Abstract:

Based on the reform process and the domestic literature, this paper provides a more comprehensive description of the development of the inter-governmental fiscal transfer system in China since the tax sharing reform. The central government uses transfer payments to localities to achieve vertical redistribution of financial resources, promote the equalization of basic public services between regions, implement specific macro policies, as well as guide and regulate the local fiscal expenditure behavior. With the expansion of the scale of fiscal transfers, it has gradually become an important pivot for regulating the financial relationship between the central and local governmentsfrom the initial “revenue sharing and subsidies” to “promoting fiscal equalization”, but at the same time, it has also given rise to some negative problems such as the “fly-paper effect”, local fiscal expenditure “emphasizing investment at the expense of people’s livelihood”, insufficient provision of effective public goods, and the rapid expansion of local government debt under the “public pool”, which has deviated from the incentive effect of the modern fiscal governance system. The future reform of the transfer payment system should be designed at the top level according to its own logic and path, with various types of transfer payments cooperating with each other and performing their respective functions, combining stability and flexibility, and giving full play to the unique role of transfer payments in coordinating the fiscal relations among governments, and becoming the foundation and important pillar of national governance.

Key words: Transfer Payments, Fiscal System, Fiscal Equalization, Local Fiscal Expenditure

摘要：

基于改革进程和国内文献的梳理,本文对分税制改革以来中国政府间财政转移支付制度的发展脉络进行了一个较为全面的回顾。中央政府通过对地方政府的转移支付来实现纵向财力再分配,促进地区间基本公共服务均等化,以及实施特定的宏观政策并引导和规范地方财政支出行为。随着财政转移支付规模的扩张,转移支付由最初的“收入分享和补助”逐渐成为调节中央和地方财政关系的重要枢纽,致力于“促进财政均等化”,但同时也出现了“粘蝇纸效应”、地方财政支出“重投资、轻民生”、有效公共品提供不足以及“公共池”下的地方政府债务快速膨胀等问题,偏离了现代财政治理应有的制度激励效应。未来转移支付制度改革应按照其自身的逻辑和路径进行顶层设计,各类转移支付互相配合、各司其职,稳定性和灵活性相结合,充分发挥转移支付在协调政府间财政关系方面的独特作用。

关键词: 转移支付, 财税制度, 财政均等化, 地方财政支出