腐败与中国经济增长的实证分析——基于三类公共支出角度

文章基于维持性、经济性和社会性三类公共支出,利用中国1980—2011年贪污腐败数据协整检验了腐败通过三类公共支出影响中国经济增长程度。结果显示,腐败通过维持性支出对经济的负面作用最大,其次是社会性支出,最后是经济性支出。     

公共支出、空间外溢与圈域经济增长——以武汉城市圈为例

基于一个内生增长理论模型,以武汉城市圈9个城市2007-2010年的面板数据为样本进行空间计量分析,对公共总支出、公共分类支出及其外溢效应对圈域经济增长的影响进行实证分析。结果表明:(1)武汉城市圈各城市的公共支出存在空间外溢效应,但公共总支出与公共分类支出的空间外溢效应并不必然具有方向上的一致性,公共总支出和维持性支出对圈域经济增长具有负的空间外溢效应,而社会性支出和经济性支出对圈域经济增长具有正的空间外溢效应;(2)固定资产投资率、对外开放程度、外商直接投资和储蓄率对圈域经济增长具有显著正向作用。     

政府间财政收支责任安排的地区经济增长效应

本文运用面板数据模型全面考察改革开放以来我国政府间财政收支责任安排对地区经济增长的影响,以期从地区经济增长效应视角,对我国政府间财政收支责任安排是否合理作出科学判断。研究表明,改革开放以来我国政府间总支出和社会性支出责任安排对地区经济增长具有显著抑制作用,经济性和维持性支出责任安排有助于地区经济增长但显著性较差,收入责任安排的影响则较为模糊。这些影响总体上具有显著的非线性特征,且主要与地区经济发展水平和总支出特别是社会性支出责任安排有关:当地区经济发展和总支出特别是社会性支出分权程度超过一定阀值时,适当集权将有助于优化收支责任安排,促进地区经济增长;1994年分税制改革以来,我国总支出和社会性支出责任安排不合理状况得到明显改善,但经济性支出分权和维持性支出集权进程偏快,总体上不利于地区经济增长。     

中国公共支出的规模与结构及其增长效应

中国公共支出的规模与结构在改革以来的时序变化特征与工业化国家明显不同。本文基于协整分析方法,对中国公共支出相关变量的长期增长效应进行分析。研究发现,实际经济增长率与公共支出的GDP占比呈反向变动关系,这显示中国公共支出政策的适应性性质;政府经济建设性支出比重增加会提高GDP增长率,而文教费和维持性支出比重与GDP增长率之间有着负的双向因果关系,这体现中国经济的粗放型增长特征。研究结果还显示,地方政府支出比重提高,经济增长率会上升,这说明通过规范化的政府间转移支付可以改善欠发达地区的公共基础设施,从而有利于中国的长期经济增长。     

公共支出结构与经济增长的关联性研究——以山东省为例

运用山东省1979—2008年的时间序列数据,通过VAR模型对公共支出结构与经济增长之间的关联性进行了研究。结果显示,山东省的经济增长与公共支出结构之间存在稳定的协整关系,其中经济建设性支出与社会科教文卫支出有力地拉动了经济增长,而维持性支出对经济增长存在负面影响。     

预算约束下中国公共支出结构的增长效应

与以往研究忽略预算约束面影响的传统不同，本文运用中国省级1997—2007年的面板数据，考察了中国公共支出结构的增长效应。通过固定效应模型发现，第二产业为主的省份，投资性支出的增长效应显著为正，社会消费性支出的增长效应显著为负，转移支出对增长有不显著负效应；第三产业为主的省份，投资性支出的增长效应显著为负，社会消费性支出的增长效应显著为正，转移支出对增长有不显著正效应。在中国公共财政建设的过程中，公共支出结构的调整应考虑中国区域经济增长不平衡的现实。     

我国GDP长期增长中公共支出效应的实证分析

文章利用VAR模型系统分析了政府消费支出、政府公共投资(包括转移支付)及预算外支出与GDP之间的长期动态关系.通过分析,我们认为政府收入支出、政府消费支出对经济增长的短期效应为正,政府公共投资对经济增长短期无显著影响.从长期看,政府消费支出、预算外支出对经济增长有一定的解释力,而政府公共投资对经济的长期增长解释力则较弱.     

