Income gaps in China kept widening over the past four decades of economic transition. First, this paper describes the change in income gaps before and after reform and opening-up in 1978 and found that income gaps had...Income gaps in China kept widening over the past four decades of economic transition. First, this paper describes the change in income gaps before and after reform and opening-up in 1978 and found that income gaps had been expanding between urban and rural areas, within cities and within the countryside. However, this did not lead to income polarization since low-income groups only had a slower income growth compared with highincome groups. The number of poor people continuously reduced thanks to rapid economic growth. Over the past decade, the widening of income gaps has been initially curbed. Accordingly, we explained the impact of economic transition on income distribution from the perspectives of market-based distribution, ownership structure, opening-up and internal income distribution. Lastly, this paper provides an in-depth analysis on urban-rural income gaps, excessive compensation in monopolistic sectors and income inequalities arising from corruption. To address these problems, it is important to enhance tax regulation, increase transfer payments to poor people, improve social security, equalize public services, enhance poverty relief and develop a fairer income distribution system.展开更多
As a whole society increasingly widespread concern in livelihood issues, at the growing disparity in income gap today, how to achieve a fair distribution of income, build a harnaonious society and realize common prosp...As a whole society increasingly widespread concern in livelihood issues, at the growing disparity in income gap today, how to achieve a fair distribution of income, build a harnaonious society and realize common prosperity has become a major problem in China's economic reform, which needs to be solved. Taxation as an important means of macroeconomic control the government, has a unique role to adjust income distribution and narrow the income gap. Taxation can not be replaced by other policies, the development of which has been confirmed by the practice in developed market economies of Western countries. In order to improve the distribution of income inequality in our country, we need to regulate the initial distribution and redistribution. Therefore, limiting public power, strengthening monopoly regulation and standardizing the labor market are the key, while the macro-control means, such as taxes, transfer payments and social security should be widely adopted. Practice during our transition period shows that adjusting personal income distribution through the tax system is an important part of the government's public policy, but also an objective requirement of building a socialist harmonious society.展开更多
The issue of income distribution in the modern sense emerged with the creation of the capitalist mode of production-a process characterized by income gaps, at first widening, then narrowing, and widening once again. I...The issue of income distribution in the modern sense emerged with the creation of the capitalist mode of production-a process characterized by income gaps, at first widening, then narrowing, and widening once again. In the classical economic stage featuring dual economy, income distribution was dominated by capital due to scarce capital and cheap labor, which led to widening income gaps. Entering the neoclassical economic stage, income distribution was dominated by the game between capital and labor due to diminishing marginal return to capital and relatively scarce labor, which led to the growing share of labor compensation and narrowing income gaps. Yet since the 1970s, the deepening of financialization of capital has once again magnified the effect of capital-dominated income distribution, which, together with working class polarization, led to another round of widening income gaps. An observation of the long-term evolution of world economic development and income distribution gives us a clearer view on the intrinsic rationale of change in income distribution: The mode of production determines the mode of distribution and functional distribution shares intrinsic consistency with quantitative distribution.展开更多
Empirical study of sectoral-level change in LIS in China reveals that change in industry structure is synchronous and positively correlated with LIS in different sectors of the economy, intensifying overall LIS fluctu...Empirical study of sectoral-level change in LIS in China reveals that change in industry structure is synchronous and positively correlated with LIS in different sectors of the economy, intensifying overall LIS fluctuations. Our analysis of LIS based on data from the major sectors of China's economy show that, relative to 1993, the increase in LIS in 1996 was largely due to the increased proportion of LIS in secondary industry. Relative to 1996, the fall in LIS in 2003 was closely related to the fall in the proportion of primary industry in the overall economy. The year 2004 was unusual in that it witnessed a dramatic fall in overall LIS level. The primary reason for the fall was a change in statistical definition that led to a significant reduction in LIS in the secondary and tertiary sectors. There were huge variations in LIS level among different regions. However, with the passage of time, the regional disparities are gradually being reduced. This is also closely connected to changes in industry structure and within-sector LIS fluctuations.展开更多
