Rural tax reform and the extractive capacity of local state in China

China's fiscal arrangement in the 1980s has preserved local governments' incentive but the 1994 fiscal reform recentralized revenues. Since then, farmers' tax burdens have risen steeply and become a major challenge to the state legitimacy. How to account for the huge regional variation? Why were some localities able to tax more heavily than others? Based on a national survey of village governance in China, we examine farmers' burdens empirically and identify political and social factors that explain the local governments' ability to tax farmers. This paper suggests that developments since the 1990s have shown that it overstates local discretionary power and does not pay enough attention to societal forces in understanding local public finance.     

FISCAL POLICY, ADJUSTMENT COSTS, AND ENDOGENOUS GROWTH

This paper develops a one-sector endogenous growth model inwhich investment incurs convex adjustment costs. Conditionsfor the existence of a balanced growth path are discussed. Fiscalissues are analyzed in a circumstance in which the governmentuses tax revenues to finance public expenditures that impacton both the productivity of the existing capital stock, andadjustments costs. The effect of these costs on the equilibriumgrowth rate and on the effectiveness of fiscal policy is discussed.Optimal fiscal policy is derived and the role of adjustmentcosts and congestion in determining the trade-off between differenttaxes is considered.     

Fiscal policies and the institution of a tax state in Anglo‐Saxon England within a comparative context1

This article begins by noting that military revolutions and civil wars in early modern Europe provide an unduly narrow framework for understanding the transition from a domain to a tax state. Taking Anglo‐Saxon England as a case study, it is suggested that political restrictions led to the establishment of direct and indirect taxation, thereby providing rulers with revenues which surpassed those from domain resources. The main section of the article uses sources from coinage and wills to poetry and letters in order to give a general idea of the chronological development of a medieval tax state. This analysis challenges the views of the new fiscal historians, who argue that a collapse in a medieval domain state acts as the precondition for the emergence of a tax state. Instead, this article suggests that new policies arose because of the need of Anglo‐Saxon kings and their advisers to take account of the requirements of ecclesiastical authorities, as well as a heavy revenue imperative, in paying for resistance against the Vikings. The article ends with a discussion of the comparative applications of the contexts and catalysts which lead to the adoption of pioneering fiscal policies.     

小微信贷财税支持政策效果评估及建议

财税部门出台了一系列旨在激励金融机构加大对小微企业信贷投放力度的优惠支持政策。本文以黑龙江省84家银行机构为样本,对小微信贷财税支持政策效果进行定性和定量评估,结果显示:小微信贷财税支持政策在顶层设计和具体优惠标准等方面存在缺陷,导致对银行的激励作用有限,对银行的决策影响权重偏低。因此,应进一步明确小微信贷财税政策的支持重点和方向并调整支持方式,增强政策的系统性、简洁性和便利性,同时应从小微信贷决策、小微贷款办理和小微贷款存续三个环节完善调整小微信贷财税支持政策的具体标准。     

我国地方财政面临的问题与改革思路

财政改革以来,地方财政的理财主体地位得到了加强,但仍然存在着地方税体系不够健全、财政级次较多、县乡财政困难、地区间财力状况差异较大等一系列问题。改革的基本思路是：深化财政改革,从简化财政级次、建立地方转移支付制度和地方税体系、农村公共财政体制建设、化解地方财政风险等方面采取应对措施。     

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.     

Intra‐provincial Revenue Sharing and the Subnational Government's Fiscal Capacity in China: The Case of Zhejiang Province

This study investigates whether the tax‐sharing system has deteriorated the fiscal capacity of subnational governments by analyzing how fiscal revenues are divided between provincial and sub‐provincial governments. Our study of county‐level fiscal data from Zhejiang Province in China during 1994–2007 shows that intra‐provincial revenue‐sharing rules favor county governments in two ways: (i) they improve county governments ‘fiscal autonomy in terms of using their own revenues; and (ii) they enhance county governments ‘fiscal capacity through province‐to‐county general transfers. In addition, we find that intra‐provincial fiscal revenue‐sharing rules and transfers reduce fiscal disparity between counties.     

Decentralized Taxation and the Size of Government: Evidence from Swiss State and Local Governments

According to the Leviathan Model, fiscal federalism is a binding constraint on revenue‐maximizing government. The competitive pressure of fiscal federalism reduces public sector size, as compared to unitary states. This study uses panel data of Swiss cantons from 1980 to 1998 to empirically analyze the effect of different instruments on government revenue and its structure. Because of the considerable tax autonomy of sub‐national Swiss governments, it is possible to investigate different mechanisms by which fiscal federalism may influence government size. The results indicate that tax exporting has a revenue‐expanding effect; whereas, tax competition favors a smaller size of government. Fragmentation has no robust effect on the size of government revenue for Swiss cantons. The overall effect of revenue decentralization leads to fewer tax revenues but higher user charges. Thus, revenue decentralization favors a smaller size of government revenue and shifts government revenue from taxes to user charges.     

