Constrained Inefficiency and Optimal Taxation with Uninsurable Risks

When individuals' labor and capital income are subject to uninsurable idiosyncratic risks, should capital and labor be taxed, and if so how? In a two‐period general equilibrium model with production, we derive a decomposition formula of the welfare effects of these taxes into insurance and distribution effects. This allows us to determine how the sign of the optimal taxes on capital and labor depend on the nature of the shocks and the degree of heterogeneity among consumers' income, as well as on the way in which the tax revenue is used to provide lump‐sum transfers to consumers. When shocks affect primarily labor income and heterogeneity is small, the optimal tax on capital is positive. However, in other cases a negative tax on capital is welfare‐improving.     

Labor or consumption taxes? An application with a dynamic general equilibrium model with heterogeneous agents

This study analyzes the effects of tax reform that shifts tax burden from labor to consumption. In this context, I also deal with the issue of progressivity. Even though this kind of tax policy change has recently gained popularity, its positive effects are debatable while the offsetting effect of a consumption tax on labor supply makes the net output change rather ambiguous. I examine these effects using a dynamic general equilibrium model with heterogeneous agents. The model is calibrated to fit certain characteristics of the Finnish economy. In addition to output and employment effects, I study the tax reform's effect on income and wealth distribution. First, I find that eliminating progressivity in labor taxation increases output via increase in capital accumulation that comes, however, in expense of slightly more inequality. Then, tax reform that replaces progressive labor taxes with a flat-rate consumption tax leads to a significant rise in capital accumulation, a negligible change in labor supply and gross labor income distribution, but a relatively considerable increase in wealth concentration.     

劳动地理集中、产业空间与地区收入差距

本文基于新经济地理学模型,采用中国1990年、2000年和2007年的普查数据计算了31个省市的劳动集中度,并以此解释产业空间和地区收入差距的发展变化.文章发现:(1)人力资本集中是产业集聚形成的重要因素,人力资本集中度上升会提高地区的收入水平;(2)各省市的人力资本分布不均衡并有可能导致地区收入差距的进一步扩大.本文认为,人力资本存量差异是地区收入差距拉大的重要原因,促进劳动力充分流动、加快推进城市化建设是有效的应对之策.     

社会资本能降低劳动力工资扭曲吗?——测度和传导机制分析

文章主要回答了社会资本能否降低劳动力工资扭曲的问题.根据CFPS2010数据,采用随机前沿分析方法(SFA)测度出微观层面的劳动力工资扭曲程度,扭曲均值约为33.2％?45.7％.实证研究发现,社会资本能够显著降低工资扭曲,平均而言,社会资本每扩大1％,工资扭曲程度降低3.42％;社会资本降低工资扭曲的影响作用对工资扭曲程度较低的劳动者更大,一定程度上将扩大不同群体的工资扭曲差距.伴随着市场化程度的加深,社会资本修正工资扭曲的作用不断被削弱.文章基于中介效应模型的传导机制分析显示,社会资本通过部门进入效应、晋升效应和信息效应对工资扭曲产生影响.文章研究对深入认识中国劳动力市场的收入分配具有重要意义.     

户籍门槛、流动性差异与地区收入差距

按学历、技能设置的落户条件在一定程度上强化了不同人力资本禀赋劳动力的流动性差异,这种流动性差异深刻的影响着人力资本的区域间分布和现代部门产业的空间格局,从而为解释地区收入差距的形成与扩大提供了新的视角。本文将户籍门槛变量引入新经济地理模型,并利用数值模拟技术分析在不同水平的户籍门槛、贸易成本、人力资本份额下,不同技能劳动力的空间选择及地区收入差距变动。研究结果表明,需求与供给效应的彼此强化使得低技能劳动力与高技能劳动力在同一区域聚集,但因技能而设置的户籍门槛作为分散力阻碍了低技能劳动力的空间聚集过程。伴随区域一体化推进,贸易成本不断降低,高技能劳动力将在发达地区高度集聚,而如果户籍门槛保持不变,低技能劳动力将均匀地分布在两个区域。高技能劳动力的地理集中是导致地区收入差距持续扩大的主要原因,降低贸易成本能够有效缩小地区收入差距,而降低户籍门槛或提高人力资本份额均使地区差距变得更大。本文进一步回顾了改革开放以来中国出现的劳动力回流现象、人力资本的迁移趋势、以及改革开放以来地区收入差距的收敛和发散趋势,发现经验数据与理论命题的结论基本相符。     

Scale-dependent and risky returns to savings: Consequences for optimal capital taxation

I present a model of optimal capital taxation where agents with heterogeneous labor productivity randomly draw their rate of return to savings. Because of scale dependence, the distribution of rates of returns can depend on the amount saved. Uncertainty in returns to savings yields an insurance rationale for taxing capital on top of labor income. I first show that, because of scale dependence, agents making the same saving decision should access the same rate of return at the optimum. I then constrain the information set of the government and show that, as soon as return are uncertain, positive capital income taxation is needed at the optimum. The optimal linear tax on capital income trades off insurance with distortions to both savings and to the rate of return in a context of scale dependence. Eventually, I argue that scale dependence in and of itself is not sufficient to justify capital taxation on top of labor income taxes. These results are still valid when agents can optimize between a risk-free and a risky-asset that can both exhibit scale dependence.     

