Economic Theory and Business Management ›› 2025, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (2): 118-135.

Previous Articles     Next Articles

E-commerce Development and Local Government Tax Competition Strategies

  

  1. 1 School of Public Economics and Administration,Shanghai University of Finance and Economics;
    2 School of Economics,Shandong University
  • Online:2025-03-12 Published:2025-02-16

电子商务发展与地方政府税收竞争策略

  

  1. 邓淑莲、张明媛、谢立成(通讯作者),上海财经大学公共经济与管理学院,邮政编码:200433,电子信箱:lyric_xie@163sufeeducn;谷兰娟,山东大学经济学院。
  • 基金资助:
    本文得到国家社会科学基金项目(23BJY025)、山东省社科规划研究专项项目(23CSDSJ25)、中央高校基本科研业务费专项资金项目(CXJJ2023363,CXJJ2023351)的资助。

Abstract: With the development of the times,ecommerce,as the most dynamic sector of the digital economy,has transformed traditional industrial development models and consumption patterns It has broken the temporal and spatial constraints of traditional transactions,gradually becoming an important engine for driving highquality economic development under the new development paradigm Moreover,it is subtly influencing the tax competition strategies of local governments
This paper explores the evolving characteristics of local government tax competition strategies in the digital economy era Utilizing panel data from 278 prefecturelevel cities in China from 2006 to 2019,the paper employs an asymmetric response model and a multipleperiod differenceindifferences (DID) approach to empirically test the existence of tax competition among local governments and analyze its behavioral characteristics in the context of ecommerce development
The findings reveal that local governments exhibit both “racetothebottom” and “racetothetop” behaviors in tax competition However,the development of ecommerce predominantly drives local governments towards a “racetothebottom” strategy,a conclusion that remains robust across various sensitivity tests The implications for policymakers are significant To ensure tax fairness and address disparities in interregional VAT distribution,it is essential to strengthen support for local ecommerce development and reform the productionbased taxation principle for VAT Additionally,exploring interregional sharing mechanisms for VAT and enhancing transfer payment systems can promote equitable development across regions
The potential marginal contributions of this paper are as follows:Firstly,from a research perspective,few studies have focused on the influence of ecommerce development under the digital economy on local tax competition strategies This paper fills this gap by providing both theoretical and empirical evidence for the additional incentives local governments have for engaging in tax competition Secondly,from a methodological perspective,this study employs econometric models suited to its research It overcomes the limitations of traditional spatial econometrics by using the asymmetric response model to conduct precise spatial decomposition,offering a feasible empirical approach to verify the tendencies of local tax competition under the development of ecommerce Lastly,in terms of mechanisms,the study reveals the channels through which ecommerce influences local governments tax competition strategies This not only makes an important contribution to the literature on the impact of ecommerce on local government tax competition behavior but also provides theoretical support and empirical data for understanding the intrinsic reasons for local governments to prioritize ecommerce development


Key words: e-commerce, tax competition, industrial agglomeration, tax shifting

摘要: 为探讨数字经济时代地方政府税收竞争策略是否呈现出新特点,本文基于2006—2019年我国城市面板数据,采用非对称反应模型和多时点双重差分法,分别验证了税收竞争在横向政府间的存在性以及电子商务发展背景下税收竞争的表现特征。研究发现:电子商务发展增强地方政府税收“逐底竞争”的策略倾向,降低“逐顶竞争”的力度,且经一系列检验后该结论依然稳健;电子商务发展引致的产业集聚效应和税收转移效应是产生这种影响的重要原因。经济后果分析表明,电子商务发展所引发的“逐底竞争”策略有助于地方政府吸引投资。本文研究结论为电子商务背景下地方政府税收竞争策略的选择提供了可能的解释,也为我国新一轮财税体制改革和区域均衡协调发展提供了政策参考。


关键词: 电子商务, 税收竞争, 产业集聚, 税收转移