转移支付形式会影响地方政府的收支行为吗?——理论研究和经验分析

Do Transfer Payments Affect Local Governments' Revenues and Expenditures Behavior? Theoretical and Empirical Analysis

财力与事权的不匹配导致了财政垂直不平衡,转移支付成为政府间财政关系的重要内容。文章以税收竞争框架为基础,讨论了在资本自由流动的条件下,不同类型的转移支付对地方政府产生的收支效应。基于中国县级数据的研究发现,大规模的转移支付对地方政府收支行为确实产生了显著影响:支出决策的敏感程度要大于收入决策。对转移支付细分后发现,专项转移支付以及一般性转移支付对地方政府收支决策的影响存在明显差异,前者的支出效应要大于后者;税收返还对地方政府收入和支出行为都存在正向影响。文章为完善省级以下转移支付制度提供了参考。

Financial vertical imbalance results from a mismatch between financial power and powers in affairs, and transfer payments have been the key content of financial relationship among governments. Based on tax competition framework, this paper studies the effects of transfer payments on local governments ＇ revenues and expenditures under free capital flow.Based on the county-level data, it arrives at the conclusions as follows： largescale transfer payments actually have the significant effect on local governments＇ revenues and expenditures behavior： the sensitivity of expenditures decisions is stronger than the one of revenues decisions. After the subdivision of transfer payments, special and general transfer payments have obviously different effects on local governments＇revenues and expenditures decisions, namely the expenditures effect of the former is stronger than the one of the latter; tax rebates have positive effects on both local governments＇ revenues and expenditures behavior. It provides reference for the perfection of transfer payments system below provincial level in China.