社会平等、中性政府与中国经济增长

Social Equality,the Disinterested Government and Economic Growth in China

本文从社会平等的角度给出了一个对中国经济增长的政治经济学解释。本文的理论模型表明,平等的社会结构使得政府选择成为一个中性政府,即在社会群体之间没有特定长期偏好的政府,这样的政府更可能把资源分配给生产力比较高的社会群体,从而促进经济增长。得益于中国革命所带来的平等的社会结构,以及改革开放初期党的工作重点向经济建设的转移,中国政府在过去三十多年是一个中性政府,采纳了有利于经济长期发展的政策。但同时,政府把有限的资源分配给生产力较高的群体或地区,必然会扩大收入差距。

This paper aims at providing a political economic explanation for China＇ s economic ascent from the perspective of social equality. Our key idea is that the equal social structure in China has led to the emergence of the disinterested government, i. e. , a government that does not have consistent interests in any social groups, and such a government is more likely than a biased government to allocate resources to groups with higher productivity and thus promote economic growth. This explanation is presented in a repeated Stackleherg model analyzing the relationship between social equality and government policies in autocracies. Based on the results of the model, we provide evidence for disinterestedness of the Chinese government. In particular, we analyze several selective government policies that treat social groups differently and thus enlarge income disparities, but promote economic growth.