财政竞争与地方政府的公共支出结构——基于国内外文献的一个思考

Fiscal Competition and Public Expenditure Structure of Local Government——A Reflection Based on Literatures at Home and Abroad

通过梳理国内外关于财政竞争的研究文献,全面认识了财政竞争和地方政府公共支出结构的内在联系,从而更加深刻地理解其经济学本质。通过理论模型的构建和分析,发现如果中央政府能够提供合理的制度安排,地方政府间的财政竞争并不会导致公共支出结构的扭曲。所以说,制度缺失是导致财政竞争无法有效实施的真正原因。为了纠正地方政府财政竞争所带来的公共支出结构扭曲,中央政府应该提供合理的制度安排以保证财政竞争的有效实施,而不是片面地反对财政竞争,因为财政竞争在本质上是一个中性概念。

By reviewing literatures on fiscal competition at home and abroad, the author recognizes the internal relationships between fiscal competition and public expenditure structure of local government, and deeply understands its economic nature. Based on the construction and the analysis of theoretical model, the author finds out that if government can provide rational institutional arrangement, fiscal competition among local governments will not lead to the distortion of public expenditure structure. Therefore, institutional absence is the real cause of the ineffectiveness of fiscal competition. In order to correct the distortion of public expenditure structure caused by fiscal competition of local government, the central government should provide reasonable institution arrangement to ensure the effective implementation of fiscal competition instead of opposing it, because fiscal competition is a neutral concept in essence.