宏观税负、公共支出结构与个人主观幸福感兼论“政府转型”

Macro-Tax Burden, Public Expenditure Structure and People’s Subjective Well-Being:On the Chinese Government Transformation

本文利用CGSS2006数据库,对政府转型下的宏观税负、民生财政支出和地区收入差距等与个人主观幸福感的关系进行实证检验后发现:(1)宏观税负对居民主观幸福感有显著负影响;(2)总体而言,政府公共支出增进了居民的主观幸福感;(3)从公共支出结构看,地方政府基建投资对于城镇居民的主观幸福感有显著负效应,政府用于科教文卫和社会保障的支出对居民的主观幸福感有显著正效应;(4)科教文卫支出与社会保障支出对市民与外来人员幸福感的影响存在显著差异。

People’s subjective well-being （SWB） is a key indicator when evaluating whether social and economic policies are successful or not. The open policy and reform have been in practice for more than 30 years now, China’s economy has sustained rapid growth, and people’s incomes are on continuous rise. Economic growth is supposed to enhance the SWB of people. However, people do not feel the expected happiness due to many social phenomena of the transition period. That economic development and citizen’s SWB are not related, and even reversely related, is a common problem in the current urban economic and social development in China. A meaningful topic worth discussion is how the government can promote SWB of its people. With the national data from CGSS2006 of the macro-tax burden, public expenditure, local governments’ revenue disparities, and people’s SWB, this study empirically tested their relationships. It was found that： （1） macro-tax burden had a significant negative impact on people’s SWB; （2） overall, public spending was positive correlated with SWB; （3） in the area of public spending, local governments’ infrastructural investment negative correlated with SWB, whereas their investments in science, education and social security positively correlated with SWB; and （4） expenditures on science, education and social security had different impact on the SWB of the local citizens and non-local residents. Based on these empirical findings, regulating governments’ expenditure and infrastructural investment, exercising structural tax reduction, and increasing the proportion of the public expenditure would be highly important to narrowing income gaps and improving people’s satisfaction of life. It would be necessary to push the government to be transformed into the government oriented toward public service.