IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v20y2023i3p2060-d1044589.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effects of Vertical Fiscal Imbalance on Fiscal Health Expenditure Efficiency—Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Simin Zhang

    (School of Economics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China)

  • Zhikai Wang

    (School of Economics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China)

Abstract

Improving fiscal health expenditure efficiency is an inherent requirement of the strategy of “healthy China” and “high-quality development”. The outbreak of COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of efficient health system. First, this paper systematically sorts out the multiple theoretical mechanisms of the positive and negative relationship between vertical fiscal imbalance and fiscal health expenditure efficiency. Secondly, a comprehensive index system, including the quantity and quality of medical services, is constructed, and the super-efficiency DEA model is used to measure fiscal health expenditure efficiency. There are obvious differences between eastern and western regions. Finally, the fixed effect model is constructed to carry out empirical research and it is found that the vertical fiscal imbalance in China has an overall positive and significant impact on the fiscal health expenditure efficiency, which is mainly achieved by optimizing the resources allocation between primary medical institutions and hospitals. Heterogeneity analysis shows that transfer payment scale has a corrective effect on the vertical fiscal imbalance’s effect. The result of quantile regression shows that the impact of vertical fiscal imbalance is not constant, and it gradually turns from positive to negative along with the improvement of fiscal health expenditure efficiency.

