SOME THOUGHTS ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF EARNINGS
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF EARNINGS
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DOI：
10.1093/oxfordjournals.oep.a041827
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发表时间：
1951-06-01
影响因子：
1.2
通讯作者：
Roy, A. D.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Roy, A. D.
有人曾试图证明，任何个人手工劳动的产出都是大量随机影响的结果。作为第一近似，这些影响可以假设为独立操作，Le。它们彼此之间没有显著的关联。“影响”一词含义相当模糊，指的是健康、力量、技能等因素，有人建议，更有效的办法是界定这些因素，使它们单独对其他情况类似的个人的产出产生同样的比例效应，而不是同样的绝对效应。换句话说，更合理的说法是，一定的健康损失将使工人的产出减少，比如说，10%。在其他条件相同的情况下，比如说，10个单位。如果这个观点是可以接受的，那么它必然遵循的是，个人产出的分布将趋向于这样，即在给定时期内的产出曲线具有“正态”频率分布，只要满足某些非常一般的条件。至少，如果整个劳动人口都在手工生产同样的产品，或者考虑到一种职业，劳动人口中的每一个成员都有同样的机会在劳动部门就业，那么这就是个人产出的分配形式。Viia占领。实际上，这种情况不大可能发生，因为从事某一特定职业的人往往是有目的地从整个工作人口中挑选出来的。本文的目的是讨论一种可能的和相当简单的选择方法，并尽可能地调查它对产出分配的影响（和收入）和社会各职业的生产力。在某种程度上，这篇文章也是为了反对这种观点，这种观点似乎被许多人含蓄地持有，收入的分配是一种任意的分配，它是在历史偶然性的过程中发展起来的。这样的分布应该被修改，所以论点运行，这样的变化只能是更好的。就财产收入而言，这种论点在一定程度上可能是正确的，但充其量，
AN attempt has been made elsewhere1 to show that the output of any individual working by hand is the resultant of a large number of random influences. As a first approximation these influences can be assumed to operate independently, Le. they are not significantly associated with one another. The rather vague term'influence'is intended to refer to such factors as health, strength, skill, and so on. The suggestion was made that it is more fruitful to define such factors so that, taken singly, they exercise the same proportionate effect on the output of otherwise similarly situated individuals rather than the same absolute effect. In other words, it is more reasonable to say that a given loss of health will depress a worker's output by, say, 10 per cent., other things being equal, than by, say, 10 units. If this viewpoint is acceptable, then it necessarily follows that the distribution of individual output will tend to be such that the logarithms of output in a given period have a'normal'frequency distribution, provided that certain very general conditions are fulfilled. At least, this would be the form of the distribution of individual output if the whole working population were producing the same goods by hand, or if, considering a single occupation, each member of the working population had the same chance of being employed in t. Viia occupation. In practice thin is very unlikely to happen since those persons engaged in a particular occupation tend to be selected in a purposive manner from the working population as a whole. The purpose of this article is to discuss one possible and fairly simple method of selection and to investigate, as far as possible, its effect on the distribution of output (and of earnings) and on productivity in the various occupations of a community.In part, too, this article is intended to combat the view, which appears to be implicitly held by many, that the distribution of incomes is an arbitrary one that has developed by the process of historical accident. Such a distribution ought then to be modified, so the argument runs, and such a change cannot but be for the better. Such a contention may well be partly true so far as property incomes are concerned, but at best it seems