Market-related reforms and increased energy efficiency in transition countries: empirical evidence

Energy efficiency improvement is a desirable response to growing climate change and security of energy supply concerns. This article studies the impacts of a varied set of macro-level market-oriented reforms as well as structural change on economy-wide measure of energy efficiency across a group of the transition countries. These countries experienced a rapid marketization process, which, since the early 1990s, transformed their economies from central planning towards market-driven models. We use a bias-corrected fixed-effect analysis technique to estimate this effect for the period 1990 to 2010. The results suggest that reforms aimed at market liberalization, financial sector and most infrastructure industries drove energy efficiency improvements. We find significant differences in improvements in energy efficiency between transitional Central European and Baltic States, South East Europe ones and the Commonwealth of Independent States. The reasons for these differences are also discussed.     

Reforms that keep you at home: The effects of economic transition on migration

Theory asserts that individuals’ migration decisions depend more on their expectations about future income levels than on their current income levels. We find that the implementation of market-oriented reforms in post-communist countries, by forming positive economic prospects, has reduced emigration as predicted by theory. Our estimates show that migration flows are highly responsive to reforms supporting private enterprises and financial services, which provide individuals with strong signals about their future prospects. We show that reforms that improve the management of infrastructure services have no link with migration patterns, which may be an important lesson for government policy.     

Economic reforms,growth and well-being: evidence from India

This study examined economic well-being of sub-national units in India since the economic reforms. For this purpose, the study constructed well-being index for 17 major states of India for the period 1981–2011 based on five broad dimensions. Our results showed that the economic well-being of states has declined since the reforms. The interstate disparities have increased and the states (except Punjab and West Bengal) which performed well prior to the reforms continued to perform well in the post-reform years too. In addition, our regression results for the high well-being and low well-being states revealed that the reforms have benefited more developed high well-being states, rather than low well-being states. While human capital was found significantly and positively related to per capita incomes in both groups of the states, financial development was positively related in high well-being states, but a negative association was visible in the low well-being states.     

CHINA'S RESISTANCE TO ECONOMIC REFORMS

After 10 years of institutional and structural change, expanded economic activity, and subsequent economic difficulties, China adopted an austerity program in 1988. Underlying the ostensible economic reasons for the austerity program, however, was growing political resistance to economic reforms among Communist party members.
This paper puts forth two explanations. One is that the leadership misunderstands the market system, and this leads to errors in economic policy. The second explanation is that rent seeking by strategically situated groups is responsible for much of the resistance.
Because market-oriented reform makes redundant both bureaucrats and job slots for apparatchik appointments, strong resistance to reform exists at the micro level.
Two scenarios could lead to real economic reform: (i) gradual self-limitation by the Communist party as economic decline continues and as the costs of maintaining the existing system increase, or (ii) a breakdown of consensus within the ruling stratum. In this paper, the dual thesis for resistance to reform serves to reinforce the latter scenario.     

Potential economic reforms in North Korea: a dynamic general equilibrium model

We use a dynamic general equilibrium model to examine hypothetical market reforms in North Korea. We model partial reform, in which producers choose capital allocations across sectors, with the government still fixing total capital. We also consider two full market reform scenarios. In one, public infrastructure investment remains unchanged, while, in the other, it increases substantially. In all scenarios, we assume a closed economy and a constant military size. Our simulations show little hope for the North Korean economy without boosting infrastructure. Although all of the reforms raise consumption, only significant increases in infrastructure investment bring positive economic growth.     

The effects of vertical and horizontal incentives on local tax efforts: evidence from China

Tax effort is a measure of a government’s effort to collect taxes. This study explores what impacts both vertical and horizontal incentives have on local governments’ tax efforts in China. For consistency with the literature, we first include typical economic and institutional factors in our analysis. We find that the effects of economic factors on local tax efforts are significant, but the effects of institutional factors tend to be weak. Fiscal decentralization, as a vertical incentive, has a significantly positive effect on tax efforts at the provincial level. Meanwhile, fiscal interaction, as a horizontal incentive, is also taken into account in a spatial specification to explain tax competition among local governments. The results show that local tax effort in China also depends on the horizontal incentive. Hence, to improve local tax effort, the central government should let the locals have more autonomy in collecting taxes and evaluate local tax effort by referring to tax collection in adjacent provinces simultaneously.     

