中央政府推进义务教育财政公平的政策影响研究-清华大学教育研究

文章信息/Info

Title:: The Effect of Central Government’s Policy on Promoting the Financial Equity for Compulsory Education

Author(s):: ZHANG Rong-xin; School of Government, Central University of Finance and Economics

Keywords:: central policy; compulsory education; financial equity; effects of policy; Event Study

摘要:: 针对财政分权体制导致的区域间义务教育投入不公平的问题，中央政府颁布了一系列政策以推进义务教育财政公平。政策的表述和转移支付的流向体现了中央政策引导的关键点是提升西部落后地区的义务教育财政投入。基于1995-2016年小学和初中省级生均教育经费支出的数据，本文结合了事件研究法和双重差分法的对比思想，利用西部和东部地区生均教育经费之间的线性关系，展现了西部地区在中央政策的影响下产生了显著的超额生均教育经费。超额生均教育经费的变化与省际间生均教育经费差异系数的变化相对应，进一步验证了中央政策对义务教育财政公平的推进有显著影响。超额生均教育经费的分解结果表明，公共财政预算是推进义务教育财政公平的主要力量。

Abstract:: To solve the problem of unequal educational input in compulsory education across different regions resulted from the decentralized fiscal system, the central government of China has issued a series of policies. The policy presentation and the flow of transfer payment reflect that the key point of the central policy is to increase the financial investment on compulsory education in the backward areas of western China. With the provincial-level data of per-pupil expenditure from 1995 to 2016, this paper compares the changes in per-pupil expenditure in the western and the eastern regions using the framework of Event Study combined with the method of Difference-in-Differences. The result demonstrates that the policies of the central government has resulted in a larger amount of surplus in the per-pupil expenditure in the western region. The change in the per-pupil expenditure surplus keep in pace with the changes of the coefficient of variation in the inter-provincial average education expenditure, which further verifies that the policies have a significant positive effect on improving financial equity in compulsory education. The decomposition of the per-pupil expenditure surplus shows that the public finance budget is the main force for promoting financial equity in compulsory education.