›› 2019, Vol. 31 ›› Issue (8): 250-259.

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Chinese Fiscal Decentralization, Group Effect and Economic Growth

Huang Siming1,2   

  1. 1. School of Public Finance and Administration, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, Nanchang 330013;
    2. Research Center of Finance and Taxation, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, Nanchang 330013
  • Received:2017-07-07 Online:2019-08-28 Published:2019-09-11

Abstract:

Within the spatial interaction strategy analysis framework, what effect will the Chinese fiscal decentralization have on the regional economic growth? From the angle of the finance competition among governments, this paper empirically analyzes the effects of strategy interaction features on the government revenues of 232 cities by building spatial Dubin model and multilevel model from the aspects of vertical competition and horizontal competition. The results show that:Chinese fiscal decentralization is different from federal financial system and there is no vertical competition. In order to promote economic growth within a region, vertical competition often compromise on the surface and innovates in system, while the group effects present more in horizontal competition. Regional governments deliberately decrease the tax collection efficiency to promote the economy growth. Prefectural-level governments in the same region prefer the land finance to promote the economy growth, while prefectural-level city governments in different region prefer attracting foreign direct investment and land finance. This paper proposes that the horizontal tax competition between prefecture level cities in different provinces should introduce the horizontal tax competition mechanism while tax competition should be appropriately suppressed prefecture level cities in similar economic development level.

Key words: Chinese fiscal decentralization, tax competition, group effect, economic growth