相对收入假说下的收入差距对消费影响的研究

The Effect of Income Inequality on Consumption Based on the Relative Income Hypothesis

研究目标:在相对收入假说的框架下,考察地区收入差距对家庭消费的影响,并深入探讨其影响机制。研究方法:利用城镇入户调查数据(UHS),并与宏观数据进行匹配,构建面板固定效应模型进行估计。研究发现:收入差距扩大确实对家庭消费有显著的抑制影响,但考虑了地区平均收入后,该影响显著下降,且这一结论对于不同的消费结构以及不同的收入不平等测度指标均稳健。该文进一步的研究揭示,产生这一现象的原因是基尼系数与地区平均收入负相关。研究创新:在模型中考虑了相对收入假说,指出其在分析收入差距对消费影响时的重要性。研究价值:本文为收入差距等相关理论的研究提供了更多的经验证据,在实践中为政府如何提升居民消费提供建设性意见。

Objectives： Under the framework of relative income hypothesis, this paper ex- amines the important role of the regional income inequality on consumption and further ana- lyzes its impact mechanism. Research Methods： This paper uses Urban Household Survey Data （UHS）, and matches it with the macro data, and then constructs panel fixed effect model to do the estimation. Research Findings： This paper finds that income inequality has a negative impact on household consumption. However, after considering the regional average income, the effect is significantly decreased. And this conclusion is robust for different con- sumption structure and different inequality indicators. Furthermore, this paper shows that the reason for this phenomenon is that the Gini coefficient is negatively correlated with the regional average income. Research Innovations： This paper considers the relative income hy- pothesis in the model, and points out the importance of the relative income hypothesis in ana- lyzing the impact of the income inequality on consumption. Research Value： This paper pro- vides more empirical evidence of the relevant theoretical research for income inequality and constructive advice on how to increase the residents＇ consumption.