人口规模、“省直管县”对地方公共品供给的影响——来自湖北省市、县两级数据的经验证据

Population Size,"Province Directly Leading the Counties" and the Supply of Public GoodsEvidences from Cities and Counties of Hubei Province

本文在构建地方公共品最优供给模型基础上,运用湖北省县、市两级面板数据就人口规模、"省直管县"对地方公共品供给的影响进行了实证检验。研究发现:基于Bordherding-Deacon常弹性拥挤函数的模型比较有效地刻画了地方公共品的供给状况;地市和县人口增加对公共品供给的"规模效应"大于"拥挤效应";在县级公共服务需求的价格弹性为正,价格机制在县域公共品供给中是失灵的,而在地市,价格弹性为负,价格机制发挥着一定作用;无论地市级还是县级,公共品需求的收入弹性都大于1而富有弹性,符合"瓦格纳法则";上级财政补助在改善地方公共服务中的作用不明显。"省直管县"财政改革使财政层次简化、地方财政关系规范化,促进了县、市两级公共品供给的改善。

Based on the local public goods supply model, this paper empirically verifies the impact of population size and “province directly leading the counties” on local public goods supply. The empirical results are as follows： the model based on the congestion function of Bordherding-Deacon constant elasticity effectively depicts the local public goods supply; the “scale effect” led by population growth outweighs its “congestion effect” ; the price elasticity of public goods demand is positive in counties, price mechanism is failure; nevertheless in cities the price elasticity is negative, and the price mechanism is effectual to a certain extent ; in cities and counties, the demand for quality to local public goods demand is elastic to income, which is in consistent with the Wagner＇s law; higher-level financial subsidy is not obvious in improving local public goods.