税收竞争、地区博弈及其增长绩效

中国的财政分权改革激发了地方政府推进本地区经济发展的积极性,但不恰当的分权路径也加剧了地区间的税收竞争。本文运用空间滞后模型,对中国省际间的税收竞争与博弈行为进行检验。研究显示,省际间税收竞争反应函数斜率为负,这说明省际间在税收竞争中采取的是差异化竞争策略;同时也意味着地方政府目前对公共产品的偏好较低。而对省际间税收竞争增长绩效的格兰杰因果检验则显示,公共服务水平对地区经济增长率具有显著的促进作用,并且地方政府的征税努力与其财政充裕状况直接相关。为此,本文提出应加快地区基本公共服务的均等化和转移支付的法制化进程,努力打破数量型增长的政绩观,从制度层面营造地区间协调有序的竞争关系。     

财政支出竞争与省际基础设施建设趋同性研究

本文认为贫穷省份和富裕省份的基础设施设施建设存在趋同现象,这种趋同性趋势主要源自地方政府间的财政支出竞争,在财政分权的模式下,地方政府迫于强烈的发展意识和政绩需要,往往将基础设施建设作为工作的重心,在财政支出中强调基础设施投入并与其他平级政府进行攀比和竞争。     

A Repeated Interactions Model of Tax Competition

Models of tax competition usually assume a single-period framework. This paper sets up a repeated interactions model of tax competition and establishes conditions under which fiscal policy harmonization can result from repeated interactions between governments. It is shown that fiscal policy harmonization cannot prevail when regional asymmetries are too strong. In such a case, the only way to achieve fiscal policy harmonization is to set up a central fiscal authority.     

中国财政竞争与地方公共支出结构分析

This article examines the impact of intergovernmental fiscal competition on local public expenditure in China under current performance assessment system in which GDP is a critical factor. First, we present the assignment of public goods and tax burden and the share of foreign direct investment (FDI) of 30 provinces, and we find that current fiscal competition in China has taken the form of public expenditure improvement accompanied by preferential tax policies. Second, we regress the share of FDI on different components of provincial public expenditure, and find that the share of FDI is correlated negatively with the public service, tax burden and health care service while positively with infrastructure development. Therefore, FDI-based infrastructural investment crowds out public services investment, which fails to support the view that fiscal competition improves social welfares.     

中国地方政府扩张偏向的财政行为:观察与解释

本文考察了中国地方政府的扩张偏向的财政行为。本文认为扩张偏向的财政行为是中国式的分权治理模式与缺乏良好制度约束相互作用的结果。本文利用中国28个地区的1994—2004年的非平衡面板数据和Probit模型方法验证了这个假说。本文的政策含义是,要使地方政府执行有利于宏观经济稳定的财政政策,除需要良好的制度基础设施之外,最根本的还是要将中国式分权治理模式中以GDP为主的政绩考核机制调整为以经济稳定优先并兼顾民意的政府考核机制。     

Why Do More Open Chinese Provinces Have Bigger Governments?

The transition of China towards a market economy was accompanied by a vast fiscal decentralization movement. Econometric analysis of the determinants of public expenditure of the Chinese provinces does not permit rejection of the hypotheses that (i) the behavior of provinces is similar to that of governments in developing economies significantly affected by external shocks, and (ii) in order to alleviate external risk, they take control of a more significant share of the revenues of the economy.     

Does Inter‐jurisdictional Competition Engender a “Race to the Bottom”? A Meta‐Regression Analysis

A growing literature documents the existence of strategic political reactions to public expenditure between rival jurisdictions. These interactions can potentially create a downward expenditure spiral (“race to the bottom”) or a rising expenditure spiral (“race to the top”). However, in the course of identifying the existence of such interactions and ascertaining their underlying triggers, the empirical evidence has produced markedly heterogeneous findings. Most of this heterogeneity can be traced back to study design and institutional differences. This article contributes to the literature by applying meta‐regression analysis to quantify the magnitude of strategic inter‐jurisdictional expenditure interactions, controlling for study, and institutional characteristics. We find several robust results beyond confirming that jurisdictions do engage in strategic expenditure interactions, namely that strategic interactions: (i) are weakening over time, (ii) are stronger among municipalities than among higher levels of government, and (iii) appear to be more influenced from tax competition than yardstick competition, with capital controls and fiscal decentralization shaping the magnitude of fiscal interactions.     

