Abstract Using the panel data of 31 provinces in China from 2000 to 2018, the Gini coefficient of urban and rural residents is measured in this paper. Then the grouping weighting method is applied to measure the Gini coefficient of the whole country, which is used to describe the income inequality of residents. This paper takes it as an indicator of income inequality to analyze the impact of fiscal expenditure structure on income inequality empirically. The results show that the optimizing the structure of fiscal expenditure can significantly improve, and the increase of social fiscal expenditure can significantly slow down income inequality, while the increase of economic fiscal expenditure has a greater effect on income inequality. The heterogeneity test results show that for the high-income group, both social fiscal expenditure and economic fiscal expenditure play an important role in reducing income inequality. The influence of social fiscal expenditure on income inequality has regional heterogeneity, showing the effect of decreasing graduatty from east to west. The economic fiscal expenditure in the central region is more conducive to reducing income inequality. This study provides a scientific basis for the system design of fiscal expenditure structure in the future.
2021, Vol. 38 
