社会保障制度调节收入差距的国际比较及启示

改革开放以来,在中国经济持续高速增长的同时,收入差距扩大问题日益凸显。规范收入分配秩序,完善收入分配调控机制和政策体系是调节收入差距的着力点。社会保障制度是政府调节收入差距、追求社会公平的重要政策工具。美国和瑞典是发达国家市场导向型社会保障制度和福利型社会保障制度的典型代表,对比两种不同社会保障制度调节收入差距的效果,并探讨其收入再分配效应产生差异的原因,总结其社会保障制度调节收入差距的成效和经验,有助于我国通过规范收入分配秩序、完善社会保障制度调节收入差距。     

人口老龄化、经济增长与财政政策

本文通过建立一个拓展的交叠世代模型,探讨了人口老龄化对经济增长的影响以及实现均衡增长的财政政策。研究发现,当人口老龄化对经济增长起到促进作用时,均衡增长政策是增加财政支出规模并加大健康保障支出;反之则是减少财政支出规模并加大公共教育支出。实证检验支持了理论模型的结论,并发现人口老龄化对中国经济增长的影响正在从积极转向消极。因此,中国应当逐步降低财政支出规模,并将更多的财政资金分配到公共教育领域。     

人口老龄化、经济增长与财政政策

本文通过建立一个拓展的交叠世代模型,探讨了人口老龄化对经济增长的影响以及实现均衡增长的财政政策。研究发现,当人口老龄化对经济增长起到促进作用时,均衡增长政策是增加财政支出规模并加大健康保障支出;反之则是减少财政支出规模并加大公共教育支出。实证检验支持了理论模型的结论,并发现人口老龄化对中国经济增长的影响正在从积极转向消极。因此,中国应当逐步降低财政支出规模,并将更多的财政资金分配到公共教育领域。     

国外调节收入分配差距的经验及启示

收入差距与社会稳定、经济发展之间具有高度相关性。收入差距小的国家,收入分配公平,社会保障制度完善,福利水平高,社会都较稳定;收入差距较大的国家,如果实施了较为完善的社会保障制度体系和收入分配调节政策,社会也可能不出现大的动荡;收入差距巨大的国家,如果收入分配调节政策和社会保障制度也滞后,就会对经济社会发展产生较大的负面影响,严重者会发生社会动荡和政治频繁更迭。本文分别研究了国外收入差距状况不同类型国家的收入分配状况,并对这些国家调节收入分配差距的政策措施进行了归纳总结,从而为我国调节收入分配差距的理论与实践提供积极的借鉴作用。     

收入差距、居民幸福感与公共支出政策——来自中国社会综合调查的经验分析

本文运用CGSS2008的数据对公共支出通过调节收入差距影响居民幸福感的作用机制和作用效果进行了实证研究。结论表明:收入差距显著降低了居民幸福感。中国区(县)一级的公共支出总量不仅直接提高了居民幸福感,还通过缩小收入差距间接提高了居民幸福感。教育支出显著提高了居民幸福感,医疗卫生支出和社保支出微弱降低了居民幸福感,各项公共支出对收入差距幸福负效应的调节作用均对中等收入群体显著,对高收入群体不显著,教育和社保支出对低收入群体显著。政府应继续增加公共支出总量投入,同时重点增加教育投入。在提高医疗卫生和社保资金使用效率的基础上,逐步增加医疗卫生支出和社保支出。在安排各项公共支出时应向低收入者倾斜,以缩小收入差距,提高居民幸福感。     

收入和子女数量对城市家庭教育投资行为的影响——基于大连市的实证研究

中国教育的快速发展离不开投入的增加,但与其他国家相比,政府在教育上的公共支出长期不足,因此,解释中国教育的发展就需要从家庭这个微观的视角出发。本文利用针对大连市家庭教育支出情况的一次调查,通过对数据进行分析,发现了收入和子女数量与家庭教育支出之间的正相关关系,这为我们解释中国近期教育发展问题提供了经验上的证据,也是对现有研究的一个有益的补充。     

中国财政再分配效应测算

本文拓展了财政再分配的传统分析方法,将间接税纳入研究框架,构建了一个可以综合测算包括税收、社会保障和转移支付在内的各项财政工具的再分配效应的分析框架,综合采用财政预算归宿法、居民收入核算法和MT指数测量与分解法,以中国2012年投入产出表和城乡居民调查数据为基础,构建了社会核算矩阵和可计算一般均衡模型。测算结果表明:我国的财政再分配从整体上对收入分配为逆向调节。财政再分配导致全国基尼系数上升2%,其中,来源端间接税、政府社会保障支出和支出端间接税分别使基尼系数上升1.7%、1.3%和3.2%,转移支付、社会保障缴费和个人所得税分别使基尼系数下降3%、0.4%和0.7%。这一现象在中等收入国家和高收入国家中均不多见。主要原因在于,我国转移支付、政府社会保障支出、个人所得税和社会保障缴费在财政支出和收入中所占比重过低,对收入分配的正效应过小,间接税在财政收入中占比过高,对收入分配的负效应过大。     

