Provincial Financial Decentralization And Residents' Education Satisfaction

In the past 40 years of reform and opening up,China's financial system has undergone profound changes,and the education and financial system has also been continuously developed and improved.In the new era,the main contradictions of society have changed.Whether the current education finance system can fully meet the educational needs of the people is an important issue that needs to be explored.As a subjective feeling of residents' education supply,residents' education satisfaction is the embodiment of the level of education welfare of residents,so it is also an important evaluation index of local education service quality.As education is one of the important public services provided by the government,its supply level will be deeply influenced by fiscal decentralization.Among them,Under the China's current education supply framework,the grassroots governments play an important role in providing education service,so they need more attention and support from Provincial fiscal decentralization.According to the traditional Western fiscal decentralization theory,fiscal decentralization will help local governments to provide better local public services such as education.However,under China's background,most of the relevant studies show that fiscal decentralization is having a detrimental impact on education and other non-economic public services because local governments are more inclined to develop economy.Based on the results of the China Comprehensive Social Survey(CGSS)2013questionnaire,this paper takes the residents' education satisfaction as the research object from the microscopic point of view,and combines the macroeconomic data of 24 provincial administrative units in 2010-2012 to explore the effect of fiscal decentralization on residents' educational satisfaction.Besides,this paper further analyzes and discusses the partial impact mechanism of fiscal decentralization on the satisfaction of residents' educational services and the degree of influence of each mechanism.By establishing the corresponding empirical model and analyzing the relevant empirical results,this paper finds that:(1)In the current context of China,fiscal decentralization in the province will have a positive impact on residents' satisfaction with educational services.At the same time,it is believed that the impact of fiscal decentralization on education satisfaction is achieved through two ways: education supply difference and education supply efficiency.In contrast,Provincial fiscal decentralization has no significant impact on residents' satisfaction with education services by changing the level of education expenditure.(2)In terms of the individual effects of each transmission mechanism,fiscal decentralization in the province will promote the increase of regional education service supply efficiency to improve the satisfaction of residents' educational services.But,on the other hand,the difference in educational services in the region will increase.In turn,it has an adverse impact on the satisfaction of residents' education.(3)Judging from the joint effect of each transmission mechanism,at the current stage,the fiscal decentralization in the province promotes the satisfaction of educational services by increasing the efficiency of education supply,which is greater than the difference in the supply of education in the province.This is also the main reason why the current fiscal decentralization in the province can improve the satisfaction of residents' educational services.According to the above analysis of the effect and transmission mechanism of fiscal decentralization on residents' education satisfaction,this paper puts forward the following suggestions accordingly:(1)Guarantee the fiscal decentralization in the province and improve the efficiency of education supply.The analysis results show that the fiscal decentralization in the province and the fiscal decentralization of education in the province are beneficial to improve the overall efficiency of the government's education service supply.Therefore,at the current stage,China can improve the fiscal decentralization of the province or raise the financial expenditure of the grassroots government.The proportion of the local government's information superiority and efficiency advantage can be fully utilized while ensuring local education financial funds.At the same time,the supervision of relevant funds should be strengthened in the process of use,thereby promoting the effective supply of local education services.(2)Maintain regionaleducation equity and narrow the gap in education supply.From the empirical results,the current fiscal decentralization in the province will aggravate the supply of education services between the provinces,and this difference is likely to cause residents to dissatisfy with the supply of education services.Therefore,the provincial government needs to strengthen the coordination of educational resources,and pays more attention to education investment and policy support in areas with low levels of educational services,and strives to improve the quality of education services in relevant regions and narrow the gap in the supply of education services between regions.(3)Adhere to the education security policy and improve the local government incentive mechanism.At the current stage,the central government's series of guidelines and policies on education investment have a “hard constraint” on the education expenditure of local governments.Therefore,there is no significant decline in the level of education expenditure in the provinces under the fiscal decentralization in the province.However,from the perspective of incentives for local government behavior,we should further enrich and improve the assessment system for local officials,introduce more considerations on the results of basic public services such as education and medical care on the basis of economic construction,and increase the enthusiasm and initiative of basic public services.At the same time,it is possible to establish and improve the channels of reflection and accountability of residents' opinions,promote the rational supply of public services such as local education,and ultimately provide residents with educational services that are more satisfying.