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A Political Economy Analysis of the Expanding Gap of the Wealth Distribution in the United States: From a Three-dimensional Perspective of Market, Government and Households

Chen Bo, Zhang Quan

Teaching and Research 2022, 56 (12): 93-108.

Abstract （928）

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Thomas Piketty has made outstanding contributions to the measurement of wealth distribution, but the model to explain the wealth distribution gap in his well-known book is essentially a simplified heterogeneous agent Ramsey model. The heterogeneous agent Ramsey model attributes the wealth distribution to the utility maximization of household decisions while ignoring long-term changes in the economic environment. Neo-Schumpeterians investigate the wealth distribution within the framework in which technology interacts with the institution while ignoring the impact of economic policies on the wealth distribution. Based on the Marxist political economy, this paper analyzes the continuous expansion of the wealth distribution gap in the United States since the 1970s from a perspective that the market, government and households interact with each other. The increasing wealth distribution gap in the United States can be explained as follows: under the institutional framework with the capitalist state power and the market economy based on the capitalist private ownership, the capital-biased institutional system further accelerates the disorderly and excessive expansion of capital and aggravates the continuous expansion of the income and wealth distribution gap, and thus the trend of economic polarization has become increasingly prominent; economic polarization intensifies political polarization, which enables the monopoly capitalist class to strengthen the capital-biased institutional system, forming a positive feedback closed loop; the wide distribution gap is transmitted between generations through physical capital, human capital, and social capital factors, which is called “patrimonial capitalism” by Piketty.

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Effect of China’s Urbanization Process on Quality of Environment——An Empirical Study of Prefecture-level Cities of China

ZHANG Quan

Teaching and Research 2009, (3): 32-38.

Abstract （1367）

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This paper attempts to apply the panel data model of cross-section dependence developed by Driscoll and Kraay(1998) to test the correlation between urbanization process and quality of environment by referring to the panel data of cities in the period of 1997 to 2001 and using different indications of urbanization.Theoretically speaking,there exist two different views concerning the effect of urbanization on environmental quality: raising or deteriorating the quality of environment.The former refers to the direct effect of human activities,the latter refers to the indirect consequences of environment regulation.The paper finds out that definition of urbanization based on the ratio of non-agricultural population in the city against the population of the whole city shows positive effect on the quality of the environment.However,if defined by the size of the city avea,acceleration of urbanization process may result in obvious negative effect of the environmental quality.Meanwhile,economic variables like population density and proportion of manufacture industry also pose negative effect on the environmental quality.Findings of this study offers important implications for policy-making concerning urbanization process in China.

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Advances in Researches on Labor Supply

ZHOU Ye-an, ZHANG Quan

Teaching and Research 2006, (2): 55-61.

Abstract （1170）

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This paper attempts to offer a systematic analysis of theoretical advances in researches on labor supply during the past decades.Based on an introduction to the typical neoclassical model of individual labor supply,the paper discusses intertemporal selection,participation of the labor market,and wage endogenesis.The author observes that major development in this research area is found in empirical studies.Representative works in this respect are cited.The author also points out that the labor supply theory is directed to a new domain proposed by behavioral economics.The author then elaborated on the behavioral labor supply theory and the differences between this theory and the neoclassical model.At the end of this paper,future tendency of this theory and suggestions for future research are presented.

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