Debt policy under constraints: Philip II,the Cortes,and Genoese bankers

Under Philip II, Castile was the first country with a large nation‐wide domestic public debt. A new view of that fiscal system is presented that is potentially relevant for other fiscal systems in Europe before 1800. The credibility of the debt, mostly in perpetual redeemable annuities, was enhanced by decentralized funding through taxes administered by cities making up the Realm in the Cortes. The accumulation of short‐term debt depended on refinancing through long‐term debt. Financial crises in the short‐term debt occurred when the service of the long‐term debt reached the revenues of its servicing taxes. They were not caused by liquidity crises and were resolved after protracted negotiations in the Cortes by tax increases and interest rate reductions.     

Has Fiscal Federalism Worked for Macroeconomic Purposes？ The Chinese Experience 1994-2003

China＇s central government undertook major tax regime reform in 1994 that was characterized by fiscal federalism. In hindsight, this reform might be viewed as being more emphatic towards the revenue side than the expenditure side. The reform has resulted in certain success both for revenue shifting and inflation fighting purposes. However, the reform and its subsequent follow-ups have not addressed some fundamental issues pertaining to China＇s government finance system, such as the overhauling of the function of government finance and redrawing lines between the central and regional governments with regard to their fiscal responsibilities and duties. Moreover, fiscal federalism might have actually increased fiscal burden on the economy, especially on domestic sectors of the economy. However, coupled with enhanced policy support for China＇ s external development, fiscal federalism might have helped to further accelerate resource shifts toward the external sector, thus resulting in an unprecedented rapid expansion in China＇ s exports since the mid1990s.     

Fiscal decentralization,fiscal reform,and economic growth in china

In 1994, after a period of substantial fiscal decentralization that has been credited with leading to historically unprecedented growth rates but significant fiscal decline, China introduced a new fiscal system that recentralized the collection of tax revenues. The economic and political consequences of this new Tax Sharing System (TSS) have been debated extensively in the literature, especially because of the renewed interest in fiscal federalism and its interaction with political institutions and economic outcomes. The question central to this debate has been whether the TSS constitutes a significant departure from decentralization with adverse effects on fiscal federalism or whether the recentralization of revenues under the TSS corrects for the overshooting in decentralization with beneficial economic outcomes. This paper exploits the staggered introduction of the TSS across regions and over time for econometric identification purposes and finds robust causal evidence that the TSS had a positive impact on economic outcomes.     

调整个人所得税“九级超额累进税率”的建议——调整方案不应忽视对财政收入的影响

近几年学术界针对工资薪金的“九级超额累进税率”提出了“提高免征额、减少级次、降低税率”的调整意见,笔者认为其中有欠妥当。调整个人所得税征收方法不应忽视对财政收入产生的影响。文章通过对征收个人所得税的初衷、我国个人所得税的征收现状、发展趋势以及我国劳动者工     

赤字财政、公债货币化与税收国家的危机

凯恩斯革命颠覆了平衡预算的古典财政原则,而代之以倾向于赤字扩张的功能财政,功能财政下产生的预算赤字实际上是借助公债货币化来弥补的,由此,铸币税、通货膨胀税在国家财政收入中扮演着越来越重要的角色,并深刻地引发了税收国家的危机。本文从财政社会学的视角探讨了这一理路发展,并从财政立宪和货币立宪的角度审视了现代国家的建构问题。     

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.     

我国近现代财政体制演进轨迹及其现实框架

我国近现代财政形态,可归纳为从帝国财政崩溃走向公共财政建立的过程。在这个过程中大一统财政体制逐渐瓦解,分级分税财政体制经历了漫长的探索,逐步融入与先发现代化国家趋同的财政联邦主义改革方向。我国有必要建立宪政化、法治化的财政体制框架,在社会监督下形成政府间稳定的法律关系,使财政体制成为社会进步的重要支柱性制度之一。     

Taxing Times in Indonesia: The Challenge of Restoring Competitiveness and the Search for Fiscal Space

