Research On Structural Optimization Of Intergovernmental Transfer Payment In China

"The contradiction between the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development" is the principal contradiction of our current society.From the perspective of China’s national income and regional economic development,the problem of unbalanced and inadequate is increasingly complicated.In order to solve the problem of vertical and horizontal financial imbalance in various regions,the central government has carried out large-scale transfer payments to provinces and counties and cities.The scale and composition of the two levels of transfer payment vary greatly in space(between regions)and time.At the same time,there is a common trend: the scale of transfer payment is smaller in the eastern developed region and larger in the central and western regions in space;it is basically on the rise with passage of time,and the growth rate of the eastern region is larger than that of the central and western regions.The composition of transfer payment in space is that the proportion of tax return in the East is large,while the proportion of general transfer payment in the Midwest is large;in time,the general transfer payment increases the fastest,followed by special transfer payment,and the slowest is tax return.Under two important premises: the current financial system of our country is basically not adjusted,the division of financial resources and expenditure responsibilities of the central government and local governments at all levels is not greatly adjusted,and the transfer payment system of the two levels is not greatly adjusted;based on the insufficient development of our country,only from the perspective of regional economic growth.This paper puts forward the core issues.The first core question: is the optimal scale of intergovernmental transfer payment in China? Is the scale of current intergovernmental transfer payment optimal? If it is not optimal,how to optimize it?The second core question: is the scale of intergovernmental transfer payment reasonable? How to optimize the scale if it is not reasonable?To judge whether it is optimal and reasonable,we need to give the optimal and reasonable criteria.After 40 years of rapid economic development since 1978,China’s per capita gross national income in 2018 is still only 85.3% of the world average level;considering that China’s GDP growth has slowed down significantly since 2012,and the GDP growth has changed from the previous high speed to the current medium high speed,which shows that China’s development is still inadequate and will last for a long time.So choose the best standard: from the perspective of promoting the development of regional economy,the scale of transfer payment is in the best position.Choose a reasonable standard: when the overall scale of transfer payment is kept unchanged,the scale of tax return will not be changed.For each unit of general transfer payment increased and one unit of special transfer payment reduced,the total effect on regional economic growth will be zero.At this time,the transfer payment structure is reasonable.What needs to be clear is that the main policy objectives of intergovernmental transfer payment are to make up the fiscal gap,balance the financial differences among regions,realize the equalization of basic public services,effectively regulate and encourage the allocation of resources,and strengthen the national macro-control.The optimization of intergovernmental transfer payment structure also needs to be carried out under the above policy objectives.Then the research rationale of this paper is concerned with these two core issues.First of all,the relevant literature of intergovernmental transfer payment is sorted out,and it is clear that fiscal decentralization is the basis of intergovernmental transfer payment,focusing on the impact of transfer payment and transfer payment composition on regional economic growth.This paper reviews the changes of intergovernmental transfer payment system and composition since 1994,as well as the latest changes of intergovernmental transfer payment.Then,a threelevel government framework is developed,trying to find the optimal scale and composition of intergovernmental transfer payment.On this basis,the theoretical mechanism analysis and theoretical model is adopted to estimate the measurement model between transfer payment and regional economic growth.Using the county and provincial transfer payment data for empirical and robust analysis,we get the correlation coefficient of the measurement model,and calculate the optimal scale of transfer payment in China,as well as the optimization scheme of scale.Further,according to the difference of the effect of different types of transfer payment in promoting regional economic growth,the measurement model coefficients between different types of transfer payment and regional economy are obtained by using similar methods,and the formula to judge whether the transfer payment composition is reasonable is obtained through mathematical deduction,as well as the scheme to optimize the transfer payment composition.Then,according to the comparison of the developed countries’ intergovernmental transfer payment system,especially the scale,composition,type,level and other characteristics of intergovernmental transfer payment,this paper puts forward the corresponding optimization suggestions for the scale and composition of China’s intergovernmental transfer payment.Finally,using the conclusion of the study,the optimization and further research focus of the scale and composition of intergovernmental transfer payment in China are given.This paper is composed of eight chapters,the Chapter 1 is the introduction,which mainly introduces the background of the topic,the proposal of the questions,the research ideas and main contents,the research methods and data sources used,the key and difficult points and possible innovations.The Chapter 2 is the literature review and summary of the whole paper.Firstly,it is confirmed that the theory of fiscal decentralization is the basis of the study of intergovernmental transfer payments,and the development of "the second generation" fiscal decentralization theory pays more attention to the micro basis.There is no agreed conclusion about the influence of fiscal decentralization on regional economic growth in theory and practice.The impact of intergovernmental transfer payment on regional economic growth is mainly exerted through the expenditure