| YI Xingjian,LI Jiashan,WAN Guanghua,YANG Biyun.Restraining Effect of Wealth Inequality on Household Consumption: Mechanism Discussion and Empirical Evidence[J].The Journal of quantitative and technical economics,2023,(6):27-47 |
| 财富差距的居民消费抑制效应：机制探讨与经验证据 |
| Restraining Effect of Wealth Inequality on Household Consumption: Mechanism Discussion and Empirical Evidence |
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| DOI： |
| 中文关键词: 财富差距 居民消费 流动性约束 社会资本 地位寻求 |
| 英文关键词: Wealth Inequality Household Consumption Liquidity Constraint Social Capital Status Seeking |
| 基金项目:本文获国家自然科学基金面上项目（72273036）、国家社科基金项目（22VRC002）、教育部人文社科规划项目（22YJA790072）、广东省自然科学基金面上项目（2023A515011909）、广东省应用基础研究项目（2020A1515110400）的资助。 |
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| 中文摘要: |
| 加快构建新发展格局需要“增强消费对经济发展的基础性作用”并“稳步提高居民消费水平”，面对这一重大现实经济问题，深入思考“推进共同富裕”与“构建新发展格局”之间的关系。本文利用中国家庭金融调查数据，聚焦于财富不平等对中国居民消费的影响及其相关机制。基于中观层面加总数据的实证分析表明，财富差距显著抑制居民消费支出，财富差距对居民消费的抑制效应高于收入差距。通过分析近20年来财富差距和平均消费倾向的变动趋势，财富差距能够解释中国居民平均消费倾向下降的58.6%。微观层面的机制研究表明，财富差距通过消费收入敏感性、流动性约束、财富-地位寻求动机以及社会资本四个渠道抑制居民消费。本文的研究结论表明实现共同富裕是构建“双循环”发展格局和实现高质量发展的根本途径。 |
| 英文摘要: |
| The problem of income inequality between the rich and poor in China is still prominent. From the perspective of income disparity, the Gini coefficient of Chinese residents' income has risen from 0.34 in 1995 to around 0.64 in 2016, which is higher than the international warning line of 0.4. The wealth gap is even more significant, with the Gini coefficient of wealth distribution among residents approaching 0.8 by 2016. The expansion of the rich-poor gap may be one of the important driving factors that suppress total demand, but most research attempts to explain the fact that Chinese residents have “low consumption and high savings” from the perspective of income inequality, and there are few studies on the consumption suppression effect of wealth distribution. Based on the comprehensive consideration of income distribution, this article focuses on the problem of insufficient consumption of residents from the perspective of wealth disparity, and the main conclusions are as follows.First, the expansion of wealth inequality significantly reduces residents' consumption expenditure. For every 0.1 increase in the Gini coefficient of wealth, residents' consumption expenditure decreases by 2.44%, and the negative effect of wealth disparity on residents' consumption is higher than that of income disparity. Starting from the social organization behavior and cultural perspective derived from the production mode, this article takes the suitability of wheat and rice as an instrumental variable, and after overcoming endogeneity, we find that the negative impact of wealth disparity on residents' consumption is still robust.Second, the mechanism analysis reveals that as the wealth class rises, the consumption income elasticity of the affluent class decreases. Although the large middle- and low-class groups have a higher consumption tendency, they face tighter financial constraints, and the higher liquidity constraint level makes it difficult for consumption to increase. Accumulating wealth can also lead to gaining psychological satisfaction, and the expansion of wealth disparity will also suppress residents' consumption expenditure through status-seeking motivation. Although the expansion of wealth disparity will promote investment in children's education to improve a family's status, this often comes at the cost of sacrificing health investment. The expansion of the rich-poor gap will also suppress the level of social capital and squeeze out residents' consumption expenditure.Third, by analyzing the evolution path of wealth disparity and the average consumption tendency of Chinese residents in the past 20 years, we find that the actual average consumption tendency of Chinese residents has decreased from 0.78 in 2002 to around 0.70 in 2018, while the Gini coefficient of wealth has increased from 0.6 in 2002 to around 0.74 in 2018, which has led to a decrease of about 4.7 percentage points in the average consumption tendency. This means that the expansion of wealth disparity can explain about 58.6% of the decrease in the average consumption tendency of Chinese residents.The marginal contribution of this article is mainly reflected in the following three aspects. First, the related research in this article is an effective supplement to the literature on the economic effects of wealth inequality. Compared with previous literature that studied residents' consumption behavior from the perspective of income inequality, this article expands the phenomenon of “low consumption and high savings” in China from the perspective of wealth inequality and is based on the systematic consideration of differences in income and wealth endowments. It also evaluates the explanatory power of wealth inequality expansion for the decline in residents' average consumption tendency in China. Second, starting from the individual and collective cultural values derived from the modes of production, this article uses the suitability of wheat and rice as instrumental variables to identify the causal relationship between wealth inequality and residents' consumption and provides a theoretical basis for promoting common prosperity from the perspective of collectivism. Third, from the four aspects of consumption income sensitivity, liquidity constraints, wealth-status-seeking motivation, and social capital, this article systematically depicts the impact mechanism of wealth inequality expansion on residents' consumption, clarifying to a certain extent the mechanism and channels through which wealth inequality affects residents' consumption. The policy implications of this article indicate that promoting common prosperity is the fundamental way to build a “dual circulation” development pattern and achieve high-quality development. |
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