Indonesia’s economic growth picked up slightly in mid-2016 but remains below the level demanded by government and popular aspirations. Despite a plethora of reforms intended to increase efficiency and productivity, some policies are perverse and longstanding problems of implementation remain. The share of manufacturing has declined, the real exchange rate has appreciated, exports have dwindled, and growth has been trending downwards. The banking sector is stable but inefficient, with wide net interest margins and numerous barriers to competition. Trade protection, particularly in basic food commodities, has created high costs that weigh particularly heavily on the poor. Declining government revenues have placed increasing pressure on the public budget, even as the current administration aims to increase spending on infrastructure and welfare and to enhance productivity. In an effort to increase revenues, the government has announced a tax amnesty program and other measures. In addition, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, the new finance minister, has taken steps to cut non-essential expenditure in order to secure high spending on infrastructure and at the same time keep within the 3% budget deficit limit stipulated by law. Although the overall debt situation is not yet alarming, declining revenues and budget cuts that do not fully reflect this decline are putting pressure on increasing debt levels. The government’s high-profile tax amnesty program was the major policy initiative implemented in the second half of 2016 that aimed to relieve this pressure. Despite widespread criticism of, and scepticism about, the tax amnesty (both within and outside Indonesia), its first phase had a much higher participation rate than most independent accounts expected. Revenues raised so far through the amnesty are less than 60% of the official target, but this is actually a strong result for the short term. The bigger question, however, is whether the amnesty is a key element of a more encompassing strategy to overhaul the system of taxation and tax administration.     

Fiscal Decentralization or Centralization: Diverging Paths of Chinese Cities

If fiscal decentralization promotes growth, why do some regions decentralize more than others? This article identifies the growing divergence of fiscal centralization among Chinese cities and explains it in a public finance framework. It argues that fiscal decentralization and its economy‐liberalizing effect entail significant short‐term fiscal risk. The more a locality relies on uncompetitive business ownership for fiscal revenue, the less likely fiscal decentralization is to occur. This article compiles a dataset of 20 provincial capitals between 1999 and 2016 to test for the connection between a city's tax base and its fiscal centralization level. It then pairs two “most similar” cities to trace how fiscal security concerns drove their fiscal and economic policies apart. This article adds a micro‐level perspective to the literature on fiscal federalism. By pointing out the fiscal constraints confronting local governments, it offers a new angle to understand the different growth paths of Chinese cities.     

Tax Pot Episodes in OECD Countries

How to use an unexpected increase in tax revenues (tax pots) was an important issue in most OECD countries in the second half of the 1990s, the question being more precisely what to do with those windfall revenues: decrease taxes, reduce debt, increase expenditures? In this paper, we study such tax pot episodes in OECD countries over the past 40 years. To that end, we propose a definition of a fiscal pot episode. Once identification is complete, we examine the macroeconomic environment within in those episodes, the way this surplus of revenues has been used, and the degree of success in reducing public debt and in fostering growth. As in the fiscal adjustment literature, we then obtain relatively orthodox conclusions about the use of windfall tax revenues, as it is generally better for future growth and debt level to use the money to reduce expenditures and taxes. J. Japan. Int. Econ., December 2002, 16(4), pp. 436–461. University of Toulouse (IDEI), Toulouse, France; and University of Toulouse (GREMAQ, LEERNA, and IDEI), Toulouse, France, Institut Universitaire de France, and CEPR. © 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: E6, H6.     

Taxation,fiscal capacity,and credible commitment in eighteenth-century China: the effects of the formalization and centralization of informal surtaxes†

This article explores a tax reform in eighteenth-century China that formalized county-level informal surtaxes and centralized control over them in the hands of provincial governors, in an effort to strengthen provincial fiscal capacity. The findings show that this reform increased the frequency of famine relief in cases of exceptional disaster relative to other weather conditions. The study shows that the effects were driven by the new fiscal revenues—public funds—at the governors’ discretion, not by the central government's relief actions, bureaucratic control over lower officials, or other concurrent fiscal reforms. Moreover, the reform facilitated intertemporal smoothing and inter-regional risk sharing. However, the effects declined as soon as the central government broke its promise and began to appropriate provincial fiscal revenues. These findings not only provide evidence that fiscal centralization could enhance the provision of public goods in a premodern context, but also highlight that it was the lack of a credible commitment by the central government to the provincial governments that accounted for the short-lived effects of the reform.     

The Impact of Trade Liberalization on Revenue Mobilization and Stability in Sudan

Abstract: This paper attempts to examine key aspects of the Sudanese tax system, paying particular attention to the impact of the recent trade liberalization on government revenues. An eclectic method of analysis is utilized. The results show that the Sudanese tax system as a whole is not buoyant or elastic; the same applies for its major handles. The liberalization reform did not appear to have enhanced revenue productivity and stability in the country. This result indicates the presence of substantial slacks in tax collection and tax evasion. The analysis also shows that tax evasion is the main problem facing tax administration; on average, it stands at about 53 per cent of actual tax yield and 33 per cent of the potential tax yield inclusive of the underground economy's gross domestic product (GDP). Assessment of the determinants of trade revenue suggests that the yield of trade tax has improved due to liberalization; however, the marginal benefit of tax evasion is still considerable. The findings imply that a committed tax reform is crucial for augmenting tax revenue yield as well as for fiscal consolidation and macroeconomic stability.