On the supply of China's healthcare resources in a decentralized healthcare system

The structure of China's current governance bears prominent features of fiscal decentralization. The supply of healthcare resources in China has clearly witnessed slower growth in the last two decades during which the fiscal decentralization process has taken place. Using China's provincial panel data, we examine the determinants of healthcare resource supply while paying particular attention to the role of fiscal decentralization. We find that the supply of healthcare resources is inversely related to the degree of decentralization, which, using spatial econometrics, is attributed to the presence of strategic substitutes in healthcare spending across city governments. These findings have important implications for policy makers in making fiscal arrangements among different government tiers.     

Has Germany’s temporary VAT rates cut as part of the COVID-19 fiscal stimulus boosted growth?

On 3 June 2020, the German government announced a EUR 130 billion fiscal stimulus package to stimulate market demand and jumpstart the economy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in the spring of 2020. The most prominent measure of this package is an unconventional fiscal policy in the form of a temporary VAT rates cut for six months, from 1 July to 31 December 2020. Employing a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) framework, we study the efficiency of the VAT tax rates cut for ameliorating the consequences of the pandemic recession. The simulation of the calibrated DSGE model yields a tax policy-induced real GDP increase of about 0.3% points for 2020.     

Fiscal harmonization in view of the Euro adoption: Economic implications for Poland

In this paper, we investigate the ex ante effects of fiscal policy harmonization that might be necessary for the adoption of the common currency on economic growth in Poland using a neoclassical dynamic two-sector general equilibrium model. We study two fiscal policy scenarios. In the first one, we adjust all taxes to German and EU-27 levels, respectively, while in the second one, we change only consumption taxes to German and EU-27 levels. We find that in the first scenario, the current Polish taxes yield the highest rate of growth due to lower capital taxation. However, in the second scenario, German and EU-27 taxes yield the highest rate of growth due to the lower consumption tax on capital-intensive good. From a policy perspective, our results suggest that fiscal policy with lower taxes on capital and capital-intensive goods can generate a higher rate of growth in the long-run. In the case of fiscal harmonization, our findings propose adopting only German or EU-27 consumption tax structure into the Polish tax system.     

基于来源视角的城乡居民收入差距与财税制度选择

2001年以来,随着工业反哺农业政策的实施,农民的工资性收入、经营性收入、转移性收入和财产性收入均有所增加,城乡基尼系数逐渐下降。但是,以流转税为主的税制结构和现行财税制度仍制约着城乡居民收入差距的进一步缩小。因而,为增强财税制度调节城乡居民收入的作用,应构建以所得税为主的税制模式,完善增值税和个人所得税,健全房产出租的税制体系,开征资本利得税并增加财政"三农"支出。     

Empirical research on fiscal expenditure efficiency of local governments in China： 1978-2005

利用DEA非参数技术和受限Tobit模型,本文核算了分权财政改革后中国省级地方政府财政支出的相对效率,并对影响该效率变化模式的各种因素进行了解释。     

关于实施结构性减税政策若干问题的分析

2011年中央经济工作会议提出,2012年我国要继续实施积极的财政政策。结构性减税政策在积极的财政政策中具有重要的地位和作用。近年来,我国实施的结构性减税政策具有多税种并用、多手段并举、多环节并促的特点,这一政策在减轻企业和居民税收负担、鼓励和扩大内需、引导经济结构战略性调整、保障和改善民生等方面产生了积极效应。从动态上看,减税政策对经济的刺激作用在一定程度上增强了经济活力,培育了新的税源,为国家继续实施积极的财政政策提供了可靠的财力保障。     

Spillover effects of taxes on government debt: a spatial panel approach

It is claimed that tax policy is neither time- nor space-independent due to cross-border tax base mobility, which induces spillovers. Specifically, fiscal shocks in one country are supposed to have an impact on fiscal policies in other countries. Different types of taxes influence economies differently. This paper addresses the question of their impact on government debt. Within a framework of spatial econometric modeling, we evaluate the impact of capital, labor and consumption taxes on public debt in 34 European countries in 2002–2011, and find strong spatial spillovers. We show that a consumption tax and, to a lesser degree, a capital tax significantly affect the sovereign debt, and that the global relations play a leading role (i.e. dominate the local ones) in shaping fiscal policy.     

Shifting taxes away from labour enhances equity and fiscal efficiency

This paper analyzes the effects of a hypothetical tax reform in Italy, which makes current tax credits more generous and refundable, shifting the tax burden from labour to property. Our methodology contains novel features of great relevance for policy analysis: first, a structural model of labour supply of both employees and self-employed; second, a labour market equilibrium model that encompasses demand side constraints; last, detailed tax system simulation under fiscal neutrality. The empirical findings provide guidance for policy makers’ actions to enhance equity and efficiency of tax system and confirm the relevance of the methodological approach.     

