权利管制、租金耗散与农业绩效——人民公社的经验分析及对未来变革的启示

Rights Regulation,Rent Dissipation,and Agricultural Performance——The Empirical Analysis of People's Commune System in China

本文通过权利管制下租金耗散的逻辑框架分析人民公社体制下的经济绩效,并以湖北省人民公社的面板数据为例进行实证检验。结果表明,人民公社体制下国家对农地剩余索取权与退社权实施严密的管制,导致租金耗散。在人民公社工分制固定收入契约下,最低固定收入在长期内不会发生改变,这必然导致社员为最大化自身利益产生偷懒和卸责行为。尽管公社内部已经大量使用机械与技术设备等投入以促进生产率提高,但也无法避免权利管制所导致的租金耗散对人民公社经济绩效的冲击。因此,我国40年农地制度改革的伟大成就恰恰就是通过采用以放松产权管制为制度特征的家庭承包制来替代人民公社体制,从而减少了租金耗散,农业经济绩效因而显著提高。40年变革隐含的制度启示是:在农村土地集体所有制下,保持农地承包权稳定不变、放松对农地经营权的管制将依然是改革与完善农地制度的基本线索。

This paper analyzes economic performance of commune system by logical framework of rent dissipation under rights regulation,and takes the panel data of the people ’s commune system of Hubei Province as an example for empirical test. It shows that under the people’s commune system,the state strictly controls the residual claim and the right of retreating agricultural land,resulting in rent dissipation.. Under the fixed income contract of the people’s commune system,the minimum fixed income does not change in the long run,which inevitably lead to commune members being lazy and dismissed to maximize their own interests. Although the machinery and technical equipment has been extensively used within the commune to promote productivity,the impact of rent dissipation caused by rights regulation on the economic performance of commune cannot be avoided.. Therefore,the great achievement of China’s 40-year reform of agricultural land system is precisely the adoption of a household contract system characterized by deregulation of property rights,which replaced the people’s commune system,thereby reducing rent dissipation and significantly improving agricultural economic performance. By reviewing this history,we obtain a simple policy implication that under community ownership of farmland,maintaining the stability of farmland contracting rights and further relaxing the control of farmland management rights will remain the basic rule for the reform and improvement of the farmland system.