effectiveness of fiscal policy in Japan over the past decade has been a matter of great controversy. We investigate the effectiveness of Japanese fiscal policy over the 1976–1999 period using a structural VAR analysis of real GDP, tax revenues, and public expenditures. We find that expansionary fiscal policy, whether in the form of tax cuts or of public works spending, had significant stimulative effects. Using a new method of computing policy multipliers from structural VARs, we calculate that the multiplier on tax cuts is about 25% higher at a four-year horizon than that on public works spending, though both are well in excess of one. A historical decomposition reveals that Japanese fiscal policy was contractionary over much of the 1990s, and a significant proportion of the variation in growth can be attributed to fiscal policy shocks; accordingly, most of the run-up in public debt is attributable to declining tax revenues due to the recession. Examining savings behavior directly, we find limited evidence of Ricardian effects, insufficient to offset the short-term effects of discretionary fiscal policy. J. Japan. Int. Econ., December 2002, 16(4), pp. 536–558. Federal Reserve Bank of New York, New York, and Institute for International Economics, Washington, DC. © 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: E62, E65, E21.