转移支付和地方政府义务教育投入差异研究——基于县级面板数据的分析

Fiscal Transfer and the Disparity of Compulsory Education Financing among Local Governments

在"中国式"的分权体制下,转移支付成为绝大部分地方政府提供公共服务的主要资金来源,同时也成为上级政府的重要政策工具。本文利用2002—2007年的县级数据,对我国义务教育地方投入的差异进行了评述,并对转移支付和地方政府义务教育投入差异的关系进行了实证研究。研究表明,税收返还、财力性转移支付和一般性转移支付对于地方义务教育差异的缩小并没有显著效应,而专项转移支付和农村义务教育补助却能明显缩小地方义务教育投入差异。因此,建立规范的义务教育专项转移支付制度,是缩小地方义务教育投入差异的根本保证。

Under the decentralization in China, transfer payments became the principal sources of repayments for most local governments to provide public services, which made it an important policy instrument for the governments of higher levels. The paper takes an empirical study on the relationship between transfer payment and the disparity of compulsory education finance by the local governments. First, the paper described the imbalance of China's compulsory education based on county-level data from 2002 to 2007, and then analyzed the relationship between the imbalance and fiscal transfer. Findings showed that tax revenue return, financial transfer payments and general transfer payments have no significant influence on local fiscal transfer. However, special transfer payments and rural compulsory education subsidies can significantly shrink the differences.