包容性制度能改善农村公共治理吗?——基于农业税改革与村庄农田水利投入关系的经验分析

Can Inclusive Institutions Promote Public Governance in Rural Areas?An Empirical Analysis Based on the Relationship between Agricultural Tax Reform and Village Irrigation Investment

包容性制度变革已成为农村乃至整个国家发展制度的主流趋势与重要构件。本文采用双重差分法和农业农村部固定观察点1995~2017年村庄层面的非平衡面板数据,通过估计农业税改革对村庄农田水利投入的影响,考察包容性制度与农村公共治理之间的内在联系,并结合2014年中国劳动力动态调查数据对作用机制开展进一步的分析。结果表明:以农业税改革为代表的包容性制度变革未能有效激励村庄农田水利投资。这主要是因为农业税改革后,农田水利治理缺乏政府权威的组织与协调,导致包容制度的优势无法充分发挥。具体表现为,在农业税改革后推行的“一事一议”制度因缺乏政府权威参与,造成农田水利治理陷入集体行动困境;同时农业税改革后基层政府与农民之间的重复博弈关系不再,也引致基层政府在农田水利供给上出现卸责等相机决策。本文认为,要破解农村公共治理困境,不仅需要建立包容性制度来激活市场和民间组织,而且需要增强政府及其代理机构的组织与协调能力。

Inclusive institutional reform has become the mainstream trend and an important component of development institution in rural areas or even the whole country.Applying the difference-in-difference method and the unbalanced panel data at the village level obtained by the fixed observation point of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs from 1995 to 2017,the present study explores the inherent relationship between inclusive institution and public governance by examining the impact of agricultural tax reform on village-level irrigation investment,and then reveals the impact mechanism based on the data collected by the 2014 China Labor Force Dynamics Survey.The results show that inclusive institutional reform represented by agricultural tax reform fails to stimulate village-level irrigation investment effectively.This is mainly because agricultural irrigation governance lacks the organization and coordination of government authority with agricultural tax reform.Then the advantages of inclusive institutional reform cannot be fully realized.Specifically,the institution of case-by-case approval sticks agricultural irrigation governance in the dilemma of collective action.Meanwhile,the break of repeated-game relationship between rural government and households motivates discretionary decisions of governors,such as reducing responsibility for irrigation issues,after abolishing agricultural tax.Therefore,for solving the dilemma of public governance in rural regions,it is necessary to establish an inclusive institution to activate market and non-governmental organizations,as well as to strengthen the organization and coordination capabilities of government and its agencies.