Individuals and Their Local Utility Stocks: Preference for the Familiar

We find individuals are four times more likely to purchase stocks of their local direct utility company as opposed to utility companies operating outside their state of residence. Our tests reveal that individuals do not possess superior or private information about their local utilities. Indeed, individual preference for their local utility stocks seems to be driven by preference for familiar assets, even in the presence of a desire for high dividend yields. In addition, affluence and sophistication do not reduce local bias.     

Relations with Non-Elected Agencies: Local Authority Good Practice

The controversy over reform of the local unelected state has tended to over-shadow principles of good practice for local authorities. This article shows how local authorities can get the best out of their relationships with non-elected agencies. In particular, how should they develop their strategic capabilities and representational roles in the 'new local governance'?     

借鉴国际经验 完善地方税制

世界上许多国家，为适应其政治、经济不断发展变化的需要。都曾对地方财税体制进行过一系列改革，在有些国家形成了一套相对完整而又行之有效的地方税制，本文试图通过地一些国家地方税制的比较分析，找出地方税制建设的一些共同规律，为我国地方税制的完善提供借鉴。     

地方政府借款的潜在风险分析

本文从地方政府多种关系冲突和商业银行对地方政府贷款风险认识不足入手,揭示地方政府借款存在的潜在风险,并力图通过对地方政府借款主体的合法性、借款用途的合理性、借款资金贷后划转规范性、第一和第二还款来源的稳定性和可靠性、担保措施的可信性和长效性等风险的剖析,呼吁地方政府和商业银行在刺激内需热潮中,保持清醒头脑,控制住地方政府的借款额度,防止还款来源资金的断裂。     

Local market makers, liquidity and market quality

We examine the role of geographically proximate (local) market makers in providing liquidity and improving the quality of a dealer market. Firms with active participation of local dealers enjoy lower quoted and effective spreads, as well as more informative prices. The beneficial effects from local market makers are not confined to a few “top” local dealers and they cannot be attributed to their participation in the firm's IPO syndicate or industry specialization. Further, we find that days with aggressive bidding from local market makers relative to their non-local counterparts are associated with significant positive abnormal returns, consistent with local market makers possessing information advantages. In summary, our results suggest that the information advantages of local market makers may be a contributing factor to the reduction in the cost of trading.     

证劵发行管制下的地方“护租”与上市公司财务困境风险化解

通过分析证券发行管制下的地方"护租"行为研究了地方政府参与辖内上市公司财务困境风险化解机制:中央政府证券发行管制形成垄断租金,地方政府围绕证券发行机会的竞争使得垄断租金转化成为可占用性准租,为了辖内公司获得未来发行证券机会,避免租值转移,地方政府积极参与辖内上市公司财务困境风险化解。上述理论分析得到了经验证据的支持。以2005—2009年处于财务困境上市公司为研究样本,发现辖内上市公司处于财务困境状况对该地区未来的公司证券发行申请通过发审委审核比例存在显著影响,地方政府则会根据自身执行能力努力减少辖内上市公司处于财务困境。本文的研究对于中国转型期证券行政监管阶段性有效,特别是地方政府积极参与辖内上市公司财务困境风险化解给出了机理性解释并提供了经验证据。     

农村公共卫生服务效果分析和思考——基于海南省调查数据

当前村医的诊疗能力有一定提高。农村居民患者的就医意向和对村医服务态度的评价与其年龄和受教育程度密切相关,同时村医对疾病预防和控制知识的宣传不够,对微利的预防保健工作的重视不够。为更好地发挥三级医疗卫生服务网络“网底”的作用,农村公共卫生服务补偿力度应视不同地区经济发展水平而异,重点向贫困地区倾斜,建立权责分明的村卫生室绩效考核制度,明确各级财政对公共卫生服务项目的补偿比例,鼓励多元化筹资兴办村卫生室。     

地方政企合谋与信贷资源配置

通过建立地方政企合谋与信贷资源配置的数理模型来研究分权下地方政府干预信贷资源配置服务于地方政府的自身效用,结果表明地方政企合谋是地方政府在直接干预力度减弱的情况下,间接干预金融资源配置的一个重要的途径;且地方政府官员的政治晋升是助长这些干预行为的关键因素。若将发现地方政企合谋与政府地方官员政治晋升与否直接相关,即能起到威慑作用,并能形成最优的防范地方政企合谋契约。     

The revenue and base effects of local tax hikes: evidence from a quasi-experiment

Due to a reform of the local equalization scheme in 2003, a set of municipalities in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) increased their local property and business tax rates by one to two percentage points, while the remaining municipalities kept their rates constant. I use this variation across municipalities and over time to study the revenue and base effects of local property and business tax hikes in a generalized difference-in-differences design. The results suggest that the property tax hikes had even in the long-run a revenue elasticity of unity. Accordingly, I find no adverse effects on property tax bases. For the business tax, I find no significant effects on revenues and bases. Furthermore, there are also no effects on broader economic outcomes such as local employment, firms’ wage bill, and property prices. Overall, increasing local tax rates by one to two percentage points does not seem to affect the local economy adversely.

     

Effective human resources processes in local government

Local authority HR departments have come under increasing government pressure to strengthen and professionalize their role. This article explores the perspectives of line and HR managers in two local authorities on how the HR function can best be organized to contribute to the development of their organizations. A new model of effective HR processes in local government is proposed.     

Strengthening Political Leadership in UK Local Government

Many councillors and officers in local government have begun to question long-established approaches to local authority leadership and management. This article shows that there is growing interest in developing new ways of revitalizing local democracy and projecting the value of local government. It examines some of the models of local authority management found in other countries, including the directly elected mayor. The article argues that the responsibilities of the executive need to be separated from those of the council. Legal barriers which prevent UK local authorities from reshaping their organizations to meet new challenges need to be removed.     

