Abstract: Severeinequalityinwealthdistributioncanleadtoaseriesofsocialproblems,amongwhich
aneasilyoverlookedbutsignificantoneistrustdeclining,whichisunfavorabletosocialdevelopmentand
wealthgrowth.Byusingthemethodofexperimentaleconomics,thispaperintroducesareal-efforttaskin
adynamictrustgametoexaminetheimpactofdifferentsourcesandvaryingdegreesofendowmentinequalityontrustlevels,
andtheninvestigateswhetherdifferentformsofendowmentinequalityhavecaused
differentratesofwealthgrowthandnewwealthdistributionviathetrusttransmissionmechanism.Ourresultsshowthat,
comparedwithequalinitialendowmentdistribution,alowdegreeofinequalityintheinitialendowmentisconducivetoaveragetrustlevelandwealthgrowth.
However,wheninitialendowment
inequalityreachesahigherlevel,bothaveragetrustlevelandwealthgrowthratewilldropsignificantly.
Meanwhile,whenthereisinequalityintheinitialendowment,theGinicoefficientwillspontaneouslydecrease.
Whentheinitialgapbetweentherichandthepoorcausedbythewealthdistributionmechanismbasedonworkis
toolarge,thespontaneousadjustmentoftheGinicoefficientwillbeinhibited.Onlywhentheinitialendowment
gapistoobigwillthesourceofendowmentinequalityaffecttheadjustmentofthewealthgap.

Key words: inequality, trust, wealthconcentration, wealthgrowth, experimentaleconomics

摘要： 财富分配的严重不均会引发一系列社会问题,其中容易被忽视却非常重要的一个是社会信任水平的下降,而信任水平的下降不利于社会发展与财富增长。本文运用实验经济学方法,通过在动态的信任博弈实验中引入一个真实努力任务,研究了不同来源和不同程度的禀赋不均对信任水平的影响,进而考察了不同形式的禀赋不均是否通过信任传导机制造成了不同速度的财富增长和新的财富分布。本文的实验结果发现,相比于完全平等的初始禀赋分布,当初始禀赋分布存在较低程度的不平等时,平均信任水平较高且财富增长较快。但初始的禀赋不平等达到一个较高的程度时,平均信任水平和财富增长速度会显著下降。同时,当初始禀赋存在不平等时,基尼系数会自发地降低,当按劳分配的机制造成的初始禀赋差距过大时,就会抑制基尼系数的自发调节。当且仅当初始禀赋差距过高时,禀赋不平等的来源会影响财富差距的调整。

关键词: 禀赋不均, 信任水平, 财富集中度, 财富增长, 实验经济学