改革现有财税制度,缩小贫富差距

我国成为全球贫富差距较大的国家之一,这既是市场经济发展的必然结果,同时也与收入分配不均、财税制度不完善、腐败突出等原因密切相关。文章从改进现有财税制度的角度建议通过强化税收对贫富差距的调节作用、合理安排地方财政预算,减少财政对土地的依赖、大力增加公共支出,完善社会保障合理安排转移支付、提高低收入者的福利、提高最低工资标准,增加贫民可支配收入几方面来缩小贫富差距。     

社会保障税定位研究

社会保障税的性质定位为一种对物税和直接税，存在一个如何规避“累退性”和重复征税的问题；社会保障税的作用定位为正向的收入再分配和筹措基金；社会保障税的税制结构定位在收入调节环节，为一种收入调节和转移支付税种。我们必须在尽量降低社会保障税的累退性，并在收入再分配和增加收入之间寻找到一个均衡点；同时，社会保障税与我国现行税收体系中的个人所得税具有共同的税基；二关系界定的制度选择也将对社会保障税的实施效果产生重大影响。     

中国社会保障收入再分配效应研究——以社会保险为例

社会保障是调节收入分配的重要工具。社会保障的收入再分配作用需要在客观调查的基础上充分考察社会公众的主观评价。中国社会科学院课题组2012年在四川、黑龙江、湖南、山西、江苏、海南等省采用经验分层和非严格随机抽样的方法进行了城乡入户问卷调查,对社会保障的收入再分配效应进行了宏观理论分析和实证分析,包括了社会保障收入再分配效应的客观测量与主观评价。本研究表明,我国社会保障收入已经成为城乡居民收入的重要组成部分,社会保障在调节收入分配方面发挥的作用日益显著。从总体上看,社会保障制度是缩小收入差距的,但是的确存在一些扩大收入差距的制度安排。由于多方面的原因,我国社会保障制度调节收入分配方面的效果还存在若干急需解决的重要问题。     

Social security, public education and the growth-inequality relationship

We study how the relationship between economic growth and inequality depends upon the levels of funding of two of the largest government programs, public education and social security. We do this in the context of an overlapping generations economy with heterogeneous agents where the government collects a tax on labor income to finance these programs. We show that in our model an increase in government spending on social security reduces income inequality and can have a non-monotonic effect on growth. When the initial level of social security funding is low, as is the case in most poor economies, then its increase will enhance growth. When its funding level is high as is typical for developed countries, we show that its further increase can slow down growth while reducing income inequality. These results obtain regardless of whether the increase in social security funding is financed by a tax increase or by cutting the public education budget. We also find that the effects of increasing the level of public education expenditures or the overall size of the government budget (holding the budget composition fixed) are characterized by similar non-monotonic growth-inequality relationships.     

我国公共财政制度的完善

消费与投资增长不协调是我国当前宏观经济中的重要问题,这个问题已成为我国经济社会协调发展的严重障碍,公共财政制度不完善是这一问题产生的财政体制根源。所以, 加快公共财政体制建设就成了解决这一问题的根本途径。就我国当前来说,公共财政应该加大对义务教育、公共卫生、社会保障、"三农"问题、收入分配和就业问题的支持力度和调控力度。     

收入分配研究述评

收入差距拉大引发的社会两极分化问题已成为中国社会最为敏感问题之一,这一问题也影响着社会与经济的可持续发展。收入分配不公带来的社会冲突、分层加剧、资源配置失衡等危害也已引起政府的高度关注。本文着重从行业垄断、税收调控、社会保障等方面评述影响收入分配差距拉大的因素。为改善我国收入分配不平等状况,需要对初次分配与再分配加以规范。因此,限制公共权力,加强对垄断的监管,规范劳动力市场是关键,与此同时,税收、转移支付与社会保障等宏观调控手段应被广泛采用。     

Old‐age Social Security versus Forward Intergenerational Public Goods Provision

This paper introduces an overlapping‐generations model with earnings heterogeneity and borrowing constraints. The labour income tax and the allocation of tax revenue between social security and forward intergenerational public goods are determined in a bidimensional majoritarian voting game played by successive generations. The political equilibrium is characterized by an ends‐against‐the‐middle equilibrium where low‐income and high‐income individuals form a coalition in favour of a lower tax rate and less social security while middle‐income individuals favour a higher tax rate and greater social security. Government spending then shifts from social security to public goods provision if higher wage inequality is associated with a borrowing constraint and a high elasticity of marginal utility of youth consumption.     