Fiscal Policy and Urban and Rural Residents＇ Marginal Propensity to Consume

基于代表性家庭最优消费决策及其与财政政策的关系,估计中国财政政策对城乡居民边际消费倾向的影响,结果表明,自1998年至今,城乡居民边际消费倾向的下降幅度超过20％。城乡居民边际消费倾向下降,．除源于收入分配、经济发展程度、预期、消费结构等因素的影响外,与财政政策运用也有很大关系。其中,未预期到的财政政策冲击对居民边际消费倾向产生的综合效应显著为负。以未预期到的税收增加为融资工具的策略选择,大大抑制了结构调整的正面效应。因此,扩大居民消费,不仅要通过财政增收,提高居民消费能力,而且要通过调整财政收支策略,稳定居民消费预期,提升居民边际消费倾向。     

财政透明度与税收支出预算的构建

国家两部门公布的2008年度的税收统计数据的差异引发了人们的热烈关注。两数据统计口径的差异,折射出在我国构建税收支出预算的必要性和紧迫性,这将有助于未来我国提高财政和预算的透明度。     

Getting low educated and older people into work: The role of fiscal policy

Raising employment, in particular employment among older individuals and low educated individuals, stands high on the agenda of policy makers in many OECD countries. Increased sensitivity in recent years to rising inequality has made the challenge only larger. In this paper we evaluate alternative fiscal policy scenarios to face this challenge. We construct and use an overlapping generations model for an open economy where individuals differ not only by age, but also by innate ability and human capital. The model allows us to study effects on aggregate employment, per capita income and welfare, as well as effects for specific age and ability groups. We show that well-considered fiscal policy changes can significantly improve macroeconomic productive efficiency, without increasing intergenerational or intragenerational welfare inequality. Our results strongly prefer a reduction in the labor tax rate on older workers and on all low-wage earners, financed by an overall reduction in non-employment benefits. An alternative financing option is to raise the consumption tax rate. These results are to be seen as long-run effects for economies at potential output.     

Longevity of EU membership and VAT practices: Dependencies,Contradictions And Implications

The research aimed to analyze the influence of the standard VAT rate and the number of existing rates on the efficiency of VAT collection in the old and new member states of the European Union. The Student's t-test was applied to assess the significance of the model coefficients. P-values< 0.05 provide evidence that the parameter under test is significant. The study's conclusion is that a tax system containing a small number of reduced VAT rates and one relatively low standard rate of this tax is a system that will be less exposed to danger from unscrupulous entities practicing tax fraud.     

Were We Really All in it Together? The Distributional Effects of the 2010–15 UK Coalition Government's Tax‐benefit Policy Changes

This article examines the distributional impacts of changes to benefits, tax credits, pensions and direct taxes between the UK general elections of May 2010 and May 2015. The changes did not have a common effect on all household incomes; nor did the direct tax‐benefit changes contribute to deficit reduction. Effectively, reductions in benefits and tax credits financed part of the direct taxes cuts, but the overall net fiscal cost increased pressure for cuts in other public services and increases in other (more regressive) taxes. The main gains were in the upper middle of the income distribution, and the main losers were at the bottom and those close to, but not at, the very top. Across most of the distribution the changes were regressive. By comparing with other analyses of policy changes in the same period, we illustrate the importance of analytical choices and assumptions for detailed conclusions on their distributional effects. We also show how some groups were clear losers or gained little on average – including lone parent families, large families and families with younger children. Others were gainers, including two‐earner couples, and those in their fifties and early sixties. The findings show that a dominant feature of the period was that the combination of higher tax‐free income tax allowances, financed by cuts in benefits and tax credits, was generally regressive. As this combination also lies at the heart of the proposed policies of the Conservative government since 2015, we would expect these effects to be intensified in the coming years.     

Exploring Neglected Dimensions of Social Policy: The SDW, Fiscal Welfare and the Exemplar of Local Taxation in England

Titmuss's Social Division of Welfare (SDW) thesis is a vitally important but much neglected element of social policy analysis. This article seeks to explore the SDW, with a particular focus on fiscal welfare. Fiscal welfare has been described as forming a hidden welfare state, and while taxation is one of the main ways in which governments affect the lives of citizens, studies of welfare pay remarkably little attention to its impact. Fiscal welfare is examined by using, as an exemplar, local taxation in England, a subject that itself is neglected within social policy. Local taxation in England is of interest because it illustrates the impact of a system of taxation on different groups of citizens, and how this can operate to the benefit of rich over poor citizens. This is because the current system is highly regressive, meaning that those on low and middle incomes spend proportionately more of their income paying the tax than do those on high incomes. What is of further interest is how within the debate about reform of local taxation, concern with regressivity becomes obscured and ceases to be the focus of attention. We are thus provided with an example of how fiscal welfare remains a hidden issue. The article concludes by arguing that social policy analysis needs to move beyond the narrow confines of social welfare and develop a broader understanding of welfare, based on the SDW.     

