关键词: 新《预算法》, 财政支出效率, 全面规范, 现代预算制度

Abstract: Can the fiscal legislation with the core of regulating the behavior of government revenue and expenditure improve the efficiency of fiscal expenditure? Based on the legal text and budget practice, this paper systematically expounds the internal logic of the new Budget Law to regulate the behavior of government revenue and expenditure, and analyzes in depth the path of its influence on the efficiency of fiscal expenditure.With the help of the new Budget Law, a quasi-natural experiment of the fiscal system reform, this paper uses the data of 246 prefecture-level cities in China from 2012 to 2018 to empirically analyze the causal relationship between the new Budget Law and the fiscal expenditure efficiency.It is found that the implementation of the new Budget Law has not significantly improved the efficiency of local governments' fiscal expenditure, which is verified by various robustness tests.This insignificant effect is not the result of the interference of the mixed effects of other policies, nor is it caused by the impact effect of regional heterogeneity.Further analysis shows that due to the limitations of the budget practice, none of the path mechanisms deduced from the legal text can be empirically verified.The reasons are closely related to the lack of full-caliber budget management, the lack of capacity of budget departments, the need to improve budget procedures and the lack of financial transparency in our country.The research findings of this paper can provide experience reference for perfecting the modern budget system.

Key words: New Budget Law, Fiscal Expenditure Efficiency, Comprehensive Standardization, Modern Budget System