转移支付、税收征管与企业生产率

Transfer Payments,Tax Effort and Enterprises’Productivity

分税制改革后,中央对地方转移支付逐年增加,成为地方政府重要的收入来源。在拥有自由裁量权的背景下,随着转移支付的增加,地方政府的行为可能会出现变化。这在税收方面常体现为税收征管努力程度的下降,意味着转移支付资金的使用效率可能不高。但是,税收负担的下降又会对当地企业的生产经营产生帮助作用。本文借助民族地区转移支付政策实施的准自然实验实证探究了一般性转移支付增加后,地方政府税收征管强度的变化,及其对企业生产经营产生的影响。研究发现,随着一般性转移支付的增加,地方政府的税收征管强度下降,企业生产率出现显著提高,表明了转移支付资金的正面效果。机制分析的结果表明,流动资产、无形资产、生产经营用固定资产的增加是导致企业生产率提高的可能原因。

After the Tax Sharing Reform in 1994,the central government gradually increased the amount of intergovernmental transfer(IGR)to local governments and its share has reached more than 50%in local public budget,which may be inefficient since it lowers local governments’tax efforts.It is,nonetheless,beneficial to local firms.Using a quasi-natural experiment of ethnic county vs.non-ethnic county,this paper examines the effects of IGR on tax efforts of local governments.Regression results show that with the increase of transfer payments,local governments decrease their tax efforts and local firms increase their TFP(total factor productivity).Mechanism analyses show that the increase in current assets,intangible assets,and fixed assets for production are factors explaining firms’increased productivity.This paper offers new empirical evidence on the effectiveness of IGR.