探析实现“民富国强”的路径选择

近年来中国GDP总量已经跃升为世界第二大经济体,国力之强盛毋庸置疑。然而,多年来城乡居民收入增长速度跑不赢国家财政收入的增长速度,收入分配不公平引发社会不断扩大的贫富两极分,出现了国强民不富的扭曲效应。因初次分配结构不合理、公共财政发挥的资源配置与收入分配调节效率低下、社会保障及收入分配制度不完善等因素,导致中国经济增长的模式被锁定在一种极不平衡的状态中。为此,探析并选择民富的路径,实现现阶段中国从国强转向民富的发展战略尤为重要。     

现行社会保障制度对不同阶层收入影响的实证分析

文章利用洛伦兹曲线和基尼系数,首先测算了城镇不同收入阶层缴纳社会保险费后收入分布的变化及基尼系数的变化情况,在此基础上测算了不同收入阶层从政府得到不同社会保障收入后的收入分布的变化及基尼系数的变化情况,从而得出社会保障制度实施的综合效应。分析结果显示,不同类型的社会保障对不同收入阶层的影响是不同的,即使某些政策有利于基尼系数的缩小,但不利于收入最低的阶层。研究认为,有针对性地调整部分社会保障政策,对调整收入分配差距的目标有帮助。     

Distributional Effects of Public Education in an Economy with Public Pensions*

We study how the allocation of government expenditures between two major outlays—education and pay‐as‐you‐go social security—affects human capital distribution in an economy with heterogeneous agents. We consider an overlapping generations economy where the government maintains both programs, and allocates tax revenues to finance them. In our model, human capital is one of the factors of production. It is itself produced as a combined result of public inputs and private inputs. Parents' decisions to invest time and material resources in education of their children are motivated by altruism, heterogeneous in its strength across the population, which leads to heterogeneity of incomes. We investigate the effect of an increase in public funding for education on the human capital distribution. We show that in this framework, contrary to some earlier results, increased spending on public education may lead to higher inequality. Our results depend crucially on the interaction of education funding with the social security budget and on the elasticity of substitution in the learning technology.     

Public debt and social security: Level of formality matters

This paper presents a contribution to the empirical literature concerning the relationship between social security and public debt in emerging economies. In particular, several economic and social shocks, as income inequality, were considered in the analysis. Based on the Brazilian data from 2004 to 2010, and taking into account the effects of shocks on variables which are essential to the public debt and the social security deficit, two sets of GMM models were considered. Furthermore, with the objective of testing the results, a GMM system model was built. The findings confirmed that the social security deficit significantly contributes to an increase in the public debt. Regarding the effects on social security, it was observed that an increase in the level of formality in the economy reduces the deficit. In contrast, a reduction in income inequality, real increase in the minimum wage, and increase in health benefits imply an increase in the social security deficit. Therefore, these variables play a crucial role in the search for an efficient social security management system and cannot be overlooked in ensuring fiscal sustainability.     

中美公众对收入差距的反应差异探讨

中美的基尼系数如实地反映了两国的收入差距。中美两国民众对收入差距反应有差异的原因是因为两国的收入分配形状、社会保障水平、经济发展水平、非法收入的社会影响不同。由此可得出这样一个结论：要缩小我国收入差距，就必须在农村实行规模经济，完善社会保障，加大打击非法收入的力度。     

INCOME REDISTRIBUTION IN URBAN CHINA BY SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM—AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS BASED ON ANNUAL AND LIFETIME INCOME

This study investigates the redistributive effect of social security reform in urban China using the nationally representative urban household surveys of 1995 and 2002. The main findings are as follows. First, public pension is the main income for the elderly in urban China. The majority of people aged 60 and over (72% in 1995 and 82% in 2002) receive a pension. Second, the social security system in urban China has increased the income of low‐income and older age groups and reduced the relative poverty rate. However, the redistributive effect did not offset the expanding income inequality, which resulted in the Gini coefficient of redistributed income in 2002 being higher than that in 1995. Third, during 1995 and 2002, both low‐income and high‐income groups received a positive net benefit from the social security system, but the net benefit increased with income. The Chinese social security system lacks progressivity in contribution, and does not favor the poor in terms of benefits. Fourth, assuming that the reformed policy was applied to public sector employees, the long‐term redistributive effect of the pension system for the working population, calculated using their lifetime income, is larger. (JEL D31, H55, I38)