Volume 11, Issue 1

This paper reviews the basic implications and policy orientation of the new development pattern and the impacts of constructing the new development pattern on the manufacturing transformation and upgrading, based on which the choice of manufacturing transformation and upgrading paths is further discussed under the new development pattern. This paper holds that the paths of manufacturing transformation and upgrading need to be adjusted and expanded under the conditions of constructing the new development pattern. The main ideas are as follows. Restructuring the manufacturing industry chain with the large domestic market as the main guide, creating the good environment conducive to independent innovation, coordinating the regional layout for the overall high-quality manufacturing development, optimizing the business environment and enhancing the vitality and driving force of the manufacturing’s development, relying on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) for a higher level of international circulation. The theoretical bases for adjusting and expanding the paths of manufacturing transformation and upgrading are: embracing the new requirements with domestic circulation as the mainstay, the characteristics with the mutual reinforcement of domestic and international circulations, and promoting the manufacturing’s high-quality development and the medium and high-speed growth.

Under the framework of growth accounting, this paper introduces four heterogeneity characteristics of labor, namely, educational level, age, gender and industry, constructs a cross classification matrix of employment, labor compensation and working hours, and calculates the labor input (volume) of the whole country and of 19 industries during 2000–2018. Then it decomposes the volume into quantity and quality parts to analyze the total amount of labor input and the performance of industry labor input. The results are as follows. First, during the research period, the annual growth rate of labor input was 2.5%, and 78.8% of that came from the growth of labor input quality. The growth of labor input was mainly resulted from the improvement of educational level and the optimization of industrial structure. Second, in 2018, the proportions of labor input of the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors were 13.76%, 31.06% and 55.18% respectively, and the transfer speed of labor input to the secondary and tertiary sectors was higher than that of the quantity structure; the labor input volume in the new economy and related industries in the tertiary sector has been greatly increased. Third, the index method-based labor productivity (ILP) of some producer service and consumer service industries was relatively low, and the growth of total industry output mainly attributed to the increase of labor input and the expansion of industrial scale. The improvement of labor input quality has become the key to the growth of labor input in China, and the improvement of educational level is the core power to improve the labor input quality.

This paper aims to understand China’s uneven regional development in recent years on the basis of on political economics theories. We summarizes two theories from the political economics on uneven regional development—framework of production and framework of exchange—and unifies them by theories of labor value and capital circulation. It means to show that uneven regional development will be explained with value production, value realization and capital accumulation, and their interactions as well. This framework can not only explain regional disparities in a static sense, but also presents dynamically developments of regional disparities—first rising and then falling. Empirical research finds China’s regional disparities result mainly from the value production gap. During the period of analysis, China went through a capital accumulation biased towards less developed regions, jointly shaped by market logic and government behavior. It made the effect of reducing regional disparities stronger than the “polarization effect” around 2007, producing a narrowing of disparities across regional development.

Personal income tax is an important redistribution tool, its redistribution effect has been concerned by all walks of life. Using CHIP2018, this paper calculates and analyzes the income redistribution effect of the personal income tax reform plan in 2018, and finds that: The comprehensive taxation can raise the average tax rate, progressivity and redistribution effect of personal income tax; The rise of the standard of basic deduction, six special additional deductions, and the change of tax rate structure raise the progressiveness of personal income tax, but reduce the average tax rate and thus weaken the income redistribution effect of personal income tax; The comprehensive income tax will enhance the impact of basic deduction of expenses, six special additional deductions and the change of tax rate structure on the redistribution effect of individual income tax income; Under the joint action of the reform measures, the progressivity of individual income tax has risen as a whole, but the average tax rate of individual income tax and redistribution index have shown a sharp decline, both of which decreased by more than 50%. Using the household survey data of the year of reform, this paper comprehensively investigates the income redistribution effect of the personal income tax reform, which enriches the research on the redistribution effect of the new round of personal income tax reform.

By constructing a multi-sector DSGE model embedded with tax wedge, housing mortgage financing constraints and bank supervision constraints, this paper investigates the long-term impact of two types of real estate tax policies on economic growth and financial stability, which are the unified tax base assessment ratio and differential tax base assessment ratio for two major housing owners (household and enterprises). It also compares and analyzes the short-term impact of the above two types of real estate tax reform schemes on economic fluctuations and financial risks under the background of potential financial risks facing China’s economy. The results show that: in the long run, the real estate tax will help economic growth, boost household consumption, and effectively suppress the excessive increase in household leverage and asset bubble risk through the “suppression effect” of housing prices and the “redistribution effect” on housing. In the short run, the real estate tax will not intensify the impact of systemic financial risks, so it will not have an adverse impact on the maintenance of financial stability. Different real estate tax policies have different impact on economic growth and financial stability. Compared with the real estate tax with unified tax base assessment ratio, the real estate tax with differential tax base assessment ratio is better for the coordinated development of financial activities and the real economy in the long term and play a stronger role in economic growth, which contributes to the unity of “stable growth”, “risk prevention” and “reform”.

With improvement of China’s economic development and integration into the globalization, the increasing international influence of China’s consumer market, and progressing consumption upgrading, the internationalization of the subject, object and carrier of China’s consumer market is becoming more and more obvious. Based on a theoretical review of consumption internationalization, this paper defines the connotation of consumption internationalization, and summarizes the characteristics and the problems of China’s current consumption internationalization. A series of policy suggestions are provided, including a more abundant supply of medium and high-end commodities, a better consumption environment for imported goods, a sound tax exemption and refund service system, an expanded inbound tourism and so on. This paper believes that the degree of integration of various elements such as the subject, object, and carrier between domestic and foreign market still needs to be improved in China. We should follow the trend of consumption internationalization and promote the upgrading of China’s consumption to a higher level.