composition of local governments,the incentive effect of local governments,the utilization rate of transfer payment funds and other aspects.The core of optimizing transfer payment composition is to adjust the proportion of general transfer payment and special transfer payment.Through sorting out the literature,we should pay attention to the comprehensive response of the middle level government to the transfer payment of the upper and lower level among the multi-level intergovernmental transfer payments;we should thoroughly investigate the transfer payment system of the provincial government to the county and city;we should consider the corresponding intergovernmental transfer payment under the four budgets;we should pay attention to the treatment of endogenous problems.The Chapter 3 introduces the current situation of the scale and composition of intergovernmental transfer payment in China.Firstly,it introduces the pattern system of central and local transfer payment in China.The next section focuses on the structural changes of three types of transfer payments,which is the focus of this chapter.The next section is about the province’s simple sorting of county and city transfer payments.The last section is the latest change of transfer payment between the central government and local governments.In Chapter 4,the optimal transfer payment scale and composition are obtained by developing three-level government framework and solving mathematical model.First,the basic setting is determined,then the private sector,county-level government,provincial government and central government make their own optimal decisions,and then get the optimal transfer payment scale and composition of all levels of government.Through the analysis of the factors that affect the scale and composition of transfer payment,we can see that: the preference of governments at all levels for different regions will affect the scale and composition of transfer payment,especially in the current situation of increasingly serious development imbalance between regions;however,when governments at all levels pay more attention to the development imbalance,they will reduce their insufficient attention to regional economic development,so as to promote the development of regional economy From the perspective of regional economic growth,the current scale and composition of transfer payment may incur some losses.The fifth chapter is through the theoretical mechanism analysis and mathematical model derivation,to conjecture the form of the measurement model of intergovernmental transfer payment and regional economic growth,and study the optimal scale of local transfer payment from the perspective of promoting regional economic growth.The first part is the overview and research background of this chapter.The following sections are theoretical mechanism analysis and model construction,setting up appropriate measurement model,variable selection and data source.Through the analysis of empirical results and the corresponding robustness test,it is confirmed that there is an inverse "U" relationship between transfer and payment scale and regional economic growth,and the correlation coefficient between transfer payment and regional economic growth measurement model is obtained,which is further related In the discussion of the optimal scale of transfer payment,the optimal scale of transfer payment and the scale optimization scheme corresponding to county and provincial transfer payment data are calculated respectively.Finally,the research conclusions and policy recommendations are given.Chapter 6 is an in-depth study on the basis of Chapter 5.According to the different effects of different types of transfer payment on regional economic growth,the optimization scheme of transfer payment composition is studied when the scale of transfer payment is determined.The first is the overview and research background of this chapter.Then it is the same theoretical mechanism analysis,set up the appropriate measurement model,variable selection and data source,through the analysis of empirical results and the corresponding robustness test,it is concluded that there is an inverted "U" relationship between general transfer payment and special transfer payment and regional economic growth respectively,and there is a linear relationship between tax return and regional economic growth.Based on the empirical data,and after determining the optimal scale of transfer payment,the adjustment schemes of the optimal composition of transfer payment at county level and provincial level are given respectively.The last part is the conclusion and suggestions of this chapter.Chapter 7 is the international experience of intergovernmental transfer payment.First of all,t through examining the unitary countries’ intergovernmental transfer payments,mainly those of the United Kingdom,France,Japan,and South Africa summary and corresponding inspirations are obtained.The next section deals with the experience of federal countries’ intergovernmental transfer payments.Taking Germany and Australia as examples,this section focuses on the composition and scale characteristics of transfer payments,and draws a summary and lesson.The last section is what China can learn from these international experiences.It puts forward corresponding suggestions and references to China’s transfer payment through the relative scale of transfer payment,the proportion of general transfer payment,the implementation of multi-level transfer payment,the degree of formula of transfer payment,and the stable source of transfer payment.Chapter 8 is the last chapter of this paper,which summarizes the basic conclusions of this paper,gives policy recommendations,and finally gives the further prospects of related research.In the current major social contradictions in China,the "inadequate" development still needs attending to.Starting from the relationship between transfer payments and different types of transfer payments and regional economic growth,and on the premise of paying more attention to solving the imbalance of development,we can appropriately adjust the scale of transfer payments and optimize the composition of transfer payments according to the economic development of various regions,so as to better contribute to the regional economic growth,and then increase the income of governments at higher level in the next year and increase the transfer in the next year The scale of payment will further conduce to the sound and balanced development of various regions.