International Comparison of Intergovernmental fiscal relations -a review of fiscal federalism-

首先，我们对政府间财政关系理论的最新发展进行了概述。为了考察中央与地方政府之间的财政责任和财政资源分配问题，我们对奥茨和马斯格雷夫的理论进行了重新梳理。我们发现传统的财政联邦主义在学术界仍然有很强的影响力，同时我们检验了C. M. Tiebout提出的“消费者-选民”假说。我们比较了20世纪80年代日本与英国、美国政府间财政关系的经验。重要的是要注意以下现象。(1)地方政府财政在宏观经济管理中发挥着关键作用，以实现稳定的目的。（2）财产税占总收入的比例下降，对地方消费税和所得税的依赖。(3)以人为本的社会服务在地方支出中所占份额不断增加。这些现象间接表明，传统的财政联邦制已经失去了实际的有效性。第三，对当代日本政府间财政关系进行了分析，并对270个首都圈地方公共团体进行了问卷调查。我们发现，日本式财政困难吸收的局限性在于现有的政府间财政关系。日本应该尝试改变政府间财政关系的现有结构，建立一个更加分散的制度。

First, we made a overview of a recent development of the theory of intergovernmental fiscal relations. To investigate assignment of fiscal responsibility and resources between central and local government, we reviwed the theory which had been developed by W.E.Oates and R.A.Musgrave. We identified that traditional fiscal federalism still has a strong influence on an academic circle.At the same time we examined the "consumer-voter" hypothesis which has been advocated by C.M.Tiebout.Second, we collected many statistics which are published by OECD,Her Majesty Stationary Office, Advisory Commission of Intergovernmemtal Relations. We compared Japanese experience in terms of intergovernmental fiscal relations with UK,US experiences during 1980s. It is important to pay attention to following phenomena.(1) local government finance plays a key role in the macroeconomic management for stabilization purpose (2) decline in the share of property tax to total revenues and dependence on local consumption and income tax. (3) growing share of people-oriented social services in local expenditure. These phenomena indirectly indicate that traditional fiscal federalism lose its actual validity.Third, We analyzed contemporary Japanese intergovernmental fiscal relations and sent questionnaire to 270 local public bodies in metropolitan area. We find the limitation of Japanese style absorption of financial difficulties by the existing intergovernmental fiscal relations. Attempt should be made in Japan to alter the present structure of intergovernmental fiscal relation to create a more decentralized system.