财税与公共管理学院知识库

城乡收入差距问题一直以来都是党和国家关注的重点，2020年党的十九届五中全会指出“我国发展不平衡不充分问题仍旧存在，城乡区域发展和收入分配差距较大”；2022年党的二十大报告再次强调，“城乡区域发展和收入差距分配仍然较大”。因此如何缩小城乡收入差距，形成城乡协调发展新格局是“后疫情时代”的主要任务，而财政作为收入分配和再分配的主要手段，势必在政府调整城乡收入差距过程中起到至关重要的作用。

本文在已有研究的基础上，基于2006—2019年30个省、直辖市、自治区数据，选取合适的量化方式，将纵向财政不平衡、横向财政不平衡和城乡收入差距进行合理量化，以纵向财政不平衡和横向财政不平衡为核心解释变量，城乡收入差距为被解释变量，通过构建面板联立方程模型，运用三阶段最小二乘法进行估计研究财政不平衡对城乡收入差距的作用及形式。通过实证研究发现：第一，从全国范围看，纵向财政不平衡会扩大城乡收入差距。若考虑到地方财政压力，纵向财政不平衡有不同影响方向。当地方财政压力小时，纵向财政不平衡依然会扩大城乡收入差距；当地方财政压力大时，纵向财政不平衡会缩小城乡收入差距；第二，横向财政不平衡的直接效应在全国范围内和财政压力不同地区均缩小城乡收入差距，而横向财政不平衡的间接效应，不管在全国范围还是分地区来看，均在1%显著性水平下扩大纵向财政不平衡。横向财政不平衡对城乡收入差距的影响还取决于财政压力大小，即在财政压力大地区，中央宏观调控能力更强，正向效应大于财政压力所引起的负向影响；而在财政压力小地区，中央宏观调控所带来的正向效应有所弱化，但仍可缩小城乡收入差距。第三，在机制检验中，纵向不平衡通过抑制居民收入在财政压力小地区扩大城乡收入差距，在财政压力大地区缩小差距；横向不平衡在财政压力大地区会抑制居民收入，在财政压力小地区增加居民收入，虽然作用途径效果不同，但均可缩小城乡收入差距；财政不平衡影响城乡收入差距的途径首先是改变地方政府民生性支出占比，但纵向财政不平衡和横向财政不平衡影响方向不尽相同。纵向财政不平衡会减小民生性支出占比，进而扩大城乡收入差距；而横向财政不平衡程度越高、自有财力越充足的地方，会增大民生性支出占比，进而缩小城乡收入差距。

综合实证结果和我国区域发展现状，本文提出以下建议：第一，提高纵向转移支付使用效率，强化转移支付资金监督，全面实施针对转移支付资金的预算绩效评价，做到“花钱必问效，无效必问责”。第二，建立并完善横向转移支付体系。第三，创造条件增加地方自有财力，推动地方政府开辟新的财源，提升其获取自有收入的能力，将更多的政府财政资金用于民生类支出公共服务供给。第四，完善与转移支付相关配套政策，进一步整合、统筹相关管理制度与发展资金，形成科学系统的制度体系，以充分发挥财政资金在缩小城乡收入差距中的引导、撬动和放大作用。第五，稳固地方政府支出结构，保持民生支出资金稳定增加，发挥民生支出对于城乡收入差距缩小的保障作用。

The urban and rural income gap has always been the focus of the Party and the state. In 2020, the Fifth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee pointed out that "the problem of unbalanced and inadequate development still exists, and there is a large gap between urban and rural development and regional income distribution". The report to the Party's 20th National Congress in 2022 once again stressed that "development between urban and rural areas and between regions and the distribution of income gap remain large". Therefore, how to narrow the income gap between urban and rural areas and form a new pattern of coordinated development between urban and rural areas is the main task of the "post-epidemic era", and finance, as the main means of income distribution and redistribution, is bound to play a crucial role in the process of government adjustment of the income gap between urban and rural areas.

On the basis of existing studies and based on the data of 30 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions from 2006 to 2019, this paper selects an appropriate quantitative method to reasonably quantify vertical fiscal imbalance, horizontal fiscal imbalance and urban-rural income gap. Vertical fiscal imbalance and horizontal fiscal imbalance are the core explanatory variables, and urban-rural income gapis the explained variable. By constructing panel simultaneous equation model, using three-stage least square method to estimate the effect and form of financial imbalance on urban-rural income gap. The empirical study found that: first, from the national level, the fiscal vertical imbalance will widen the urban-rural income gap. If the local fiscal pressure is taken into account, the vertical fiscal imbalance has different effects. When the local financial pressure is small, the fiscal vertical imbalance will still widen the urban-rural income gap. When the local financial pressure is large, the vertical fiscal imbalance will narrow the urban-rural income gap. Second, the direct effect of horizontal fiscal imbalance Narrows the urban-rural income gap nationwide or in regions with different fiscal pressures, while the indirect effect of horizontal fiscal imbalance widens the vertical fiscal imbalance at the 1% significance level no matter in the country or in different regions. The impact of horizontal fiscal imbalance on the urban-rural income gap also depends on the size of fiscal pressure, that is, in areas with high fiscal pressure, the central government has stronger macro-control ability, and the positive effect is greater than the negative effect caused by fiscal pressure. However, in areas with little financial pressure, the positive effect of central macro-control is weakened, but it can still narrow the urban-rural income gap. Thirdly, in the mechanism test, the vertical imbalance widens the urban-rural income gap in areas with little financial pressure andNarrows the gap in areas with great financial pressure by restraining residents' income. The horizontal imbalance in areas with high financial pressure will suppress residents' income, and increase residents' income in areas with low financial pressure, although the effects of different ways, but can narrow the urban-rural income gap; The fiscal imbalance affects the income gap between urban and rural areas by first changing the proportion of local government's natural expenditure, but the vertical fiscal imbalance and the horizontal fiscal imbalance have different influence directions. The vertical fiscal imbalance will reduce the proportion of natural expenditure, and thus widen the income gap between urban and rural areas. The higher the degree of horizontal fiscal imbalance and the more abundant the own financial resources, the larger the proportion of natural expenditure, thus narrowing the urban-rural income gap.

Based on empirical results and regional development status, this paper puts forward the following suggestions: first, improve the efficiency of vertical transfer payment, strengthen the supervision of transfer payment funds, and fully implement the budget performance evaluation of transfer payment funds, so that "spending must be efficient, ineffective must be held accountable". Second, establish and improve the horizontal transfer payment system. Third, we will create conditions to increase local governments' own financial resources,encourage them tocreate new sources of revenue, improve their ability to obtain their own revenue, and allocate more government financial funds to the supply of public services related to people's livelihood. Fourth, we should improve supporting policies related to transfer payments, further integrate and coordinate related management systems and development funds, and form a scientific and systematic system so as to give full play to the guiding, leveraging and amplifying role of financial funds in narrowing the urban-rural income gap. Fifth, we will stabilize the spending structure of local governments, ensure that spending on people's livelihood steadily increases, and ensure that spending on people's livelihood plays a role in ensuring that the income gap between urban and rural areas is narrowed.