In this paper, we try to find some general rules and the structural factors that cause a fall in labor economic growth in countries all over the world, the by a U-shaped curve in which the tuming point is for labor sh...In this paper, we try to find some general rules and the structural factors that cause a fall in labor economic growth in countries all over the world, the by a U-shaped curve in which the tuming point is for labor share in primary distribution share. We show that, in the process of evolution of labor share is characterized $6,000 per capita GDP (in PPP, 2000). We develop a model to explain this phenomenon that provides an in-depth explanation for Kuznets' inverted U hypothesis. Our findings indicate that the evolution of China's labor share is basically consistent with the model we have constructed. In addition, sectoral composition and the relative bargaining power of labor are also factors influencing labor share. These findings imply that labor share of primary distribution in China may enter an upward trajectory over the next two years. This process may be accelerated by the central government's policies for dealing with global financial crisis and by structural adjustment.展开更多
On the basis of the 1992-2003 flow of funds accounts for China released by the National Statistics Bureau, this article conducts a comparative analysis of the saving rates of the household, corporate and government se...On the basis of the 1992-2003 flow of funds accounts for China released by the National Statistics Bureau, this article conducts a comparative analysis of the saving rates of the household, corporate and government sectors from the perspective of income distribution and saving propensity. We found that although the household sector had the highest saving rate, it had actually trended downwards since 1992, as a result of falling labor compensation, property income and income from redistribution. Over this period, the corporate saving rate rose slowly, mainly because of a prolonged period of relatively low wage and interest costs rather than increased profitability. The government saving rate, which remained low in the last century, rose dramatically after 2000. The main reasons for this were the ever- increasing share of government disposable revenue in national income distribution via primary distribution and redistribution and the sector's increased saving propensity. Our policy recommendations suggest that in order to implement an economic development strategy centered on boosting domestic consumption, China should shift its economic focus to improving the income distribution structure and increasing household income. For this purpose, fiscal policies should be oriented toward increased public financing, public expenditure and social security expenditure and toward higher labor compensation based on increased productivity in the corporate sector. These aims should be taken as the objectives of national c regulation.展开更多
文摘Income gaps in China kept widening over the past four decades of economic transition. First, this paper describes the change in income gaps before and after reform and opening-up in 1978 and found that income gaps had been expanding between urban and rural areas, within cities and within the countryside. However, this did not lead to income polarization since low-income groups only had a slower income growth compared with highincome groups. The number of poor people continuously reduced thanks to rapid economic growth. Over the past decade, the widening of income gaps has been initially curbed. Accordingly, we explained the impact of economic transition on income distribution from the perspectives of market-based distribution, ownership structure, opening-up and internal income distribution. Lastly, this paper provides an in-depth analysis on urban-rural income gaps, excessive compensation in monopolistic sectors and income inequalities arising from corruption. To address these problems, it is important to enhance tax regulation, increase transfer payments to poor people, improve social security, equalize public services, enhance poverty relief and develop a fairer income distribution system.
文摘As a whole society increasingly widespread concern in livelihood issues, at the growing disparity in income gap today, how to achieve a fair distribution of income, build a harnaonious society and realize common prosperity has become a major problem in China's economic reform, which needs to be solved. Taxation as an important means of macroeconomic control the government, has a unique role to adjust income distribution and narrow the income gap. Taxation can not be replaced by other policies, the development of which has been confirmed by the practice in developed market economies of Western countries. In order to improve the distribution of income inequality in our country, we need to regulate the initial distribution and redistribution. Therefore, limiting public power, strengthening monopoly regulation and standardizing the labor market are the key, while the macro-control means, such as taxes, transfer payments and social security should be widely adopted. Practice during our transition period shows that adjusting personal income distribution through the tax system is an important part of the government's public policy, but also an objective requirement of building a socialist harmonious society.
