文章从供给结构的角度分析了收入分配不平等对经济增长的影响,并解释了中国经济过去取得高速增长和未来面临发展约束的原因。文章的实证检验显示:收入不平等在促进物质资本积累的同时也抑制了人力资本的积累,对经济增长产生“激励效应”和“抑制效应”;收入不平等促进了农村剩余劳动力的转移,为中国经济高速增长提供了充裕的廉价劳动力;收入不平等阻碍了中国的技术进步,对经济增长具有抑制作用;收入不平等与经济增长呈倒U形关系,虽然适度的不平等有利于中国经济的增长,但其进一步恶化则对经济增长产生负面影响。因此,收入分配不平等是中国“要素投入”而非“创新驱动”型供给结构的主要成因,并长期以来推动了经济的高速增长,形成了中国特有的增长模式。
This paper analyzes the influence of income inequality on economic growth from the perspective of supply structure, and explains reasons for rapid growth in the past and development constraints in the future in China. It comes to the empirical results as follows: firstly, income inequality promotes the accumulation of physical capital, but meanwhile inhibits the accumulation of human capital, thereby bringing about "incentive effect" and "suppression effect" on economic growth respectively; secondly, income inequality promotes the transfer of surplus rural labor force, and then provides abundant cheap labor force for China's rapid economic growth; thirdly, income inequality hinders technical progress, and thus plays an inhibition role in China' s economic growth; fourthly, there is an inversed U-shape relationship between income inequality and economic growth, which shows that moderate inequality is beneficial to economic growth, but its further deterioration brings about negative effects on economic growth. Therefore, income inequality is the main cause of factor-input-based supply structure but not innovation-driven supply structure in China; and factor-input-based supply structure promotes rapid economic growth for a long time and leads to special growth model in China.