Impact of Fiscal Expenditure on Farmers’ Livelihood Capital in the Ethnic Minority Mountainous Region of Sichuan, China

Abstract

Poverty alleviation is the first battle to realize the rural revitalization strategy in China, and research on the sustainable livelihood of rural households is of great significance to solving the problem of rural poverty. Based on the sustainable livelihood framework, the reasonable scale and structure of fiscal expenditure is an inevitable requirement in producing sustainable livelihood capital toward this aim. In this study, the system Gaussian mixed model was used to analyze the impact of fiscal expenditure on farmers’ livelihoods. Representative survey data uses panel data from 48 counties across Liangshan Prefecture, Ganzi Prefecture, and Aba Prefecture in Sichuan, China. The results are as follows: (1) The average stock of human capital in 2010 to 2015 was the highest in the composition of farmers’ livelihood capital; (2) natural capital and physical capital were positively affected by the total scale of fiscal expenditure, agriculture, forestry, and water expenditure, and the former was negatively affected by general public service expenditure, education expenditure, social security and employment expenditure, and medical expenditure; (3) financial capital and the total amount of livelihood capital were positively affected by the total scale of fiscal expenditure, agriculture, forestry and water expenditure, education expenditure, social security and employment expenditure, and medical expenditure, and negatively affected by general public service expenditure; (4) human capital was positively affected by the total scale of fiscal expenditure, education expenditure, social security and employment expenditure, and medical expenditure; and (5) social capital was positively affected by agriculture, forestry and water expenditure, and education expenditure.