“富二代”收入溢价解析:均值分解的视角

On the Income Premium of Privileged Kids from the Perspective of Mean Decomposition

“富二代”指的是家庭背景在整个社会分层中居于优势地位的子代,其中主要包括三类代表性群体:公务员精英家庭中的优势子代为“官二代”、知识技术精英家庭中的优势子代为“知二代”、商业精英家庭中的优势子代为“商二代”。基于CGSS2010-2017数据,采用O-B分解方法,对中国情境下的典型“富二代”相对普通二代的收入溢价进行解析,结果显示:(1)“官二代”的收入溢价最高,“商二代”次之,“知二代”最低,这一现象在男性子代和女性子代中普遍存在;(2)优势家庭子代和普通家庭子代的收入差距主要源于子代在就业环境特征、人力资本特征和社会资本特征方面的差异。回报差异客观存在,但量级不大;(3)无论是男性还是女性“富二代”,其收入溢价中的“拼搏”效应均有着不低的解释力。上述结论表明,我国确实存在一定程度上的阶层固化,但这种固化整体上偏良性。由于不同家庭背景“富二代”的收入溢价存在异质性,旨在改善代际间收入分配格局的政策举措不仅应着力于优化普通家庭背景子代的各项特征,还应针对不同原因造成的代际收入分化采取差异化的治理手段。

Fuerdai(privileged kids) is a Chinese term for the children of privileged family background, who are mainly divided into three categories: children of the party and government leaders, children of elite intellectuals, and children of business tycoons. Based on the CGSS2010-2017 data, we analyze the income premium of privileged kids in comparison to young people from average families in China with the O-B decomposition method. The findings are as follows:(1) The kids of the party leaders and government officials have the highest income premium, followed by the kids of business tycoons, and the children of leading intellectuals have the lowest income premium. This is common for both male and female offspring from rich and powerful families.(2)The income difference between the offspring of privileged families and those of average families is primarily due to the difference in their employment environment,human capital and social capital characteristics. There is difference in returns, but not significant.(3)The income premium of children from privileged families, male or female, can be largely attributed to their efforts. To sum up,social class is, to some extent, solidified in China, but this solidification is generally benign. Due to the difference in the income premium of privileged kids of different family backgrounds, the policies aimed at improving the intergenerational income distribution should be intended to not only improve the employment environment for children from average families, and allow them more access to human and social capital, but also formulate different solutions to the intergenerational income differences caused by different reasons.