制度、基础设施与经济增长

本文建立包含制度因素的生产函数,通过动态规划和比较静态分析,讨论了制度、人均基础设施与经济增长的关系.通过研究发现,制度质量不同,资本的边际产品随人均资本积累变化的趋势不同.而且制度会通过影响人均资本产出弹性而影响基础设施对经济增长的贡献.从而导致经济增长率的不同.而且本文证明了最优税率随制度质量提高而变高.最后,经济增长的稳定状态也取决于制度质量,制度质量越高,均衡状态时的人均消费越大,所需人均资本投入越小.     

Openness,Lobbying, and Provision of Infrastructure

Casual empirical evidence suggests that infrastructure provision is higher in economies that are open to world trade. We develop a model of imperfect competition to show that open economies are likely to provide more infrastructure than closed economies. If infrastructure is financed by taxing a producer lobby, the open economy will overprovide while the closed economy will underinvest; an open economy approaches optimal provision when this lobby group is small in size. If financing of infrastructure is done by taxing the whole population, the closed-economy outcome may be preferred relative to that of the open economy.     

The Millennium Development Goals, How Realistic Are They?

Summary In its Millennium Declaration of September 2000, the United Nations adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), to be reached in 2015 through concerted efforts worldwide. According to UN-calculations, the estimated costs in terms of additional development aid of meeting the MDGs in all countries vary from 121 billion US dollars in 2006 to 189 billion US dollars in 2015. The present communication reviews the figures reported. It appears that while Asia is well on track to achieve the goals, essentially through efforts of its own, Africa is lagging behind, albeit that according to detailed survey data on weight-for-length among adults collected in Africa for the US aid agency, rates of undernutrition are about 58 percent of the levels used as a reference by the UN, which are based on assessment of food production. Yet, child undernutrition comes out higher in these surveys. Besides mentioning reservations about the adequacy of these MDG-yardsticks, we consider the cost estimates for Africa as presented in the UN-reports and subsequently assessed in the literature. It appears that these estimates are too low, even if all MDG-funds were concentrated on this continent, essentially because they are set up as shopping lists that are necessarily incomplete and, among others, disregard many of the indirect cost of delivering the goods to the target beneficiaries, including the cost of providing adequate security and avoiding corruption. Nonetheless, recalling how hopeless the situation looked some 30 years ago for China, India, and Bangladesh, where unprecedented numbers have now escaped extreme poverty during the past decade and a half, we submit that over a time horizon of about twice the 15 years of the MDG’s and with adequate international support, realization of the MDG-targets should be possible for Africa too. An erratum to this article can be found at     

Foreign Aid Heterogeneity: Issues and Agenda

The present paper serves as an introduction to this special issue providing a justification for, and linking and introducing to the articles that follow. A central message emanating from the papers included in this special issue is that it is not sufficient to double aid efforts by simply raising and transferring more money. Substantial effort needs to be taken in order to delve deeper into the various routes and transmission mechanisms through which the various types of aid operate. And this is a timely as well as important issue in view of recent calls (as well as concerns) for another “big push” approach in development aid. JEL no. F35     

交通基础设施、要素流动与城乡收入差距

大规模的基础设施建设，尤其是以铁路提速为代表的交通基础设施质量升级，是否会影响收入分配?通过将始于1997年的铁路提速事件视为交通基础设施质量提升的准自然实验，文章基于要素流动视角，运用双重差分方法实证检验了铁路提速对城乡收入分配的影响。机制分析表明，铁路提速通过促进劳动力、资本和技术等要素在城乡之间的流动，从而缩小城乡收入差距。实证分析表明，铁路提速显著缩小了城乡收入差距，缩小了大约5%-7%。铁路提速缩小城乡收入差距的作用主要来自于促进了人的流动、物的流动和技术流动，从而证实了要素流动机制。从城乡收入分配的角度而言，铁路提速显著有利于农村居民收入增加，从而缩小了城乡收入差距。动态效应表明，铁路提速初期缩小了城乡收入差距，但缩小作用递减；在2003年之后，铁路提速扩大了城乡收入差距。在这一过程中，2003年之前城乡收入差距缩小主要在于农村居民收入增长快于城市居民，从而城乡收入差距缩小；2003年之后，城市居民收入增幅大于农村居民，城乡收入差距开始扩大。这一动态效应的背后主要是由要素流动机制所致。基于多种稳健性检验，文章结论依然十分稳健。文章结论为提升交通基础设施质量、打破地区分割促进要素流动、提升农村地区要素集聚能力等政策提供了直接证据。     

优化基础油运输,降低运输费用

通过对生产润滑油所需原材料基础油的物流优化,从而达到对运输费用的控制,降低生产成本,提高产品的市场竞争力。同时,结合天津储运分公司与物流方签订协议,采用双向载货的方式,减少费用,也减少对环境污染。     

韩国债券市场:结构、工具与基础设施

韩国债券市场是亚洲较大的国内债券市场,其近年的迅速发展越来越受到世界各国特别是东亚新兴市场国家的高度重视。本文主要对其市场结构、交易工具、制度法律框架以及税收待遇和结算交割系统等进行了扼要介绍。     

Aid and trade

This paper surveys the recent theoretical and empirical literaturethat explores the relations between aid and trade and asks aboutthe complementarity or substitution effects at work. We distinguishbetween the effects of aid on trade flows and on trade policies,of the donor as well as the recipient countries. Special focusis given on trade facilitation, or ‘aid for trade’.     

What Determines the Size of Aid Projects?

Over the last few years, considerable attention has focused on aid fragmentation, the proliferation of donors and projects in developing countries. Aid fragmentation has continued to increase despite international efforts to foster donor coordination. One possible implication of fragmentation is smaller aid projects, potentially with the result of more administrative work for overtaxed recipient governments per dollar of aid received.This paper makes use of AidData data on bilateral aid commitments, sector, and funding agencies to explore the determinants of project size and to better understand the forces driving aid fragmentation. To the extent that project size is driven by the sectoral composition or purpose of aid, the associated administrative costs may be justified. Variations due to other factors, e.g. a donor’s administrative structure or bureaucratic interests, provide a stronger case for reforms.