Wang Yamei, Huang Xiuquan, Zhang Tao, Jiang Bo, Wang Xi
Institute of Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Zone Development, Chongqing Technology and Business University, Chongqing, 400067, China.
School of Elderly Care Services and Management, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, 210023, China.
Heliyon. 2024 Feb 18;10(4):e26511. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e26511. eCollection 2024 Feb 29.
Promoting equal access to public services and improving people's well-being is a key link in building a modern national governance system in China. However, under the Chinese-style fiscal decentralization system, local governments face the "dilemma" of economic growth goals and the improvement of people's livelihoods. China's basic public services still have the problems of insufficient supply quantity, unbalanced structure and low efficiency. This paper aims to explore the impact of fiscal decentralization and local government competition on basic public services, and provide a theoretical and practical basis for deepening the reform of China's fiscal and taxation system, perfecting the transfer payment system, and improving the public service provision at the present stage. Under the premise of theoretical hypothesis, based on the panel data of 178 prefecture-level cities in China from 2008 to 2019, which is obtained from the Statistical Yearbook and the Work report of prefecture-level governments, the fixed effect model and threshold model are used for the empirical test. The results show that: first, the increase of fiscal decentralization has a negative impact on supply of basic public services in prefecture-level cities; second, the local government competition aiming at economic growth will intensify the negative impact, and make the relationship between fiscal decentralization and basic public services show nonlinear characteristics; Third, compared with developed areas, the strengthening regulatory effect of local government competition is more obvious in less-developed areas, such as western and northeastern regions, and third-tier, fourth-tier, and fifth-tier cities. Based on these findings, this paper draws the following policy implications: strengthen the reform of the fiscal and taxation system below the provincial level, promote the construction of a direct transfer payment mechanism, adjust the standards and methods of performance appraisal, and use modern information technology to improve the public service demand and interest expression mechanisms.
促进公共服务均等化、增进民生福祉是中国构建现代国家治理体系的关键环节。然而，在中国特色财政分权体制下，地方政府面临着经济增长目标与民生改善的“两难”困境。中国基本公共服务仍存在供给数量不足、结构失衡、效率低下等问题。本文旨在探讨财政分权和地方政府竞争对基本公共服务的影响，为深化中国财税体制改革、完善转移支付制度、提升现阶段公共服务供给水平提供理论与实践依据。在理论假说前提下，基于2008—2019年中国178个地级市的面板数据（数据来源于《统计年鉴》和地级市工作报告），运用固定效应模型和门槛模型进行实证检验。研究结果表明：一是财政分权程度的提高对地级市基本公共服务供给产生负向影响；二是以经济增长为目标的地方政府竞争会加剧这种负向影响，使财政分权与基本公共服务之间的关系呈现非线性特征；三是相较于发达地区，地方政府竞争的强化调节效应在欠发达地区如西部和东北地区以及三四五线城市更为明显。基于上述研究发现，本文得出如下政策启示：加强省级以下财税体制改革，推进直接转移支付机制建设，调整绩效考核标准与方式，运用现代信息技术完善公共服务需求和利益表达机制。
