中间品贸易自由化与制造业企业福利损失:基于有效市场势力的视角

Input Trade Liberalization and Welfare Loss of Manufacturing Enterprises:From the Perspective of Efficient Market Power

鉴于中间品市场势力会对社会福利损失产生成倍放大效应,本文从中间品贸易自由化视角,基于有效市场势力探究中间品关税减让对制造业企业福利损失的影响。研究发现:中间品贸易自由化显著降低了制造业企业的福利损失,由于存在寡头之间相互牵制、小企业“渔翁得利”的博弈情形,抑制作用随着市场份额的降低而增大。机制检验表明:中间品贸易自由化通过推动市场发育度、缓解要素扭曲两个渠道加强技术竞争效应和成本节约效应来降低福利损失。此外,本文还发现中间品贸易自由化对高垄断力企业的福利损失抑制作用大于低垄断力企业,对非高技术行业和资本密集型企业的影响显著,但对高技术行业和劳动密集型行业的影响不显著。因此,应当基于市场结构和市场势力双重视角考察福利损失,市场竞争具有重要性,中间品贸易自由化对推动市场发育度和提升资源配置效率起到关键作用。

The scientific estimation of welfare loss and monopoly power is a fundamental issue in the field of industrial organization.The clarification of the“structure⁃behavior⁃performance”relationship between market structure,market power and welfare loss will be conducive to promoting fairness and efficiency.The revised Anti⁃Monopoly Law of the People's Republic of China,which came into force in August 2022,aims to reinforce the fundamental position of competition policy and build a reliable system for evaluating fair competition.There are diverse sources of welfare losses.For China's manufacturing industry,the monopoly power of the upstream intermediate goods industry is an important factor in generating welfare costs.Since China entered into the WTO,the scale of intermediate goods imports jumped from USD 79.4 billion in 2001 to USD 408.4 billion in 2019,while the weighted average of intermediate goods import tariffs plummeted from 12.66%to 2.94%.At present,China's downstream manufacturing industries have largely realized free competition.Although the upstream industries are primarily dominated by natural monopolies of the state⁃owned economy,there still exists a loss of efficiency in resource allocation due to price distortion.Since the upstream monopoly will lead to an exponential increase in the loss of social welfare,we need to consider the following questions:Can input trade liberalization arrest the continued increase in welfare loss?Is there a simple linear link between the market structure,market power and enterprises welfare?What role does the market structure,as a depiction of the market environment,play in the process of input trade liberalization affecting welfare losses?This paper investigates the impact of intermediate goods tariff concession on the welfare loss of manufacturing enterprises from the perspective of input trade liberalization based on the effective market power.It has been found that input trade liberalization significantly reduces the welfare loss of manufacturing enterprises.Due to the game condition in which oligarchs check each other and small businesses benefiting from their competition,the inhibitory impact increases as the market share decreases.The mechanism test demonstrates that input trade liberalization boosts the effect of technical competition and minimizes welfare loss by promoting market development and reducing factor distortion.In addition,this paper also finds that input trade liberalization has obviously stronger inhibitory effect on enterprises with high monopoly power than that on enterprises with low monopoly power.Furthermore,the impact on non⁃high⁃tech industries and capital⁃intensive enterprises is significant,but not on high⁃tech industries and labor⁃intensive industries.According to the facts presented above,we should continue to support efficient input trade liberalization,stick to the“reform and opening⁃up”policy,and protect against the further rise of enterprisesmonopoly power.While emphasizing the competitive effects of imported intermediates,we should encourage enterprises to invest more in R&D,in order to build effective competitiveness to resist monopoly power.By undertaking market⁃oriented reforms,we can drive internal and external economic cycles through innovation.Furthermore,diversified industrial management techniques should be implemented.It is necessary to recognize the difference between enterprisesactual monopoly power,the nature of the industry,and the intensity of factors.In the context of input trade liberalization,fair and effective income redistribution policies should be formulated to guard against the loss of social welfare induced by labor factorsmarket power.Our study contributes in several ways.Firstly,we listed the drawbacks of the current welfare loss calculation techniques.Through the two⁃step approach of the DLW model,we constructed an effective market power indicator by using the product of market power and market share.Its incorporation into the welfare loss measurement model has,to a certain extent,improved the methods for estimating welfare loss at the enterprise level.Secondly,since intermediate goodsmarket power can have an exponentially amplified effect on welfare losses,this paper identifies the inhibitory effect of input trade liberalization on welfare losses from the dimension of intermediate goods and probes into the moderating role of the market structure.This is a useful addition to related studies examining microeconomic activities(e.g.,pricing behaviors,performance,and welfare)from the perspective of intermediate goods.Finally,we divided the enterprises into two categories according to their actual monopoly power:high or low.We also studied the heterogeneity of the industry and factor intensity,which has received less attention in earlier research.