“以县为主”和“新机制”改革是否改善了县域间教育财政支出差异

Have the Reforms of "County-Level Administration Mechanism" and "New Mechanism" Reduced Inter-County Disparity of Public Education Expenditure in China

本文采用全国县级数据,就2001年"以县为主"改革与2005年"新机制"改革前后中国县级地方生均教育事业费的分布变动状况,以及两次改革对县域间生均教育事业费差异的影响效果进行了实证研究。研究发现:(1)1999年以来中国县域间生均教育事业费差异水平先升后降,中部地区县域间差异高于东部与西部,且持续增大;(2)改革后分布两端的极化现象得到改善,但同时有大量县级单位向分布下四分位区域转移,形成生均教育事业费处于中下和中上水平的县级单位之间的支出分化;(3)虽然两次改革对于县域间生均教育事业费差异都具有一定改善效果,但这一正面效果完全被地区间财力差异所产生的负面效果抵消。

Abstract： The paper uses nationwide county-level data from 1999 to 2007 in China to investigate empirically the distributional change of per student recurrent expenditure at county-level before and after reform of ＂county-level administration mechanism＂ in 2001 and reform of ＂new mechanism＂ in 2005, and the impacts of those reforms on regional disparity in per student budgetary expenditure at county-level. The results of the paper include： （1） Gini and Theil coefficients of the inter-county disparity increased at first and then decreased during reforms, while the inter-county disparity in the Middle Region was larger than that in East and West Region, and continuingly increased; （2） While tails of the distribution was less polarized after reforms, a large number of county-level districts moved to lower quartile of reference distribution, which leads to expenditure polarization between county-level districts at lower quartile and upper quartile; （3） Both reforms can reduce inter-county disparity in per student recurrent expenditure significantly, but the effect is totally offset by the deterioration effect of regional disparity in fiscal capacity.