Keywords: natural monopoly; Industry income gap; government restriction
1 analysis of the basic situation of China telecom industry
On May 24th, 2008, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued the Notice on Deepening the Reform of the Telecommunication System, which showed that the existing six basic telecommunication operators would be merged into three groups, namely, China Unicom merged into China Netcom, China Satcom merged into China Telecom, China Tietong merged into China Mobile, and China Telecom acquired Unicom's CDMA network (including assets and users). The notice made it clear that the reform and restructuring will be combined with the issuance of 3G licenses, and three 3G licenses will be issued after the completion of the restructuring. In other words, there will be three major telecom operators in China in the future, with both fixed-line and mobile communication services. On the day before the announcement, the personnel transfer of major operators was also settled. It remains to be seen whether the reorganization aimed at balancing the competition pattern in the telecommunications market can achieve practical results. What is certain, however, is that this unprecedented reorganization will affect the reform of the telecommunications industry in the future.
This is another reform of China telecom industry after three system reforms aimed at "breaking monopoly and introducing competition". It should be said that the deepening reform of the telecommunications system is to implant the concept of competition into the telecommunications industry under long-term monopoly. For the public, we can and should share many benefits brought by the telecom system reform, such as the reduction of telecom tariffs, the improvement of service quality and more convenient communication. However, the telecom regulatory reform still faces some major problems that need to be solved urgently. At present, the telecom market in China is far from fair, effective and orderly competition.
2 An empirical analysis of the income gap between telecommunications and non-monopoly industries in China
What is the difference between the income of telecom industry and that of some non-monopoly industries? Is the income redistribution of employees' wages in monopoly industries related to the growth of performance (including income) and the contribution to the national economy? Because the traditional salary of employees is paid according to the principle of "linking with work efficiency", that is, the salary of employees is linked with the economic benefits of enterprises. Then, what is the relationship between the wage increase of monopoly industries and the change of industry performance?
Taking the telecommunications industry as an example, we first calculate the market concentration of the telecommunications industry, then compare it with the income of non-monopoly industries, and finally compare the wage growth with the performance and contribution to the national economy.
(1) Market concentration.
Market concentration directly reflects the degree of monopoly of the market, and it is a common indicator reflecting the current market structure of the telecommunications industry. In this paper, Herfindal-Hirschman index IHH is used to reflect the concentration of China telecom market. The calculation formula is as follows: IHH = σ Ni =1(xi/t) 2,0 ≤ IHH ≤10000.
In which: Xi- the market share of each enterprise,
T- total market share,
N-the number of enterprises in this industry.
Taking the operating income as the calculation index, the IHH index of the telecom industry in recent years is obtained, as shown in table 1:
From the table 1, it can be seen that the concentration of China's telecom market is high at present, and the concentration is on the rise, indicating that the market competition is insufficient and the market structure tends to be highly oligopolistic. According to the data released by telecom operators, in June 2007, China Mobile accounted for 65. 197% of the total number of new users, while China Mobile's new business revenue and profit accounted for more than 70%. This phenomenon of excessive economic concentration will inevitably further hinder the competition in the telecommunications market.
(2) The comparison of the average wage between the telecom industry with low income and the non-monopoly industry.
According to the China Statistical Yearbook, the telecommunications industry is divided into three categories: information transmission, computer service and software industry. The average wage level of employees in this category is 44,763 yuan, which is higher than the average wage level of 40,242 yuan in telecommunications and other information transportation services. Therefore, we can only use the average wage level of information transportation services such as telecommunications to illustrate the problem. The average wages of employees in the other six lower industries are classified by major categories, namely: agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery, wholesale and retail, manufacturing, construction, accommodation and catering, water conservancy environment and public facilities management. As shown in Table 2.
As can be seen from the table, the average wage income of China telecom industry is much higher than that of the other six non-monopoly industries. In fact, the telecommunications industry is not the industry with the highest average wage among our natural monopoly industries. For example, the average salary of the securities industry in the financial industry is as high as 85,522 yuan, and the average salary of the air transport industry in the transportation, warehousing and postal industry is 60,387 yuan, all of which are more or less natural monopolies.
(3) Pay performance evaluation in telecom industry.
The research shows that using DEA as the measurement value of comprehensive performance index, the ratio of wage increase year by year, the total amount of post and telecommunications business, the comprehensive performance DEA index and the added value of the tertiary industry are calculated respectively, which is similar to the acceleration of the growth of each index. Through the trend and comparison of various indicators, it can finally be concluded that the wage increase of employees in the post and telecommunications industry is not based on the economic performance of the industry, and it does not follow the principle of "linking with work efficiency", but is caused by the natural monopoly of the post and telecommunications industry itself and the participation of the government.
3 China government regulates natural monopoly to solve the industry income gap.
(1) development is the last word.
