Research On The Impact Of Transfer Payment On Equalization Of Basic Public Services

The report of the Nineteenth National Congress pointed out that the contradiction between people's growing need for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development has become the main contradiction of society.For basic public services,the growth of public demand for public services and the insufficiency of the quantity and quality of their supply,the pluralism of public service demand and the singleness of its main body and mode of supply have become two pairs of contradictions in the chain of "demand-supply" of public services.And the significant difference of public service supply between urban and rural areas and between regions has become an obstacle to the coordinated development of urban and rural areas and regions.However,Intergovernmental transfer payment is an important institutional guarantee to realize the equalization of basic public services in the region,and equalization of public services is the main objective of the transfer system.In order to realize the equalization,inclusiveness and convenience of basic public services,we must give full play to the balance effect of transfer payment.This paper constructs a basic public service index system with 45 indicators from three levels of input,output and benefit.It covers five basic public services: basic health care,public education,public culture and sports,environmental protection,social security and employment.The supply level and equality of basic public services in the whole country and provinces are calculated by comprehensive evaluation method and Gini coefficient.At the time,using the financial and economic data of 30 provinces,autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government except Tibet from 2009 to 2016,the spatial Dubin panel model is used to study the impact of transfer payments on the equalization of basic public services.The research finds that:(1)From the perspective of supply level,the supply level and supply capacity of basic public services in China are constantly improving,but the promotion degree of different basic public services is different.Among them,the overall supply level of basic medical and health services is the highest,and the average contribution rate to the national supply level is the largest.(2)In terms of the degree of equalization,the level of equalization of basic public services in China has increased significantly.However,the degree of equalization of different basic public services is obviously different.Among them,the equalization level of public culture and sports is the lowest,and the equalization level of basic medical and health services is the highest.(3)When considering the inter-provincial spatial correlation,except for environmental protection services,the supply level of other basic public services is significantly affected by adjacent provinces or provinces with similar economic development level.There is a strong positive spillover effect between different provinces.The spatial clustering characteristics of variables are "high-high" value adjacent or "low-low" value adjacent.(4)From the impact of variables such as transfer payment,the increase of per capita transfer payment will reduce the supply level of comprehensive basic public services,basic health care,environmental protection and social security and employment in the province.Meanwhile,the free-rider behavior in the surrounding provinces will reduce the level of public cultural supply in the province,resulting in a negative spatial spillover effect.According to the above conclusions,in order to improve the supply level of local government public services,promote the equalization of regional public services,give full play to the initiative of local government managers,and form a positive interaction between provinces and regions,the following policy recommendations are put forward: First,the main direction of fiscal expenditure should be shifted from focusing on economic construction to public services,and reduce economic expenditure.The crowding-out effect on public services.Secondly,we should pay full attention to the spatial spillover effect,actively introduce the Intergovernmental horizontal game and competition mechanism,actively create a benign competition environment between provinces and regions,form a benign competition cycle,and provide an effective external environment to restrain government behavior for the effective supply of public services.Thirdly,We should further optimize the transfer payment system from the aspects of transfer payment system,structure and fund allocation,give full play to the financial resources of the transfer payment balanced areas,and promote the incentive and guidance role of increasing public service supply in less developed areas.Fourthly,change the traditional transfer payment performance evaluation system based on input-oriented principle,establish and improve the transfer payment performance evaluation system based on output or even benefit,and construct a reasonable incentive and restraint mechanism to reduce the negative restraint effect of transfer payment under the spatial effect.