需求主导型科技服务业激励政策的构建

需求主导型的科技服务业激励政策主要围绕科技服务业发展的需求运行,是对传统投入主导型的一种反思和超越,同时体现了外输入式的政策议程建立模式和多元化、变动性的政策制定理念。基于政策工具理论、激励理论、科技服务机构分类理论和供需平衡理论,在构建需求主导型激励政策过程中,要在观念上实现从投入主导向需求主导的渐进转变,建立长效的科技服务业需求的调查与表达机制,做好科技服务业需求的分类工作,优化经济投入性政策的结构和大力发展非经济性的激励政策。     

The Economic Agenda: a View from Europe

Over the course of the 1990s, the US outperformed Europe not only in output growth, but also in productivity and employment generation, thereby stopping Europe's decade‐long period of catching up. The author shows that the growth difference originates at least partly from insufficient investment by Europe into the determinants of long‐run growth (research, education, and the diffusion of new technologies). Northern European countries with comprehensive welfare systems performed better than the big economies in continental Europe, owing to their timely realization that these costly systems require the highest possible levels of productivity and fast growth. The European agenda for the next decade is based on this analysis. It stresses the importance of accelerating economic growth, primarily through investment into growth drivers. Labor market reforms are necessary, as is the redefinition of macroeconomic policy, a regional policy adequate for European enlargement, and reforms in the public sector. Distributional and ecological issues are also on the agenda, even though Europe outperforms the US in these fields, as is reflective of European preferences.     

Welfare-improving government behavior and inequality in a heterogeneous agents model

Government’s behavior is expected to be non-neutral in terms of impacts on both welfare and inequality. It is acknowledged in most literature that fiscal policy often involves trade-offs between economic growth and inequality.By applying an equilibrium model with heterogeneous agents, capable of exploring the relationship between fiscal policy variables and the endogenous cross-section distribution of income, wealth, consumption and leisure, this paper aims at assessing (i) the optimal menu of government expenditures as well as of (ii) their inter-temporal financing. These are key issues in times of fiscal imbalances and their correction is dominating the current (European) policy agenda.     

Dynamic legislative decision making when interest groups control the agenda

We consider dynamic decision making in a legislature, in which in each period legislators vote between the status quo (previous period?s policy) and a new bill. However, the agenda formation process is captured by interest groups, that is, the new bill on the agenda is determined by an all-pay auction among these groups. We show that convergence to the median voter of the legislature arises if interest groups are patient enough but not necessarily otherwise. We characterize the bound on the speed of convergence in a family of stationary equilibria in which policy bounces between right-wing and left-wing policies. We also show that convergence may be faster if organized interest groups represent only one side of the policy space, e.g., when only business and not consumer interests are organized.     

COMMITTEES AS SUBSTITUTES FOR COMMITMENT*

In this article, policies are negotiated in a committee by playing a dynamic voting game with an endogenous default (or status quo) policy. I show that joining a committee by maintaining a strong agenda setting power is a way for a decision maker to commit to a policy that in absence of committees is not time consistent. The disciplinary role of the endogenous status quo and the heterogeneity of preferences within the committee are two crucial ingredients to obtain this result. As a motivating example, this article focuses on the time consistency of monetary policy.     

Competitive Lobbying and Supermajorities in a Majority-rule Institution

This paper presents a complete information model of competitive lobbying in a majority‐rule institution where lobbying consists of providing politically‐valuable resources to legislators. Legislators have three roles. First, they act as allies or opponents in deciding whether to consider a lobbyist's offer. Second, they act as agenda‐setters in deciding whether to bring a policy alternative to a vote. Third, they vote on the agenda. The stationary equilibria include minimal majorities and supermajorities and involve unilateral, counteractive and preemptive lobbying. Supermajorities are recruited either to influence agenda formation or to preempt the opposing lobbyist.     

DOHA DEVELOPMENT ROUND: REACHING BEYOND TRADE LIBERALIZATION

Abstract.  While the WTO process of multilateral trade liberalization encounters increasing resistance, in part because the most difficult issues have finally risen to the top of the agenda, market-based forces are contributing to international economic integration. One of the most potent is cross-border production networks. This paper explores the implications of such networks for trade policies and development strategies. It argues that participation in production networks requires trade policy adjustments and domestic reforms that can and should be undertaken unilaterally and that such changes will improve the climate for WTO negotiations.     

