美国著名经济学家阿瑟·奥肯在其名著《平等与效率——重大的权衡》中最先提出了平等与效率之间的权衡问题。他认为,市场经济创造出了高效率,但由于对效率的追求,不可避免地产生收入的不平等;但如果在消除不平等方面做出努力,往往又会损害效率。党的十六大报告也从我国社会主义初级阶段的实际出发,提出了一套更加符合我国国情的 Arthur Okun, the famous American economist, first proposed the trade-off between equality and efficiency in his book “Equality and Efficiency - A Great Trade-off”. In his view, the market economy has created high efficiency, but inequality in income inevitably arises due to the pursuit of efficiency; however, efforts to eliminate inequalities often undermine efficiency. The report of the 16th National Congress of the CPC also puts forward a set of measures more in line with the national conditions of our country from the reality of the initial stage of our socialism.