市场化改革与现金持有动态调整——一个理论研究框架

企业特征、宏观经济环境对现金持有动态调整的重要影响已基本形成共识,但近年来,越来越多的研究表明,市场化改革是研究企业现金持有行为必须重视的一项重要制度背景,那么,更为关键的一个问题是:市场化改革是如何影响企业现金持有动态调整的呢?对现金持有动态调整相关文献研究述评并构建系统的理论研究框架,从驱动力量和约束条件两个层面剖析市场化改革对现金持有动态调整的影响机理与经济后果,结果显示:市场化改革能够改善企业现金持有动态调整行为。政府应进一步放松行政干预与管制,加快市场化改革进程。     

中国城镇医疗体制改革前后的医疗融资比较

The health financing schemes is the foundation for the nation’s health care system, and the health insurance is a main one of some options for financing health care. This article compares two health care financing schemes in urban areas before and after the health reform, and targets at the impacts facing coverage groups, the financing methods, decision-making power or financial management (i.e. the distribution of responsibility and rights between the central government and local governments), payment arrangement and cost containment of health care financing mechanisms. Prior to reform, the equal access and universal coverage of health care services were implemented through the employment-based health insurance in a state-controlled economy with guaranteed full employment and central control in general. The decentralization reforms of fiscal system and tax sharing reforms disrupts the past economic foundation, the rebuilding health insurance system which still benefits the employed bring the limited coverage. The next trend is to make transition from health insurance covering only part of the employed population to what are in effect national health services covering the whole population in urban areas.      

经济自由及其变动的增长效应——来自跨国经济增长面板数据的再检视

经济自由是市场经济的基础，是社会基础设施（Social Infrastructure）的核心内涵。经济自由的提升有利于提高存量资本的生产配置效率，并对国内外投资给出积极信号，推动经济增长。本文在新古典经济增长理论框架下，研究各国社会基础设施发展水平的不同及其转型动态，用近百个国家的增长面板数据验证经济自由水平及其提升的增长效应。此外，本文还用动态面板数据的GMM估计方法检验发现，经济自由是经济增长的Granger原因，而后者不是前者的Granger原因。该结论对发展中国家的经济发展政策具有指导意义。     

Where are we in the political economy of reform?

We review the experiences of developing countries with market-oriented reforms, using the tools of modern political economy. We impose intellectual discipline by requiring that actors behave rationally using available information and that basic economic relationships such as budget constraints be accounted for. We attempt to integrate two approaches, one based on dynamic games played by interest groups, with one that focus on limited information and the dynamics of learning.

We describe the “starting point” as the set of “old” policies and we attempt to explain the dynamics (political, economic and informational) that lead to reform (section II). We analyze strategies for reformers subject to political constraints (section Ш). We evaluate the aggregate and distributional costs of reforms, emphasizing the importance of looking at the right counterfactuals (section IV).

We conclude by pointing to the challenges ahead: the second-stage institutional reforms necessary to take off from underdevelopment.     

A Socio-instutionalist Critique of the 1990s' Reforms of the United Kingdom's National Health Service

This paper argues that the on-going reforms to the UK's National Health Service initiated in the 1990s represent potentially profound institutional change to the values underpinning the process of care. The market-orientation of the reforms is highlighted, and it is asserted that the theoretical rationale for this is informed by the nascent neoclassical health economics and new institutionalist literatures, which exhibit utilitarian propensities in that both stress outcomes and at best relegate process. Drawing from the seminal contribution of Thorstein Veblen, the paper argues that market-oriented reform in the UK may induce a shift from a Hippocratic ethos to a more individualistic value system.     

