村庄选举和收入分配--来自8省48村的证据

运用1986—2002年间8省48村和家庭的调查数据,本文研究了村庄选举的引进如何影响村一级的收入分配,发现引进选举制度使村级基尼系数降低6·4%—8%。我们也分析了选举的时间效应,发现首届选举后的第3—6年间,选举降低收入分配差距的效果最显著。这些结论对正确地认识和完善村庄选举具有重要的参考意义。

Village Election and Income Distribution: Evidence from 48 Villages in 8 Provinces

Using village and household survey data collected from 48 villages of eight Chinese provinces for the period 1986—2002, this paper studies how the introduction of village election affects income distribution at the village level. The Gini coefficient is used to measure income distribution. We estimate both a static and a dynamic model and find that in the long run, the introduction of election reduces the Gini coefficient by 6.4%—8%. We also study the effects of election over time and find that they are the most significant for the 3rd-6th year after the first election. These results provide the first set of evidence for the role of grassroots democracy in reducing income inequality and possess strong policy implications for China to strengthen village election.