Fiscal Decentralisation and Local Economic Growth: Evidence from a Fiscal Reform in China

This paper uses a fiscal decentralisation reform in China – namely, the province‐managing‐county (PMC) reform – to examine the effects of fiscal decentralisation on local economic growth. The PMC reform abolished the subordinate fiscal relationship between prefectures and counties and transferred much of the tax and spending authority from the prefecture to the county level. Exploiting a county‐level panel data set over 2001–11, we find that the reform has led to a significant increase in the GDP growth rate. The effect is considerably more pronounced in regions with superior initial institutional quality. We also identify channels: the PMC reform induced county governments to exert lower tax burdens on firms and increase spending on infrastructure construction.     

税收收入，GDP及我国宏观税负分析

经济是税收之根本，税收的增长离不开经济的增长，税收反作用于经济，这是经济与税收之间的一般规律，本分析了税收收入与GDP的各个构成要素之间的关系，并通过世界各国宏观税负的分析，结合我国的实际情况，提出了我国宏观税负的合理区间，论证了我国目前小口径宏观税负偏低，而大口径的宏观税负已处于一个较高的水平，进而得出了解决目前财政困难的措施是调整目前的政府收入结构，规范政府收入形式，而不宜走简单增税的路子。     

Removing Homeownership Bias in Taxation: The Distributional Effects of Including Net Imputed Rent in Taxable Income

The income tax systems of most countries entail a favourable treatment of homeownership, compared to rental‐occupied housing. Such ‘homeownership bias’ and its consequences for a wide range of economic outcomes have long been recognised in the economic literature. Although a removal of the homeownership bias is generally advocated on efficiency grounds, its distributional implications are often neglected, especially in a cross‐country perspective. In this paper, we aim to fill this gap by investigating the first‐order effects, in terms of distribution of income and work incentives, of removing the income tax provisions favouring homeownership. We consider six European countries – Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK – that exhibit important variation in terms of income tax treatment of homeowners. Using the multi‐country tax benefit model EUROMOD, we analyse the distributional consequences of including net imputed rent in the taxable income definition that applies in each country, together with the removal of existing special tax treatments of incomes or expenses related to the main residence; thus, we provide a measure of the homeownership bias. We implement three tax policy scenarios. In the first, imputed rent is included in the taxable income of homeowners, while at the same time existing mortgage interest tax relief schemes and taxation of cadastral incomes are abolished. In the two further revenue‐neutral scenarios, the additional tax revenue raised through the taxation of imputed rent is redistributed to taxpayers, through either a tax rate reduction or a tax exemption increase. The results show how including net imputed rent in the tax base might affect inequality in each of the countries considered. Housing taxation appears to be a promising avenue for raising additional revenues, or lightening taxation of labour, with no inequality‐increasing side effects.     

Does Germany Collect Revenue from Taxing the Normal Return to Capital?*

A widespread objection to the introduction of consumption tax systems claims that this would lead to high tax revenue losses. This paper investigates the revenue effects of a consumption tax reform in Germany. Our results suggest that the revenue losses would be surprisingly low. We find a maximum revenue loss of 1.6 per cent of annual GDP. In some years, we even find tax revenue gains. This implies that the current tax system collects little revenue from taxing the normal return to capital. Based on these results, we calculate a macroeconomic measure of the effective tax rate on capital income.     

“营改增”影响地方政府税收努力研究

基于随机前沿分析法（SFA）测算2011-2015年我国地方政府税收努力程度,并运用双重差分法考察“营改增”对地方征税行为的影响。研究发现：“营改增”将地方税（营业税）变为共享税（增值税）,显著降低了地方政府税收努力程度;改革对税收努力的冲击受经济发展水平、转移支付额度和税收返还的影响,获取转移支付收入和税收返还越多的地区税收努力下降速度越快。后“营改增”时期,如何提高税收效率,缓解地方财政收入对转移支付和债务收入的依赖性,是理顺中央和地方财税关系,完善财税收入体系的重要问题。     

“乡财县管”改革、基层政府治理与经济发展

县乡两级政府处于我国政府层级的最末端，是大量公共事务的最终承担者，科学合理的县乡财政管理体制，是提升基层治理能力的重要制度保障。2004年以来，我国一些省份相继推行了乡财县管改革，由县级政府直接管理并监督乡镇财政，乡镇财政管理权被大幅度上收到县。本文利用2000-2019年的县域面板数据和双重差分模型，评估了乡财县管改革对经济发展的影响。结果显示，乡财县管促进了县域经济发展。机制分析显示，乡财县管减少了行政管理支出比重，抑制了财政供养人员规模膨胀，降低了税费负担。这些结果表明，加强上级政府对基层政府的财政管理与监督，有助于改善治理水平、促进经济发展。本文也发现，在地形较为复杂的人口大县及经济较发达地区的县，由于改革一定程度上提高了县级政府获取信息的难度，不利于发挥乡镇政府的积极性，乡财县管对经济发展的提升效果相对较弱，这说明，乡财县管不宜“一刀切”地实行。     

