“新机制”对地区间义务教育投入差距的影响研究

The Effect of Compulsory Education Finance Reform and Education Equality

2006年实施的义务教育投入保障机制(简称"新机制"),在义务教育投入史上具有里程碑式的意义,其目的在于促进教育公平。本文采用2003-2010年中国省级面板数据,使用系统GMM方法评估了这一财政改革的实施成效,对其在缩小地区间投入差距的成效进行了严谨的社会科学检验。实证结果表明,"新机制"政策的实施使全国义务教育投入水平出现了整体增长,但西部地区增长率高于非西部地区的显著水平并不高,义务教育财政改革在缩小地区间投入方面的成效仍需提高。原因主要在于以"中央大规模增加转移支付"为特征的"新机制",挤出了西部地区地方政府本身对教育投入的努力,西部地区政府教育偏好的提高并没有因为"新机制"的实施而高于全国水平。本文建议进一步完善"新机制",完善对地方政府的考核制度以及转移支付制度,建立激励相容机制,提高"新机制"在缩小地区间投入差距方面的成效。

The new investment mechanism for compulsory education （referred to as the ＂new mechanism＂） carried out in 2006, is a milestone in the history of compulsory education investment aimed to promote equity in education. Based on 2003-2008 provincial panel data, using GMM estimation, this paper examines the equalization effects of this reform. The result shows that the reform brings increase of public investment on compulsory education in both the west area and non-west area, but it doesn＇t significantly bring extra increase in west area. The main reason is that central government subsidies on west area crowd out the local government investment on compulsory education. The government preference to education does increase with the ＂new mechanism＂. To shrink the gap between west and non-west area, the central government needs to reform the evaluation system and the transfer payment system so that incentive compatible mechanism can better aim the goal.