Research On Rural Public Service Investment Efficiency In China Based On Farmers’ Satisfaction

The increasing scale of investment and efficiency of public services plays an importantrole in promoting rural economy. However, in fact, because of loose entrance, blind optionsand careless project, the investment efficiency of rural public services is seriously affectedand causes non equalization between urban and rural areas, developed and backward regions.Low efficiency and missing of investment performance evaluation system lead tomanagement and supervision of investment in rural public services more difficult; restrictbetter benefit and make the low efficiency of rural public service a reality. However toevaluate rural public service investment efficiency, we cannot evaluate the efficiency aloneand it is meaningful when we evaluate it based on the farmers’ satisfaction. Based on this,with the study of the investment efficiency of rural public service evaluation and the aim ofimproving the farmers’ satisfaction of the investment efficiency of rural public service, thethesis directs at the non-efficiency or low investment efficiency of rural public serviceevaluation. By constructing a “three-dimensional" comprehensive evaluation model ofinvestment efficiency of rural public services, the thesis seeks to find scale efficiency andstructural efficiency based on the farmers’ satisfaction, to uncover the reasons of the lowefficiency. And another aim of the thesis is to allocate the public resources effectively, fix thedirection of public service investment and optimize existing investment structure.Based on the literature review and relative theory, the thesis mainly does the followingsix tasks. Firstly, from the rural basic education, rural health care, rural infrastructure (ruralroads, irrigation facilities and water facilities), rural culture undertaking, rural social security,agricultural research and agricultural extension, rural eco-environmental protection and fromthe perspective of the total investment volume, different regions, urban and rural areas, theinternational level, the thesis analyzes status quo of China’s investment in rural public servicesand summed up the investment characteristics of rural public services with the field surveydata, from rural public service investors, sources of investment funds, farmers’ demand torural public service and investment willingness and so on. Secondly, the thesis empiricallyanalyzed the problem of farmers’ satisfaction degree to rural public service and selects thefarmers’ satisfaction public service with the rural survey data of2009, from40counties (or cities) in five provinces in northwest of China and comprehensively using factor analysis andbinary discrete choice model. Thirdly, with the statistical data of2007-2009and DEA-Tobittwo-stage evaluation model, the thesis does empirical research on the investment efficiency infarmers’ satisfaction rural public service and the affecting factors from China’s31provinces(autonomous regions and municipalities). Fourthly, based on the calculated of technicalefficiency of rural public service investment, with the statistical data for2007-2009and usingthe linear programming model, the thesis measures structural efficiency of rural public serviceinvestment and using limited dependent variable of the Tobit model uncover the main factorsthat effect structural efficiency of rural public service investment. Finally, the thesis proposespolicy strategy to optimize the efficiency of investment in rural public service fromoptimizing the investment structure of rural public service, changing the governmentfunctions, establishing post-evaluation system for rural public service and the other five ways.The conclusions of this thesis are as follows:Firstly, according to current situation and the practical investigation, the rural publicservice investment has the following main features: diversification of the investors,diversification of funding sources, irrational use of funds, different level of farmers’ demandsand the orderly investment willingness of farmers.Secondly, from the overall situation, farmers are relatively satisfied with rural publicservices especially in underdeveloped areas; Farmers’ satisfaction degree to rural publicservices is influenced by road, basic education, health care, irrigation facilities, water facilities,participation in the supply of public services, farmers’ appraisal of village committee andgovernment. Farmers’ income per capita per year, rural public health, and culturalentertainments take some influences on the farmers’ satisfaction, but the impact is not big.The influence of technology extension and training, rural clean energy and age on farmers’satisfaction is less. Farmers’ satisfaction is not influenced by our subjects of sex, educationdegree and family members. Farmers’ demand for rural public services has hierarchy andperiodicity, while farmer’ satisfaction has a character of order according to their demandconditions. The public services that farmers are satisfied with are basic education, road, healthcare, irrigation and water conservancy facilities, and water facilities.Thirdly, Fujian, Shandong, Hebei, Henan, Jiangxi, Inner Mongolia, Guizhou, Tibet,Qinghai, Ningxia and Xinjiang has integrated technical efficiency; The integrated technicalefficiency, pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency of rural public services have emergedgradient changes. There is obvious regional difference in investment efficiency of rural publicservices in China. The coefficient of variability (CV) of efficiency of rural public services isless than0.080(except Tianjian, Shanghai and Hainan); The central and western rural areas is lower than east in the differences of technical diffusion of rural public service investment andthe rangeability of the scale of investment caused by the factors of rural public serviceresources and capital. Moreover, there are some differences between input and output of ruralpublic services; From all the affecting factors in rural public service investment efficiency, thefactors such as fiscal decentralization, population size, farmers’ income level and geographiclocation play an important role in the formation of differences in east, center and west, whilelevel of economic development and urbanization has a negative impact.Fourthly, from2007to2009, only Shanghai and Hainan achieved Pareto optimalefficiency and Liaoning achieved in2009. The structural efficiency of rural public serviceinvestment shows gradient variations; There are significant regional differences in China’srural public service investment structural efficiency; The coefficients of variation (CV) of thestructural efficiency in rural public service investment are relative small (all smaller than0.080) in different regions; The differences of structural efficiency in rural public serviceinvestment decrease year by year as to the time trend; The west area has the largest coefficientof variation (CV) of structural efficiency in rural public service investment, followed by thecentral area and the east smallest; Among all the factors affecting the structural efficiency, thelevel of economical development, population size and geographic location play an importantrole in the formation of the differences in structural efficiency in rural public serviceinvestment in east, center and west; However, degree of fiscal decentralization,inter-jurisdictional competition (capacity of financial revenue and expenditure) are notsignificant to the structural efficiency in rural public service investment.