要素价格市场化与供给侧结构性改革

Marketization of Factor Prices and Supply-Side Structural Reform

生产要素价格市场化是供给侧结构性改革的微观基础和主要动力。我国生产要素价格的市场化改革长期滞后于产品价格的市场化改革,其原因是政府为了推动经济高速增长而对生产要素市场进行了干预,压低要素价格和生产成本,形成了有利于企业和资本利益的低成本竞争优势。要素价格抑制与低成本竞争是"中国经济高速增长之谜"的重要原因,但也造成了要素价格扭曲,导致了发展方式粗放和经济结构失衡的顽症长期得不到根治。党的十八大以来中国经济体制改革的重点是推进生产要素的市场化改革,从长远看是非常必要的,但从近期看也导致一个重要后果,即过去被长期抑制的要素价格全面反弹,使得在经济下行的同时要素价格和生产成本却逆周期全面上升,企业同时面临需求大幅放缓和成本快速上升的两面夹击,这正是经济增长从高速降为中速的基本原因。解决问题的出路是通过制度创新和技术创新提高全要素生产率,使生产率提高的速度超过生产成本上升的速度。

Marketization of factor prices is the macroeconomic foundation and major impetus of the supply-side structural reform. In China, the marketization reform of factor prices has long been lagging behind that of product prices. This is because the government intervened in the production factor market in order to pursue a rapid growth. It lowered the prices of production factors and costs, and allowed enterprises and capital to compete with a low-cost advantage. Factor price suppression and low-cost competition contributed to China’s rapid economic growth, but they also distorted the prices of factors, resulted in an extensive development mode, and unbalanced the economic structure. The marketization of production factors, which has been the core of economic system reform since the 18 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and should be necessary in the long run, releases the suppressed factor prices in the short run. That is, during the economic slowdown, factor prices and production costs are instead on the rise. Facing both demand decreasing and cost skyrocketing is the basic reason for China’s economic slowdown. We should improve the total factor productivity through institutional and technological innovation to make productivity increase faster than costs.