帕累托改善结构改革

Pareto-Improving StructuralReforms

作者：吉尔·圣保罗（Gilles Saint-Paul）

Economists recommend to partly redistribute gains to losers from a structural reform, which inmany cases may be required for making the reform politically viable. However, taxation isdistortionary. Then, it is unclear that compensatory transfers can support a Pareto-improvingreform. This paper provides sufficient conditions for this to occur, despite tax distortions. Iconsider an economy where workers have sector-specific skills and some sectors are regulatedby a price .floor. Transfers have to be financed by proportional taxation on firm’s revenues or,equivalently, labor income. Labor supply is elastic to net post-tax real wages, and hence reducedby taxation. In a setting where preferences are isoelastic, deregulation is implementable in aPareto-improving way through compensatory lump-sum transfers, despite that these are financedby distortionary taxes. In a more general setting, there always exist Pareto-improving reformsbut they may involved tightening regulation for some goods. I provide sufficient conditions forderegulation, i.e. a general reduction in price floors, to be Pareto-improving. They imply thatdemand cross-price elasticities should not be too large and that the reform should not be toounbalanced. Finally, I consider counter-examples where some people earn rents associated withinformational or institutional frictions. In such situations, Pareto improvements are unlikely. Iflosers have veto power, the reform may only be supported by a minority of people. Broadeningreform scope is especially useful to raise its political support when its impact is uneven acrossconsumers.
经济学家建议将结构性改革的收益部分分配给失败者，在许多情况下，使改革在政治上可行可能是必需的。但是，税收是扭曲性的。然后，不清楚补偿性转移能否支持改善帕累托的改革。尽管存在税收扭曲，但本文为发生这种情况提供了充分的条件。我认为一个经济体中，工人具有特定行业的技能，并且某些行业受价格底线监管。转移必须通过对公司收入或同等劳动收入按比例征税来筹集资金。劳动力供应对净税后实际工资具有弹性，因此会因税收而减少。在偏好是等弹性的情况下，可以通过补偿性一次性总转移以帕累托改进的方式实施放松管制，尽管这些是由扭曲性税收资助的。在更一般的情况下，总是存在改善帕累托的改革，但可能涉及收紧对某些商品的监管。我提供了放宽管制的充分条件，即普遍降低了价格下限，从而可以改善帕累托。他们暗示需求的交叉价格弹性不应太大，改革也不应过于失衡。最后，我考虑一些人因信息或机构摩擦而赚取租金的反例。在这种情况下，帕累托改进是不可能的。如果失败者拥有否决权，那么改革只能得到少数人的支持。当对消费者的影响不均衡时，扩大改革范围对于提高其政治支持尤其有用。总是存在改善帕累托的改革，但其中可能涉及对某些商品加强监管。我提供了放宽管制的充分条件，即普遍降低了价格下限，从而可以改善帕累托。他们暗示需求的交叉价格弹性不应太大，改革也不应过于失衡。最后，我考虑一些人因信息或机构摩擦而赚取租金的反例。在这种情况下，帕累托改进是不可能的。如果失败者拥有否决权，那么改革只能得到少数人的支持。当对消费者的影响不均衡时，扩大改革范围对于提高其政治支持尤其有用。总是存在改善帕累托的改革，但其中可能涉及对某些商品加强监管。我提供了放宽管制的充分条件，即普遍降低了价格下限，从而可以改善帕累托。他们暗示需求的交叉价格弹性不应太大，改革也不应过于失衡。最后，我考虑一些人因信息或机构摩擦而赚取租金的反例。