共同富裕的两重经济学内涵——兼论分阶段推动共同富裕的理论基础

The Dual Economic Connotation of Common Prosperity:A Theoretical Basis for Achieving Common Prosperity in Stages

共同富裕是中国特色社会主义的本质要求,是中国式现代化的重要特征,具有促进经济增长与改善收入分配的两重经济学内涵。分阶段推动共同富裕是习近平经济思想的重要内容,体现了习近平经济思想的人民性特征。本文在已有研究基础上给出了技术进步、经济增长与收入分配关系演进的统一解释,即在多重技术进步叠加的条件下,完整的库兹涅茨“倒U”型过程将被多个“倒U”型过程上升阶段的前后衔接所取代,表现为收入差距随着经济增长而持续扩大,而不是简单的波浪式变化。鉴于中国正处于新型工业化持续推进的新阶段,必须在调整收入分配的收入效应与结构效应中取得平衡,而这正是分阶段推动共同富裕的理论基础。相比于赶超经济体,中国有更多的优势条件实现更长时间、更高速度的经济增长,而益贫性政策已经促成中国收入差距进入下降通道,因此,要为不同地区、不同人群匹配差异化初次分配和再分配政策,以实现经济增长与收入分配改善的双重目标。

Achieving common prosperity is a defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics and an essential requirement of Chinese modernization.It is not only a goal of Chinese modernization but also a standard for measuring Chinese modernization,which is endogenous to China’s social system.Achieving common prosperity means narrowing income inequality while maintaining economic growth.The theory of technological progress,globalization,etc.,which are used to explain the widening of income inequality in developed countries in the 1980s,do not apply to China,because China’s development is a typical example of industrialization,urbanization,informatization,and digital(intelligent)parallel development.It is manifested in the superposition of multiple technological progress,and the complete Kuznets“inverted U”process will be replaced by the successive succession of the rising stages of multiple“inverted U”processes,which is manifested in the continuous widening of income inequality with economic growth.However,this is not the truth of China’s income inequality since the 1950s.China’s income inequality is consistent with the“flat S”evolution process,while the income inequality in other economies showed a U-shaped change during the same period.Therefore,the logic of the evolution of China’s income inequality is the balance between efficiency and fairness of policies,which is based on the degree of economic development.The practices have proved that the policy of balancing efficiency and fairness has been effective since the 1950s.When economic development is extremely low,the government focuses on rapidly concentrating limited resources to build a complete economic system by grade wages.Then,it is necessary to improve the efficiency of the labor force by improving the incentive mechanism to achieve efficiency improvement and promote economic growth,which will inevitably be accompanied by widening income disparity.When the excessive income gap of residents suppresses the potential consumption demand of low-and middle-income groups and then affects sustained economic growth,it is necessary to reduce the inequality to promote sustained and stable economic growth.In the process of transition from efficiency to equity,it is necessary to curb the internal driving force of further widening income gap,and it is necessary to incentivize the high human capital continuously.China is at a critical stage of leapfrogging from middle-to high-income countries and consolidating the institutional foundation for further improving income inequality is the foundation for China’s economy to achieve momentum transformation and stable growth in the high-income stage.This is the original intention of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee to build a coordinated system of primary distribution,redistribution,and third distribution,and to standardize the income distribution system and wealth accumulation mechanism.The process of narrowing the income gap in developed countries is the result of the simultaneous effect of primary distribution and redistribution policies.The primary distribution system determines the shape of changes in income inequality,and the redistributive policies determine the income inequality.Since China is on a new journey of modernization,it still needs to strike a balance between the income effect and the structural effect of income distribution adjustment,which is the theoretical basis for promoting common prosperity in stages.It is also the scientific connotation of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s proposal to achieve common prosperity in stages.Compared with economies such as Japan and South Korea,China has more advantages in achieving economic growth for a longer period and at a higher rate.As the pro-poor policies have contributed to the decline of China’s income gap,China can balance economic growth and income distribution to achieve common prosperity in the future.