The Effect Of Fiscal Decentralization On The Efficiency Of Public Cultural Services Supply

Fiscal decentralization is an important factor in the internal governance of the government,and it also has an impact on the supply of public cultural services which is dominated by the government.Although related theories of fiscal decentralization consider that decentralization contributes to public goods supply in general,but fiscal decentralization in China is affected by centralized power system and there is a structural distortion in fiscal expenditure that emphasizes economy over services.The negative effects on public services have been proved in the fields of compulsory education,health care and social security.On the other hands,there are few research achievements in the field of public cultural services.This paper focuses on the impact of fiscal decentralization on the supply of public cultural services——whether it can produce public cultural products and services more effectively,and whether it can better match the public demand for public cultural services.In order to study the effect of fiscal decentralization on the supply efficiency of public cultural services,firstly,the current level of efficiency in the supply of public cultural services is quantified.Based on the characteristics of "multi-subject participation,separation of production and provision",the supply of public cultural services is divided into two stages: production and allocation.Following the processevaluation approach of "input-output-result",the two-stage correlative DEA model is used to calculate the supply efficiency of public cultural services in China’s 31 regions from 2008 to 2017.Secondly,on the basis of paying attention to the local government’s expenditure decision in service production and the execution logic of service allocation,an analytical framework is established.Combined with fiscal expenditure bias(specifically "public cultural bias of local government fiscal expenditure")and top-down accountability constraints,three research hypotheses are proposed(H1: fiscal decentralization can improve the public cultural bias of local government fiscal expenditure;H2: fiscal decentralization can improve the efficiency in the production stage of public cultural services by increasing the public cultural bias of fiscal expenditure.H3: fiscal decentralization plays a positive role in improving the efficiency in the allocation stage of public cultural services).Finally,a differential GMM dynamic model is established to test the above hypotheses based on the provincial panel data of 31 regions in China from 2008 to 2017,and suggestions are made based on the results.The result of research shows that,the first,in the efficiency evaluation,the efficiency in the production stage of public cultural services is lower than that in the allocation stage.The common problem in most regions is that the efficiency of transforming production factors of public cultural services into products and services is relatively low,which lowers the efficiency of the whole supply process.And the second,the test of the effect of fiscal decentralization on the efficiency of the supply of public cultural services shows that H1 is true,while H2 and H3 are not true:(1)in the production stage of the supply of public cultural services,there is a significant mediating effect of fiscal decentralization on efficiency through the public cultural bias of local government fiscal expenditure,and the public cultural bias of local government fiscal expenditure plays a complete mediating effect.(2)The increase of the degree of fiscal decentralization helps to improve the public cultural bias of local government fiscal expenditure,while which is negatively related to the efficiency in the production stage of public cultural services,under the mediation effect,theimprovement of fiscal decentralization will lead to the decrease of efficiency in the production stage.(3)In the allocation stage,fiscal decentralization has no significant effect on efficiency improvement,which reveals that the current top-down accountability has yet to play a role in the field of public cultural services,and reflected at the moment which emphasizes the standardization and equalization of public cultural service supply,the low degree of heterogeneity of demand made the preferences match advantage of fiscal decentralization not obvious.According to the research results,suggestions are put forward from the following aspects: reasonably dividing the "administrative power" of public cultural services between the central and local governments,giving local governments certain "financial power" in providing public cultural services,improving the efficiency of public cultural expenditure,and attaching importance to the accountability and supervision of public cultural service supply.On the whole,this paper provides concrete examples for the topic of the relationship between fiscal decentralization and the supply of public goods,which not only enriches the existing research content,but also provides references for playing the positive role of fiscal decentralization and improving the efficiency of the supply of public cultural services.