财政透明、公共支出结构与地方政府治理能力

Fiscal Transparency,Public Expenditure Structure and the Governance Capacity of Local Governments

财政透明可通过加快政府职能转变不断推进国家治理体系和治理能力现代化。本文首先测度了29个省份2009—2017年间地方政府治理能力,研究发现我国地方政府治理能力相对偏低且提升缓慢,同时存在较为明显的地区异质性。然后,分别从全国和分地区两个层面实证考察财政透明与公共支出结构变动对地方政府治理能力的影响,结果发现:一是在全国层面财政透明能够直接和通过优化公共支出结构间接提高地方政府治理能力;二是在发达地区财政透明影响地方政府治理能力的间接效应不成立。还进一步考察了财政透明与公共支出结构对地方政府治理能力的作用机制和传导效应,发现相对于发达地区财政透明提升欠发达地区地方政府治理能力的效果更为明显。最后,即使考虑了财政透明和地方政府治理能力之间内生性以及政策时滞效应,本文的研究结论仍然成立。

Fiscal transparency is not only conducive to directly responding to the people’s growing demand for a better life,but also helpful for continuously promoting the modernization of national governance system and governance capacity by accelerating the transformation of government functions.Firstly,we theoretically interpret the multi-dimensional mechanisms and effects of fiscal transparency and public expenditure structure on the governance capacity of local governments.Secondly,by building a comprehensive index system of local governments’governance capacity,we measure the governance capacity of local governments for 29 provinces from 2009 to 2017,and find that the governance capacity of local governments,with relatively large regional heterogeneity,is relatively low and improves at a slow pace in China.Then we empirically study the influence of fiscal transparency and the change of public expenditure structure on the governance capacity of local governments at the national and provincial levels by estimating a panel simultaneous equations model and adopting the three-stage least square method.The results show that:Firstly,fiscal transparency can directly and indirectly improve the governance capacity of local governments by optimizing the public expenditure structure.Secondly,the indirect effect of fiscal transparency on the governance capacity does not exist in relatively developed regions.After that,we further investigate the mechanisms and transmission effects of fiscal transparency and public expenditure structure on governance capacity of local governments by standardizing the panel simultaneous equation model.We find that fiscal transparency has a greater effect on improving governance capacity of local governments in less developed regions.Finally,even considering the endogeneity arising from the correlation between fiscal transparency and governance capacity of local governments and the policy lag effects,the conclusions still hold.