The establishment of a law-governed market economy helps to curb the rent-seeking activities and realize equality of opportunity, which will be beneficial to the improvement of efficiency and realization of equal income as well.
Unequal income and the excessive gap between the rich and the poor is a serious problem facing our society for the time being. The new government has laid great emphasis on protection of the interests of the disadvantaged groups, taking a series of measures, such as agricultural tax reform, raising farmers’ income, and assistance for people to collect their due wages. The challenge in the coming year for the government will be how to make more effective efforts to narrow down the gap between the rich and the poor.
First and foremost, the root cause of the continual enlargement of the gap between the rich and the poor should be made clear in order to seek appropriate remedy to solve the problem. Some attribute the cause to the market reform in our country. Often quoting the theory of American economist Arthur Okun on “ the mutual switchover between efficiency and equality (negative correlation)”, they criticized that the distribution principle of “ giving priority to efficiency while taking fairness into consideration ” in relation to China’s market orientation reform is self-contradictory, and even can be considered as “hanging up a sheep’s head selling as dog meat (a behavior of deception)”.
However, this interpretation of the relationship between efficiency and equality is not exact. Unequal income may be caused by various reasons: it may be the consequence of unequal opportunity or starting point, or the direct reflection of unequal result. The negative correlation between efficiency and equality according to Okun lies in the latter. With regard to the extent of equality of opportunity, generally speaking, it positively correlates with efficiency. For instance, in the college entrance examination and job seeking in the past, a good academic performance was of less help than having a father of high social status, which was a great obstacle for the enthusiasm rousing of professionals and the improvement of economic efficiency.

吴敬琏：实现“机会平等”应有期

建立法治的市场经济有助于抑制寻租活动和实现机会平等，因此既有利于效率提高，也有利于收入平等的实现。

收入不平等、贫富差距过大，是目前我国社会面临的一个严重问题。新一届政府非常重视保护弱势群体的利益，也采取了一系列措施，比如进行农业税改革、提高农民收入、为农民工追讨工资，等等。现在的问题是，在新的一年里，怎样使政府缩小贫富差距的努力更富有成效？

首先，还是要弄清楚贫富差距持续扩大的根本原因何在，才能对症下药和药到病除。有一种看法认为，我国贫富差别扩大的根源在市场化改革。持这种观点的人常常引用美国经济学家奥肯关于效率与平等相互替换（即负相关）的原理，指责与中国市场取向改革相联系的“效率优先，兼顾公平”的分配原则是自相矛盾，甚至是“挂羊头，卖狗肉”。

其实，这种论调对于效率与平等关系的解释是不确切的。收入不平等可以由不同的原因造成：它可以是由机会不平等或者起点不平等造成，也可以是结果不平等的直接表现。奥肯所说的效率与平等间的负相关关系，存在于后一种情况下。至于机会平等的程度，一般说来，却是与效率的高低正相关的。例如过去高考和就