中国公共支出结构对经济增长影响的实证分析:1978-2004

公共支出总量反映着政府介入经济生活和社会生活的规模与深度,体现了政府的成本支出。但是公共支出对经济增长的影响不仅表现在数量上,而且也体现在结构关系上。作者对中国1978-2004年间相关数据进行的实证检验表明,中国公共支出的产出弹性为正,对经济增长有促进作用。而从公共支出结构对经济增长的影响来看,经济建设支出、社会文教支出、国防支出及其他支出的结构产出弹性为正,行政管理支出结构产出弹性为负。公共支出结构的优化可以促进经济增长,当前在提高公共支出总水平的同时,应注意提高公共支出的效率。     

如何发挥当前积极财政政策的效用——我国财政支出结构优化的实证研究

如何通过积极的财政政策来扩大国内需求从而促进经济增长是当前经济工作的重点。本文通过实证分析,研究我国公共投资和公共消费对居民消费水平的影响,并结合相关理论,提出能够促进国内消费需求的财政支出结构优化方案：一是调整公共投资与公共消费的比例关系,逐步提高公共消费的比重;二是调整公共投资中生产性资本支出与消费性资本支出的比例关系,适当提高消费性资本支出的比重;三是调整公共消费中政府自身消费与社会性消费的比例关系,加速提高政府社会性消费支出的比重。同时,还需要进一步调整公共消费的区域结构,向农村和中西部地区倾斜。     

公共支出与经济增长关系的新视角——基于省际面板数据的经验研究

本文在三个前提假设的基础上,构建了一个简单的解释经济增长的理论框架,并由此建立了两个计量模型,通过对中国14个省区1991至2003年的面板数据的实证检验,得出在转型经济时期的中国,公共支出、政府消费性支出都对经济增长有显著的正向作用,而公共支出中的转移性支出与经济增长呈现非常弱的正相关关系.实证检验结果的政策意义在于,(1)作为宏观调控的手段之一,公共支出仍然对经济增长有显著正效应.(2)有关政府部门应当重视并发挥好公共支出中转移性支出的功能.     

Public Investment and Economic Growth in Latin America: an Empirical Test

The paper analyzes the impact on economic growth of public investment spending and other relevant variables (such as human capital) for nine major Latin American nations over the 1983–93 period. The results suggest that both public and private investment spending contribute to economic growth. Overall central government consumption expenditures, on the other hand, are found to have a negative effect on private investment and growth. Finally, public expenditures on education and healthcare are found to have a positive and statistically significant effect on private capital formation and long–term economic growth. From a policy standpoint, the results suggest that indiscriminate cuts in public and private investment spending are likely to be counterproductive in the long run, and more importantly, scarce public expenditures should be channeled to the promotion of new human capital (via primary and secondary education) and the maintenance of existing human capital (through healthcare expenditures).     

Corruption and growth in Africa

A major concern in the development of African economies is the impact of corruption on economic growth and while there is general agreement on its detrimental effects, there is considerable debate over its nature and importance. In particular there is little work on the interaction between corruption, government expenditures and how this influences economic growth in countries in the region. This paper takes an endogenous growth model, extends it to include different categories of government spending and then introduces the possibility of corruption, which is allowed to have different effects on each of the categories. The results confirm the negative effect of corruption and military spending, but also show that corruption interacts with military burden, through indirect and complementary effects, to further increase its negative effect. The policy implications are that the effects of corruption on economic growth are worse than was thought in countries which have high military burdens.     

Dynamic relationships between oil revenues,government spending and economic growth in an oil-dependent economy

The aim of this paper is to empirically examine the dynamic relationships between oil revenues, government spending and economic growth in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Oil revenues are the main source of financing government expenditures and imports of good and services. Increasing oil prices in the recent years have boosted public expenditures on social and economic infrastructure. In this paper, we investigate whether the huge government spending has enhanced the pace of economic growth or not. To this end, we use a multivariate cointegration analysis and error-correction model and data for 1960–2010. Overall results suggest that oil revenues remain the principal source for growth and the main channel which finance the government spending.     

SIZE OF THE PUBLIC SECTOR,ECONOMIC GROWTH AND THE INFORMAL ECONOMY: DEVELOPMENT TRENDS IN THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY*

The growth of the public sector in the post-war period and the consequences of this development for economic growth is a strongly disputed subject of economic theory and policy. In this paper the development trends of state activities in the case of the Federal Republic of Germany are presented. The structure of public expenditures as well as the tax structure are taken into consideration and possible impacts on real economic growth are analysed. The negative correlations between some kinds of public expenditures (or taxes) and the growth rate of real GNP should not be taken in proof of the growth-retarding effects which might ensue from increasing state activities. It seems to be more likely that state activities have induced shifts of resources from the formal into the informal economy. Politicians should be aware that some measures of economic policy conventionally proposed will strengthen the movement into the informal economy, thus intensifying the current problems within the public budgets as well as in the social security system.     