论分税制下财政转移支付与地方财政努力差异——基于功能与地区多重分类考察的另类荷兰病分析

文章主要研究分税制下政府间转移支付与地区财政努力差异的关系.通过理论模型推导和对转移支付的实证检验发现:中国现行转移支付制度在总体上抑制了地方政府的财政努力.就区域效果而言,转移支付在促进东部发达省份财政努力的同时,抑制了中、西部落后地区的财政努力;就转移支付的功能类型而言,以税收返还为主的条件性转移支付会激励地方政府努力征税,而非条件性转移支付,包括财力性和专项转移支付将不同程度地抑制地方财政努力.这就产生了挤出效应与另类"荷兰病"的问题.     

税收竞争、经济集聚与地区投资行为

中国财政分权体制下的地区间招商引资竞争广泛存在。本文通过一个纳入经济集聚因素的新古典投资决策计量模型,考察了税收激励对投资地域选择的影响。研究发现目前在中东部地区经济集聚可为地方财政带来一定的集聚租金,这使地区间税收激励政策呈现为差异化竞争策略;投资的流动性、地区经济基础、投资的产权性质等均对地区的税收激励政策选择有重要影响。本文的研究意味着,实现区域均衡发展需要构建稳定的地区间财力分享制度、改善欠发达地区的产业发展基础。     

地方财政支农投入与农业技术效率的省际差异:1995～2011年

运用参数法中的随机前沿分析法,结合我国1995—2011年的省级面板数据,选取地方财政"一般预算支出"中的"农林水事务"支出作为代理变量,分析地方财政支农投入对农业技术效率的影响,发现地方财政支农投入对于农业技术效率以及农业产出具有显著的积极作用,财政支农投入差异是我国各省市农业技术效率差异的重要根源之一。但鉴于目前我国在中央与地方的财政分配上严重倾向于中央财政,不少省市的地方财政收入很有限,财政支农投入的数量、结构、区域分布等方面都亟待调整和完善。     

省域低碳消费的竞争性和互补性研究

鉴于Dendrinos—Sonis模型应用在国内能源研究领域的空白,本文对中国30个省域低碳消费行为的竞争性和互补性进行分析。整体上,中国省域煤炭消费行为体现出竞争性特征;但是煤炭消费行为竞争性和互补性特征会随着区域地理状况而存在差异。互补性特征显著区域,对煤炭产量或储量比较大的省域煤炭消费行为进行控制,会对区域内、外省域煤炭消费行为均产生最大的正溢出效应,对于竞争性比较显著的地区,能源结构的转化则最关键;省域能源产业政策会对周边省域产生联动影响。最后对结论进行验证,提出处理竞争和互补的区域协调政策：弱化竞争,强化互补是中国省域实现低碳经济发展重要原则,省域能源产业政策联盟是实现低碳经济的一个突破口。     

标尺竞争、地方官员自利行为与财政支出结构偏向

中国特色的财政联邦主义在本质上表现为财政分权与政治集权相结合,所以中国式标尺竞争就表现为"为增长而竞争"的晋升锦标赛。论文基于政治委托代理的研究视角,运用经济学理论中的"经济人"假设来研究地方官员的行为逻辑,研究表明:一方面,作为理性的经济人,地方政府官员必然追求本届政府或个人任职期限的短期政绩最大化;另一方面,为了能使自己在政治锦标赛中获胜,各个地方政府在配置财政资源时会竞相模仿从而使财政支出出现"结构趋同",这种趋同性会随着政治锦标赛的升级而一直处于锁定状态。所以,地方官员自利行为是导致财政支出结构偏向的根本原因。     

Impacts of fiscal decentralization on local development in Vietnam: A disaggregated analysis

After the Doi Moi reforms, Vietnam pursued fiscal decentralization to strengthen the autonomy and governance capacity of local governments. While several empirical studies analysed the impact of fiscal decentralization on the economic growth of Vietnamese provinces, very few studies examined its impact on their social development. This study represents an initial effort to fill this gap. The empirical analysis applied the panel corrected standard errors (PCSE) estimation and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) to an updated panel data of 63 Vietnamese provinces, spanning the period from 2011 to 2019. The results indicate a positive impact of fiscal decentralization on both economic and social development as well as efficiency of resource utilization for development targets. However, realizing the full potential of fiscal decentralization requires the fulfilment of certain conditions.     

