Abstract: A good taxation business environment is an important driving force to fully stimulate the entrepreneurial vitality of a city and promote the high-quality development of a city. Based on the data of 286 prefecture-level cities from 2012 to 2021, this paper employs the reform of the tax system, i. e. the “decentralization, management and service” reform as a quasi-natural experiment and adopts the asymptotic double-difference method to conduct a theoretical analysis and an empirical test of how the optimization of the business environment for taxation affects the entrepreneurial activity of the cities. The study finds that the optimization of taxation business environment significantly increases urban entrepreneurial activity, and this conclusion still holds after a series of robustness tests. Mechanism analysis shows that the optimization of taxation business environment enhances urban entrepreneurial activity by reducing institutional transaction costs and improving the level of talent concentration. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the enhancement effect of taxation business environment optimization on urban entrepreneurial activity is more prominent in low-administrative-level cities, resource-based cities, labor-intensive industries, and service industries. This study helps to provide theoretical basis and policy implications for further deepening the reform of “decentralization, management and service” in the tax system to enhance urban entrepreneurial activity.

Key words: Taxation Business Environment, Tax System “Decentralization, Management and Service”, Entrepreneurial Activity

摘要： 良好的税收营商环境是充分激发城市创业活力、促进城市高质量发展的重要驱动力。本文基于2012—2021年286个地级市的数据,以税务系统“放管服”改革为准自然实验,采用渐进双重差分法对税收营商环境优化如何影响城市创业活跃度进行理论分析和实证检验。研究发现,税收营商环境优化显著提升了城市创业活跃度,该结论经过一系列稳健性检验后依然成立。机制分析表明,税收营商环境优化通过降低制度性交易成本与提升人才集聚水平进而提升了城市创业活跃度。异质性分析表明,税收营商环境优化对城市创业活跃度的提升效应在低行政等级城市、资源型城市、劳动密集型行业、服务业中更为突出。本文的研究有助于为进一步深化税务系统“放管服”改革以提升城市创业活跃度提供理论依据与政策启示。

关键词: 税收营商环境, 税务系统“放管服”, 创业活跃度