Policy mix to foster innovation in the Dominican Republic: attempts from an empirical perspective

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to understand firms’ preferences for incentives to foster innovation in Dominican firms. A key research question arises: What are the most preferred science, technology, and innovation (STI) policy options to support innovation in Dominican firms? This research relies on the concept of policy mix and the conjoint analysis to support the empirical approach. Over 300 firms were surveyed across the country, and we discovered that Dominican firms prefer more complex STI policy options, including at the same time research grants, guarantee funds, and tax incentives to support several kinds of innovative activities. But also, firms need to understand the potential of available options such as tax credit and other monetary instruments, including guarantee funds. It is concluded that in the medium and long term, the STI policy mix approach could support as part of the Dominican policy agenda, an economic transition toward a more resilient and competitive economy.     

澳大利亚教育“去管制化”与“教育公共化”运动

本篇主旨为探讨澳大利亚的教育变革是在去管制化趋势下,朝向偏重资源运用的效率、市场竞争导向和消费者利益为考虑的变革,对教育本身产生价值冲击。去管制化政策保障新市场的运行,扩大既成市场利润,导致教育资源的垄断和财团化。这也意味着财团的权力扩大,社会冲突增加,公民权力受到限缩与压制。其结果）中击到澳大利亚人民一百多年来所建立的平等主义、进步主义和多元文化等人文社会价值,以及这些价值所体现的不分阶级、性别、种族和国籍的社会内容与教育哲学。随着新自由主义的管理主义导向,这些传统价值逐渐流失。于是,澳大利亚教育工会和公共大学协会等公民组织开始反思新自由主义所带来的危害,他们经由倡议、论辩与活动,提出不同的观点与行动策略。本文旨在探讨澳大利亚公民社会自20世纪90年代以来如何对新自由主义去管制化政策进行批判,如何重新组织教育,如何经由论辫提出建设性的方案。     

Environmental (De-) Regulation, Competition, and Policy Rules

This article analyzes some problems regarding our knowledge of environmental policy. Sustainable development as the prospective enlargement of the political agenda has been identified as a long-term challenge for economic policy which could get trapped in a new form of interventionism. The evolutionary market approach that is presented here focuses on development risks of environmental policy that are mostly neglected in standard theory. A transfer of the Hayekian concept of negative rules to the realm of environmental policy is critically discussed. A straight-forward transfer of Hayek's theory stressing the importance of negative rules cannot be recommended, since even the negative rules carry some development risks in the realm of environmental policy. Some preliminary political consequences are drawn which are appropriate to limit the extension of environmental targets in the future.     

Less planning,more development? Housing and urban reform discourses in Australia

This paper examines how particular interests shape urban policy debate and reform in Australia. With a particular emphasis on proposed planning system reforms in the nation’s largest state of New South Wales, we examine written submissions from development industry sectors, resident groups, and professional associations. We then compare these submissions to government responses, finding these responses heavily reflect industry narratives. In the context of an ongoing microeconomic reform agenda oriented towards deregulation and competition policy, housing development is framed as central to delivering economic growth, while the planning system is portrayed as a constraint holding back investment and new housing production. Through this prism, a series of rhetorical strategies reframe community concerns about housing affordability and the impact of new development to fit the growth agenda, while environmental and social considerations are largely sidelined.     

Principles and Practice of Resource Rent Taxation

The Henry Review placed the taxation of rents from mines back on the national policy agenda. Mineral rent is potentially a source of neutral taxation. However, the various means of taxing resource rents in practice either fall short of the ideal of neutrality or collect for the revenue only a small proportion of the mineral rent. This article discusses the six principle instruments for taxing resource projects. It evaluates these forms of taxation in relation to stability, neutrality and government revenue maximisation. It suggests a combination of instruments that is likely to establish a good balance among objectives.     

The trade-off between innovation and defense industrial policy: A simulation model analysis of the Norwegian defense industry

The paper investigates the trade-off between innovation and defense industrial policy. It presents an agent-based simulation model calibrated for the Norwegian defense industry that compares different policy scenarios and examines the effects of a pending EU market liberalization process. The paper points to two main results. (1) It finds that a pure scenario where national authorities focus on, and provide support exclusively for, either a) international competitiveness or b) national defense and security objectives, is more Pareto efficient than a corresponding mixed strategy where policy makers simultaneously pursue both international competitiveness and defense and security objectives. (2) Under the conditions of the new EU liberalization regime, it finds that a stronger and more visible trade-off will emerge between international competitiveness and national defense and security objectives. Policy makers will have to choose which to prioritize, and set a clear agenda focusing on one of the two objectives.     

