Constitutions, regulations, and taxes: Contradictions of different aspects of decentralization

The paper confronts different aspects of decentralization: fiscal decentralization, post-constitutional regulatory decentralization, and constitutional decentralization – using a single dataset from the Russian Federation of the Yeltsin period as a politically asymmetric country and a variety of indicators. It finds no robust correlation between different decentralization aspects; moreover, three processes of devolution appearing in the same country at the same time seem to be driven by different (though partly overlapping) forces. Hence, a specific aspect of decentralization is hardly able to serve as a proxy for another one or for the overall decentralization process.     

财政分权的中国模式与OECD模式——分税制是财政集权吗

本文在完整的财政分权内涵上比较分析了1995—2009年中国与OECD国家的财政分权情况,结果发现,不管是收入还是支出,中国中央与地方政府的财政分权程度都远远高于发达国家,呈现出中国政治集权下的财政分权和OECD政治分权下的财政集权两种模式。中国的财政支出分权程度与经济增长和财政均等化存在显著的正向相关关系,而这在OECD国家是不显著的。在中国的财政分权结构中,结构偏向的经济性支出成为地方政府财政支出重点和经济增长的重要推动力量;扩张的预算外支出成为增加财政收入的重要途径。所谓“事权与财权匹配”问题的实质是公共职责不清晰和预算软约束的地方政府收支扩张的财政机会主义倾向。财政分权改革的后续深化方向是在明确规范化地方政府公共职责和硬化预算约束的基础上适度财政集权化。     

基于收入视角的中央与地方财政关系

基于财政收入视角,本文回顾了我国财政改革历程,认识到宪政背景、意识形态和地方可支配财力对财政分权的重要意义。分税制改革是政府间财力的重新分配。分税制改革至今,中央和地方的税收分享不断调整。中央通过扩大共享税范围,增加了分享比例,集中税收,上收财力。分税制规定了政府间的预算内财政收入,并没有规定支出,实质上增加了地方政府财政支配权。地方政府预算内财政收入减少,却不断扩大财政支出的规模。地方政府通过增加非税收入规模,提高中央转移支付额度,实现收支平衡。地方政府提高财政可支配收入的积极性和经济建设的积极性相互交织,成为地方非税收入膨胀的根源。     

Why countries are fiscally decentralizing

This paper models and empirically investigates underlying forces that promote governmental decentralization, or effective federalism, in the world over the last 25 years. A move to a federal system is based on the demand by hinterland regions for local autonomy, which increases with national income growth, greater relative hinterland population, and increasing national population. It is influenced as well by the degree of democratization nationally and locally. Decentralization is measured by both institutional indices indicating greater devolution of power to local governments and the share of local governments in national government consumption. Empirically, the paper finds that decentralization changes in ways predicted, in particular it increases with economic growth, country size, and population. Institutional structures based on colonial experience and initial constitutional provisions also matter.     

完善中国政府间转移支付的路径选择

作为分权化财政体制的组成部分,政府间转移支付在不同制度环境下产生的效果也存在很大差异。中国自上而下的财政分权强调更多的是发挥中央政府的宏观调控作用和保证中央政府取得足够的财政资源,因此转移支付在很大程度上被用于弥补地方财政缺口,成为中央政府实现纵向控制的重要手段。改进中国转移支付体系的策略应当是进一步完善以公式为基础的分配标准,并在政治上可行的情况下促进均等化。     

Government size, composition, volatility and economic growth

This paper analyses the effects in terms of size and volatility of government revenue and spending on growth in OECD and EU countries. The results of the paper suggest that both variables are detrimental to growth. In particular, looking more closely at the effect of each component of government revenue and spending, the results point out that i) indirect taxes (size and volatility); ii) social contributions (size and volatility); iii) government consumption (size and volatility); iv) subsidies (size); and v) government investment (volatility) have a sizeable, negative and statistically significant effect on growth.     

中国的财政分权与经济增长——基于省级面板数据的实证

在Barro、Davoodi和Zou模型的基础上,本文构造了一个财政分权与经济增长关系的模型,并利用1980-2004年省级面板数据,采用随机效应回归方法,分阶段实证研究了我国财政分权对经济增长的影响.实证研究发现,财政分权总体上促进了我国的经济增长,而且我国财政分权的经济增长效应存在显著的跨区差异,东部地区的财政分权经济增长优势高于中西部地区.作者认为,财政分权体制下地方政府财政行为的差异与公共支出构成的差异是造成我国财政分权经济增长效应跨区差异的重要原因.     

地方官员行为与经济发展:一个分析框架

本文在对地方官员行为的相关文献进行分析的基础上将影响官员行为的多个方面,即财政分权、政治晋升和腐败,构建了一个统一的分析框架。利用这一分析框架,我们考察了不同因素对官员行为(主要是努力和腐败)的影响,并得到了相关命题。与那些只研究一方面因素对地方官员行为影响的文献相比,利用我们的框架得到的结论更加全面。     

论我国政府财务报告制度的构建——基于财政透明度的考察

政府向公众提供政府财务报告,是提高财政透明度、强化政府公共受托责任的内在要求.目前,我国尚未建立真正意义上的政府财务报告制度,财政透明度与国际货币基金组织的基本要求相比尚存在较大差距.为了提高财政透明度,必须要建立和完善政府财务报告制度.具体而言,应当从报告目标、报告主体、会计基础、核算范围等方面对现有的预算会计制度进行全方位的改革,以逐步建立我国的政府会计和政府财务报告制度.但是,政府会计改革和政府财务报告制度的构建是一项综合性的改革工程,应当采用分阶段、逐步推进的方法来进行.     

