Jiang Kezhong, Zhang Yiqiang, Shi Victor
School of Public Finance and Administration, Shanghai Lixin University of Accounting and Finance, Shanghai, China.
Lazaridis School of Business and Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
Front Psychol. 2023 Jul 20;14:1157828. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1157828. eCollection 2023.
This paper first measures and compares the size of middle-income groups in China based on the subjective income evaluation method and the objective criteria. Second, it empirically investigates the differences in government trust of different income groups defined by the subjective evaluation method and the objective criteria. It is found that there is a significant difference between the results of the subjective evaluation of income and objective criteria. Compared with individuals in the middle-income group, individuals in the low-income group have a significantly worse overall evaluation of local government and a considerably lower trust in local government officials. On the other hand, individuals in the high-income group have a substantially better assessment of local government and a significantly higher trust in local government officials. However, the differences in trust in government across income groups defined by objective criteria are insignificant overall. In terms of policy insights, the effect of targeting low-income groups determined by subjective evaluation may be more effective in improving people's trust in the government.
本文首先基于主观收入评价方法和客观标准对中国中等收入群体的规模进行测度与比较。其次，实证考察由主观评价方法和客观标准界定的不同收入群体在政府信任方面的差异。研究发现，收入主观评价结果与客观标准之间存在显著差异。与中等收入群体中的个体相比，低收入群体中的个体对地方政府的总体评价显著更差，对地方政府官员的信任度也低得多。另一方面，高收入群体中的个体对地方政府的评价明显更好，对地方政府官员的信任度也显著更高。然而，总体而言，由客观标准界定的不同收入群体在政府信任方面的差异并不显著。在政策启示方面，通过主观评价确定的针对低收入群体的举措在提升民众对政府的信任方面可能更有效。
