中国财政分权度指数的编制及其与增长、均等的关系研究

Construction of Chinese Fiscal Decentralization Index: An Analysis of its Impact on Economic Growth and Equalization

财政分权的衡量一直是困扰我国财政分权实证研究的主要问题之一。基于世界银行对财政分权的界定,本文从税权分权、收支分成和央地分离三个维度出发,选取5个指标编制出首个反映我国央地两级政府财政分权程度的指数——中国财政分权度指数(CFDI)。结果显示,全国31个省、市、自治区CFDI的均值从1995年的49.94点先降后升至2014年的48.06点,说明分税制改革以来我国作为中等财政分权度国家,中央政府先收权后放权,总体略有上收。本文利用动态面板模型和GMM方法,实证发现CFDI与经济增长呈显著倒"U型"关系,当CFDI低于35.68点时,财政分权有利于经济增长,而当CFDI超过35.68点时,进一步分权将阻碍经济增长;同时,CFDI与收入差距呈显著负相关,即扩大财政分权将提高收入均等程度。

The measurement of fiscal decentralization has been one of main problems of empirical research on the fiscal decentralization. Based on the World Bank＇ s definition of fiscal decentralization, this paper describes fiscal decentralization from three dimensions, which is the allocation of taxation right, separation of revenue and expense as well as the dependence between center government and local government. It makes the first index reflecting the division of fiscal relationship between two levels governments Chinese fiscal decentralization index （CFDI）. The result shows that CFDI presents a trend of down first and then up, fi＇om 49.94 in 1995 to 48.06 in 2014, which indicates the financial power of local governments have been taken back since the reform of taxation system in 1994, and decentralized in recent years. In the empirical analysis, through our dynamic panel model and GMM method, it finds that there is a inverted ＂U＂ relationship between CFDI and economic growth significantly, which means when the CFDI is below 35.68, fiscal decentralization is good for economic growth, while when CFDI is above 35.68, further decentralization inhibits economic growth. At the same time, it also finds there is a significant negative correlation between CFDI and the income gap, which means the expansion of fiscal decentralization will improve the degree of income equality.