义务教育转移支付的激励效应与均等效应——以江苏省为例

Incentive Effect and Equity Effect of Transfer Payment of Compulsory Education: A Case Study of Jiangsu Province

基于江苏省2007-2012年义务教育转移支付相关数据,本文实证分析了义务教育转移支付对县级教育财政投入的激励效应及均等效应。首先,运用工具变量进行两阶段最小二乘法(2SLS)估计,结果表明义务教育转移支付对县级政府义务教育财政投入具有激励效应。在此基础上,采用基于回归方程的夏普里值分解方法,分析义务教育转移支付对县际义务教育财政投入差距的贡献,发现转移支付降低了县级生均教育财政投入的基尼系数,但贡献幅度有限。进一步的数值模拟显示,如果继续扩大转移支付规模,义务教育财政投入的县际差距能够逐步缩小,但缩小幅度呈边际递减趋势。这说明未来加强省级统筹不仅要增加省对县的义务教育转移支付规模,而且有必要按照因素法等重构转移支付的分配结构,从而确保转移支付投入精准到位,最大限度缩小省内义务教育投入差距。

Using data concerning the specific purpose transfer payment of compulsory education in Jiangsu province,this paper examines the incentive and equity effects of the earmarked grants on county government compulsory educational spending. The estimation of 2SLS proves the incentive effects,i. e.,the earmarked grant dose not crowd out but motivate the expenditure by county government,leading local governments to give priorities to compulsory education. Furthermore,with regression based Shapley value decomposition,the negative contribution of the earmarked grant to inequality of educational spending across counties is verified,stating that the earmarked grant helps to reduce inequality,but to relative limited extend. The simulation that enlarges the size of the grant shows that the inter-county inequality can be reduced substantially,with diminishing marginal effect. These empirical findings indicate that the Provincial-level Co-ordination should reshape the policy balancing the size and assignment structure of the specific purpose transfer payment of compulsory education,with better targeted poorest region in order to achieve equalization at the best.