税费改革后农村义务教育投入的困境剖析与机制重塑

农村税费改革以来,特别是2006年开始实施新的义务教育经费保障机制后,政府已成为农村义务教育的投入主体,但是新的经费保障机制仍然没有解决农村义务教育投入不足的问题。本文认为,应当通过调整财政支出结构,改革分税制财政体制,制定城乡统一的义务教育均等化基本标准等途径,重塑农村义务教育投入保障机制。     

两税合并的要素收入份额影响研究

实证研究发现,基于合理的参数,两税合并的实施有利于降低劳动要素对企业所得税的实际负担率,无论是将房地产、租赁和商务服务业划入外商投资比例较高的部门还是外商投资比例较低的部门.在两种不同分类法下,劳动要素的企业所得税实际负担率比上年下降了0.36和0.33个百分点,降幅达到3.20%和2.56%.结束对外资的“超国民待遇”,促进了企业间的公平竞争,降低了内资的市场进入成本,有利于改善劳动要素在国民收入再分配过程中的地位     

Relative underperformance Alla Turca

From 1960 to 2003, Turkey has underperformed relative to several Western economies, in terms of hours worked and output per hour. Our sectoral analysis illustrates two points. First, Turkey's large drop in hours is due to the fact that the substantial decline in agricultural hours has not been accompanied by a corresponding increase in nonagricultural market hours. Second, the sectoral composition of output is important for understanding Turkey's relatively weak rise in output per hour. We develop a simple model of structural transformation and home production to provide an account of Turkey's performance relative to the U.S. and Southern Europe. We find that the evolution of exogenous differences in sectoral productivity and taxes, between Turkey and the U.S., as well as Southern Europe, can account quantitatively for most of Turkey's relative underperformance to these regions.     

Understanding heterogeneity in price changes and firm responses to a national unhealthy food tax in Mexico

To address the high prevalence of overweight and obesity in Mexico, an eight percent ad valorem excise tax on non-essential energy-dense foods came into effect on 1 January 2014. This paper estimates price changes after the tax implementation among the top four food categories and by leading vs. non-leading firms using purchase information from over 6000 urban households in the 2012–2015 Nielsen Mexico Consumer Panel. We create product-city-month specific prices that correct for potential biases associated with household and retailer characteristics. Using these corrected prices, we conduct before and after quasi-experimental analyses and find that price increases were larger than eight percent for cookies but were less than eight percent for ready-to-eat cereals, salty snacks, and pre-packaged sweet bread. For the latter food group, event-study analyses on the gradual price change over time suggest that price changes might be the result of an increasing price trend rather than the tax implementation. Firm-level analyses mostly show that price increases by the leading firms were larger than the overall increase at the food market level, helping explain variability in post-tax declines in food purchases as reported in other research. We also find that price changes are generally underestimated when we do not correct prices for biases associated with households and retailers. These results improve our understanding of the mechanisms behind heterogeneous changes in purchases after the tax implementation. Additionally, these results can assist policymakers when designing or improving taxes on non-essential energy-dense foods at a time when these policy options are high on the agenda in many places.     

Public Insurance against Idiosyncratic and Aggregate Risk: The Case of Social Security and Progressive Income Taxation

In this article, I discuss the role a progressive income taxsystem and a redistributive pay as you go (PAYGO) social securitysystem can play in insuring and reallocating idiosyncratic aswell as aggregate risk. I also argue that the underlying sourceof market failures generating such a role for government interventionmay be crucial when determining the normative consequences ofsuch social insurance. (JEL Classifications: E62, H21, H24,H55).     

农村税费改革后公共服务型乡镇政府构建的思考——以四川省为例

税费改革在取得农民负担明显减轻的同时,也涉及到了乡村利益格局和政治民主权利的调适,乡镇政府及其功能的重新塑造。因此,迫切需要合理定位乡镇政府职能,推动乡镇政府职能转变,构建公共服务型乡镇政府。本文以四川省为例,探索了乡镇政府的职能发挥状况,阐述了构建公共服务型乡镇政府的必要性,提出了要构建公共服务型乡镇政府,就必须理顺乡镇财税管理体制,妥善解决乡镇政府机构臃肿、人员过多等问题,合理划分职能,理顺各级政府间事权关系,强化乡镇政府提供公共服务功能,同时改变乡镇政府的工作模式。     

中国出口退税制度改革与经济可持续增长

2004年和2005年中国出口退税制度进行了重要改革，此次出口退税政策的改革与调整是我国经济运行的必然要求，也是中国经济可持续发展的需要。此次实施的最新退税政策使其功能从促进出口扩展到维护正常贸易秩序、对资源的保护性开发和利用、对国际环境的控制等，其根本目的是实现经济和贸易可持续增长战略。     

Assessing Ricardian Equivalence

This paper reviews the literature on Ricardian equivalence. This hypothesis may be interpreted as a generalization to the short and the long run of the theories that put no weight on the real effects of public policies on aggregate demand. We argue that Ricardian equivalence relies on both the permanent income hypothesis and the fulfillment of the intertemporal government budget constraint. The theoretical literature emphasizes several reasons for departures from this hypothesis. However, the empirical literature is inconclusive. When Ricardian equivalence is tested in a life–cycle framework the hypothesis is usually rejected, while when the empirical analysis is based on optimizing models, it is usually accepted.     

The efficiency gains from site value taxes: the Tithe Commutation Act of 1836

The theoretical efficiency advantages of land site value taxation have been known since at least the writings of Adam Smith. However, the practical gains from switching land taxes to this basis have never, to our knowledge, been measured. The Tithe Commutation Act of 1836 in England switched taxation of large areas of farmland from a percentage of gross output to an equivalent lump sum tax on site values. We estimate the rent gains from this reform between 1842 and 1855 using data from 5108 English parishes. We show that converting the tithe to a lump sum raised rents, net of the tithe, by an average of £0.43 for every £1 of tithe collected. Some of these rent gains may have stemmed from increased investment by landlords in fixed capital rented with the land, so that we can only give a range for the possible excess burden of the tithe of 17-43%. Interestingly with a Cobb-Douglass production function the predicted excess burden would be 17%.