推进全面配套改革

改革作为一种制度变迁,同样遵循经济学边际收益递减的规律。依此认识框架可以判断,中国的经济改革没有倒退,也不是处于停滞状态,而是在发展阶段发生巨大变化的情况下,面临着“高处摘果子”的攻坚困难。在分析下一步改革特点的情况下,本文提出要在更高的层次上设计,以法律为依据推进改革。改革的关键领域和突破口是结束城乡分割体制,创造人力资本积累和涌流的制度环境,重塑作为公共品供给者的政府。     

Water markets and freshwater ecosystem services: Policy reform and implementation in the Columbia and Murray-Darling Basins

Water markets have featured prominently in the reallocation of water rights to restore freshwater ecosystem health. Incentive-based water rights acquisition and transactions have emerged as a market-oriented policy approach to reallocate water resources from existing uses to enhance the provision, regulation, and sustainability of freshwater ecosystem services. This paper develops a conceptual framework to examine factors enabling and constraining successful policy reform and implementation in market-based environmental water allocation. This analysis distills and extends the findings and lessons of a September 2007 workshop in Brisbane, Australia on environmental water transactions. Two case studies were selected in water stressed basins - the Columbia (U.S.A) and Murray-Darling (Australia) Basins - where transactional approaches to environmental water allocation first emerged. The case studies draw upon practitioner perspectives and previous policy and economic analysis in two regions where shared political economic and physical conditions lend a strong analytical basis for comparison. A common set of policy and regulatory reforms has occurred in both cases - albeit in different forms and via distinct paths - to develop three enabling conditions: (1) establishment of rights to and limits on freshwater extraction and alteration; (2) recognition of the environment as a legitimate water use; and (3) authority to transfer existing water rights to an environmental purpose. However, these elements of policy reform are necessary but not sufficient for effective implementation; a second set of driving forces, barriers, and adaptations explains the ability to achieve larger scale ecological outcomes. These conditions include the physical, social and economic factors driving demand for environmental water allocation; administrative procedures, organizational development and institutional capacity to effect transfers; and adaptive mechanisms to overcome legal, cultural, economic, and environmental barriers. The case study analysis suggests that environmental water transactions can play an important role in establishing environmental water allocations, although water markets require ongoing institutional capacity and adaptive governance. The conceptual framework and empirical lessons generated through this cross-case comparison provide the basis for an expanded research agenda to evaluate the design and performance of market-oriented reforms as implementation experience accrues and new programs emerge in diverse ecological and political economic settings.     

Market Reform and Infrastructure Development in Transition Economies

This paper analyzes the determinants of investments in physical infrastructure over the first decade of market reform in Central and Eastern Europe and other former Soviet economies. Both market and political reform would be expected to have an impact on the level of infrastructure, but the relationship will likely differ for infrastructure which remains dependent on the public sector and that which becomes more dependent on private investment after such reforms. Results for a large cross section of transition economies show that market reform has had a positive impact on both traditional and newer types of infrastructure, with a stronger impact on the newer types which are more likely to be market‐derived. The findings also suggest that market reform is more likely to push investors to develop infrastructure when political and market reforms are accomplished in tandem.     

集聚经济、基础设施与制造业全要素生产率:来自中国207个地级市的证据

随着我国经济高质量发展战略的实施,经济发展的基础设施有了很大改进。地区基础设施改进会从外部性上促进企业内部和企业之间的有效连接,降低物流成本和交易成本,提高产业全要素生产率。在基础设施变化条件下,我国分地区集聚经济对全要素生产率提升的影响差异需作分类研究,以便深入讨论产业经济高质量发展问题。使用PSTR模型,引入非期望产出的GML指数,以及有关计算产业集聚和相关多样化的指标,实证研究不同地区制造业集聚经济随着基础设施变化影响全要素生产率的机制。结果显示:产业集聚与相关多样性均对全要素生产率产生非线性影响,并基本为正;集聚经济对GML指数的正向作用小于传统的全要素生产率;集聚经济与全要素生产率的非线性关系在不同地区表现出不同的特征,东部地区出现过度集聚现象;人力资本、研发投入和外商投资均随着基础设施增加对全要素生产率产生更强的正向作用,东部地区政府干预促进当地生产水平,中西部地区政府干预作用随着基础设施增加而降低。     

交易费用和制度变迁的分析与启示

交易费用与制度变迁都涉及到经济生活中的具体操作方面,比如资源优化配置和效率问题。中国在深化改革的过程中,不仅必须考虑到资源优化配置、改革成本和经济运行效率,而且更应以此作为检验改革成效的标尺。这些又与特定的制度安排有着内在联系,因此,只有认真研究交易费用和制度变迁的相关问题,才能保证中国改革的进一步深化。     