Fiscal decentralization and political centralization in China: Implications for growth and inequality

China's current fiscal system is largely decentralized while its governance structure is rather centralized with strong top-down mandates and a homogeneous governance structure. Due to large differences in initial economic structures and revenue bases, the implicit tax rate and fiscal burdens to support the functioning of local government vary significantly across jurisdictions. Regions initially endowed with a broader nonfarm tax base do not need to rely heavily on preexisting or new firms to finance public goods provision, thereby creating a healthy investment environment for the nonfarm sector to grow. In contrast, regions with agriculture as the major economic activity have little resources left for public investment after paying the expenses of bureaucracy. Consequently, differences in economic structures and fiscal burdens may translate into a widening regional gap. Journal of Comparative Economics 34 (4) (2006) 713–726.     

中国式财政分权的解释逻辑:从理论述评到实践推演

本文采取文献述评的形式梳理了分权、财政分权与财政联邦制的一般理论,并结合当代中国财政体制改革的实践,对中国式财政分权的称谓和特征进行了解析。对于能否用中国式财政分权来解释从财政包干制时期的财力分散走向分税制时期的财力集中的现实,本文在理论与实践层面予以了阐述,指出虽然当代中国践行的是分权化的财政体制改革,但是政治集权体制下的财政分权却塑造了地方财政自治权和中央财政控制权同向增加的特色。     

财政分权对地方公共支出结构的影响及对策研究

中国财政分权的实施为我国的现代化建设做出了巨大贡献,但同时许多问题也渐渐暴露。本文着眼于现阶段地方公共支出中所存在的问题和弊端,分析财政分权对其影响过程中的突出问题,提出重视民生建设合理的调整财政支出比例、全面的官员考核制度、中央与地方政府间的合理分权等相应对策,以使地方公共支出结构更为合理、有效。     

Government deficits, consumption, and the price level

This paper investigates the dynamics of the price level in a continuous time monetary version of the Yaari-Blanchard overlapping generations model with capital accumulation. It is shown that there is an interaction between fiscal discipline and price stability when the government budget is intertemporally balanced. Relevant implications are that high debt and slow adjustment adversely affect both prices and capital accumulation. Received: April 2005, Accepted: November 2005 We are very grateful to Paulo Brito, the editor, and to an anonymous referee for helpful comments. We also thank seminar participants at the University of Rome for useful discussions. Financial support from MIUR is gratefully acknowledged. The usual disclaimer applies.     

转移支付均等化条件分析——基于转移支付与地方经济增长的关系

文章运用近16年的转移支付数据验证了龚六堂2000年的观点,即中央政府对地方政府的转移支付率与地方经济增长率之间是"倒U型"的关系。并在此基础上进一步推导出地方经济增长和中央政府对地方政府的转移支付之间也存在着这样"倒U"关系。用这种关系解释两个问题:第一,转移支付对地方经济增长有部分正的刺激作用,无论是富裕地区还是贫穷地区,中央政府都应该对其地方政府给予转移支付,同时转移支付也不是越多越好,也应该有个量的限制,当地方政府的收益足够大时,转移支付对经济增长的刺激就不再那么明显,反而会抑制地方经济增长;第二,从新的角度分析转移支付均等化实现的条件,即富裕地区较贫穷地区较早的进入"倒U"曲线的边际收益递减阶段时,才可能实现均等化。     

农民负担、政府管制与财政体制改革

本文根据一项基于大样本、跨年度的实证研究的结果 ,对中国农村的税费问题进行理论性概括。指出农民负担问题的根源在于政府对农村进行的各种管制。同时指出仅仅通过财政体制改革来解决农民负担问题具有相当的片面性 ,并分析了当前正在进行的农村税改存在的一系列问题。     

Regime changes and the sustainability of fiscal imbalance in East Asian countries

The main purpose of this paper is to assess empirically the fiscal policy regimes in five Asian countries using a formal framework based on the government's intertemporal budget constraints (GIBC). To this end, we relied on an array of time-series methods and quarterly data of nearly three decades. Our conclusions are; first, the evidence indicates that the fiscal stance in Thailand and South Korea are on their sustainable path while the Philippines and Malaysia demonstrate only ‘weak sustainability’. Second, revenues are growing at a rate faster than government spending for Singapore, a country that has recorded large surpluses for most of the sample period. Third, the results show a one-way causation from expenditure to revenue for Korea, Singapore and Thailand. This finding indicates that reducing the size of government spending may improve fiscal budget deficits without having to undergo changes in the overall strategy. Fourth, we observed a long-run feedback causality in the revenue–expenditure nexus for the case of Malaysia and the Philippines, which may require fiscal synchronization instrument policies to moderate the post-crisis fiscal imbalances. Together, the results demonstrate diverse fiscal patterns but they should be useful to understand the complexities of economic integration in the region.