中国国有企业万岁--消除其财务业绩不佳的神话

Long Live China’s State-Owned Enterprises:Deflating the Myth of Poor Financial Performance

中国国有工业企业往往都被认为是效率低下的.这让很多学者得出结论,认为迄今为止国有企业的改革是失败的,并提出全面私有化的建议.的确,改革以来,国有工业企业的盈利能力大幅下降,而且一直低于非国有企业的盈利能力.但是,国有企业和非国有企业之间的盈利能力差距可以由两个因素来解释：国有企业所承担的流转税比非国有企业高,国有企业的资本密集程度也相对更高.这两个因素是政府政策以及歧视国有企业的历史因素的结果,因此私有化也许可以提高国有企业的盈利能力水平,但私有化不是一个必要条件.更进一步说,国有企业利润率下降的趋势可以由经济转型因素所解释.非国有企业利润率的下降也遵循一个相似的时间序列格局,它并不比国有企业更能承受经济震荡,如1989～1990年经济下降期.

China＇s industrial state-owned enterprises （SOEs） are commonly perceived as performing poorly. This leads authors to conclude that SOE reform so far has been a failure, and to recommend all-out privatization. Industrial SOE profitability indeed de- clined drastically in the course of the reform period, and industrial SOEs are always less profitable than industrial non-SOEs. However, the gap between SOEs and non-SOEs can be explained by just two factors： SOEs face higher circulation tax rates than non- SOEs, and have a higher capital intensity. In as far as these are the result of govern- ment policies and historical factors discriminating against SOEs, privatization of SOEs may improve these enterprises＇ profitability levels, but privatization is not a necessary condition. The decline in SOE profitability over time furthermore is well explained by economic transition factors; non-SOE profitability declined following a similar time pat- tern, and non-SOEs are no better suited to withstand shocks such as the 1989-1990 eco- nomic downturn.