Optimal income taxation in models with endogenous fertility

This paper studies the efficient taxation of factor income in infinite-lived models with elastic fertility choices. Two models are considered, one with physical capital only, and one with physical and human capital. In the model with physical capital only, capital income should be subsidized, while labor income taxed. In the model with two types of capital, instead, Ramsey optimality prescribes that the tax on physical capital is zero (negative), if effective labor is constant (decreasing) returns to scale in human capital and market goods, while the tax on human capital is negative and the tax on effective labor positive. Our findings depart from those obtained in immortal models with an endogenous labor supply and constant population growth, because physical and human capital affect the demand for fertility.     

资本替代劳动与产业特征的关联机理及测度分析

由于生产技术及产业间资本有机构成不同,不同产业存在不同的资本替代劳动的可能程度,这种程度可以用替代弹性衡量,各产业替代弹性的大小分布即为资本替代劳动的产业特征。在总产出不变的情况下,由于人均资本增加,替代弹性大于1时,将导致劳动的总收入减少,进而就业减少,替代弹性小于1时,则就业增加。利用CES生产函数对我国资本—劳动替代弹性的初步测算表明,我国整体资本替代劳动的可能程度处于中性,但第二产业则存在严重程度的资本替代劳动趋势。     

The Division of Labor, Inequality and Growth

We present a model that links the division of labor and economic growth with the division of wealth in society. When capital market imperfections restrict the access of poor households to capital, the division of wealth affects individual incentives to invest in specialization. In turn, the division of labor determines the dynamics of the wealth distribution. A highly concentrated distribution of wealth leads to a low degree of specialization, low productivity, and low wages. In that case workers are unable to accumulate enough wealth to invest in specialization. Hence, in a highly unequal society, there is a vicious cycle in which the degree of specialization, productivity and wages stay low, wealth and income inequality stays high and the economy stagnates. By contrast, greater equality increases investment in specialization and leads to a greater division of labor and higher long run development.     

Labor market integration policies and the convergence of regions: the role of skills and technology diffusion

We study the role of different labor market integration policies on economic performance and convergence of two distinct regions in an agent-based model. Production is characterized by a complementarity between the quality of the capital stock and the specific skills of workers using the capital stock. Hence, productivity changes in a region are influenced both by the investment of local firms in high quality capital goods and by the evolution of the specific skill distribution of workers employed in the region. We show that various labor market integration policies yield, via differing regional worker flows, to distinct regional distributions of specific skills. Through this mechanism, relative regional prices are affected, determining the shares that the regions can capture from overall consumption good demand. There occurs a trade-off between aggregate output and convergence of regions with closed labor markets resulting in relatively high convergence but low output, and more integrated labor markets yielding higher output but lower convergence. Furthermore, results differ substantially in several respects as distinct labor market opening policies are applied.     

Factor‐biased public infrastructure and wage inequality

This paper analyzes how factor‐biased public infrastructure affects the skilled–unskilled wage inequality. In the basic model with a full employment economy, we find that when the weighted dependence of skilled labor and capital in the urban skilled sector on public infrastructure is large enough relatively to that of unskilled labor and capital in the urban unskilled sector, the wage inequality will be expanded. We also discuss labor‐biased and capital‐biased public infrastructure in our framework, and find that the relative dependences of relevant labor or capital on public infrastructure are important determinants of wage inequality. In the extended models, we analyze separately the issue of wage inequality in the economy with unemployment and the totally open capital market, and find the results of the basic model almost still hold.     

Reexamination of Economic Growth, Tax Policy, and Distributive Politics

The paper examines the relationship between economic growth, tax policy, and distribution of capital and labor ownership in a one‐sector political‐economy model of endogenous growth with productive government spending financed by a proportional tax on capital income. The analysis shows that inequality in wealth and income can be positively or negatively related to the optimal tax rate. In either environment, higher inequality leads to a lower after‐tax return to capital, thereby reducing the economy's growth rate.     

论劳动力直接使用权参与利润分配

在市场经济中,经过劳动力商品交换,劳动力进入生产过程,劳动力使用权分离为雇主手里的劳动力支配使用权和劳动者掌握的劳动力直接使用权.在这里,劳动力支配使用权与劳动力直接使用权分属不同的两个经济主体,因而构成生产劳动过程的不可缺少的内容.应建立承认劳动力直接使用权的企业制度,使其参与利润的分享,变资本雇佣劳动为资本与劳动平等共赢的合作劳动,有利于调动劳动者的劳动积极性和创造性,有利于缩小收入分配的差距,实现共同富裕.     

