A Study On Fiscal Countermeasures About Equalization Of Basic Public Service

As the finishing point of transforming of government functions in recent ten years in China,the gradual realization of the goal of equalization of basic public services is the key point of work that ensure the basic right to live and delegate justice of the Chinese people since new century.Since Chinese government proposed equalization of basic public services in 2006 at the Sixth Plenary Session of the 16 th CPC Central Committee.Then the 12 th Five-Year Plan about basic public service system was made.Whereafter the goal of equalization,standardization and legislation of the basic public services was set in the 13 th Five-Year Plan about the national economy and social development.The above three facts show that the Party and the State pay full attention to the construction of basic public service system.It can't be denied the great achievement has been made through cooperation between governments at all levels and relevant departments.However,problems and contradictions can not be ignored in the course of the basic public service system construction.Regional disparity has been a crux that restrains regional coordinated development and social contradictions among these problems.How to realize equalization of basic public services so that can meet the need of fairness and justice and realize social coordinated development has become an important issue which the government is facing with.This issue is valuable both in theory and in practice research.On the one hand,making further study on basic public service equalization can help to improve theoretical system of public finance and some theoretical issues on clarifying government positioning and dividing intergovernment fiscal relationship;On the other hand,analyzing the mechanism of how current fiscal system and institution exert on basic public service equalization will benefit to provide basis for fiscal system and institution transformation.Recent researches about basic public service equalization mostly concentrate on discussing service input under current fiscal system.It is widely accepted that fund equilibrium is the most important factor ensuring equalization of basic public service.So,theoretical and empirical studies focus on the mechanism of how finacial decentralization system and fiscal system influence basic public service input.In fact,equalization issue has broken through starting,namely input equity.Its connotation expanded to process and result equity.Making starting equity as single factor can't fully reflect regional service disparity and deeply analyze the influence of fiscal factors to basic public service level.Therefore,basic public service equalization(including input,process and result equity)should be taken as the research basic point so that the regional disparity of basic public service and its evolution characteristics can be reflected more objectively.Meanwhile,mechanism about current fiscal system and institution which influences basic public service level can be revealed and equalization effect of fiscal countermeasures will be improved.The paper takes equity as core idea,uses methods including normative,empirical,and case analysis etc.;carries on systematic research on the issues about equalization of basic public service.Firstly,literatures at home and abroad and relevant theory of basic public service are analyzed.Evaluation index system is designed to evaluate basic public service level and equalization degree.Secondly,the reasons for disparity of basic public service are analyzed from three perspectives: fiscal system,operating mechanism and institution.By setting up empirical model,the paper tests influence of factors to basic public service level.Based on the conclusions,the paper proposes the systematic fiscal countermeasures to promote equalization development of basic public service.The main research and points are as follows:(1)Make evaluation on level and equalization of basic public service.Service level are caculated through factor methods after building the evaluation index system for compulsory education,public health and social insurance.Based on the aboved result,we find that the equalization degree of basic public service can be improved with time through the equalization degree measurement of basic public service.However,the pattern of service level is relatively stable.(2)Analyze the fiscal influence mechanism of non-equalization of basic public service.Non-equalization of basic public service is the multifactorial result.Financial system reform weakens balance supply ability of basic public service;authorities and expenditure duties of basic public service is arranged unreasonably;financial self-sufficiency ability and behaviour preference of local government exists regional difference;transfer payment effect to equalization is limited.Above these contribute to the non-equalization development of basic public service.(3)Provide empirical evidence for non-equalization development of basic public service through model building.Model one tests influence direction and degree of factors to basic public service level.The result shows that the increasing of financial decentralization degree,local government financial resource and transfer payment take the less positive-effect on backward areas compared with developed areas.What's more,model two makes an empirical test which the influence factors of equalization of basic public service from the view of behaviour preference.The result shows that compared with developed areas,there is a preference of expenditure which intensively trends to economic public service than basic public service in backward areas;meanwhile,the local government of backward areas has a more obvious non-compliance phenomenon when local government face strategy from central government which strengthen basic public service development.These conclusions provide empirical evidence for the regional disparity of basic public service and making fiscal countermeasures.(4)Offer systematic fiscal countermeasures to promote the equalization of basic public service.On the premise of adhering reform direction of fiscal system,there are some countermeasures including explicitly dividing authorities and the expenditure duties of basic public service;constructing local-tax system that can play an efficient role in promoting of local government financial resource for basic public service level;building shifting mechanism between transfer payment and basic public service;reconstructing performance assessment system of local government which will rectify behaviour preference.Fiscal countermeasures about the development of basic public service equalization are systematically made.The innovations are as follows:(1)Construct evaluation index system of basic public service adopting new thought.In previous studies,researchers always apoted certain index(such as input)or adopted different service index in the same system(system is composed of various service index about compulsory education,public heath etc.).The former's deficiency lies that service level evaluation can not be comprehensive because of simple index;the latter's deficiency lies that service level evaluation is not objective because of complementary advantages among different service indexs.The paper follows the thought of input and output.Then it makes three type index including service input,service process and service output into service evaluation system of compulsory education,public health and social security.The advantage of this method is that realizes comprehensive evaluation for basic public service and avoids advantages complementation of different service index so that can enhance evaluation objectivity.(2)Expand the study scope from input to output in empirical analysis of previous study.Specifically,in impirical analysis of influence factors to basic public service,basic public service input is selected as explained variable in exising studies,which reveals the influence of factors on basic public service input level.However,input equalization of basic public service inevitably can not bring output equalization because efficiency of public fund exits regional differences.The contribution of this model lies in taking a full consideration the regional diffrences of fund efficiency.And basic public service index(caculated by service input and output)is selected as explained variable,which reveals the influence of factors on basic public service level.The empirical result shows financial resource and transfer payment level of local government take the less positive-effect in backward areas compared with developed areas.The conclusion will enlighten policy:improving basic public service level of backward areas not only depends on increasing of local government financial resource and transfer payment but also pays attention fund efficiency.(3)Analyze equalization of basic public service from new angle view of behaviour preference of local government,which makes up for angel unity about the reason analysis of basic public service equalization.The paper shows that fiscal system and institution makes effect through local governmet behaviour and behaviour preference is bound to make influence to basic public service level and equalization through theoretical analysis;what's more,the paper makes behaviour preference of local government into empirical model.Empirical result shows that compared with developed areas,local government in backward areas exists expenditure preference which intensively trends to economic public service than basic public service;the local government in backward areas has more obvious non-compliance facing strategy which strengthen basic public service from central government.Thus,the paper considers that regional disparity of behaviour preference of local government is the important reason of basic public service non-equalization and the major cause that equalization effect of fiscal countermeasure is not obvious.