Ambulatory care registered nurse performance measurement

On March 1-2, 2010, a state-of-the-science invitational conference titled "Ambulatory Care Registered Nurse Performance Measurement" was held to focus on measuring quality at the RN provider level in ambulatory care. The conference was devoted to ambulatory care RN performance measurement and quality of health care. The specific emphasis was on formulating a research agenda and developing a strategy to study the testable components of the RN role related to care coordination and care transitions, improving patient outcomes, decreasing health care costs, and promoting sustainable system change. The objectives were achieved through presentations and discussion among expert inter-professional participants from nursing, public health, managed care, research, practice, and policy. Conference speakers identified priority areas for a unified practice, policy, and research agenda. Crucial elements of the strategic dialogue focused on issues and implications for nursing and inter-professional practice, quality, and pay-for-performance.     

A spatial theory of party formation

Members of an assembly that chooses policies on a series of multidimensional ideological issues have incentives to coalesce and coordinate their votes, forming political parties. If an agent has an advantage to organize a party at a lower cost, a unique party forms and the policy outcome moves away from the Condorcet winning policy, to the benefit of party members. If all agents have the same opportunities to coalesce into parties, at least two parties form. The results are robust to the consideration of an endogenous agenda and to generalizations of the distribution of preferences.     

On the Sustainability of Austrian Budgetary Policies

The question whether fiscal policies are sustainable in the long run has received much attention in the international political agenda. In this paper, we investigate whether Austrian fiscal policy has been sustainable during the last four decades. We apply several econometric approaches to test for the sustainability of fiscal policies. The results are ambiguous. For the period of 1960–1974, we find evidence for sustainable fiscal policies. For the period 1975–1999, the results indicate that Austrian fiscal policy was not sustainable in the long run. If Austrian policy-makers do not change their budgetary policy in the future, the long-term budget constraint of the state will be violated.     

Producing Airpower: The Rise and Fall of Neo-Liberalism’s Defence Agenda

ABSTRACT

Few policy issues are more challenging than complex weaponry’s procurement and employment. Technology drives weapon costs upwards faster than economies are growing and militaries struggle to maintain increasingly sophisticated arms. Certain governments have adopted a reform agenda rooted in neo-liberal economic theory to address these challenges. Two broad policies – enhancing inter-firm competition for contracts and outsourcing activities to the private sector – emerged as central to this reform agenda. Although rarely presented as such, these reforms present a significant intellectual challenge to the hitherto predominant statist model for military power’s provision. Surprisingly, in light of neo-liberal policies’ adoption by militarily active states, no study has systematically examined these reforms’ content and impact. My article fills this lacuna by examining the state – the United Kingdom – that most consistently enacted neo-liberal defence reforms. To preview the conclusion, neo-liberal reforms initially generated small initial efficiencies, but then produced significant adverse consequences when pursued beyond a certain minimal level. Britain’s competition policy, for example, ultimately incentivized firms to consolidate into monopolies, which narrowed the scope for future competition and prevented the state from upholding fixed price contracts. Outsourcing, likewise, proved detrimental once policymakers sought to extend its scope beyond a limited range of simple services.     

Agenda control in an unstable multiparty parliamentary democracy: evidence from the Israeli public sector

As elected politicians’ knowledge, information and expertise about the policy process decrease, so will their ability to control it and to independently shape its agenda. When elected politicians spend less time in their positions due to cabinet instability, they will have less knowledge about policy issues in comparison to career bureaucrats. Multiparty parliamentary systems are characterized by cabinet instability, hence increasing the likelihood of this phenomenon. Indeed it has been shown that in these systems the bureaucracy is the main player in the policy process. This paper illustrates this phenomenon in the Israeli context, a clear example of a multiparty democracy with an unstable cabinet and a dominant bureaucracy.     

Politics of scale and strategic selectivity in the liberalisation of public services – the role of trade in services

One of the most contentious issues of the neoliberal agenda has been the privatisation of public services. The WTO GATS negotiations over the liberalisation of trade in services, which commenced in the year 2000, led to a strongly contested debate over whether the international level would provide an additional channel for the privatisation of public services. In particular, the position of the European Union was criticised for promoting this agenda. More recently, this question has regained its significance with the start of negotiations for the Trade in Services Agreement and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Thus, this article seeks to analyse the politics of scale in the field of trade in services and its specific impact upon the liberalisation of public services. By applying a Neo-Poulantzian IPE approach, we propose a typology of (i) scalar forms in trade policy and (ii) of particular liberalisation strategies. Our results suggest that the multilateral level is but one element in a strategic politics of scale, with the former primarily fulfilling the role of locking-in liberalisation gains achieved at other levels, while other scalar forms, in particular bi- and plurilateralism, are primarily used to progressively advance the liberalisation agenda.