Tax perceptions and the demand for public expenditure: evidence from UK micro-data

Using responses from the 1995 British Social Attitudes Survey (BSAS), this paper assesses if there is evidence of voter misperception of tax costs. We find convincing evidence of income tax (IT) and value added tax (VAT) misperceptions, with a systematic bias towards overestimation of tax burdens for VAT, contrary to predictions of the fiscal illusion literature. We then integrate tax misperceptions into a model of demand for public expenditure. Voters' spending preferences are strongly related to their incomes, actual tax costs, and other fiscal-related household characteristics. A tendency to overestimate tax burdens appears to have only a modest influence on demands for public spending.     

Government response to increased demand for public services: The cyclicality of government health expenditures in the OECD

The more that health care expenditures are financed by general taxation, the greater the discretion governments are likely to exercise when timing increases in health care expenditures. Vote-maximising governments time increases in health care expenditures to occur in economic upturns, when voters are not as aware of the required increase in taxation. In recessions, they have an incentive to sustain expenditures on health care by diverting expenditures from other public expenditure programmes that voters perceive as low priority. In this way, government pursuit of a political agenda is likely to exert a systematic influence on the cyclicality of government expenditure. Predictions are tested with reference to the cyclicality of government health expenditures, for a sample of OECD countries from 2000 to 2012.     

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。     

Fiscal imbalances and asymmetric adjustment under Labour and Conservative governments in the UK

This paper examines whether the political colour of an incumbent government affects the speed at which fiscal imbalances are corrected in the case of the UK. Using quarterly data, we examine whether Conservative or Labour governments are more prone to operate under a soft budget constraint and vis-à-vis i.e. to adhere to a hard budget strategy. The tests, using quarterly data, cover the period 1961–2011 and the results reported herein reveal differences in the speed at which fiscal imbalances are corrected by Labour and Conservative governments. The former are more inclined to operate under a soft budget constraint whereas the latter under a hard budget constraint.     

The impact of fiscal consolidations on the functional components of government expenditures

This paper analyses how the functional components and sub-components of government expenditures are affected by fiscal consolidations. A fixed-effects estimator is employed over a panel of 15 European Union countries during the period 1990–2012. The results show that spending on public services increases during fiscal consolidations, while spending on defence, public order, health, education and social protection is significantly cut. A more disaggregated analysis proves that fiscal consolidations are harmful for important social expenditures, in particular, for those related to citizens’ safety, health assistance, social protection and investment in human capital. This evidence is even stronger in a particular group of countries, known in the literature as PIIGS. Hence, fiscal consolidations can have important implications on the living standards of the more economically vulnerable citizens.     

Fiscal policy and private consumption in industrial and developing countries

This paper empirically studies the effects of fiscal policy shocks on private consumption. Further, it investigates if the initial financing needs of the government or previous fiscal deficits affect that relationship. We use yearly data between 1970 and 2000 for 40 countries, of which 19 are industrialized and 21 are developing countries. In general, the estimation results seem to indicate that government consumption shocks have Keynesian effects for both industrial and developing countries. In the case of tax shocks, the evidence is mixed. Furthermore, there is no evidence that favors the hypothesis of expansionary fiscal consolidations.     

Aging: Some Pleasant Fiscal Arithmetic

Projections of age-related public expenditure growth have raised widespread concerns about fiscal sustainability. This paper examines how total expenditure would develop under four policy rules on public expenditure growth. Some simple arithmetic of expenditure, GDP, and population is reviewed and applied in simulations for 19 OECD countries over 2000–50. A general and a specific conclusion arise from the results. Generally, long-term expenditure projections could benefit from revisiting common assumptions on non-age-related expenditure growth. Specifically, realistic gradual adjustment in non-age-related expenditures could go a long way towards maintaining fiscal sustainability under age-related spending pressures.

大飞机产业发展的财政政策支持

大飞机产业作为国家战略性产业,对国民经济发展和国家安全至关重要,是推动国家综合国力提升以及国家竞争优势形成的重要力量。大飞机产业的特殊性和战略性使得市场机制在产业发展中难以充分发挥效应。而政府的公共政策支持成为推动产业快速发展和竞争力不断提升的重要基石。政府通过财政补贴、税收政策、政府采购等方式来支持大飞机产业发展,并推动产业发展目标的实现。     

Fiscal transparency,government effectiveness and government spending efficiency: Some international evidence based on panel data approach

The global financial crisis and the debt crisis of the EU countries revealed serious weaknesses in fiscal reporting. As a consequence, uncertainties regarding the real situation of the public accounts of the countries raised doubts in relation to the effectiveness of government policies. Since then, countries are undertaking reforms in order to improve fiscal transparency. This paper analyzes whether countries are making efforts to enhance fiscal transparency, and whether fiscal transparency affects government effectiveness and government spending efficiency. We consider two channels through which this effect occurs. The first channel is indirect and it works through public debt. The second channel is the direct effect that transparency has on government effectiveness and government spending efficiency once transparency enhances accountability and thus the task of resource allocation. We use a sample of 82 countries (68 developing and 14 developed) for the period 2006–2014, and panel data analysis. Comparing the scores of fiscal transparency between 2006 and 2014, we observe that approximately 80 per cent of the countries made efforts to improve fiscal transparency. The results suggest fiscal transparency is important to reduce public debt and to improve government effectiveness and government spending efficiency.     

