“省直管县”财政改革与县级财政教育投入——基于贵州县级数据的双重差分估计

Province-Managing-County Fiscal Reform and County-level Educational Finance:An Difference-in-differences Analysis of Counties Panel Data in Guizhou Province

西部地区由于省情复杂,一直是"省直管县"财政改革和推进基本公共服务均等化的难点。本文基于贵州省2006-2014年县级面板数据,采用双重差分模型评估该省2009年和2013年两次"省直管县"财政改革对县级财政教育投入的影响。结果显示,案例省份的改革有助于提高县级财政教育投入水平,这与试点县对上级转移支付高度依赖,以及改革限制了地级市对上级对县转移支付的截留等因素密切相关。与第一次改革相比,案例省份第二次改革对新增试点县的财政教育投入的正向影响较为微弱。比较两次改革内容和试点县的差异可以发现,第二次改革取消了市对县民生项目财政支出的配套责任,可能对新增试点县财政教育投入造成短期负面影响。未来深化西部地区"省直管县"财政改革,要根据具体市县财政状况因地制宜地设计省内改革方案,对民族自治州县要更为审慎,同时应继续加大中央和省级财政对县域义务教育的财政分担比例。

On account of the complex province-circumstances,the western region of China has always been hard in implementing Province-Managing-County(PMC) fiscal reform and promoting basic public services equalization. Based on the county panel data(from 2006 to 2014),this paper establishes a difference-in-differences model to assess the impact of PMC fiscal reforms in 2009 and 2013 on county-level educational financial investment in Guizhou province. The result shows that the reform significantly improved the fiscal investment on education in pilot counties,which closely related to the reliance of pilot counties on the transfer payments of higher authorities and the limitation effects of reforms for prefecturelevel cities trying to intercept the transfer payments. Compared with the first reform,the impact of the second reform of new pilot counties on fiscal investment of education has only minor positive effect. Comparing the differences between the two batches of reform,the second reform canceled the responsibility of the municipal government for the financial expenditures of the county people's livelihood,and may have a short-term negative impact on the financial education investment in the new pilot counties. In the future,in order to strengthen PMC fiscal reform,the western region should adjust measures according to the specific local conditions,especially for ethnic autonomous areas and further relieve the fiscal burden of county-level compulsory education expenditure through the sharing of central and provincial government finance