财政分权有利于贫困减少吗?——来自分税制改革后的省际证据

Does Fiscal Decentralization Aid for Alleviating Poverty

本文从公共支出效率和公共支出结构两个角度,论述了财政分权和贫困减少之间的理论联系。一方面,财政分权通过增加亲贫式支出的配置效率来实现减贫目标;另一方面,财政分权加剧了地方政府间的竞争程度,而地区竞争会扭曲公共支出结构,阻碍减贫目标的实现。利用我国分税制改革后的省际数据发现:就北京、上海和天津而言,财政分权程度的增加恶化了贫困状况;而对于其他省份,财政分权程度的增加则有利于缓解贫困。

This paper sheds light on the relationship between fiscal decentralization and poverty reduction through the efficiency and structure of public expenditures. On the one hand, fiscal decentralization can alleviate poverty by improving the efficiency of propoor spending. On the other hand, fiscal decentralization will encourage competitions among local governments and distort the structure of expenditures, which will make the poor worse. Based on provincial panel data after the Taxation Sharing Reform in China, we find that more fiscal decentralization will worsen the rural poor for Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin, but for other provinces, more fiscal decentralization will make the rural poor better off. Increasing the propoor spending is still an important way for poverty reduction, especially for rural poverty.