关于分配的若干有争议问题的看法

在研究我国现阶段分配问题时应该重视研究劳动所得,不应把重点放在非劳动收入上,劳动所得可以通过按劳分配获得,也可以通过按要素分配获得。生产要素按贡献参与分配的原则不等于按生产要素分配,生产要素按贡献参与分配原则中的“贡献”是指对使用价值生产的贡献,不能用分配工作的具体形式的某些共同性模糊不同分配方式的根本区别。     

Offshoring and occupational specificity of human capital

I document that workers in newly tradable service occupations possess more occupation-specific human capital and are more highly educated than workers in previously tradable occupations. Motivated by this observation, I develop a dynamic equilibrium model with labor market frictions and specific human capital to study the labor adjustment process after a trade shock. When calibrated to match the increase in U.S. trade between 1990 and 2010, the model suggests that (1) output increases immediately after a trade shock and converges quickly to the steady state; (2) labor market institutions likely play a larger role in the adjustment process than specific human capital; (3) the short run distributional effects are small if the labor market is flexible, even in the presence of specific human capital.     

我国劳动分配比例的变动趋势与影响因素——基于中国省级面板数据的分析

本文分析了我国劳动分配比例的变动趋势与影响因素,并运用1996-2006年省级面板数据估计了一个计量模型,估计结果表明,我国劳动分配比例下降的根本原因是二元经济条件下的巨大就业压力、不断提高的劳均资本和人力资本、工会在保护劳动者权益方面的缺位.该结果对不同的模型设置和样本选择具有很强的稳健性.进一步的研究还发现就业压力和劳均资本对劳动分配比例的负面影响在低发展水平组更大.     

Changes in income distribution and welfare from greater immigration of unskilled workers

This paper considers the consequences of greater immigration of unskilled labor on income distribution and welfare in the receiving country. To address these issues, both the sending and receiving countries are represented in a static general equilibrium model which distinguishes between skilled and unskilled labor and which allows prices to be determined endogenously. In this framework an inflow of unskilled labor is likely to reduce wages of unskilled labor, but whether capital or skilled labor benefits depends upon demand elasticities, elasticities of substitution in production, and differences across countries in the productivity of unskilled labor. National welfare in the receiving country is likely to rise, to the extent that the relative price of importable goods falls, non-residents already in the country receive lower wages, immigrants receive lower wages than those paid to domestic workers, and immigrants cause little increased demand for public services and transfer programs.     

Balanced‐Budget Rules,Elasticity of Substitution,and Macroeconomic (In)Stability

This paper examines the relation between factor substitution and (local) stability of equilibria in a one‐sector real business cycle model under balanced‐budget rules. We show that under non‐unitary elasticity of factor substitution, the Schmitt‐Grohé‐Uribe indeterminacy result can be altered. Using the two‐step normalization procedure, we highlight two opposing effects of factor substitution, namely, the efficiency effect and the distribution effect, on aggregate stability. With endogenous distortionary taxes and gross substitutability between capital and labor, the existing literature overlooks the distribution effect and finds that balanced‐budget rules are likely to deliver indeterminacy. However, if capital stock is relatively more abundant, a higher elasticity of substitution generates a source of stability due to the distribution effect. Our calibration shows that the distribution effect is always the dominating force.     

Employee Profit-sharing and Labor Extraction in a Classical Model of Distribution and Growth

This article sets out a classical model of economic growth in which the distribution of income features the possibility of profit-sharing with workers, as firms choose periodically between two labor-extraction compensation strategies. Workers are homogeneous with regard to labor power, and firms choose to compensate them with either only a conventional wage or a share of profits on top of this conventional wage. Empirical evidence shows that labor productivity (i.e. labor extraction) in profit-sharing firms is higher than labor productivity in non-sharing firms. The frequency distribution of labor-extraction employee compensation strategies and labor productivity across firms is time-variant, being driven by satisficing imitation dynamics from which we derive two significant results. First, heterogeneity in labor-extraction compensation strategies across firms, and hence earnings inequality across workers can be a stable long-run equilibrium outcome. Second, although convergence to a long-run equilibrium may occur with either a falling or increasing proportion of profit-sharing firms, the share of net profits in income and the rates of net profit, capital accumulation and economic growth nevertheless all converge to the highest possible long-run equilibrium values.     

人力资本及其结构视角下企业现金股利分配研究

人力资本作为企业获得竞争优势的重要因素之一,对企业的行为会产生显著影响。本文以2009-2020年中国A股上市企业为样本,探讨人力资本及高级人力资本结构对企业现金股利分配的影响。研究发现,人力资本投入及高级人力资本结构会显著减少企业现金股利分配。在经过一系列稳健性检验后,结论依然成立。进一步分析中发现,在人力资本较为密集的企业中,现金股利分配更少或企业更不倾向于分配现金股利;融资约束和《会计准则第9号—职工薪酬》的修订皆强化了人力资本及高级人力资本结构与现金股利分配间的负向关系。本文将劳动经济学理论同公司金融相结合,从人力资本的“正面”视角发现了中国企业“低股利”现象之谜。