财政分权如何影响共同富裕——兼论分权的适度区间

How does Fiscal Decentralization Affect Common Prosperity:Also on the Appropriate Range of Decentralization

财政分权作为调整央地财政权力关系的制度安排,决定了地方政府的资源配置效率和水平,进而对推进共同富裕具有重要的影响。文章基于生产效率、总体富裕、协调发展、成果共享和生态福利五个维度构建共同富裕的评价指标体系,运用熵值法测度2000—2019年中国30个省份的共同富裕水平,并考察财政分权对共同富裕的影响及其作用机制。研究发现:财政分权有助于提升共同富裕水平,但存在一定的地区异质性;从分项指标来看,财政分权可以显著提升总体富裕、成果共享和生态福利水平,但对生产效率和协调发展的影响并不显著;机制检验发现,财政分权可以通过牺牲资本资源配置效率和优化劳动力资源配置效率促进共同富裕水平的提升;最后,财政分权对共同富裕水平的影响存在双重门槛效应,具体表现为先上升后下降的趋势,即财政分权与共同富裕呈倒U形关系。文章有助于了解财政分权在推动共同富裕过程中的重要作用,并确认财政分权的“适度区间”,以期更好更快地推进共同富裕。

Promoting common prosperity in high-quality development is China's current and future work focus and goal,and achieving common prosperity is inseparable from the exertion of fiscal function.As an institutional arrangement to adjust the relationship between central and local financial power,fiscal decentralization determines the efficiency and level of the resource allocation of local governments,and thus has an important impact on promoting common prosperity.According to the theoretical connotation of common prosperity in the new development stage,the evaluation index system of common prosperity in the new era is constructed from the five dimensions of production efficiency,overall prosperity,coordinated development,achievement sharing and ecological welfare.The entropy method is used to measure the level of common prosperity of 30 provinces in China from 2000 to 2019.On this basis,the impact of fiscal decentralization on common prosperity and its mechanism are empirically investigated,and the“appropriate range”of fiscal decentralization is further confirmed.The research finds that fiscal decentralization helps to improve the level of common prosperity,but there is a certain regional heterogeneity.That is,fiscal decentralization has a more obvious role in improving the level of common prosperity in underdeveloped regions than in developed regions.From the sub-indicators of common prosperity,fiscal decentralization can significantly improve the level of overall prosperity,achievement sharing and ecological welfare,but has no significant impact on production efficiency and coordinated development.Further mechanism test shows that fiscal decentralization can promote the improvement of common prosperity by sacrificing the efficiency of capital resource allocation and optimizing the efficiency of labor resource allocation,which indicates that the resource allocation effect of fiscal decentralization plays an important role in promoting common prosperity.Finally,the impact of fiscal decentralization on the level of common prosperity has a dual threshold effect,which is manifested in the trend of rising first and then falling.That is,fiscal decentralization and common prosperity have an inverted U-shaped relationship,and fiscal decentralization has an“appropriate range”in promoting common prosperity.Therefore,we should properly improve the financial autonomy of local governments,give better play to the resource allocation effect of fiscal decentralization,fully grasp the“appropriate range”of fiscal decentralization,and strengthen the balance role of central transfer payments,so as to solidly promote the road of common prosperity for all people in a multidimensional way.