我国财政改革中几个全局性问题的思考

按照党的"十六大"提出的战略构想,未来20年里我们将完成经济体制转轨的任务,实现全面小康.这样的构想意味着,中国经济体制改革目标的实现已从政策设计的角度锁定在1978-2020年的时段内,我们正处在承前启后的转折点上.在政府主导的渐进路径上,政府既推进着市场机制的建立,也同时推动着计划手段的创新,在市场机制发挥作用的同时,又始终承担着计划体制下的诸多任务与责任.财政作为政府政策实施的财力保障,以自身的变动见证了这一过程,与体制转轨进程和经济运行状况有着深刻的互动关系.因此,在这样一个特殊时刻,对财政改革中的一些关系全局的问题进行思考、解释,不仅关系到财政自身的运行,无疑也将直接影响到整个经济发展的绩效.本文主要围绕三个方面的重大问题提出了分析的路径与依据,并做出了基本的评价.     

Can Federal Grants Mitigate Social Competition?

The European economic integration leads to increasing mobilityof factors, thereby threatening the stability of social transferprograms. This article investigates the possibility to achieveby means of voluntary matching grants both the optimal allocationof factors and the optimal level of redistribution in the presenceof factor mobility. We use a fiscal competition model a la Wildasin(1991) in which states differ in their technologies and preferencesfor redistribution. We first investigate a simple process inwhich the federal authority progressively raises the matchinggrants to the district choosing the lowest transfer and alldistricts respond optimally to the resulting change in transfersall around. This process is shown to increase efficiency ofboth production and redistribution. However, it does not guaranteethat all districts gain, nor that an efficient level of redistributionis attained. Assuming complete information among districts,we derive the willingness of each district to match the contributionof other districts and we show that the aggregate willingnessto pay for matching rates converges to zero when both the efficientlevel of redistribution and the efficient allocation of factorsare achieved. We then describe an adjustment process for thematching rates that will lead districts to the efficient outcomeand guarantee that everyone will gain. (JEL Classification:H23, H70)     

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.

Foreign Direct Investment in the Enlarged EU: Do Taxes Matter and to What Extent?

Foreign direct investment is of increasing importance in the European Union. This paper estimates the effect of taxes on foreign direct investment (FDI) flows and on three sub-components of these flows for the countries of the enlarged European Union. The model in the spirit of gravity equations robustly explains FDI flows between the 25 member states. Sample selection needs to be addressed in the estimation. We show that the different subcomponents of FDI should and indeed do react differently to taxes. After controlling for unobserved country characteristics and common time effects, the top statutory corporate tax rate of both, source and host country, turn insignificant for total FDI and investment into equity. However, high source country taxes clearly increase the probability of firms to re-invest profits abroad and lower the percentage of debt financed FDI. This might reflect profit re-allocation to avoid taxes. Market size factors have the expected signs.

The Coase Theorem Revisited: Implications for Economic Transition

This paper supports the view expressed by other authors that Ronald Coase’s ideas are often misrepresented in the academic world. It restates some of Coase’s main findings with special emphasis on their relevance to processes taking place in Eastern Europe. The goal of this paper is to revisit Coasean theory, to prove that oftentimes it is misrepresented and misinterpreted and to show its relevance to some societies experiencing high transaction costs. The role of the legal system under high transaction costs is stressed in its importance to transitional economies experiencing staggeringly high transaction costs. This paper tries to shed light on the importance of transaction costs in the newly emerging markets and the respective role courts and the government should play in directing economic resources.

经济发展中的地方官员行为研究——基于政治晋升、财政分权与腐败的视角

本文同时考虑财政分权、政治晋升和腐败三个因素对地方官员行为的影响,进而构建了理论模型。从中得到的主要结论是,在基本模型中,地方官员对政治晋升的偏好程度越高,则其努力程度越高、腐败程度越低。而财政分权程度越高,官员的努力也越高,但对腐败水平影响却是不确定的。在进一步假设腐败会被惩罚的拓展模型中,基本模型的大部分结论都没有发生太大变化,只是分权程度的对努力的影响也变得不确定了。除此之外,我们进一步研究了,对官员腐败惩罚的力度和对官员腐败的惩罚准确程度的影响,相关命题表明,如果对官员腐败惩罚的越严厉,并且对官员腐败的惩罚越准确,官员努力水平和官员腐败程度都会变低。通过对研究结论的分析,我们还对以往文献的结果进行了重新解释。     

地方政府财政支农支出与农村居民消费——来自中国29个省市面板数据的经验证据

本文在消费者最优消费路径选择的基本框架下,构建了一个政府财政支农与农村居民消费的动态最优化模型,理论分析表明:地方政府财政支农支出的增加,对于农村居民消费水平的提高具有促进作用。基于1995-2008年的省际面板数据,采用工具变量GMM方法对该结论进行的实证检验发现:在通过多工具变量克服变量内生性之后,地方政府财政支农支出对农村居民消费具有显著的促进作用,地方政府财政支农支出每增加1%,我国农村居民消费将增加0.1367%;进一步的因素分解显示,地方政府财政支农支出对农村居民消费的平均贡献度为8.72%,且有逐年增大的趋势。此外,财政支农支出对农村居民消费的影响存在区域差异性,即财政支农支出对我国中西部地区农村居民消费的影响程度大于东部地区。     

我国热气商品成本价格现状及监审对策研究

城市供热包括热电公司向城镇居民提供热水、热气以及向城市有关部门提供蒸汽。我国城市集中供应蒸汽的数量近5年中平均每年以3.1%速度在下降,而同期集中供应热水总量平均每年以9.4%的速度在增长。而热气生产单位由于热气价格由政府控制,已大大低于其成本,出现亏损。亏损还来源于生产热气的原料煤价格上涨过快、热气输送管道(线)维修、维护费用升高等。政府为了保护城市居民的切身利益,往往采取一定方式对热气生产单位进行暗补。对热气商品成本进行监审既要政策法规制度进行,更重要的是对热气商品进行市场化改革,变暗补为明补,并在政策上予以引导。     

中国房地产开发及投资经济效应分析

房地产业在我国国民经济中处于举足轻重的地位,房价的大幅涨跌都会对经济运行造成严重影响。从微观角度,通过对地产开发成本费用的分析,发现以地价和税收为主的整个政府性费用支出占到了房地产开发费用支出的近50%,而房地产开发所得的销售收入中也有近1/3以上的销售收入流向政府。因此,抑制过热的房地产市场,控制不断高涨的房地产价格,政府肩负重要责任。从宏观角度,通过对辽宁省2005年一季度到2010年底二季度的GDP数据以及房地产投资季度数据的定量分析,发现房地产投资与经济增长之间的长期弹性为0.48,存在长期均衡关系。     

“省直管县”改革会损害地级市的利益吗?

我国多个地区正在探索"省直管县"体制改革,目前的最大顾虑是改革是否会损害地级市的利益?本文利用1999—2008年我国地级市数据,通过系统GMM估计对此进行了实证研究。结果发现:"强县扩权"提高了城市财政收入,抑制了城市财政支出增长;财政"省直管县"的作用则恰好相反。"强县扩权"促进了城市经济增长,但不利于城市第三产业的发展;财政"省直管县"虽然降低了城市经济增长速度,却提高了第三产业比重。两项改革措施都抑制了城市规模的扩大,但有利于改善城市的环境质量。因此,我们不能笼统地断定"省直管县"改革一定会有损地级市的利益、阻碍城市化的进程,应深入地研究各项改革措施的利弊得失,做到综合运用、扬长避短。