The Public Goods Provision Subject Of China In The Transitional Period: Determination Principle And Effect Factors

Chinese government implemented unified allocation of resources and played an absolute core role in public goods provision before the reform and opening-up.Then, with the development of market mechanism, the subject of public goods provision is diversified and the government's core role goes down after that. However, serious problem of government absence emerges in the process of subject diversification. Besides, the government's occupation of public goods provision against individual as well as collective and its offside still exist in many aspects because of the traditional force. Therefore, the focus of academic research has turned to the subject determination of public goods provision in recent years, but the present researches on several aspects such as subject determination principles, effect factors and the construction of joint-provision of multi-subjects are not insufficient. This paper aims at attempting to study public goods from the above three aspects, analyzing the problems which may exist in provision subject determination during the China transitional period, and providing politic suggestions.There are five chapters of the whole paper:Chapter one focuses on offering a theoretical foundation for the study of subject determination of public goods provision subject. The main task of this chapter is to give a clear definition of what are public goods and its subjects, and give reasons why using the non-exclusiveness to define public goods, and give a comparison what are the differences between provision and production of public goods, and also give reasons why provision subjects include government, collective and individual.The second chapter analyses the general instructive principles of provision subject determination. On the basis of the commenting the concept of fair and efficiency, it makes the provider clear to comply with the principle of fair and efficiency, and explores the connotation of fair and efficiency of the public goods provision. As the period, social systems and classes are different, fair is different, too, it is also a comparative concept. As far as the provision of public goods, the fair under Socialism economic system includes two sides:one is to make sure the basic survival and developmental right of those disadvantages groups who are disabled and harmed by natural disaster, another is to give labors protection of their rights with respect to payment and fair participation in managing economic undertakings and social affairs..The efficiency of provision subject determination couldn't be simply regarded as the savings of provision costs, but as the increasing total number of consumer surplus and the altruistically spiritual satisfaction which the providers can add. To determine the provision subject, it is quite necessary to seize the dialectical relations between the unity of opposites of fair and efficiency in the course of public goods provision:for the unity of fair and efficiency, efficiency determines the efficiency and efficiency has a reaction on fair; for the conflict between them, fair "lags" the efficiency.After knowing clearly about the dialectical relations, according to the principle of fair and efficiency, provider has some requirements as followed:if a provider takes the place of another provider, with promoting the fair and efficiency at the same time, so it is need to make sure that the former is the one who provision the goods; but if the provider and the one which is going to replace have no fair and efficiency promotion at the same time, then the provision provider needs to balance the fair and efficiency:giving up efficiency for fair, or giving up fair for efficiency.When fair is not the main social problem, it can determine the provision subject which might have wide range of promoting efficiency is quite and narrow range of lowering fair, and put the treasure by efficiency increase as a material method of promoting affairs in the future. However, when fair is the main social problem, then it is need to make sure the provision promoting fair and lowering the efficiency.In chapter three, it analyzes some influencing factors under the fair efficiency principle from the aspects of government, personal, the collective. There are influencing factors from the aspect of government:error, discrimination, the self-interest of officials, the oversize or undersize administrative and financial powers; there are some factors from the aspect of personal:the concentration of personal income, the establishment of property rights, the anti-selection and moral hazard within the asymmetrical information, the impoverishment and the proxy efficiency, the equal right of public goods provision, the production of public goods and economies of scale on buying; from the aspect of collective:the system environment of public goods provision, information problems, the concentration of personal income, the consumer's fair concept. Finally, this article emphasizes that we should consider about the different factors of fair and efficiency and when ensuring the provision subject according to the fair efficiency.In chapter four, it studies the joint-provision of multi-subjects under the condition of the principle of fair and efficiency. To solve this problem, this chapter puts forward a theory on the dynamic alternatives of multi-subjects------according to the principle of fair and efficiency, every subject competes against each other and be replaceable, so they ultimately determine the optimal single or more of the provision subject model. This theory covers the special case of a single provision subject and establishes the idea of the dynamic competition of multi-subjects. The provision subject alternatives are divided into horizontal and vertical