财政分权与地方政府行政管理支出——基于中国省级面板数据的实证研究

行政管理支出具有双重属性:过多的支出不利于经济增长,使地方政府在竞争中处于劣势而不利于官员的晋升,同时有违中央政府的宏观政策目标;但能直接提高地方政府官员个人的福利水平。所以,地方政府及官员对行政管理支出存在两难选择。本文利用我国30个省(自治区、直辖市)1998—2006年的面板数据对财政分权与行政管理支出的关系进行实证研究和稳健性检验。主要结论是:在中国特色财政分权的制度环境下,地方政府在财政支出自由裁量权扩大时,总体效应是加大了行政管理支出的规模。同时,行政人员规模与行政管理支出存在显著的正相关关系。地区经济发展水平、资源禀赋、社会结构等因素对行政管理支出也有显著性的影响。在公共财政体制改革的背景下,其他公共财政支出项目(社会保障支出除外)对行政管理支出存在显著的"挤出"效应。     

税收、财政支出政策与宏观经济运行的内在影响机制——基于中国不同省份的面板数据分析

财政政策对经济运行的影响是宏观经济研究的核心问题.但相关文献都侧重于财政支出、税收等对宏观经济的单方面影响.本文构建了基于财政支出、税收的内生经济增长模型.从模型推导可知,在给定税收、财政支出政策的变化路径时,税率与经济增长存在"倒-U"型关系,政府投资性支出与经济增长之间正相关,社会福利不仅与政府支出规模有关,还受到其支出结构的影响.实证检验显示,在我国经济运行中,总产出、消费、投资、政府支出、税率、利息率、工资水平之间存在长期均衡关系,且存在最优宏观税率,政府投资性支出对经济增长率存在正向影响,但对社会福利的影响存在不确定性,且在不同经济区域上存在较大差异性.这说明财政支出、收入政策的稳定性,差异性的区域税收制度安排和政府支出结构,有利于不同区域经济发展.     

农村金融发展与农村经济增长关系的实证分析

运用多变量向量自回归法对农村金融发展与农村经济增长之间的关系进行了实证分析,发现农村经济货币化与农村经济增长之间存在双边的正向相关性;农村正规金融贷款与农村经济增长之间存在双边的负向相关性;农村投资对农村经济增长的推动作用并不明显.     

共轭互补的城市化与房地产业:一个理论解释

城市化与房地产业的互促发展是一个复杂而又深刻的经济问题。通过对房地产业与城市化之间的互促发展进行研究,表明两者之间存在相关影响、相互促进的关系:城市化通过集聚经济促进经济增长,进而影响房地产业发展的总量;城市化依靠改变产业结构来大幅度优化房地产市场的商品开发结构,进而影响房地产业发展;城市化借助于技术进步提高房地产业的集约度。房地产业可提供给城市化发展所必须的物质基础;房地产业通过产业关联机制促进城市化发展;房地产业通过周期波动影响城市化的推进速度、规模。     

制度环境、技术效率与区域经济增长差异

将影响技术效率的制度因素纳入效率评价模型,运用构造的DEA三阶段模型测算了1995-2007年中国29个省级行政单位(文中简称省市区或省份)经制度环境变量调整前后的技术效率水平,并对制度环境与地区间技术效率水平及相应的增长差异进行了分析。研究结果表明:第一,中国技术效率整体上呈波动型增长趋势,但与经济周期的波动趋势并不吻合,效率改善并非经济高速增长的主要原因;第二,制度环境影响各地区技术效率水平,技术效率的不同又是造成区域经济增长差异的重要原因。所有制改革、对外开放、财税体制改革等制度变迁均有利于技术效率的改善,而城镇化、科技体制改革对技术效率的影响并不显著;第三,东、中、西部地区纯技术效率呈收敛增长趋势,且西部地区技术效率低下的主要原因在于规模非效率;第四,制度环境变量调整后各地区技术效率差异逐步增加,制度因素在区域经济平衡发展方面具有重要作用。     

基于官僚理论分析我国行政成本偏高的原因及对策

上世纪八十年代以来。我国行政管理费支出规模呈现着不断扩张的趋势，造成了政府行政成本偏高的状况。行政成本偏高的根本原因在于行政管理的供给方．政府部门并不是按照社会的需求确定公共支出的规模，官僚垄断、官员个人利益最大化和官僚组织扩张等因素都对行政管理费支出规模产生重要的影响，也是造成我国行政成本偏高的主要原因。     

