Recently, a collaborative paper titled Economic Development Differences, Fiscal Institutional Changes, and County-Level Fiscal Equalization: A Quantitative Analysis from 1953 to 2019, authored by Associate Researcher Zou Jie from the School of Economics, was officially published in the April 2026 issue of Economic Research Journal. This study explores the long-term evolution of county-level fiscal inequality in China. Based on county-level fiscal revenue and expenditure data from 1953 to 2019, it systematically depicts the historical changes in regional fiscal patterns since the founding of the People’s Republic of China. By constructing a county-level fiscal database spanning nearly 70 years, the paper analyzes the formation mechanisms of regional fiscal inequality from two dimensions: economic development differences and fiscal institutional changes, providing new historical evidence for understanding China’s fiscal system reform and promoting the equalization of basic public services. Zou Jie is the corresponding author, with collaborators including Researcher Wang Dehua from the School of Applied Economics at the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the National Academy of Economic Strategy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Wu Han from the School of Applied Economics at the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

By manually reviewing and organizing over 2,500 local chronicles and other historical statistical data, this study constructs a long-term panel database covering county-level fiscal revenue and expenditure in China from 1953 to 2019. It uses indicators such as the Gini coefficient to examine the evolutionary trend and formation mechanisms of per capita fiscal inequality at the county level. The results show that per capita fiscal revenue and expenditure inequality at the county level exhibit significantly different trajectories: the Gini coefficient of revenue fluctuates widely, showing a "W-shaped" change, with inequality after the reform and opening-up generally higher than that during the planned economy period. In contrast, the Gini coefficient of per capita fiscal expenditure, which is more directly related to residents’ access to public services, is significantly lower and has generally declined amid fluctuations since 1953. Further analysis indicates that economic development differences are a key driver of fiscal revenue inequality. However, major fiscal and tax system reforms, especially the standardized transfer payment system gradually established after the tax-sharing reform, have played a vital role in smoothing regional fiscal gaps and buffering shocks from economic fundamentals, continuously improving the equalization level of fiscal expenditure. In addition, the paper tests the classic "Buchanan conjecture" using China’s historical experience of transitioning from the fiscal contracting system to the tax-sharing reform. It finds that the differentiated arrangements under the fiscal contracting system had weaker equalization effects than the more standardized transfer payment system under the tax-sharing reform due to institutional flaws such as "penalizing the capable" and local governments concealing revenue.

Zou Jie is an associate researcher and Distinguished Young Scholar of Taishan Scholars in Shandong Province at the School of Economics, Shandong University. His research focuses on public economics and the application of artificial intelligence in economic and financial fields. He has published multiple papers in journals including Economic Research Journal (two papers) and British Accounting Review. His paper won the First Prize of the Seventh National Outstanding Fiscal Theoretical Research Achievement Award. He has presided over a National Natural Science Foundation Youth Project and a Shandong Natural Science Foundation Youth Project, and participated in multiple national and provincial research projects.