中印地方税制度比较分析

我国和印度的地方税①制存在明显的差异。印度的地方税制具有较强的法制性、完整性和自主性。本文认为,我国的地方税制改革可以借鉴印度的一些先进经验,把重点放在加速税收基本法的建设、增强地方政府征税的合法性、扩大地方税的覆盖范围、完善地方税税种体系和税制结构以及提高地方税收入占整个地方政府税收收入的比重上。     

税收增长与经济增长关系的理论分析和实证研究

1994年工商税制全面改革以来,我国税收收入呈现出高速增长态势,从1997年起税收增长幅度已经超过经济增长幅度,从而引发财税理论界和实务界的高度关注.对税收增长与经济增长关系进行理论分析,以1994～2004年相关数据为对象进行实证研究,对我国税收增长和经济增长关系作出基本判断:目前我国税收增长处于合理增长范围,税收增长与经济增长关系基本协调.     

The Political Economy of Fiscal Supervision and Budget Deficits: Evidence from Germany

In many federal countries, local governments run large deficits, even when fiscal supervision by state authorities is tight. I investigate the extent to which party alignment of governments and fiscal supervisors influences budget deficits. The data set includes 427 German local governments for the period 2000–2004. I exploit a period after a far‐reaching institutional reform that entirely re‐distributed political powers on both the government level and the fiscal supervisor level. The results do not show that party alignments of governments and supervisors (co‐partisanship) drive short‐term deficits. Instead, I find that the ideology of partisan governments and supervisors matters: left‐wing local governments run higher deficits than their right‐wing counterparts; left‐wing supervisors tolerate higher deficits than right‐wing supervisors. These findings imply that political independence for fiscal supervisors is recommended.     

政府财政激励、税收征管动机与企业盈余管理——以财政"省直管县"改革为自然实验的研究

政府对企业利润享有征税权,事实上是几乎所有企业的最大的中小股东,因此有动机对企业进行严格的税收征管,进而影响公司治理。本文以1998-2006年中国工业企业为样本,以财政“省直管县”改革为自然实验,从企业盈余管理的角度对此进行了考察。研究发现:财政“省直管县”改革能够显著抑制县辖区内企业的盈余管理行为,并且仅对具有征管权限的企业发挥作用;同时,当县级政府财政状况较差和税基较大时,财政“省直管县”对辖区内企业盈余管理行为的抑制作用更强,表明财政“省直管县”改革能够激励县级政府加强税收征管,进而改善辖区内企业盈余质量。更进一步地,本文还发现财政“省直管县”改革能够抑制企业逃税,提升县级政府财政收入。本文的研究不仅丰富了政府行为影响公司治理方面的文献,同时也为财政“省直管县”如何缓解县级政府财政困难提供了微观证据。     

Who Benefits from the Reform of Pension Taxation in Germany?*

The present paper quantifies the revenue, distributional and efficiency effects of the recent reform of pension taxation in Germany. The starting point is the new legislation, which has introduced a switch to the deferred taxation of retirement benefits starting in 2005. We compare this reform with an alternative transition proposed by the Federation of German Pension Insurance Institutes (VDR), where double taxation is avoided at the cost of higher revenue losses. Our simulations indicate significant growth and efficiency gains from the new tax legislation. Winners from the reform are mainly younger workers, while older workers, civil servants and the self‐employed will lose. The VDR proposal would have resulted in higher efficiency gains, but also in stronger distributional consequences.     

Anticipating Tax Changes: Evidence from the Finnish Corporate Income Tax Reform of 2005*

Using register‐based panel data covering all Finnish firms from 1999 to 2004, we examine how corporations anticipated the 2005 dividend tax increase via changes in their dividend and investment policies. The Finnish capital and corporate income tax reform of 2005 creates a useful opportunity to measure this behaviour, since it involves exogenous variation in the tax treatment of different types of firms. The estimation results reveal that those firms that anticipated a dividend tax hike increased their dividend payouts in a statistically significant way. This increase was not accompanied by a reduction in investment activities, but rather was associated with increased indebtedness in non‐listed firms. The results also suggest that the timing of dividend distributions probably offsets much of the potential for increased dividend tax revenue following the reform.     