社会福利指数、政府支出规模及其结构优化

政府支出规模及其结构优化应以提高社会福利水平而不是以经济增长为其最终目标。构建了政府支出与消费、社会福利之间的理论分析模型,利用优化控制理论与方法,从理论上论证了在最大社会福利的基础上存在最优政府支出规模与支出结构安排,设计了衡量社会福利水平的新指标,并以此指标为基础,利用中国1982年—2005年的年度数据,对政府支出规模及其结构优化进行计量分析。其基本结论是:我国政府支出规模及其各种单项支出与社会福利指数之间存在较强的相关性,为满足我国不断增加的公共服务需求,应增加政府支出规模,优化政府支出的内部结构体系,即适度提高中央政府支出在政府总支出中所占的比重,减少投资性支出和行政管理支出,增加以教育、公共卫生、公共安全、社会保障为主体的公共服务性支出,以促进我国社会福利水平的提高。     

公务员薪酬、腐败与经济增长

<正>在对公务员薪酬、腐败与经济增长三者关系进行理论梳理的基础上,进一步构建结构向量自回归(SVAR)模型对三者之间的关系进行实证检验。研究发现:"高薪养廉"在我国并不成立,公务员薪酬的提升不但不能遏制腐败,反而会使腐败更为严重;腐败阻碍了我国的经济增长,且这种影响在短期内更为严重;虽然公务员薪酬通过腐     

基于人均消费水平的经济适度增长研究

采用协整和误差修正模型,Granger因果关系检验,分析我国经济增长对人居消费水平的关系,并根据良好的社会消费波动状态特征和历史数据来估计最低人居消费支出增长率,从而得出我国经济适度增长不应低于7.19%的结论。     

我国公共行政支出的战略性绩效管理初探

改革开放以来,我国行政管理支出规模呈不断扩张的趋势,作为纯消耗性支出,行政数额的增长速度远远大于我国GDP与财政增长速度,行政浪费严重。"降低行政成本,构建廉价政府"这一行政管理体制改革的重要目标在巨额政府开支的影响下,很难实现。引入战略性绩效管理以控制行政成本及体制内消耗是当务之急,把行政管理支出的绩效管理上升到战略角度更是遏制无限制的铺张浪费与"三公消费"的迫切需要。     

Economic Effects of State‐Level Tax and Expenditure Limitations

As a result of devolution, state governments have taken on greater responsibility for financing and providing public services. Increasingly, states have adopted state‐level tax and expenditure limitations (TELs) to manage the growth and size of state budgets. The adoption of TELs is supported by claims that they have a positive effect on state economies, although such claims lack empirical evidence and have been contested by several scholars. Despite the ongoing debate about validating the actual economic effects of state‐level TELs, there is a lack of empirical assessments of their effects. The empirical results of this article indicate that the presence of state‐level TELs has a negative effect on the level of employment but no effect on the state's personal income per capita. The presence of state‐level TELs has no effect on either the growth of personal income per capita or the growth of employment.     

A new framework for testing the effect of government spending on growth and productivity

Does government spending have a positive or negative effect on economic growth? The results of earlier empirical studies give mixed results. In this study we suggest a new method for testing the effect of different kinds of government expenditure on productivity growth in the private sector. The focus on productivity in the private sector and the use of disaggregated data makes it possible to avoid or mitigate a number of methodological problems. The major conclusions, which are quite robust, are that government transfers, consumption and total outlays have consistently negative effects, while educational expenditure has a positive effect, and government investment has no effect on private productivity growth. The impact is also found to work solely through total factor productivity and not via the marginal productivity of labor and capital.     

Administration in a small capitalist state: The Hong Kong experience

This article is primarily concerned with the functions of bureaucracy in a minimal state and with how those functions might change in response to economic growth. It is predicated on the assumption that bureaucracy is necessary for economic growth even in those countries which seek to achieve such growth through the relatively free operation of the economy within the rubric of a capitalist state. Hong Kong is a case in point. Although it has often been taken as the epitome of the benefits which can be derived from keeping government out of the economy, the bureaucracy has in fact played a critical role in support of economic development. Aside from the functions which must be performed by any state, such as the maintenance of law and order, the administration of justice, and the provision of public works, three features of Hong Kong bureaucratic practice appear to have been important in the definition of the bureaucracy's tasks in the economic growth process. These are ‘value for money’ and the constant need to justify government expenditure; effective line implementation; and the ability to manage crises. If these constitute minimal essential requirements for such governments, they may provide useful criteria which small or micro-states, following capital growth models but not yet experiencing rapid economic development, can apply in assessing the capabilities of their own bureaucracies.     

