| Since the reform and opening up,China’s economy has achieved rapid growth for more than 40 years.However,it is worth paying attention to the fact that while the overall national economy is stable and improving,the problems of unbalanced development between regions still exist,and the income gap between urban and rural areas is too large,and public services are unequalized Contradictions gradually emerged.According to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics,from 1980 to 2016,China’s Gini coefficient rose from 0.23 to 0.465,and even reached 0.49 in 2009,greatly exceeding the international standard level.The excessive urban-rural gap has seriously restricted the process of China’s economic construction,hindered the quantitative and qualitative improvement of the national economy.In order to narrow the gap between urban and rural areas and promote social equity,the 19 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that China’s economy has shifted from a stage of high-speed growth to a stage of high-quality development.Slowing down the goal of economic growth and focusing on promoting high-quality economic development is an important measure taken by the government to realize the people’s pursuit of a better life.In this context,this paper discusses the impact of local economic growth targets on the equalization of public services between urban and rural areas.The results of this paper show that:(1)Benchmark regression results: economic growth target has a significant inhibitory effect on the equalization of urban and rural public services,which is manifested as the higher the economic growth target,the smaller the equalization index of urban and rural public services.Moreover,the larger the target difference of provincial and municipal governors,the more obvious the negative inhibition effect;(2)Mechanism test results: The economic growth goal is mainly to expand the development of urban and rural public service equalization by distorting the structure of local fiscal expenditure.The higher economic growth target reduces the proportion of local government’s expenditure on science,education,culture and health in fiscal expenditure,resulting in a distortion in the structure of local fiscal expenditure,and the greater the difference between provincial and municipal targets,the more serious the distortion,reducing the funds for public service construction in rural areas and widening the gap between urban and rural public service development levels.(3)Heterogeneity analysis results:(1)The inhibitory effect of economic growth targets on the equalization of urban and rural public services was mainly concentrated in small and medium-sized cities: in sub-provincial cities,local economic growth targets did not have a significant impact on the equalization of urban and rural public services thanks to the advantages of policy blessings and resource endowments;(2)After the convening of the 18 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China,the coordinated development of urban and rural areas was promoted in an orderly manner,the inhibiting effect of economic growth targets on the equalization index of urban and rural public services was weakened,and the impact of policy support on urban and rural public services was weakened;(3)The achievement of local economic growth targets affects their development of urban and rural equalization of public services: the inhibition effect of regional economic growth targets exceeding the economic growth targets on the public service equalization index is more significant,and the failure to have a significant impact on the public service equalization index in other regions;(4)The results of regional heterogeneity analysis showed that the difference between economic growth targets and provincial and municipal targets had no significant impact on the equalization level of urban and rural public services in the eastern region.The influence of provincial and municipal target differences in central and western regions has a significant inhibitory effect on the equalization index of urban and rural public services,and the larger the difference,the more significant the inhibition effect.The economic growth targets of prefecture-level cities in the central and western regions also have no obvious impact on them.The above research combines China’s national conditions to provide new ideas for the development of equalization of urban and rural public services in China. |
