中国式分权、财政纵向失衡与基本公共服务供给研究

Research on Chinese-style Decentralization, Vertical Fiscal Imbalance and Supply of Basic Public Services

基本公共服务是保障与改善民生、推动实现共同富裕的关键。分税制改革以来,中国式分权呈现的“财权上移、财政事权和支出责任下移”的整体特征引致了明显的财政纵向失衡问题,加重了地方政府的财政负担,影响了基本公共服务供给水平。本文将中国式分权、财政纵向失衡与基本公共服务供给纳入同一分析框架,实证分析了财政纵向失衡对基本公共服务供给水平的影响。研究结果表明:中国式分权引致的财政纵向失衡问题对基本公共服务供给水平产生了显著的负向影响,该影响在经济发展水平、转移支付水平及时期分化方面存在异质性。此外,财政纵向失衡还会通过改变地方基本公共服务支出偏好及供给效率加剧对基本公共服务供给水平的负向作用。鉴于此,本文认为应从深化财政事权和支出责任划分改革、优化央地财权及财力划分格局、健全转移支付体系等途径矫正财政纵向失衡问题,增强财政分权对基本公共服务供给的保障与激励作用。

Basic public services are the key to ensuring and improving people’s livelihood as well as promoting common prosperity. Since the reform of the tax-sharing system, the overall characteristics of “upward shift of financial power, downward shift of administrative power and expenditure responsibilities” presented by the Chinese-style decentralization have led to obvious vertical fiscal imbalances, which has increased the financial burden of local governments and affected the supply of basic public services. This paper incorporates Chinese-style decentralization, vertical fiscal imbalance and basic public service supply into an overall analytical framework, and empirically estimates the impact of vertical fiscal imbalance on the level of basic public service supply. The research results are as follows: The vertical fiscal imbalance caused by the Chinese-style decentralization has a significant negative impact on the supply of basic public services, and the impact is heterogeneous by level of economic development, level of transfer payments, and time periods. In addition, the vertical fiscal imbalance also has a negative impact on the supply level of basic public services by inhibiting local basic public service expenditure preferences and increasing supply efficiency. Therefore, the vertical fiscal imbalance should be corrected by deepening the reform of division of powers and expenditure responsibilities, optimizing the division of central and local financial power and financial resources, and improving the transfer payment system, so as to enhance the security and incentive effect of fiscal decentralization on the supply of basic public services.