Collected Essays on Finance and Economics ›› 2023, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (3): 15-24.

Previous Articles     Next Articles

Limited Asset Markets Participation, Income Distribution and Optimal Monetary Policy

ZHOU Xiaoliang, LIN Dong   

  1. School of Economics and Management, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350108, China
  • Received:2022-01-03 Online:2023-03-10 Published:2023-03-13

有限资本市场参与、收入分配与最优货币政策

周小亮, 林栋   

  1. 福州大学经济与管理学院,福建 福州 350108
  • 作者简介:周小亮(1963—),男,江西吉安人,福州大学经济与管理学院教授,博士生导师;林栋(1992—),男,福建福州人,福州大学经济与管理学院博士生。
  • 基金资助:
    福建省社会科学基金项目(FJ2020MJDZ015)

Abstract: At present, the relative poverty problem of income and wealth imbalance in China is widely concerned by all sectors of society. Microscopic surveys show that there is a large heterogeneity in the income and wealth structure of China's household sector, with a high degree of differentiation between business assets and financial assets. Limited capital market participation is one of the reasons for the abovementioned problem. Limited capital market participation makes macroeconomic policies and macro fluctuations have asymmetric effects on household income and wealth, and intensify income and wealth differentiation. Traditional macroeconomic research tends to ignore and abstract the heterogeneous characteristics of the household sector, and it is inconclusive how household heterogeneity affects the dynamic relationship between the total output, the overall income level of the household segment, and the income distribution.
Based on the above theoretical and practical background, this paper constructs a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model including agents with heterogeneous capital market participation, analyzes how heterogeneity in capital market participation affects the income and wealth distribution of households, and explores the application ofthe optimal monetary policy and Taylor's rule on this basis. The results of the study are as follows: (1)There are significant distributional effects of macro volatility and policies represented by nominal interest rate shocks and asset liquidity shocks in the case of limited capital market participation. Among them, while the household consumption inequality index is countercyclical, the income and wealth inequality index shows procyclical characteristics. (2)The higher the capital market participation, the smaller the income and wealth inequality caused by exogenous shocks, and the high capital market participation weakens the procyclicality of the income and wealth inequality. For asset liquidity shocks, higher capital market participation can even reverse the procyclicality of the income and wealth inequality, when the economic system can increase the output while reducing the household inequality. (3)The results of the welfare analysis show that although total social welfare fluctuations are most sensitive to inflation and output, the contribution of households' relative consumption gap to welfare loss cannot be ignored. In the presence of household heterogeneity, there is no optimal monetary policy that simultaneously stabilizes inflation, output gap, relative consumption gap, and capital and investment, which is inconsistent with the findings obtained from the classical representative agent model. The presence of household heterogeneity makes it necessary for the monetary authority to trade-off the fluctuations of different variables. Macro volatility, represented by interest rates, inflation and asset liquidity, is highly susceptible to the divergence of household income and wealth levels.
Governments need to be wary of widening income disparities when using accommodative monetary policies to stimulate the economy. Increasing the capital market participation rate of the household sector can not only improve the income structure of the population, but also promote the equalization of social income and wealth distribution patterns while taking into account the overall economy. In order to eliminate the loss of social welfare caused by household heterogeneity as much as possible, monetary authorities may consider incorporating indicators reflecting micro household inequality into the policy rules based on the type and causes of economic fluctuations when implementing price-based monetary policies.

Key words: Limited Asset Markets Participation, Heterogeneous Family, Income Distribution, Common Prosperity

摘要: 如何改善收入分配,实现共同富裕是各界关注的重要问题。为此,本文构建包含异质代理人的动态随机一般均衡模型,分析家庭部门资本市场参与异质性如何影响居民收入与财富分配,并在此基础上探讨最优货币政策与泰勒规则的运用。研究表明:当家庭部门参与资本市场比重较低时,名义利率冲击与资产流动性冲击下消费不平等随总产出增加而下降,但收入不平等随总产出增加而上升;只有当家庭部门参与资本市场比重足够高时,收入不平等才可能随总产出增加而下降。福利分析显示,有限资本市场参与造成的无效率损失无法利用货币政策予以消除,在泰勒规则中纳入消费不平等或投资缺口能够获得更高的社会福利。

关键词: 有限资本市场参与, 异质性家庭, 收入分配, 共同富裕

CLC Number: