房产税对基本公共服务的影响研究——来自上海和重庆的经验证据

The Impact of Property Taxes on Basic Public Services:Empirical Evidence from Shanghai and Chongqing

在我国财税体制下,地方政府出现了土地财政、公共支出偏好等收支行为。当前,土地财政的不可持续性已经显现,普遍开征房产税能为地方政府提供稳定的财政收入,也有助于改善地方基本公共服务供给和推动基本公共服务均等化。在分析房产税对基本公共服务的影响机制的基础上,文章以沪、渝两市试点的房产税政策为切入点,基于全国35个大中城市2003—2019年面板数据,采用合成控制法客观评估房产税对基本公共服务的影响。实证结果表明,房产税改善了沪、渝两市的基本公共服务总体水平,对基础教育、基础医疗、基础设施、城市生活环境等基本公共服务均有促进作用。房产税对两市基本公共服务的影响程度存在异质性,可能的解释是两市的房产税政策试点细则与城市发展情况存在差异。文章的研究丰富了房产税政策和基本公共服务关系的相关理论,为全国普及房产税提供了前瞻性决策依据,为优化地方政府财政收入结构、推动基本公共服务均等化、增进民生福祉提供了有益启示。

There have been fiscal behaviors of local governments such as the excessive reliance on land finance and the preference for public spending under China's special fiscal and taxation system. As the unsustainability of land finance becomes more apparent, the introduction of property taxes at the national level would provide local governments with stable fiscal revenue and further affect basic public services actively.By exploring the relationship between property taxes and basic public services, this paper can help to optimize the structure of local revenue, promote the equalization of public services, and enhance public welfare. Based on the analysis of the mechanism by which property taxes affect basic public services, the property tax piloted in Shanghai and Chongqing(from 2011) is used as a case to analyze the empirical policy effect. A synthetic control method(SCM) is used to identify the effects in the two cities, using panel data from 35 large and medium-sized cities across China from 2003 to 2019.The results show that property taxes improve not only the overall level of basic public services in Shanghai and Chongqing, but also the level of particular categories such as basic education, medical hygiene, infrastructure, and urban living environment. Furthermore, there is heterogeneity in the effects in the two cities,which may be attributed to the differences in urban development and pilot details.This paper may have the following contributions: First, it examines the policy effect of property taxes from a new perspective of basic public services. Second, it deepens the theoretical research on the relationship between property taxes and basic public services. Third, it enriches the empirical results on the policy effect of property taxes and provides guidance for the popularization of property taxes in accordance with local conditions. The policy recommendations are as follows: First, in promoting and reforming property taxes in China,the property tax revenue could be integrated into the local fiscal system(which can be refined to the district and county levels) and stipulated to be used for local basic public services. Second, the concrete tax rules should be differentiated by taking into account the differences in the actual situation of regional fiscal revenue,expenditure structures and established public services. Third, it is better to coordinate the reform of the property tax policy with other fiscal reforms.