Abstract: Common prosperity is the essential requirement of socialism. Finance, as the foundation and an important pillar of national governance, plays an important role in narrowing the differences between urban and rural regional groups. As one of redistribution tools, transfer payment plays an important role in promoting the equalization of basic public services and achieving common prosperity. This paper systematically studies the sub-provincial transfer payment system of China. It first summarizes and introduces the reform process of the sub-provincial transfer payment system as well as the type, scale and structure of the sub-provincial transfer payment. Then, it examines the determinants affecting the scale and structure of the sub-provincial transfer payment and puts forward corresponding policy suggestions. Firstly, the reform of the sub-provincial transfer payments in China follows the requirements of the central reform, that is, on the basis of realizing the equalization of basic public services among regions, it passively adapts to the reform of the division of the fiscal revenue and the division of authority and expenditure responsibilities. Secondly, the types of sub-provincial transfer payments include tax return, general transfer payment and special transfer payment. Tax return includes return of value-added tax, consumption tax and income tax; General transfer payments include balanced transfer payments, policy-based transfer payments and incentive transfer payments, etc. Special transfer payments include special funds for education, culture and transportation. Thirdly, there are significant differences in the scale, source and structure of transfer payments in different regions. The scale of sub-provincial transfer payments (the ratio of transfer payments below the provincial level to the self-owned financial resources of cities and counties) gradually decreases from east to west. From the perspective of time trend, the eastern provinces such as Jiangsu and Zhejiang show a declining trend, and the central provinces remain relatively stable after the income tax sharing reform in 2001, except for individual years. The transfer payment scale of provinces in the western region is on the rise. In the central and western regions, sub-provincial transfer payment funds mainly come from the central government, while in the eastern region, transfer payment funds mainly come from provincial governments. The share of tax rebates in transfer payments has been decreasing year by year. As time goes by, general transfer payments gradually become the main component of transfer payments. At the same time, it is also found that in recent years, the proportion of special transfer payments in western provinces is significantly higher than that in eastern provinces. Fourthly, the results show that the sub-provincial financial system affects the scale and structure of the transfer payment. Provinces that adopt the base and sharing method are more inclined to use the general transfer payment. The higher the proportion of the provincial fiscal revenue and the lower the proportion of the administrative power and the expenditure responsibility of provincial governments, the larger the scale of sub-provincial transfer payments and the more inclined they are to use special transfer payments. There is no significant correlation between the scale of sub-provincial transfer payments and the regional development gap, but the higher the degree of the economic development imbalance, the more inclined the province is to use special transfer payments. Finally, to promote common prosperity, we need to further improve the transfer payment system, reasonably determine the scale of the transfer payment and improve the efficiency of the transfer payment. For provinces with large financial gap within the province, it is necessary to increase the scale of the transfer payment, and the subsidy funds should be positively tilted to regions with weak financial resources. It is also suggested that special transfer payments be reduced and cleaned up, the impact of GDP growth targets on official evaluation be decreased, and local people's livelihood and welfare related performance evaluation indicators and weight be increased. The results of this paper provide basic information for future research on sub-provincial inter-governmental fiscal relations and sub-provincial transfer payments, and expand the scope of future research.

Key words: Fiscal Institutions of Sub-provincial Governments, Transfer Payment Scale, The Structure of Transfer Payment

摘要： 财政作为国家治理基础和重要支柱,发挥着缩小城乡、地区、群体间差距的重要作用。本文以中国省以下转移支付制度作为分析对象,先后整理介绍了2000—2019年省以下转移支付规模与结构,并考察其决定因素。结果发现,采用总额分成、递增分成等方式划分财政收入的省份,更倾向使用一般性转移支付;省级政府所集中财力越高、省级政府承担事权与支出责任比重越低的省份,省以下转移支付规模越大,并越倾向使用专项转移支付;省以下转移支付规模与地区间发展差距并无显著相关关系,但经济发展不均衡程度越高的省份,越倾向使用专项转移支付。

关键词: 省以下财政体制, 转移支付规模, 转移支付结构