The Impact Of County-level Administration Reform On Economic Development In Henan Province

Since 2004,Henan Province has formulated a series of policies to promote the reform of county-level administrative efficiency.The government tried to reduce the administrative costs,improved the overall strength of the county economy and promoted the coordinated development of urban and rural areas by cutting down the administration layers.It is of great significance to evaluate the effect of its policy on the deepening and popularizing of the reform.In this paper,108 counties in Henan Province are divided into four types: the province governing county,the financial province governing county,the enlarge authority county,and the city governing county.Firstly,the evaluation index system of economic development efficiency is constructed.Secondly,we use the DEA model to calculate the efficiency of county economy in 1999-2014,and analyze its temporal and spatial evolution characteristics.Thirdly,the impact effect of different types of policy on county economy is explored by building the DID model and selecting the index.The results are as follows:(1)Evaluation results of economic efficiency in different types of counties.The reform of province governing county and enlarge authority county are conductive to the county economy to achieve the optimal state.And the enlarge authority county reform’s effect is better,while the financial province governing county’s effect is not obvious.Besides,three types of reform have the role of reducing the economic efficiency of high-level counties and improving the economic efficiency of low-level counties.Therefore,they can narrow the economic efficiency differences and promote the balanced development.(2)Temporal and spatial evolution of economic efficiency in different types of counties.Three kinds of reform are beneficial to enhance the efficiency of the county economy,in which the enlarge authority county reform’s effect is the best,followed by the province governing county reform,and the financial province governing county reform’s effect is weak.The special evolution of economic efficiency is constantly changing: the number is from increasing to decreasing,the distribution is from concentrating to dispersing.It shows that the reform can weaken the agglomeration effect of the municipal area,so that the counties who have no regional advantages can raise the economic efficiency through policy support.(3)The impact effect of different types of power expansion reform on county economy.The results of the model analysis show that the province governing county reform can significantly improve the per capita GDP,accelerate the county economic development,expand the financial revenue and expenditure,and promote the upgrading of industrial structure.The financial province governing county reform has also increased the per capita GDP,but the impact on fiscal revenue and expenditure and industrial structure is not remarkable.The enlarge authority county reform has an inhibitory effect on the growth of per capita GDP,and the impact on fiscal expenditure and industrial structure is not obvious,but the level of fiscal revenue can be expanded.That is because the effect of the reform would be weakened over time.As a result,the province governing county reform’s effect is the best,the financial province governing county reform can improve the economic level,the enlarge authority county reform can increase economic efficiency.The county-level administration reform has reached the expectation of promoting the county economic development to some extent.Henan Province can continue to push forward the reform process steadily.