金融结构影响收入不平等的门限效应研究

一国金融结构决定了实体经济面临的金融服务类型与质量,并通过信贷配置功能影响收入分配。基于1996-2014年省级面板数据,以金融发展规模及其结构特征作为门限变量,实证检验了金融结构与收入不平等的非线性关系。研究结果表明,金融结构对收入不平等的影响在整体和农村层面存在显著的门限效应,但在城镇层面未得到验证。具体而言,随着金融发展规模的扩大,提升直接融资比例对整体居民收入不平等的缩小效应凸显,但在农村层面的积极作用趋于弱化;随着直接融资比例的扩大,金融结构对整体居民收入不平等的缩小效应减弱,但在农村层面得到强化。兼顾金融发展的规模与结构,逐步放开金融市场管制,以提升直接融资比例,有利于降低收入不平等。

Threshold Effects of Financial Structure on Income Inequality

Financial structure determines the type and quality of financial services provided for real economy,and then affects residents'income distribution through the function of credit allocation.Using the provincial data from 1996 to 2014,this paper investigates the nonlinear relationship between financial structure and income inequality via treating the scale and structure of financial development as two threshold variables.The empirical results suggest that there exist significant threshold effects at the whole and rural levels,but no threshold effects are found at the urban level.Specifically,as the scale of financial development expands,increasing the portion of direct financing has a gradually weakened positive impact on rural income inequality,while the positive impact arises at the whole level.Meanwhile,the expansion of direct financing reduces the positive role of financial structure in income inequality at the whole level, and strengthens that at the rural level.This paper argues that,accounting for both the scale and structure of financial development,opening financial market to increase the ratio of direct financing is critical to shrink income inequality.