挤出还是促进——地方财政分权、市场化与低保救助水平差异

利用2013年全国市级有关数据,采用回归方法构建两个递进实证计量模型,考察地方财政分权、市场化对城乡低保救助水平的影响.实证结果表明,地方财政自给度和市场化水平均对低保救助有非常显著的促进作用,农村低保救助相对城市对地方财政分权和市场化的敏感度更高,科教文卫支出对低保救助支出存在非常显著的良性互动关系.建议进一步完善事权与财政支出责任相匹配的机制,提高地方财政自给度,同时转变政府职能,厘清政府权责边界,提升地方市场化水平.     

税收质量的界定、制度比较与借鉴

税收质量是指税收效率、税收公平及两者均衡的状态,主要体现在税收结构、税收分权体制以及税收征收管理机制三个方面上。不同经济发展水平国家的税收质量存在着较大差异性。税收质量要注重长远利益与现实利益的兼顾,在利益导向和控制导向基础上平衡各级政府的税权划分,不断强化以税收服务和监督保障为核心的税收征收管理运行机制。从短期看,我国税收质量仍旧要以税收效率作为主要目标,兼顾税收公平作用的发挥;随着生产力水平的不断提高,要逐步强化税收公平,以税收公平促进税收效率。     

On the determinants of public infrastructure spending in Chinese cities: A spatial econometric perspective

In the context of fiscal decentralization, we use cross-sectional data of 242 Chinese cities in 2005 to explore the major factors contributing to the decline of public investment. The main finding is that a city government appears to reduce its own infrastructure spending as a response to the rise of infrastructure spending of its neighboring cities, revealing evidence of positive spillover effects of public infrastructure expenditure. This paper contributes to the existing literature by providing a new perspective for understanding the decline in public investment. In addition, this paper sheds some light on the ongoing debate on the nature of government competition in China and has important implications for policy makers in making fiscal arrangements among government tiers in a decentralized economy.     

Internalizing the public cost of obesity in Spain: Distributional effects on nutrient intake

Studies dealing with obesity have confronted it either from the fiscal policy or from economic cost perspective. There is the need to target fiscal policy goals at the economic cost that obesity imposes on society instead of simulating arbitrary taxes schemes. This paper analyzes the effectiveness of imposing a revenue-neutral fat tax in Spain addressed to internalize the public health expenditure associated to obesity. Results suggest that this tax policy led to an improvement in the diet quality, and decreased the consumption of saturated fatty acid, sodium, and cholesterol. From the welfare perspective, the tax is regressive across all household segments.     

From the hidden welfare state to the hidden part of welfare state reform: Analyzing the uses and effects of fiscal welfare in France

This article argues that fiscal welfare in Europe not only forms part of the “hidden welfare state” (Howard, 1997 ), but also constitutes an important yet understudied—and therefore hidden—element of welfare state reform. Using the example of France, and relying both on available data and on an exhaustive database of social tax expenditures (STEs) compiled for 2014, the article begins by providing an overview of the structure of STEs in France (section 2 ). It then analyzes the specific uses and effects of STEs in the fields of employment, health care, and pensions. In particular, it shows, first of all, how STEs have constituted a privileged instrument for circumventing certain institutional features such as high levels of minimum wage and of social security contributions in the field of employment (section 3 ). Second, it also shows that STEs have been used to quietly divert resources away from the earmarked social security funds and into collective private insurance funds, thus fueling their development, in the case of health care and pensions (section 4 ). Lastly, the article engages with the notion of the “social division of welfare” (Titmuss, 1958 ) by considering some of the distributional effects of fiscal welfare in France (section 5 ), before concluding (section 6 ).     

统治风险与地方分权——关于中国国家治理的三种理论及其比较

在研究中国国家治理时,同时考虑中央政府关心的效率目标和政权稳定目标的理论有三种,即：周黎安提出的“行政发包制”模型,曹正汉等提出的“中央治官、地方治民”模型以及周雪光提出的“帝国的治理逻辑”。然而,这三种理论关于中央政府的效率目标和政权稳定目标能否兼容存在着明显分歧;此外,这三种理论在分析层面上也存在差别。导致分歧和差别的原因有两个：一个是关于兵民能否分治,三种理论隐含着不同的假定;另一个是关于中央政府着重防范的统治风险的来源,是来自地方分权本身（如地方政府的“各自为政”、“偏离”、“失控”等行为）,还是来自被统治的民众（如民众可能的抗议、反对或对抗等行为）,三种理论持有不同的观点。