中国的人口城市化为什么滞后于空间城市化——基于中国式分权的视角

Why Does China's Population Urbanization Lag behind Spatial Urbanization: A Perpective of Chinese-style Decentralization

人口城市化滞后于空间城市化是当前中国城市化进程中面临的主要问题之一。基于同时考虑财政分权和地方政府竞争的中国式分权视角,对人口城市化滞后于空间城市化现象进行解释。理论分析表明,在由财政分权和地方政府竞争相互嵌入构成的中国式分权激励机制下,地方政府为了发展经济、增加财政收入和改善政绩,具有偏重推进空间城市化、忽视推进人口城市化的动机。利用2000年~2014年的省级面板数据进行实证检验,发现中国式分权下的财政分权和地方政府竞争对人口城市化滞后于空间城市化具有显著的正向推动作用。财政分权程度越高,地方政府间竞争越激烈,人口城市化滞后于空间城市化的程度就越严重。因此,为了实现人口城市化与空间城市化的同步协调发展,中国需要对现行财税制度和地方政府治理机制进行相应改革。

Considering the fiscal decentralization and local government competition under the framework of Chinese-style decentralization,this paper explains the phenomena of China’s population urbanization lags behind spatial urbanization both theoretically and empirically. The theoretical model shows that faced with Chinese-style decentralization incentive,the local government has more incentive to promote spatial urbanization but lacks passion to promote population urbanization. Based on the provincial panel data from 2000 to 2014,our empirical results find that fiscal decentralization and local government competition are important factors that impact on population urbanization’ lagging behind spatial urbanization; the higher the degree of fiscal decentralization is,the more fierce the competition of local government will be,and the more serious the population urbanization’ lagging behind spatial urbanization will be. The results indicate that Chinese government should reform its fiscal system and local government performance evaluation system to realize the cooperative development of population urbanization and spatial urbanization.