发达国家转移支付制度对地方财力及公共服务的影响

The Impact of Transfer Systems in Developed Countries on Local Fiscal Capacity and Public Services

转移支付制度是发达国家用于均等化地区间公共服务水平的重要政策工具,它主要通过影响地方财力来影响地区间公共服务的水平。选取美国、德国和澳大利亚作为发达国家的代表,通过基尼系数和最大最小比值两个指标的分析发现,采用不同转移支付制度的三个国家,实现了不同的地方财力均等化程度:美国的地区间财力均等化程度最低,德国居中,澳大利亚最高。利用服务提供比率这一衡量地区间公共服务均等化程度的指标发现,上述发达国家地方财力均等化和地区间公共服务均等化存在两种关系。其中,美国由于地区间财力均等化程度低极大地影响了财力薄弱地方政府提供公共服务的能力,从而导致州际较大的公共服务差距;澳大利亚长期高度的财力均等化也并未导致地区间公共服务的均等化,但这主要是地区偏好差异所致。

Transfer system is an important policy tool for the inter - regional equalization of public services in developed coun- tries. It is mainly through the influence of local financial capacity to influence the level of inter - regional public services. Through different transfer systems, United States, Germany and Australia achieved different degree of fiscal equalization across the states. With the help of Gini coefficient and the maximum and minimum ratio, we found that the fiscal capacity equalization degree in U. S. is the lowest, while the Germany is in the middle, Australia is the highest. Using the service - provision ra- tion to estimate the regional public service equalization, we found there are two kinds of relationships between the fiscal equal- ization and public service equalization： the low degree of inter- regional fiscal equalization greatly influenced the capacity of poor states to provide public services, leading to a large interstate public service gap ; Australia＇s long - term high level of fiscal equalization between regions also did not result in the equalization of public services, but this is mainly due to the difference of regional preferences.