Fiscal decentralization and government size: The role of democracy

This paper examines how the level of democracy in a country affects the relationship between fiscal decentralization and government size. We argue that political regimes, proxied by their democracy levels, are important for different decentralization theories to predict the impact of fiscal decentralization on government size. We test this argument using panel data from 76 developed and developing countries during 1972–2013. We find strong and robust evidence that fiscal decentralization is negatively associated with government size and that a higher level of democracy tends to mitigate the negative impact of fiscal decentralization. Therefore, our study contributes to the literature by offering a novel insight on mixed results regarding the relationship between fiscal decentralization and government size in the literature.     

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。     

Capital tax competition: bane or boon

This paper reviews potential advantages and disadvantages of capital tax competition. Tax competition may introduce, mitigate, or exacerbate inefficiencies in both the private sector and the public sector. In different models, tax competition may either limit or increase public expenditures and taxes on mobile factors, with differing welfare consequences. We also discuss the implications of tax competition for redistributive policies and for policies dealing with risk, and we identify some of the possible empirical implications of tax competition.     

Fiscal policies, environmental pollution and economic growth

This paper develops a model of endogenous economic growth with special consideration to the role of productive public expenditure and environmental pollution; and analyses the properties of optimal fiscal policy in the steady state growth equilibrium. We consider the level of consumption as the source of pollution. Government allocates its tax revenue between pollution abatement expenditure and productive public expenditure. Optimum ratio of productive public expenditure to national income is equal to the competitive output share of the public input, when productive public expenditure is depicted as tax revenue minus abatement expenditure. However, the proportional income tax rate exceeds the competitive output share of the public input. There is no conflict between the social welfare maximizing solution and the growth rate maximizing solution in the steady state growth equilibrium. The unique steady state growth equilibrium appears to be a saddle-point when the growth rate is above a critical level and the steady state equilibrium growth rate in the market economy is not necessarily lower than the socially efficient growth rate.     

县乡财政解困与财政体制创新

发生在中国的县乡财政困难 ,是社会结构转型中制度转型有效支持不足所积累的矛盾在基层政府理财上的反映 ,与政府体制、省以下财政体制现存问题和农村生产要素市场化制度建设滞后有密切关系。本文在重点分析中国基层财政困难加剧的三个财政体制性因素的基础上 ,提出了配套改革、调整政府体制和省以下财政体制的三条建议 :( 1 )减少政府层级和财政层级 ;( 2 )按“一级政权 ,一级事权 ,一级财权 ,一级税基 ,一级预算 ,一级产权 ,一级举债权”思路推进省以下财政体制改革 ,同时健全自上而下的转移支付 ,完善以分税制为基础的分级财政 ;( 3 )按市场经济客观要求积极推进农村区域和基层政府辖区生产要素流动的制度创新。     

Fiscal position and the financing of productive government expenditures: an application to Latin America

Government spending on public infrastructure, education, and health care can increase economic growth. However, the appropriate financing depends on a country’s fiscal position. We develop a two-sector endogenous growth model to explore how variations in the composition and financing of government expenditures affect economic growth. We find that, when tax rates are moderate, funding public investment by raising taxes may increase long-run growth. If existing tax rates are high, public investment is only growth enhancing if funded by restructuring the composition of overall public spending. Additionally, public investment that is debt financed can have adverse effects on long-run growth due to the resulting increases in interest rates and debt-servicing costs.     

基于聚类分析的我国财政支出结构省际比较研究

采用聚类分析方法对2010年度全国31个省级行政区财政支出结构进行变量聚类和样本聚类。变量聚类结果表明,我国省域财政支出明显向民生和服务倾斜,而教育和科技投入不足。样本聚类结果表明,我国部分省域财政支出结构同构性和同质化特征明显。因此,应加大教育和科技支出占比,优化各种类型支出的比例关系,正确处理中央和省域的关系,厘清各自财政职能的重心和中心,保障二者职能履行的有机统一。     

政府公共消费的经济效应及其政策含义

关于公共消费与经济增长之间的关系,学术界颇多争论,分歧较大,虽然一些研究成果发现公共消费与经济增长负相关,但也有一些学者通过研究得出了截然相反的结论.本文运用经济增长理论分析公共消费支出的社会经济效应,并以中国相关数据为样本进行实证检验,并提出相关的政策建议.     

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。     

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.     

财政分权理论及其发展述评

财政分权已经成为世界各国十分普遍的现象,财政分权理论的发展也呈现多样化.不同的学者从不同的角度来研究财政分权问题,他们主要集中研究财政分权的原因、最优财政分权度及财政分权的影响等几个方面.本文对国内外这几个方面的研究作一综述并给予简单的评析.