发达国家涉农税收制度比较研究及其启示

通过对发达国家农业税收制度的比较,可以发现农业的经济地位、农业生产方式的变化、财政体制等对它们的农业税收政策的选择产生影响。对我们的启示有:适应生产力发展水平是考核税收制度的重要标准;涉农税收是完善农业、农村公共服务体系的关键;改革农业税制是与国际税收接轨的既定目标。     

增长型税制简论：对中国税制特性的分析

从理论上看,税收收入增长的决定性因素在于经济的增长,然而,中国税制结构、税制要素设计等使我国现行税制也具有较强的内在增收功能,而这种增收功能在一定程度上又成为中国经济增长的制度性促进因素。这种增长型税制所具有的特性与经济结构优化升级、资源可持续发展和调节收入差距之间存在诸多矛盾,任其发展将不利于我国经济发展方式的转变。因此,我国的税制改革不宜简单立足于对现有税制体系进行小修小补,必须从根本上改变我国税制的增长型特性,构建具有现代发展理念的发展型税制。     

The income elasticity of tax revenue: estimates for income and consumption taxes in the United Kingdom

This paper provides estimates of individual and aggregate revenue elasticities of income and consumption taxes in the UK over the period 1989–2000. It shows how budgetary changes, including changes to income‐related deductions, have substantially affected income elasticities. The estimates of consumption tax revenue elasticities show that changes in consumption patterns over time are important. A merit of the approach used here is that elasticity estimates can be calculated readily from official published sources.     

Abolishing the Tax‐Free Threshold in Australia: Simulating Alternative Reforms*

This paper examines the role of the tax‐free income tax threshold in a complex tax and transfer system consisting of a range of taxes and benefits, each with its own taper rates and thresholds. Considering a tax and benefit system with benefit taper rates whereby some benefits are received by income groups other than those at the bottom of the distribution, it is suggested that a tax‐free threshold is not a necessary requirement to achieve redistribution. Four alternative policy changes, each involving the elimination of the tax‐free threshold in Australia and designed to achieve approximate revenue neutrality, were examined using the Melbourne Institute Tax and Transfer Simulator. A range of implications were examined, including labour supply responses to tax changes and the effects of policy changes on inequality and social welfare. The results demonstrate that it is possible to eliminate the tax‐free threshold under approximate overall revenue and distribution neutrality, but that it is impossible to improve labour supply incentives at the same time. In order to achieve improved incentives, either revenue or distribution neutrality has to be sacrificed.     

财政层级改革、竞争效应与税收征管

以"省直管县"财政体制改革为准自然实验,运用双重差分模型,从企业实际税率的角度考量财政层级改革对县级政府税收征管行为的影响.结果显示:"省直管县"财政体制改革加剧了县级政府间的税收竞争,显著弱化了县级政府税收征管努力,降低了辖区内企业的实际税率,并且对于处于不同市场化水平和不同行业集中度的企业具有异质性影响.     

县级政府债务:规模、风险与化解——基于某省三县市的调查分析

为了解当前县级财政收支基本情况、运行特点和发展趋势,分析县级财政运行存在的问题及影响因素,防范因县级财力不足可能引发的金融风险隐患,本文选取了某省三个县市作为样本地区进行调查。调查显示:目前县级政府债务风险基本处于一个整体可控的范围内,但是长期潜在风险不可忽视,这主要体现在融资平台新增债务较多、财政收支缺口较大、财政收入未来增长存在不确定性等方面。一旦依靠土地和税收的地方政府财政收入出现大幅度下滑,将直接减弱地方政府的偿付能力,从而对金融体系的稳健经营产生负面影响。     

税费替代:增值税减税、非税收入征管与企业投资

通过减税促进企业投资和提振宏观经济是近年来中国税收制度改革的重要目标,但减税政策的实际效果却存在争议。本文利用2009年增值税转型改革,研究了减税对地方政府税费收入和企业非税负担的影响,从税费替代的角度揭示非税负担变动如何影响企业固定资产投资。研究发现:(1)增值税转型在减税的同时提高了地方政府非税收入并加重了企业非税负担,地方财政收入受增值税转型冲击越大,企业非税负担上升越明显。(2)上述应主要体现在小型、微型和民营企业上,大中型、非民营企业的非税负担未发生明显变化。(3)非税负担上升会显著抑制小型、微型和民营企业的固定资产投资,促使小型微型和民营企业通过持有更多现金和减少流动性负债来应对税费负担不确定性。本文有助于理解减税政策对小型微型和民营企业非税负担的溢出效应及其影响,为通过减税降费促进投资和提振经济提供经验支撑。     

税收增长与经济增长关系的实证分析

运用回归分析方法对我国税收增长与经济增长的关系进行实证分析的结果表明:我国税收增长处于合理增长范围;税收增长与经济增长关系基本协调;税收收入增长的强劲势头保持一段时期是没有问题的;税收收入必将进入与GDP增速协调发展的轨道。