省级财政文化支出的决定因素研究——基于2005-2007年中国省级面板数据的实证分析

公共文化事业对提升人们的幸福感以及促进社会的和谐发展非常重要。然而,对2005-2007年我国省级数据的描述统计发现,各省的财政文化支出占本省财政支出的比重较小且省际间差异较大。通过三因素文化支出模型的构建和省级面板数据的检验,实证分析结果表明一省财政文化支出的多寡主要受制于该省的财政能力,其次才是市场投资的推动,而公民文化需求的影响则最弱。这说明我国地方政府的财政文化投入离满足人们精神文化需求的目标还很远,应当引起决策者们的重视。     

政府竞争、财政压力及其调节作用研究*——以地方政府财政支出偏向为视角

本文以政府间事权与支出责任划分改革为出发点，基于2009—2017年地级市层面的面板数据，运用系统GMM估计方法审视财政压力、政府竞争与地方政府民生支出偏向之间的相关关系。实证分析结果表明，相较于政府竞争而言，财政压力才是降低地方政府民生支出偏向的主要原因。财政压力对政府竞争具有调节作用，政府竞争对民生支出偏向的反向作用程度显著依赖于财政压力。具体而言，政府竞争对教育、医疗卫生、社会保障与就业支出偏向不具有直接效应，但在财政压力的调节作用下显著影响上述三项支出。本文进一步发现，经济发展水平越低，政府竞争与民生支出偏向之间的相关关系越不显著；地方政府在执行多任务导向型的中央决策时，具有较为明显的自我选择倾向。     

中国居民消费决定中的财政分权因素

本文首次建立引入财政分权因素的跨期消费资产定价模型,证明中国财政分权是居民消费决定中的关键因素:一方面,分权程度提高会带来居民收入增长,进而促进消费的增加;另一方面,分权程度提高会导致居民收入不确定性的增强,进而引起消费的下降。基于中国29个省区1990-2009年面板数据的实证研究验证了理论模型的判断。研究发现:预期收入水平和收入不确定性同时受财政分权因素影响,当它们共同进入模型时,只有预期收入水平系数显著为正,收入不确定性变量系数显著水平不稳定且符号不符合预期。无论引入控制变量,还是调整变量度量指标,研究结论都是稳健的。缺失财政分权因素的消费资产定价模型对于中国情况缺乏解释力,融入财政分权因素的模型则较好地拟合中国实际。     

A spatial analysis of provincial corporate income tax responses: evidence from Canada

Abstract.  Using a model of interdependent tax choices, and accounting for equalization entitlements and general transfers, this paper estimates – making use of a spatial econometric framework – corporate income tax-setting functions for all Canadian provincial governments. The results show that there is a statistically significant positive fiscal interaction among a subset of provinces and between all provinces and the federal government. Provincial corporate income taxes are also found to be negatively related to equalization entitlements, general federal transfers, and the federal corporate income tax. A robustness check on the fiscal relationship between Ontario and Quebec verifies the existence of significant bi-directional fiscal interdependencies. The paper also introduces U.S state corporate income taxes as covariates and examines their interaction with Canadian provinces.     

Channels of interprovincial risk sharing in China

This paper decomposes consumption risk sharing among provinces in China over the 1980–2007 period. We find that 9.4% of the shocks to gross provincial product are smoothed by the interprovincial fiscal transfer system. This system also cushions a relatively large fraction of the province-specific shocks in the coastal provinces of China. Using a variety of indicators, we explore non-fiscal channels of consumption risk sharing. We find that the migration of rural labor to urban areas and the remittance of migrant wages play important roles in promoting interprovincial consumption risk sharing in the inland provinces of China. In contrast, the extent of risk sharing through financial intermediaries and the capital markets is very limited. These factors have resulted in a low degree of risk sharing among Chinese provinces, especially over the last decade.     

Factor Ownership and Governmental Strategic Interaction

A fiscal policy of a jurisdiction alters the allocation of mobile factors among jurisdictions, affecting other jurisdictions and creating an externality. Since each jurisdiction does not take into account the externality, the equilibrium fiscal policy on mobile factors is inefficient. However, individuals of a jurisdiction may own immobile factors located in other jurisdictions. The government for the jurisdiction then considers the effects of its policy on the returns to the immobile factor located in other jurisdictions. The cross–ownership of immobile factors thus affects the efficiency of fiscal policies. The present paper considers capital tax competition as an example to illustrate the effects of the ownership structure of immobile factors on the equilibrium fiscal policy, and extends the analysis to other types of fiscal competition.     

Equalizing tax bases or tax revenues under tax competition? The role of formula apportionment

This paper contributes to the literature on fiscal equalization and corporate tax competition. The innovation is that we explicitly model multinational enterprises and a corporate tax system that is designed according to formula apportionment. Two main results are obtained. First, in contrast to previous studies we identify cases where tax revenue equalization is better in mitigating detrimental tax competition than tax base equalization. Second, tax base equalization nevertheless has the advantage that it may render tax rates efficient, depending on the shape of the apportionment formula. A pure payroll formula does not ensure efficiency, but a back‐of‐the‐envelope calibration of our model to Canadian provinces suggests that a pure sales formula may be optimal.