社会流动能缩小收入差距吗?——基于中国综合社会调查数据的分析

Can Social Mobility Reduce the Income Disparity?——Analysis Based on China’s Comprehensive Social Survey Data?

本文基于CGSS数据,从代际流动与代内流动两个方面检验我国社会流动对收入差距的调节作用。使用国际社会经济地位指数测量客观社会地位以及自评社会地位,被访者相比父辈以及自身十年前的社会地位都提升了,表明我国代际与代内社会流动都呈向上变动的趋势。三层嵌套结构方程模型估计结果表明,代际与代内社会流动都显著缩小了被访者与本省或本市收入中位数的差距,也能显著降低被访者对社会财富分配不公、贫富差距过大的主观评价。相比之下,代内社会流动的调节作用更大更显著。数据稳健性检验的结果表明,社会流动的收入差距调节作用依然存在,且效应还有所增强。因此,要消除阻碍人才流动的多种因素,促使社会保持充足、顺畅的上升流动,在社会快速流动中实现更公平的收入分配,发挥出社会流动对收入差距的长期动态调节作用。

Based on CGSS data,this paper tests the adjustment effect of social mobility on income gap in China from two aspects:intergenerational and intragenerational mobility.Using the international socio-economic status index to measure the objective social status and self-rated social status,the respondents’ social status has improved compared with their parents and their own ten years ago,indicating that the social mobility between and within generations in China is changing upward.The estimation results of the three-level nested structural equation model show that both intergenerational and intragenerational social mobility have significantly reduced the gap between the respondents and the median income of the province or the city,and can also significantly reduce the respondents’ subjective evaluation of the unfair distribution of social wealth and the great gap between the rich and the poor.In contrast,the regulation of intra generational social mobility is greater and more significant.The results of data robustness test show that the income gap adjustment effect of social mobility still exists,and the effect is still enhanced.Therefore,it is necessary to eliminate various factors that hinder the flow of talents,promote the society to maintain sufficient and smooth upward mobility,realize more equitable income distribution in the rapid social mobility,and give play to the long-term dynamic adjustment role of social mobility on the income gap.