A Study On The Influence Of Fiscal Vertical Imbalance On The Equalization Of Basic Public Services In Urban And Rural Areas

Common prosperity is the essential requirement of socialism with Chinese characteristics,common prosperity not only means that the level of economic development as a whole reaches a higher standard,but also requires to continuously narrow the group,region,urban-rural gap to control it within a reasonable range,for a long time urban-rural gap has become the largest development imbalance in China,showing that the level of urban economic development is higher than the level of economic development in rural areas,and the level of urban basic public services is better than the level of rural basic public services.Although the income gap between urban and rural residents has been narrowing in recent years,there is still a large gap between urban and rural areas in terms of basic public services.As the foundation and important pillar of national governance,finance is not only an important tool for increasing national wealth,but also an important means to make the fruits of development benefit all citizens,an effective financial system provides high-quality public goods at the same time,but more importantly,provides equal opportunities for citizens,so that rural residents can enjoy relatively equal basic public services like urban residents,in order to improve the level of equalization of basic public services in urban and rural areas and promote the realization of the goal of common prosperity,higher requirements have been put forward for the financial management system.It is of certain practical significance to explore the impact on the equalization of basic public services in urban and rural areas from the perspective of the imbalance between central and local finances.Although the overall level of basic services in rural areas in China has improved in recent years,there is still a certain gap with urban areas from the perspective of education,medical care,social security,infrastructure,etc.,and secondly,the degree of vertical imbalance of China’s finance and the equalization of basic public services between urban and rural areas from 2007 to 2020 are measured and the results are analyzed.Based on the theoretical analysis,the research hypothesis is put forward,and the impact of the vertical fiscal imbalance on the equalization of urban and rural basic public services is empirically tested by constructing a fixed-effect model,and the results show that:(1)the vertical imbalance of finance has a restraining effect on the equalization of urban and rural basic public services,and this conclusion is still true after a number of robustness tests;(2)The mechanism test shows that the vertical imbalance of fiscal can have a negative effect on the equalization of basic public services between urban and rural areas through the urban bias of fiscal expenditure;(3)After adding the moderating effect of transfer payments,transfer payments significantly reduced the negative impact of vertical fiscal imbalance on the equalization of urban and rural basic public services.(4)The impact of vertical fiscal imbalance on the equalization of basic public services in urban and rural areas is different in different regions,among which the impact of vertical fiscal imbalance in the western region on the equalization of basic public services in urban and rural areas is more obvious;(5)The vertical imbalance of finance generally inhibits the improvement of the equalization level of urban and rural basic public services,but from the perspective of subdividing urban and rural welfare public services and productive public services,the vertical imbalance of finance has a greater impact on urban and rural welfare public services,indicating that when local governments strive to promote the equalization of urban and rural basic public services,they still have an "economic orientation" bias towards choosing basic public services that can bring economic benefits in the short term.