In the process of establishing a socialist market economic system with China characteristics, on the one hand, we should speed up the reform of monopoly industries, cultivate more market players, encourage fair competition, gradually break the monopoly of industries or narrow the scope of monopoly, and make the market mechanism play a greater role in personal income distribution. On the other hand, we should clearly understand the development stage of China's market economy and objectively understand monopoly industries.
In China, most monopoly industries have the characteristics of large scale, large investment, slow recovery, provision of power resources, transportation and communication, and other basic public goods that have a great impact on the national economy and people's livelihood. At present, we should analyze and solve problems from the perspective of development, take the road of prosperity, and narrow the income gap in the industry during development. Only with strong economic growth and full development of various industries can the income gap be gradually narrowed and prosperity be achieved.
We will continue to strengthen infrastructure construction. From the perspective of per capita ownership, the development level of infrastructure construction such as transportation, communication and electric power resources in China is still very low, which still restricts economic development to a certain extent. The full development of electric power, gas supply, transportation, communication and other infrastructure will create a good external development environment for other industries. There is no contradiction between the development of monopoly industries and that of competitive industries. Giving full play to the leading role of infrastructure investment and comprehensively promoting the development of all walks of life in China is the fundamental way to solve the income gap between industries in China.
(2) Reform for survival.
Necessary reform of monopoly industries is not only the voice of all walks of life, but also the need of its own survival and development. Monopoly industries should take improving industry efficiency as the core, and finally establish a competitive mechanism that conforms to the laws of market economy as the goal, implement all-round reform, face domestic and foreign markets, survive through reform and develop through innovation.
① Accelerate the establishment of a modern enterprise system and transform the operating mechanism of state-owned enterprises. Change the traditional mode of enterprises running society, separate the main business from the sideline business, rely on social services, and reduce unnecessary burdens. To turn an enterprise into a legal entity with clear property rights and clear rights and responsibilities and the main body of market competition, it is important to improve management and technical efficiency, rather than maintaining industry profits by raising prices or controlling prices. Only when the efficiency is improved can the price of products or services in monopoly industries be reduced, thus improving the welfare level of the whole society.
The state should actively cultivate and support more market competitors, encourage funds from various economic sectors to enter monopoly industries, and break the monopoly with coercion. A lot of work has been done in this regard, such as implementing drastic reforms in the telecommunications field, establishing China Unicom, and dividing China Telecom into three parts to support the competition between Tietong and the traditional communications industry. These measures will promote the industries originally monopolized by the state administration to enter the market, move towards competition, and get returns from fair competition.
(3) Give play to the macro-control role of the government.
(1) The state should continue to implement dual control over the wages of monopoly industries, control the wages that should be raised by linking work efficiency, and control the actual wage level by means of wage guidance line. Try to implement the control line of wage growth in high-income industries, so that its wage growth rate is close to the national average. Improve the method of linking work efficiency, establish a scientific benefit evaluation system for industries that implement linking work efficiency, and eliminate the excess profits brought by state investment, monopoly, franchise and special policies. Strengthen the management of non-wage income and improve the transparency of income.
(2) Improve the income balance mechanism of state-owned enterprises, straighten out the relationship between enterprise owners, enterprises and producers, ensure the reasonable growth of owners' taxes, after-tax profits of enterprises and producers' wage income, and return the excess profits obtained by monopoly industries to the state, so as to overcome the contradiction of slow growth of enterprise income and slow growth of state tax revenue but rapid growth of employees' wages.
(3) The state should strengthen the tax supervision of industry income. Improve the income tax system, strengthen the collection and management of personal income tax, plug tax loopholes and curb excessive income.
④ Continue to clean up unreasonable monopoly prices and charges, standardize reasonable prices, and promote the gradual formation of balanced profits among different industries.
(4) Perfecting and improving national supervision.
The state should seize the good period of infrastructure development, gradually reduce the policy tilt, resolutely put an end to the introduction of policies to protect monopoly, minimize the possibility of obtaining excess profits, implement investment, credit and tax policies similar to those of monopoly industries for other competitive industries, create a level playing field, and increase the sense of hardship of monopoly industries. Governments at all levels should also actively reduce their dependence on increasing income by raising the prices of monopoly industries, and correspondingly reduce the excess profits of monopoly industries, thus helping to narrow the income gap between industries.
The law of market economy requires the government to reduce its intervention in enterprises, so the state must make full use of the ownership and price management right of state-owned assets in its hands, and constantly increase the adjustment of property rights, management rights and management methods of state-owned assets, especially strengthen and standardize the price management right. The power of price management should be scientific, quantitative, legal and democratic. Scientificalization requires that the price system should be reasonable and complete, and should not contradict each other; Quantification means that the price adjustment should be objective and fair, covering all aspects of factors, so that all aspects of influence can be quantitatively reflected in the price adjustment; Legalization and democratization require that the rules and process of price setting should be standardized and institutionalized, and opinions from all sectors of society should be listened to, reflecting various problems and meeting the needs of balanced development of various industries.
refer to
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