Abstract:

COVID-19 has been developing rapidly in the world. As of October 23, 2020, 210 countries and regions reported confirmed cases. The total number of the confirmed cases in China exceeded 90 thousand. Globally, the total number of the confirmed cases exceeded 42 million, and the total number of deaths worldwide was 1.14 million, with a mortality rate of 2.71%. The Chinese government took effective and strict epidemic prevention measures at the early stage of the outbreak, and the domestic epidemic has been basically controlled. However, the impact of the epidemic disaster has had huge short-term and long-term impacts on China’s economy, which can not be ignored, especially on the income gap of Chinese residents. However, few studies have been conducted on the impact of the sudden COVID-19 disaster on the income distribution of the employed residents in different types of enterprises under the unified stochastic general equilibrium framework and their impact mechanisms. Thus it is of great theoretical and practical significance to study the impact of the epidemic disaster on the income gap!

Based on the objective data, this paper first points out the problem of the income gap in different industries in China, which has become more and more serious with the outbreak of the epidemic.It then takes the heterogeneous enterprises and employment sectors into consideration in the benchmark model of RBC stochastic general equilibrium, and introduces the catastrophic impact of the epidemic situation.Thirdly, the parameter calibration and the Bayesian estimation are used to select the parameters involved in the model to highlight the applicability of the model to simulate reality. Furthermore, the dynamic analysis of the impact and the test of the impact mechanism are carried out. Finally, it makes analysis of the welfare and the policy choice in view of the impact of the epidemic.

The main conclusions are as follows. First, the impact of the epidemic disaster will reduce the output, investment, consumption and wages of Chinese enterprises. However, the negative impact of the epidemic on the income of employed residents in labor-intensive enterprises is greater than that in capital-intensive enterprises, which will widen the income gap of employed residents in heterogeneous enterprises. Second, it is found that the probability of bankruptcy, marginal output of labor and the difference of investment conversion ability are the root causes of the impact of the epidemic on the income of residents employed by heterogeneous enterprises. Third, study on the welfare shows that the impact of the epidemic makes the overall welfare decline, and the welfare loss of residents in labor-intensive enterprises is greater than that in capital-intensive enterprises. Fourth, in terms of policy, the government can reduce the structural taxes on labor-intensive enterprises and capital-intensive enterprises, subsidize low-income residents with wages or issue consumption vouchers, and encourage and promote the digital transformation of labor-intensive enterprises, which can effectively alleviate the widening income gap.

The policy recommendations of this paper are as follows:First of all, the structural tax reduction policy should treat the impact of the epidemic on different enterprises differently. The government should give more preferential tax reduction policies to the labor-intensive enterprises seriously affected by the epidemic situation. At the same time, all localities should implement the tax reduction policies in time, so that the labor-intensive enterprises seriously affected by the epidemic situation can resume work and production as soon as possible and the vitality of the main economic body can be restored. Second, appropriate subsidies should be provided or consumption vouchers be issued to the employed residents of labor-intensive enterprises, so as to indirectly improve their income level. In particular, we should increase subsidies to the employed residents of catering, tourism, manufacturing and other industries that are most seriously affected by the epidemic. Third, the government should support and promote the digital transformation of labor-intensive enterprises, and guide enterprises to carry out online office and intelligent services.

Key words: Epidemic Impact, Labor-intensive Enterprises, Capital-intensive Enterprises, Income Gap

摘要：

2020年突如其来的新冠肺炎疫情对我国经济造成了极大影响。本文研究了此次新冠肺炎疫情冲击对我国异质性企业就业居民收入差距的影响及其传导机制。研究发现:第一,疫情冲击会使得我国企业的产出、投资、消费和工资下降,然而疫情冲击对劳动密集型企业就业居民收入的负面影响大于对资本密集型企业就业居民收入的影响,使得异质性企业就业居民的收入差距扩大;第二,机制分析发现企业破产概率、劳动边际产出和投资转换能力差异是造成此次疫情冲击对异质性企业就业居民收入影响的根本原因;第三,福利分析发现疫情冲击使得总福利下降,其中劳动密集型企业居民福利损失大于资本密集型企业居民福利损失。政策方面,政府通过对劳动密集型企业和资本密集型企业进行结构性减税、对低收入居民进行工资补贴或发放消费券和鼓励及促进劳动密集型企业进行数字化转型可以有效缓解收入差距的扩大。

关键词: 疫情冲击, 劳动密集型企业, 资本密集型企业, 收入差距