法治之用:公共支出、税收与经济绩效

法治对经济绩效的影响可以从公共支出和税收两方面解释.税收与再分配所造成的激励扭曲是决定公共支出乃至经济绩效的关键因素.在其他条件不变的情况下,法治的完善会降低经济体的均衡税率水平,减少税收与再分配造成的激励扭曲和总产出损失.在法治与民主的协同作用下,公共支出与社会总产出水平都会得到提高.从现实经济生活来看,法治之用主要体现在两方面:协调经济利益,实现"非自我实施型"交易收益.

Utilitarian Analysis of the Rule of Law:Public Expenditure,Taxation and Economic Performance

From the perspective of constraints on political power, this article provides a theoretical analysis of economic consequences of the rule of law. We extend the McGuire-Olson model through introducing the exogenous variable which is the rule of law. Under this framework, we show that the improvement in the rule of law will bring down the deadweight loss of taxation and redistribution.Although its effects on public expenditure are obscure, the rule of law can promote both the overall output and public expenditure with the cooperation of democracy. Finally,we illustrate some crucial questions on the basis of theoretical propositions which come from the extended model.