Government Policy, Factor Market Distortion and Structural Transformation

Abstract

Demand-driven economic structural transformation is mainly realized through the Engel Effect, and different consumption has different income elasticity. This article attempts to explain the effects of taxation, technological progress and factor price distortions on economic structure by introducing government policies and capital labor price distortions into the multi-sectorial model. The results showed that the share of agricultural labor decrease when the tax rate decreased or technological progress occurred and the share of service labor increased when the non-homothetic of utility function was stronger. Similarly, the distortion of capital and labor factor prices will also affect the structural transformation, and the relationship between the two is opposite. When the distortion of manufacturing sector factor prices increases, the structural transformation will be accelerated. However, the structural transformation slows down as the distortion of factor prices in service industry increases.