摘要
税收竞争和资本外流风险导致辖区政府追求高增长、不分配(低税)政策,但是,良好的投资环境可以在较高税负的前提下吸引住资本,既使经济增长,又使收入公平分配。本文在一个非合作开放经济框架中构建的理论模型表明:(1)资本税负越重,资本外流越严重;(2)如果投资环境改善,资本流入且促进经济增长,工人依附资本取得劳动报酬并在一定程度上抑制收入不平等;如果投资环境恶化,资本进一步流出至外地获取收入并使本辖区经济增长减速,工人失去资本依赖且无法取得收入,在一定程度上扩大了收入不平等。联立方程计量分析验证了理论命题。本文的政策建议是,保持对资本所得的有效税负,改善投资环境,形成经济增长与收入公平分配并行的路径。
Summary： Tax reduction has always been the main means to attract capital. The developed markets with a high capital gain tax, however, do not seem to lack capital. Is it a good investment environment that retains capital？ Nowadays, economic downturn and income inequality become serious in China while the economic growth of the developed countries is relatively stable and income inequality is not serious. What does this imply for the capital flows？ Obviously, there are complex associations between the following five variables： tax competition, capital outflow, investment environment, economic growth and income inequality. This paper aims to clarify the relationships between these variables in the non-cooperative open economic framework. Following Alesina ＆ Rodrik （1994）, this paper assumes that an economy consists of two jurisdictions. There are workers who cannot move and consume all their incomes instead of saving in every jurisdiction; the capital owners do not work but invest. The governments of each jurisdiction adopt a balanced budget. Competition and benefit maximization drive the production factors to reach the marginal output. The propositions of our model are as follows： （ 1 ） the heavier the capital tax burden, the more severe the capital outflow; （2） if the investment environment improves, capital inflows promote economic growth and workers obtain labor remuneration through capital, which restrains income inequality to a certain extent. If the investment environment worsens, capital outflow occurs to seek higher returns, thereby decelerating local economic growth. Workers cannot obtain income through capital investment anymore, which widens income inequality to a certain extent. This paper adopts the provinces of China as its jurisdictions and uses provincial data from 2000 to 2009. Investment environment variables include technical attainments and conversion, market access restrictions, simplicity of administrative approval system, producers＇ legal rights protection and market deepening degree. A simultaneous equations model （SEM） is built and applies 3SLS and GMM to estimate the data. Three propositions from the theoretical model are empirically tested. The first is caused by taxation： high tax burden→capital outflow→economic growth slowdown→income inequality exacerbated→hign tax burden. The second is caused by an investment environment upgrade： investment environment improved→capital inflows→economic growth accelerated→income inequality improved→low tax burden. When we pool the two outcomes from these propositions, we arrive at the third argument regarding the hedging effect of an investment environment upgrade on tax burden： high tax burden→capital outflow→economic growth slowdown→income inequality exacerbated→high tax burden→investment environment improved→capital inflows→economic growth accelerated→income inequality improved-Mow tax burden. The robustness tests further validate the theoretical propositions. This paper proposes some policy suggestions based on the theoretical conclusions and empirical test results. First, maintaining a modest tax burden on capital gains restrains income inequality. Second, it is crucial to improve the investment environment to attract capital and promote economic growth. Finally, it is important to establish a parallel public policy incentive system of economic growth and equitable income distribution.
出处
《经济研究》
CSSCI
北大核心
2017年第3期61-75,共15页
Economic Research Journal
基金
国家社科基金重大项目"PPP(公私合作伙伴)中财政资金引导私人资本机制创新研究"(14ZDA029)的资助
关键词
税收竞争
资本外流
投资环境
经济增长
收入分配
Tax Competition
Capital Outflow
Investment Environment
Economic Growth
Income Distribution
作者简介
刘穷志，武汉大学经济与管理学院，邮政编码：430072；电子信箱：qzliu@whu．edu．cn。
