Fiscal Decentralization,Local Fiscal Science And Technology Expenditure And Scientific And Technological Innovation Efficiency

In the 2019 report on the work of the government,it is clearly stated that "to increase our ability to provide scientific and technological support","to continue to pursue innovation-driven development and foster new growth drivers","to achieve breakthroughs in core technologies for key fields","to pilot the creation of ceilings in funding that enable the retention of unused funds","to foster a healthy research environment".As China's economy turns from high-speed to medium-high-speed growth,it is increasingly urgent and crucial to improve the supporting capacity of scientific and technological innovation for the economy and society.To this end,China is constantly expanding the scale of science and technology spending and paying more attention to the local government expenditure on science and technology more attention.With the deepening of fiscal decentralization,local governments have more autonomous financial rights,which also brings about the continuous increase of local fiscal expenditure on science and technology.According to the fiscal decentralization theory,the participation of local governments can optimize the allocation of sci-tech innovation resources and improve the innovation efficiency.But for a long time,our country pays too much attention to the field innovation,neglects the region innovation.Although the scientific and technological level in some fields has indeed reached the world's forefront,there are still some problems,such as the imbalance in the efficiency of China's technological innovation between fields and the prominent gap in the efficiency of scientific and technological innovation between regions.So what is the impact of fiscal decentralization on the efficiency of China's technological innovation? What is the relationship between fiscal decentralization and fiscal technology spending? Whether fiscal decentralization can have an indirect impact efficiency of China's technological innovation by influencing fiscal technology spending? How to arrange financial technology expenditures reasonably? This article attempts to explore these issues.To this end,this paper selects the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2007 to 2017.First,it analyzes the status quo of fiscal decentralization,local fiscal and technological expenditure,and innovation efficiency.The data show that during the inspection period,China's fiscal decentralization has increased year by year,and local governments are increasing the scale of fiscal science and technology investment year by year.However,there are obvious differences in innovation efficiency between the eastern and central regions,and the eastern region is significantly higher than the central and western regions.Then based on the theoretical analysis,the hypothesis of this paper is put forward: fiscal decentralization has a significant role in promoting the efficiency of China's technological innovation,and can have an indirect effect on innovation efficiency by influencing fiscal technology expenditure.Finally,this paper empirically analyzes the impact of fiscal decentralization on the efficiency of China's technological innovation through panel Tobit model.The empirical results show that:(1)fiscal decentralization has a significant role in promoting the efficiency of China's technological innovation,and fiscal decentralization can have an indirect effect on improving regional innovation efficiency by increasing local science and technology investment.(2)There are obvious regional differences in the impact of fiscal decentralization on the efficiency of China's technological innovation.The impact of fiscal decentralization in the eastern region on regional innovation is significantly higher than in the western region.Policy suggestions: Firstly,China needs to further deepen the reform of fiscal decentralization system and expand local financial autonomy.Secondly,China needs to appropriately improve fiscal decentralization and create a favorable environment for scientific and technological innovation.And then,thirdly,Local governments should increase fiscal investment in science and technology and make clear the positioning of fiscal science and technology funds.And,fourthly,Local governments need to formulate science and technology innovation policies according to local conditions and build regional innovation systems with their own characteristics.