成都免费社区巴士和北京拟取消公交票价优惠的新闻,使补贴再次成为社会关注的话题。到底该不该巨额补贴公交已成为大众争论的焦点。笔者认为,应当强调补贴的本质是经济学问题,虽然学界存在不同的学派,而且各国公交既有补贴的也有无补贴的,但国内公交补贴将取决于政策走向:发展市场经济还是回归计划经济?不管如何,补贴都是政府财政上的一种公共支出,是否给予补贴及如何补才能达到政策目标,这是一个重要的研究课题。计划经济体制下,中国的公共交通服务是由地方政府负责经营提供的一种公用事业。30多年前实施的经济体制改革,试图消除公共交通服务政企不分、权责不清、管理混乱等弊端,随着市场经济的不断发展,公共交通服务已推进到特许经营管理的新阶段。然而,受奥运和上海世博等重大政治事件的影响,公共交通服务又重新回到政府控制票价、提供大量财政补贴和国 Chengdu free community buses and Beijing to cancel the bus fare discount news, the subsidy once again become a topic of public concern. In the end it should not be a huge subsidy bus has become the focus of public debate. The author believes that it should be emphasized that the nature of subsidies is an issue of economics. Although there are different schools in academia, and there are subsidies for both national and international public transport subsidies, the domestic subsidies for public transport will depend on the policy direction: market economy development or return to the planned economy? In any case, the subsidies are a public expenditure on the part of the government. Whether or not subsidies are subsidized and how the subsidies can meet the policy goals is an important research topic. Under the planned economy, China’s public transport service is a public utility operated by the local government. More than 30 years ago, the implementation of the economic reform, trying to eliminate the public transport service regardless of political, business responsibilities, management chaos and other shortcomings, with the continuous development of the market economy, public transport services have been promoted to a new stage of franchise management. However, affected by major political events such as the Olympic Games and the Shanghai World Expo, public transport services have returned to control the fares of the government and provided a large amount of financial subsidies and subsidies