关键词:

财政专项转移支付, 
	                                                                        											                                       海绵城市, 
	                                                                        											                                       政策效能, 
	                                                                        											                                       政府注意力

Abstract:

Enhancing the effectiveness of earmarked transfers is crucial for refining the financial transfer payments system Earmarked transfers allocated by the central government to local governments aim to implement key policies and promote economic and social progress，thereby enhancing governance capacity However，challenges persist that hinder their effectiveness Amid Chinas ongoing proactive fiscal policies，it is imperative to systematically assess both the policy impacts and limitations of earmarked transfers
By leveraging the staggered implementation of Chinas Sponge City Program，a construction initiative sponsored by earmarked transfers from the central government，this study uses a stacked differenceindifferences design to evaluate the incentive and guiding effects of these transfers on local governance，as well as their limitations We find that (1) Earmarked transfers prove effective in stimulating investments in associated public goods，although further improvements are required Notably，the pilot areas saw a rise of 898，000 yuan per square kilometer in fixed asset investments for drainage However，this boost diminished rapidly postpilot and depended heavily on central funds rather than local investments (2) Earmarked transfers have successfully leveraged social capital，leading to increases in both the number and scale of the PPP projects tied to sponge city construction (3) The enhancement of policy effectiveness depends on executionlevel factors，including local expertise in utilizing earmarked transfers，the alignment of funds with local development priorities，and the robustness of local fiscal oversight (4) Policy effectiveness is constrained by the attention allocation of local leaders Frequent leadership turnover exacerbates the shortterm impacts of Chinas Sponge City Program，as local governments tend to favor highvisibility municipal investments
This study argues that to enhance the effectiveness of earmarked transfers，it is critical to amplify the leverage of fiscal funds during execution while addressing existing constraints By extending research on policy effectiveness to the project implementation level，it clarifies the mechanisms that amplify or diminish policy effectiveness and offers valuable insights for optimizing the allocation of fiscal earmarked transfers

Key words:

fiscal earmarked transfers, 
	                                    	                            											                                       sponge city, 
	                                    	                            											                                       policy effectiveness, 
	                                    	                            											                                       government attention