ones:in the current study of the provision of public goods, generally the horizontal axis means the number of public goods and vertical axis means the cost or effectiveness of the public goods; when different provision shows different quantity break, the performance of axis is different provision unite the provision in lateral way, and the other provision show in horizontal alternatives. In the alternatives of provision, the government takes into consideration of the maximizing of the interests of the community and the personal or collective take into consideration of the maximizing of the interests of the self. When the expectations from them are different, the government will take a strategy to enable the alternative of personal or collective reach the state of optimization. The problems of government absence and offside, which deviate from the fair efficiency principle, may exist in this multi-subject provision model. Then, it gives an analysis of determination of the provision subject of the public goods in China's transformational period------lack of the government management and over-governed.Chapter five refers to case analysis and political suggestions. It firstly uses the above theory to analyze specific case and explores the subject determination of public goods provision, and then it goes into offering political suggestions to improve the joint-provision model of multi-subjects with the government as the main subject. Among these suggestions, there are some related with the government:to correct the conception of excessive marketization; to have a rational allocation of rights with respect to conducting affairs and managing finance; and to realize democratic decision-making and supervision of the government's public goods provision. The political suggestions related with individuals are:to enhance the concentration of industry, to standardize charity institutions through the provision problem of public goods by the allocation of property rights with prudent consideration; to improve the public credibility of charity activities; to increase the percentage of tax deduction of donation and simplify the procedure of tax redemption, and encourage as well as induct enterprises and social organs and individuals to endow public goods to charity institution; to inspire public goods provision by raising the donators' social status through the way of metals conferment or democratic election; and to rationally develop the charity lottery. The relevant suggestions with the collective providers are:to create favorable system environment fox enterprise-cooperation to offer public goods; to promote industry concentration and reduce the negotiation costs of collective offering of public goods, to avoid influencing the collective provision because of the administrative tendency of autonomous organizations. For the multi-subjects provision model with the government as main provider during China Transitional period, this chapter emphasizes the core rule of the government and gives the general and special reasons respectively. The general one is: comparing with individual and the collective, the government has enough financial and material resources and human power in providing public goods, and also exerts its influences in almost any field ranging from national defense construction and both national and local infrastructure construction to environment protection. The special reasons include two aspects:one is the truth of the government's severe absence in public goods provision, while the other one is that the government has to take heavy responsibilities of levying taxes from capital owners and reallocating public goods to labors since the labors has an unfavorable position in the game between labor and capital with quite slow increase of payment.The main innovation of this dissertation are as follows: First, further elaborating the fair and efficiency principle of subject determination of public goods provision, and defining its fair connotation under Socialism economic system:one is to make sure the basic survival and developmental right of those disadvantages groups who are disabled and harmed by natural disaster; another is to give labors protection of their rights with respect to payment and fair participation in managing economic undertakings and social affairs. The connotation of efficiency refers to the increasing total number of consumer surplus and the altruistically spiritual satisfaction which different provision subjects can add. It also makes clear the requirements of balancing fair and efficiency on the base of their dialectical relations between the unity of opposites.Second, exploring the dynamic replacement of subjects in multi-subjects provision model and distinguishing the horizontal replacement from vertical replacement. According to the principle of fair and efficiency, horizontal replacement considers the cost allocation and capital usage of different essentials of public goods in same quantity break, that is to say, the replacement of provision subjects of different essentials of public goods in same quantity break; horizontal replacement considers the comparison of multi-subjects in different quantity break and finally constructs the joint-provision. The dynamic multi-subjects replacement theory can not only contain the characteristics of single provision subject but also establish a dynamic competitive idea during subject determination. It gives a theory guide for the provision subject determination especially for the joint-provision of public goods.Third, deeply analyzing the effect factors in subject determination of public goods as followed:fairly concepts and system environment influencing the optimal scale of collective provision, industry concentration and the establishment of property rights influencing the personal or collective provision of public goods.