文摘The issue of income distribution in the modern sense emerged with the creation of the capitalist mode of production-a process characterized by income gaps, at first widening, then narrowing, and widening once again. In the classical economic stage featuring dual economy, income distribution was dominated by capital due to scarce capital and cheap labor, which led to widening income gaps. Entering the neoclassical economic stage, income distribution was dominated by the game between capital and labor due to diminishing marginal return to capital and relatively scarce labor, which led to the growing share of labor compensation and narrowing income gaps. Yet since the 1970s, the deepening of financialization of capital has once again magnified the effect of capital-dominated income distribution, which, together with working class polarization, led to another round of widening income gaps. An observation of the long-term evolution of world economic development and income distribution gives us a clearer view on the intrinsic rationale of change in income distribution: The mode of production determines the mode of distribution and functional distribution shares intrinsic consistency with quantitative distribution.
基金The authors express their appreciation for the funding support provided by the National Natural Science Foundation program, "Research on the Improvement of Chinese Employees' Wage and SaIary Formation Mechanisms" (project number: 70873022), the Key Project of the Shanghai Scientific and Technological Innovation Committee (project number: 09ZS 11), the Young Scholars Program in Social Science Research of the Ministry of Education (project number: 06JC790012), and the Shanghai Key Project Research Program (project number: B101). The original draft was presented at the 188th lecture in the Modern Economics Series hosted by the Research Center for the Chinese Socialist Market Economy at Fudan University. We hereby extend our sincere thanks to all the participants and our anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. Needless to say, we are responsible for any errors or omissions in this study.
文摘Empirical study of sectoral-level change in LIS in China reveals that change in industry structure is synchronous and positively correlated with LIS in different sectors of the economy, intensifying overall LIS fluctuations. Our analysis of LIS based on data from the major sectors of China's economy show that, relative to 1993, the increase in LIS in 1996 was largely due to the increased proportion of LIS in secondary industry. Relative to 1996, the fall in LIS in 2003 was closely related to the fall in the proportion of primary industry in the overall economy. The year 2004 was unusual in that it witnessed a dramatic fall in overall LIS level. The primary reason for the fall was a change in statistical definition that led to a significant reduction in LIS in the secondary and tertiary sectors. There were huge variations in LIS level among different regions. However, with the passage of time, the regional disparities are gradually being reduced. This is also closely connected to changes in industry structure and within-sector LIS fluctuations.
基金This paper is one of the phased products of a joint research project undertaken in 2007 between the Micro-Group of the Institute of Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and CCWE, Tsinghua University. The micro-data employed come from a survey of firms conducted by the Institute of Economics, CASS, in 2006. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Ministry of Education's Cheung Kong Scholars Program and the National Natural Science Foundation (project number: 70473048).
文摘In this paper, we try to find some general rules and the structural factors that cause a fall in labor economic growth in countries all over the world, the by a U-shaped curve in which the tuming point is for labor share in primary distribution share. We show that, in the process of evolution of labor share is characterized $6,000 per capita GDP (in PPP, 2000). We develop a model to explain this phenomenon that provides an in-depth explanation for Kuznets' inverted U hypothesis. Our findings indicate that the evolution of China's labor share is basically consistent with the model we have constructed. In addition, sectoral composition and the relative bargaining power of labor are also factors influencing labor share. These findings imply that labor share of primary distribution in China may enter an upward trajectory over the next two years. This process may be accelerated by the central government's policies for dealing with global financial crisis and by structural adjustment.
文摘On the basis of the 1992-2003 flow of funds accounts for China released by the National Statistics Bureau, this article conducts a comparative analysis of the saving rates of the household, corporate and government sectors from the perspective of income distribution and saving propensity. We found that although the household sector had the highest saving rate, it had actually trended downwards since 1992, as a result of falling labor compensation, property income and income from redistribution. Over this period, the corporate saving rate rose slowly, mainly because of a prolonged period of relatively low wage and interest costs rather than increased profitability. The government saving rate, which remained low in the last century, rose dramatically after 2000. The main reasons for this were the ever- increasing share of government disposable revenue in national income distribution via primary distribution and redistribution and the sector's increased saving propensity. Our policy recommendations suggest that in order to implement an economic development strategy centered on boosting domestic consumption, China should shift its economic focus to improving the income distribution structure and increasing household income. For this purpose, fiscal policies should be oriented toward increased public financing, public expenditure and social security expenditure and toward higher labor compensation based on increased productivity in the corporate sector. These aims should be taken as the objectives of national c regulation.