论文标题
多少收入不平等太多？
How Much Income Inequality Is Too Much?
论文作者
论文摘要
我们提出了一种高度示意性的经济模型，在某些情况下，工资不平等会导致更高的整体社会福利。这是由于这样一个事实，即高收入者可以消耗低生产率，非必需产品，即使基本商品的生产力很高，并且生产它们也不需要每个人都可以工作。我们得出了技术的异质性与最大化全球福利所需的最低GINI系数之间的关系。强烈的不平等似乎在经济上是不合理的。我们的模型可能会阐明非必需品在经济中的作用，这是在思考19日后世界时的主题问题。
We propose a highly schematic economic model in which, in some cases, wage inequalities lead to higher overall social welfare. This is due to the fact that high earners can consume low productivity, non essential products, which allows everybody to remain employed even when the productivity of essential goods is high and producing them does not require everybody to work. We derive a relation between heterogeneities in technologies and the minimum Gini coefficient required to maximize global welfare. Stronger inequalities appear to be economically unjustified. Our model may shed light on the role of non-essential goods in the economy, a topical issue when thinking about the post-Covid-19 world.