Suggested Citation

  • Simin Zhang & Zhikai Wang, 2023. "Effects of Vertical Fiscal Imbalance on Fiscal Health Expenditure Efficiency—Evidence from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-22, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:3:p:2060-:d:1044589
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/3/2060/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/3/2060/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Per Andersen & Niels Christian Petersen, 1993. "A Procedure for Ranking Efficient Units in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(10), pages 1261-1264, October.
    2. Afonso, Antonio & St. Aubyn, Miguel, 2006. "Cross-country efficiency of secondary education provision: A semi-parametric analysis with non-discretionary inputs," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 476-491, May.
    3. De Borger, Bruno & Kerstens, Kristiaan, 1996. "Cost efficiency of Belgian local governments: A comparative analysis of FDH, DEA, and econometric approaches," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 145-170, April.
    4. Aizenman, Joshua & Powell, Andrew, 1998. "The political economy of public savings and the role of capital mobility," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 67-95, October.
    5. Dahlby, Bev & Wilson, Leonard S., 2003. "Vertical fiscal externalities in a federation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(5-6), pages 917-930, May.
    6. Bouton, Laurent & Gassner, Marjorie & Verardi, Vincenzo, 2008. "Redistributing income under fiscal vertical imbalance," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 317-328, June.
    7. Rodden, Jonathan, 2003. "Reviving Leviathan: Fiscal Federalism and the Growth of Government," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 57(4), pages 695-729, October.
    8. Simar, Leopold & Wilson, Paul W., 2007. "Estimation and inference in two-stage, semi-parametric models of production processes," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 136(1), pages 31-64, January.
    9. Rajiv D. Banker & Ram Natarajan, 2008. "Evaluating Contextual Variables Affecting Productivity Using Data Envelopment Analysis," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 56(1), pages 48-58, February.
    10. Chen, Shawn Xiaoguang, 2017. "The effect of a fiscal squeeze on tax enforcement: Evidence from a natural experiment in China," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 62-76.
    11. Eyraud, Luc & Lusinyan, Lusine, 2013. "Vertical fiscal imbalances and fiscal performance in advanced economies," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(5), pages 571-587.
    12. Mr. Serhan Cevik, 2014. "Fragmentation and Vertical Fiscal Imbalances Lessons from Moldova," IMF Working Papers 2014/233, International Monetary Fund.
    13. Grossman, Philip J. & Mavros, Panayiotis & Wassmer, Robert W., 1999. "Public Sector Technical Inefficiency in Large U.S. Cities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 278-299, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jiang, Shujun & Chi, Yan, 2024. "Impact of budget performance management reform on local fiscal relief," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(PB), pages 905-918.
    2. Xu Zhang & Tianchu Feng & Chengjun Wang & Chaozhu Li, 2023. "Local Fiscal Pressure and Public Health: Evidence from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(6), pages 1-17, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. António Afonso & Sónia Fernandes, 2005. "Assessing and Explaining the Relative Efficiency of Local Government: Evidence for Portuguese Municipalities," Working Papers Department of Economics 2005/19, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, Department of Economics, Universidade de Lisboa.
    2. Balaguer-Coll, Maria Teresa & Prior, Diego & Tortosa-Ausina, Emili, 2007. "On the determinants of local government performance: A two-stage nonparametric approach," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 425-451, February.
    3. da Cruz, Nuno Ferreira & Marques, Rui Cunha, 2014. "Revisiting the determinants of local government performance," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 91-103.
    4. Christl, Michael & Köppl-Turyna, Monika & Kucsera, Dénes, 2018. "Public sector efficiency in Europe: Long-run trends, recent developments and determinants," Working Papers 14, Agenda Austria.
    5. António Afonso & Ana Venâncio, 2020. "Local territorial reform and regional spending efficiency," Local Government Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(6), pages 888-910, November.
    6. Florian Dorn, 2021. "Elections and Government Efficiency," ifo Working Paper Series 363, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    7. Jia, Junxue & Liu, Yongzheng & Martinez-Vazquez, Jorge & Zhang, Kewei, 2021. "Vertical fiscal imbalance and local fiscal indiscipline: Empirical evidence from China," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    8. Jiang, Wei & Li, Xitao & Liu, Ruoxi & Song, Yijia, 2022. "Local fiscal pressure, policy distortion and energy efficiency: Micro-evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(PB).
    9. Stephanie McWhinnie & Kofi Otumawu-Apreku, 2013. "The Role of Fixed Cost and Non-Discretionary Variables in Fisheries: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation," School of Economics and Public Policy Working Papers 2013-14, University of Adelaide, School of Economics and Public Policy.
    10. Jongmin Shon, 2022. "Does Competition Tame the Leviathan? A Case of Earmarked Spending for Transportation," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 241(2), pages 59-78, June.
    11. E. Gutiérrez & S. Lozano & B. Adenso-Díaz & P. González-Torre, 2015. "Efficiency assessment of container operations of shipping agents in Spanish ports," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(6), pages 591-607, August.
    12. Afsharian, Mohsen & Kamali, Sara & Ahn, Heinz & Bogetoft, Peter, 2024. "Individualized second stage corrections in data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 317(2), pages 563-577.
    13. Afonso, António & Fernandes, Sónia, 2008. "Assessing and explaining the relative efficiency of local government," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 1946-1979, October.
    14. Isabel Narbón-Perpiñá & Kristof De Witte, 2016. "Local governments’ efficiency: A systematic literature review – Part I," Working Papers 2016/20, Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain).
    15. Liu, Jiawen & Gong, Yeming (Yale) & Zhu, Joe & Zhang, Jinlong, 2018. "A DEA-based approach for competitive environment analysis in global operations strategies," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 110-123.
    16. Guan, Jiancheng & Chen, Kaihua, 2012. "Modeling the relative efficiency of national innovation systems," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 102-115.
    17. Philippe Widmer & Peter Zweifel, 2012. "Fiscal Equalization, Tiebout Competition, and Incentives for Efficiency in a Federalist Country," Public Finance Review, , vol. 40(1), pages 3-29, January.
    18. António Afonso & João Tovar Jalles & Ana Venâncio, 2021. "Taxation and Public Spending Efficiency: An International Comparison," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 63(3), pages 356-383, September.
    19. Liangliang Liu & Wenqing Zhang, 2022. "Vertical fiscal imbalance and government spending on science and technology in China," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 55(3), pages 1953-1971, August.
    20. Banker, Rajiv & Natarajan, Ram & Zhang, Daqun, 2019. "Two-stage estimation of the impact of contextual variables in stochastic frontier production function models using Data Envelopment Analysis: Second stage OLS versus bootstrap approaches," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 278(2), pages 368-384.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:3:p:2060-:d:1044589. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.