Environmental management amidst energy use,urbanization, trade openness,and deforestation: The Nigerian experience

This study empirically explores the linkage between urbanization and deforestation while controlling for the role of energy consumption, trade openness, and economic growth within recent data from 1971 to 2015. To do this, we employed the vector error correction‐Granger causality approach and Pesaran's autoregressive distributed lag cointegration technique. The Bayer–Hanck cointegration test establishes an equilibrium relationship among the variables. Results reveal that economic growth, energy consumption, and urbanization have a significant impact on deforestation in Nigeria, thereby reducing the quality of the environment. Short‐ and long‐run unidirectional casualty flows from urbanization to deforestation. Therefore, policies for reducing deforestation and enhancing environmental sustainability for growth and development were suggested.     

Impact of industrialization,urbanization, and financial development on energy consumption: Empirical evidence from India

This article examines the relationship between energy consumption, industrialization, urbanization, economic growth, and financial development in India from 1980 to 2017. The ARDL bound testing; Johansen & Juselius cointegration approach and Gregory & Hansen structural break cointegration technique confirm the long‐run relationship exists among variables. The result of long‐run analysis indicates that the industrialization, urbanization and economic growth play a vital role in increasing energy consumption in India. However, financial development indicates negative relation to energy consumption. The coefficient of error correction term is negative and statistically significant at 1% confidence level, it means last‐period's deviation from a long‐run equilibrium. It is clear from the results of Toda‐Yamamoto Causality, there is a unidirectional causality running from industrialization to energy consumption. However, there is bidirectional causality showing between energy consumption and urbanization, economic growth and energy consumption, and urbanization and Economic growth. Urbanization facilitates fuel switching, as decentralized rural energy sources like traditional wood‐burning are replaced by centralized energy sources. From the above findings, we argue that proper awareness should be made at the urban center regarding use of energy saving equipments and public infrastructure should be improved to harness the effect of urban agglomeration. As rapid development of energy intensive‐industries and economic activity in Indian economy, there is need of energy efficient technology in industry in order to reduce energy consumption.     

State Tax and Expenditure Limitations,Business Climate,and Economic Performance

The influence of state‐level tax and expenditure limitations on economic performance within the framework of the state's business climate is examined using a family of parametric and nonparametric tests of subsample equivalency. An index of tax and expenditure limitation strength or restrictiveness developed by Poulson is used to test for patterns in 84 separate measures of economic performance, business vitality, and development capacity. In general, we find no evidence that tax and expenditure limitations are associated with higher levels of economic performance or business climate. There is limited evidence that tax and expenditure limitations are associated with a poorer business climate and lower economic performance in some cases.     

Public health financing,environmental quality,and the quality of life in Nigeria

This study explores the relationship between health financing, environmental quality, and the quality of life in Nigeria. The Bayer and Hanck cointegration test affirms cointegration. Findings further reveal that CO₂ emissions have no meaningful impact on life expectancy in the short run. In the long run, urbanization significantly deteriorates the quality of life. Also, public health expenditure has not contributed meaningfully to the quality of life. The study discovers no evidence of a feedback causality, but a one‐way causality flowing from urbanization to CO₂ emissions. Policies that can enhance a sustainable environment and improve the quality of life are discussed.     

Government Expenditure and Quality of Life

Most of the empirical work on the optimal size of the fiscalstate has linked the level of taxation to economic growth. Inthis paper the level of government consumption expenditure thatyields the maximum physical quality of life is found, along withthose expenditures that cause equality between marginal benefitand marginal government expenditure out of GNP. Careful attentionis paid to the measurement of the physical quality of life, theweighing of the attributes in the construction of an aggregateindex of quality of life, and in the functional (parametric) formof the nonlinear equations utilized to calculate marginalbenefit. The conclusion of the paper is that governmentconsumption expenditure is considerably higher than is necessaryto maximize the physical quality of life, and that a reductionin government consumption expenditure would not lower quality oflife.