地方政府财政压力与银行信贷资源配置效率--基于我国城市商业银行的研究证据北大核心

基于2005-2015年我国城市商业银行的样本,本文研究省级地方政府财政压力是否对商业银行信贷资金投向和信贷资源配置效率产生影响。研究发现,地方政府财政压力是影响城市商业银行信贷资源配置的重要因素。具体而言,省级地方政府的财政压力越大,省内城市商业银行投向地方国有经济部门的贷款比率越高。然而,信贷资源更多投向地方国有经济部门的银行有更高的不良贷款率和更差的会计业绩。进一步研究发现,在财政压力大的省份,城市商业银行投向地方国有经济部门的贷款比率越高,则贷款拨备率越低,这表明城市商业银行会通过盈余管理行为来应对监管压力。本文研究结论对商业银行监管以及防范化解金融风险有重要启示。     

Rethinking the relationship between local government and financial markets

In the past 20 years local governments have increasingly looked to financial markets for capital financing. The markets want local governments to change their accounting systems and become more transparent, in order to offer information that is more appropriate to private sector investors. The authors argue that this approach is only a partial solution, and that local government and financial institutions would both benefit from changes in their relationships. The article identifies a double knowledge gap that needs to be filled if the public and private sectors want to work together as long-term financial partners.     

地方竞争是否阻碍了地方政府债务绩效的提升？——理论框架及空间计量研究

本文从举债行为策略视角考察地方竞争对地方政府债务绩效的影响。 首先,从不同地区间举债行为策略互动的视角对地方竞争如何影响地方政府债务绩效进行理论诠释,其次,在采用Global超效率DEA方法测度地方政府债务绩效的基础上,突破空间独立性假设,运用空间杜宾模型对地方竞争影响地方政府债务绩效的效果及空间外溢性进行实证检验。研究发现,在地方效用最大化目标导向下,无论是地方税收竞争还是公共投资竞争,都对债务增速产生了较为显著的正向影响和空间外溢效应,导致地方采取主动扩大债务规模的举债行为策略。与此同时,随着债务规模的持续增长,无论是地方税收竞争还是公共投资竞争,都将对债务绩效产生“规模报酬递减”的负向影响和空间外溢效应,尤其是公共投资竞争的影响效果更加明显。进一步地,如果考虑到可能存在预算软约束现象,地方竞争还将与预算软约束行为相结合,对债务绩效产生了“使用效率递减”的负向影响。本文结论为通过债务合理使用来促进经济高质量发展,防范化解地方政府债务风险提供了政策启示。     

ASSESSING COMPETITION AMONG LOCAL AUTHORITIES IN ENGLAND AND WALES

The government has directed a series of initiatives at local authorities in England and Wales with a view to reducing the volume of current expenditure. In particular, in 1981 the government recommended that local authorities in England and Wales should publish various indicators of activity in their annual reports. The objective was to stimulate competition between authorities, and thereby both influence their spending plans and improve efficiency. This paper examines the trends in the published data over a five-year period to determine whether there has been any detectable increase in competition in local authorities. The results are negative.     

Government assisted earnings management in China

As the socialist system in China embraces the market economy, it has created many conflicts of interests and collusion between firms and different layers of governments. The central government in China sets regulations to ensure the quality of firms listed in the capital market, while local governments engage in inter-jurisdictional competition for more capital, and their interests are aligned with listed firms through the stringent IPO quota system. This paper examines how local governments in China help listed firms in earnings management to circumvent the central government’s regulation. We find that local governments provide subsidies to help firms boost their earnings above the regulatory threshold of rights offering and delisting. Moreover, this collusion between government and listed firms in earnings management exists mainly in firms controlled by local governments.     

关于我国地方税主体税种选择的思考

地方税主体税种的选择是构建地方税体系的重点内容之一，目前大多数有关地方税的文章都对这一问题进行了探讨，而且都提出了自己的看法，但大都较笼统。本文作者详细分析了影响地方税主体税种选择的因素，探究了我国缺少主体税种的原因及其造成的危害，进而提出要根据税制改革的实际进度，分阶段、分地区地确定相应时期的主体税种。     

Competing,collaborating or controlling? Comparing benchmarking in European local government

The way that local authorities in OECD countries compare and benchmark their performance varies widely. This paper explains some of the reasons behind the variations. The current local government benchmarking schemes in Europe— their governance, coverage and impact—largely depend on the institutional characteristics of the respective administrative and local government systems (in other words, the starting conditions). There are signs that, as a result of the fiscal crisis in Europe and need to cut public sector costs, many countries (but not England and Wales) are leaning towards compulsory large-scale benchmarking projects.     

Has local informational advantage disappeared?

This study examines how changes in the information environment affect the informational advantage of geographically proximate agents. The long‐term advantage of local agents disappeared at the turn of the millennium. This is accompanied by the reduction in local bias of institutional investors and equity analysts. However, institutional investors continue to trade local stocks disproportionately more often than non‐local stocks; moreover, their local trades outperform non‐local trades in the short term—even for large and liquid stocks. Our results are consistent with improvements in the information environment shortening the horizon of proximity‐based informational advantage.     

地方税制的国际经验与借鉴

本文通过对美、德、日、法四国的地方税制进行比较分析,归纳出四国地方税制的特征,并在此基础上提出了对我国地方税制改革的建议:建立分级地方税制;选择财产税为地方税主体税种;采用集权为主的税权模式。