深化改革是构建和谐社会的根本途径

当前影响我国构建和谐社会的主要因素是资源行政性配置量中的权力市场化、市场体系的不完善、社会保障制度滞后、经济转轨和社会转型中的分配不公及利益失衡等体制性因素。因此,构建和谐社会必须从继续深化行政性垄断部门的改革、完善市场体系和运行机制、建立和完善社会保障制度、调节收入分配差距和完善分配制度等体制改革,从根本上革除影响我国构建和谐社会的制度性因素,不能因为改革过程中由于改革不完善而出现的经济社会的不和谐而废止改革。     

Competition, entry and the social returns to infrastructure in transition economies

This paper presents a simple model for analysing the contribution of investments in physical and institutional infrastructure to the transition process. In addition to the direct cost savings, infrastructure investment generates important indirect effects, or transition impacts . The model shows that, by reducing transaction costs, infrastructure intensifies product market competition. This leads to more effective weeding out of the existing high-cost firms in the market. In this model, infrastructure also increases the incentives for low-cost firms to restructure which generates additional efficiency gains, but exacerbates the existing cost asymmetry in the economy. Finally, infrastructure investment enhances the incentives for relatively low-cost firms to enter the market, and thus improves the efficiency of the entry process. The importance of these transition impacts of infrastructure is dependent upon features of the economy, such as the degree of cost asymmetry among firms, the proportion of high-cost firms, the cost of restructuring and entry costs for new firms.
JEL classification: L1, O1, P2.     

Effects of financial liberalization on financial market development and economic performance of the SSA region: An empirical assessment

This study investigates the role of financial liberalization in promoting financial deepening and economic growth in Sub-Saharan African countries (SSA). We apply the more efficient system GMM estimator in dynamic panel data that combines first difference and original level specification to deal with the problems of weak instruments. Our dataset covers 21 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa over the period of 1981–2009.Additionally, the paper sought to examine both the direct and indirect impacts of financial liberalization policies on economic growth and financial deepening using a much more comprehensive and recent financial liberalization dataset. The econometric results suggest that, on average, financial liberalization is negatively associated with income growth in SSA region. Our findings provide support for the skeptical empirical view of financial liberalization in emerging markets, which show that liberalization, by itself, might be associated with lower economic growth through leading to destabilization, stimulating domestic capital flight and increasing the risk of financial fragility. However, the research finds that financial liberalization does indeed impact positively on financial deepening and resource mobilization in SSA region, after controlling for key macroeconomic factors such as institutional quality, fiscal imbalances and inflation. In fact the study reports a stronger reforms effect for countries that have stronger legal institutions, protection of property rights and higher human capital. Policy-wise, the study finds that institutional and human capital factors are important in explaining growth and financial development; therefore, it is necessary for SSA governments to promote a stronger and more transparent institutional development as we move forward.     

Human capital, economic growth, and regional inequality in China

We show how regional growth patterns in China depend on regional differences in physical, human, and infrastructure capital as well as on differences in foreign direct investment (FDI) flows. We also evaluate the impact of market reforms, especially the reforms that followed Deng Xiaoping's “South Trip” in 1992 those that resulted from serious hardening of budget constraints of state enterprises around 1997. We find that FDI had a much larger effect on TFP growth before 1994 than after, and we attribute this to the encouragement of and increasing success of private and quasi-private enterprises. We find that human capital positively affects output and productivity growth in our cross-provincial study. Moreover, we find both direct and indirect effects of human capital on TFP growth. These impacts of education are more consistent than those found in cross-national studies. The direct effect is hypothesized to come from domestic innovation activities, while the indirect impact is a spillover effect of human capital on TFP growth. We conduct cost-benefit analysis of hypothetical investments in human capital and infrastructure. We find that, while investment in infrastructure generates higher returns in the developed, eastern regions than in the interior, investing in human capital generates slightly higher or comparable returns in the interior regions. We conclude that human capital investment in less-developed areas is justified on efficiency grounds and because it contributes to a reduction in regional inequality.