How does public spending affect technical efficiency? Some evidence from 15 European countries

The relationship between government size and economic growth has been widely debated. Revisiting the subject from a distinct angle with respect to the mainstream approach, we provide an empirical analysis of the impact of government size on technical efficiency. The aim of this paper is to estimate the impact of public sector's size and of public expenditure components on 15 European countries’ technical efficiency from 1996 to 2014 by using a True Random Effect model. Using the total public expenditure as a proxy for the government size we estimate simultaneously national optimal production function and technical efficiency by controlling for income distribution and institutional quality. Our main findings show that the effect of public sector's size on efficiency is positive while the type of public expenditures may have both positive and negative impact. In more details, results suggest that education and health expenditures have a positive effect on technical efficiency, while others have a negative impact.     

Environmental regulation and the productivity of Japanese manufacturing industries

This paper attempts to provide empirical evidence on issues concerning: (a) the effect of the stringency of environmental regulations (as measured by pollution control expenditures) on innovative activity (as measured by R&D expenditures) and on the average age of capital stock and (b) the productivity enhancement effect of environmental regulations in Japanese manufacturing industries. The empirical findings in the paper show that the pollution control expenditures have a positive relationship with the R&D expenditures and have a negative relationship with the average age of capital stock. It is also shown that increases in R&D investment stimulated by the regulatory stringency have a significant positive effect on the growth rate of total factor productivity.     

Globalisation, capital mobility and tax competition: theory and evidence for OECD countries

Are the predictions of tax competition theory wrong? While the tax competition literature predicts that taxes on income from capital decrease with increasing globalisation, past empirical studies on various data find contradicting evidence. By using different data and additional elements of economic theory, this paper aims to challenge the empirical contributions. For a panel of 14 OECD countries and for the period 1967–1996, we find that globalisation has indeed a negative and significant impact on corporate taxes. Furthermore, globalisation tends to raise labour taxes and social expenditures. As a consequence, the so-called “efficiency” and “compensation” hypotheses of globalisation are not competing, but rather, both appear to apply at the same time. Efficiency has an impact on the tax-mix, whereas compensation is provided through increased social expenditures.     

Pro‐social leadership under authoritarianism

Authoritarianism is regarded as being unaccountable for people's needs, but few studies have documented how authoritarian countries balance their policy goals. China is known to use a promotion system to incentivize local leaders to develop the economy, while neglecting social spending. This paper documents that more leaders having a liberal arts background have been promoted as top provincial leaders. After carefully ruling out other channels, we provide evidence that the shift of top provincial leaders’ college educational backgrounds from science/technology to liberal arts/social science has increased fiscal expenditure shares on science, education, culture and public health and cut economic construction expenditures accordingly. The finding is mainly driven by the post‐1994 period, when local leaders had stronger incentives for economic growth. This indicates that Chinese top authorities are promoting more pro‐social local leaders when providing pro‐growth incentives in general.     

Social benefit expenditures and stagflation: evidence from the United States

Stagflation refers to the terrible economic malaise associated with declining growth, hyperinflation and high unemployment. Unlike previous cost-push explanations such as an overheated labour market and oil prices, this article suggests that social benefit expenditures are a potential cause of stagflation. We investigate the impact of social benefit expenditures on stagflation in the U.S. over the 1950–2014 period by employing an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to cointegration, which was developed by Pesaran, Shin, and Smith. The influence of social benefit expenditures on economic growth and inflation and unemployment rates is estimated. The empirical results from the U.S. suggest that economic growth responds negatively to social benefit expenditures, while inflation and unemployment rates are both positively associated with social benefit expenditures. Thus, government-led rigid welfare could contribute to stagflation in the U.S. Instead of increasing people’s happiness, the over-burdened welfare system could push people into economic malaise. This stagflation risk shouldn’t be ignored. These results are important for U.S. policymakers and can inform other governments characterized by high levels of well-being.     

粤港澳大湾区城市技术创新能力时空演化及影响因素研究——来自空间、门限面板数据模型的实证检验

为促进城市间协同融合发展，采用极差、变异系数、基尼系数和ESDA等方法考察粤港澳大湾区城市技术创新能力的时空演化特征及空间关联模式，并通过SPDM模型剖析影响城市技术创新能力的关键因素，结合门限面板模型进一步探讨在经济发展水平门限效应下，核心创新要素对城市技术创新能力的影响。结果显示：①城市技术创新能力总体呈上升趋势，2014年后增速加快，各城市技术创新能力均衡发展；②城市技术创新能力“中心—外围”特征明显，“中心”城市位于区域东南部沿珠江口东岸地带，空间关联模式主要表现为H-H型和L-L型；③人力资本、研发经费投入对城市技术创新能力具有显著促进作用，但人力资本的溢出效应显著为负，研发经费投入的负向溢出效应不明显；④在经济发展水平的单一门限效应下，人力资本对城市技术创新能力的影响先升后降，研发经费投入对城市技术创新能力的促进作用随着城市经济发展水平越过门槛值而不再显著。