我国当代房地产业发展的向度——浅析政府管理主体对我国当代房地产业的责任和存在的问题

在我国房地产行业成长和发展过程中,还有一个至关重要的利益,那就是政府管理主体。市场经济条件下,政府主管部门已不仅仅是单纯的管理主体,各级政府管理主体都有自己独立的经济利益,成了独立的利益主体。作为管理主体,其施政行为势必对投资开发主体、消费主体的经济活动产生直接或间接的影响;同时,作为独立的利益主体,政府主管部门的逐利行为也必然对投资开发主体和消费者的利益造成一定的压力。因而,政府管理主体在与投资开发主体和消费主体间的相互关系中也必然担负着相应的责任。     

消费和社会投资的互动关系

目前投资领域开始出现政府投资与社会投资共同拉动经济增长,但政府投资的拉动作用仍略强于社会投资;而消费领域出现的却是政府消费率上升与居民消费率保持低位;外需对经济增长的贡献率起伏不定。我国经济增长动力机制应由目前的投资主导型转向居民消费、社会投资合力来推动。     

社会经济活动的两个基本法则

供给与需求的矛盾是社会经济活动的基本矛盾。经济合理性法则和利益动力法则是由这一基本矛盾决定的。前者是生产力法则,后者是生产关系法则,后者是前者的实现机制。社会主义经济制度为经济合理性法则的实现提供了最强大的利益动力机制,但只有合理的经济体制才能保证这种动力机制发挥作用。 一、社会经济的基本矛盾 马克思主义经济学告诉我们,任何社会的经济活动,都表现为生产、分配、交换、消费四个互相依存、互相制约的环节的循环运动。其中,生产是手段,消费是目的,分配和交换     

社会责任承担与企业投资效率：基于利益相关者理论的解释

企业社会责任承担的经济后果是理论界与实务界关注的重要话题.基于利益相关者理论解析社会责任承担对企业投资效率的作用机制,采用主成分分析法构建社会责任综合指数实证检验发现:社会责任指数与投资效率显著负相关,表明企业社会责任承担抑制了过度投资和投资不足问题,并在投资不足企业中作用更显著;企业短期社会责任变化对投资效率作用不显著;在内部利益相关者、非国有企业、非发达地区样本中社会责任承担对投资效率的影响更显著;企业可持续发展能力与独立董事声誉在其中起到部分中介作用,盈余管理程度对企业投资效率产生直接影响.研究丰富了企业社会责任承担经济后果研究,拓展了企业投资决策前置因素,为当前企业积极履行社会责任、提升投资效率提供了有意义的借鉴.     

以利益分享机制重建经济增长动力结构

我国未来经济增长结构调整的基本方向必然是从外需和投资拉动型向消费主导型转换。本文首先通过对经济增长结构的考察和分析,指出新形势下的经济增长必须建立在消费主导的基础上,进而分析我国目前消费需求严重不足的深层次原因,论证了消费主导型经济结构的建立必须调整国民收入分配结构,特别应把初次分配当作国民收入分配改革的重点。最后,为了破解初次分配领域中的难点,提出了建立利益分享机制的基本思路。     

论近期凸显的生产与消费的矛盾

生产和消费的关系贯穿于经济运行的各个环节,对于经济运行的全过程具有支配和决定作用。目前,经济运行各环节矛盾之所以不断拓展,根本原因就是生产和消费的关系早已严重失调。近几年,生产与消费的矛盾日益凸显,其成因即长期实行投资扩张。要化解生产和消费的矛盾,不可再搞投资拉动,而必须着力以消费启动经济运行。与消费启动相配套的经济运行机制主要包括内需和外需协调适应的机制、以消费带动投资、投资和消费相互协调的机制、以市场容量带动经济增长的机制等。     

浙江省经济增长的结构性分析

运用联立方程和脉冲响应分析方法,在一个经济总体中,依据浙江省宏观数据,分析消费、投资、净出口对经济增长的短期和长期促进作用。得出在短期内,经济增长对净出口的影响远大于对投资和消费的影响,但长期中不能保持,且短期内政府消费对经济增长效果显著;而投资与消费、净出口之闯短期内相互抑制,长期中相互促进。     

浙江省经济增长的结构性分析

运用联立方程和脉冲响应分析方法,在一个经济总体中,依据浙江省宏观数据,分析消费、投资、净出口对经济增长的短期和长期促进作用.得出在短期内,经济增长对净出口的影响远大于对投资和消费的影响,但长期中不能保持,且短期内政府消费对经济增长效果显著;而投资与消费、净出口之间短期内相互抑制,长期中相互促进.     

中国消费投资失衡的不良影响与调整方略

投资消费失衡是中国经济内部失衡的最突出表现,与科学发展本义相悖.本文将系统地分析中国消费投资失衡现状,讨论梳理其对中国经济的不良影响,并针对中国对投资消费失衡的宏观调控对策,分析投资消费失衡的形成机制,提出针对性的调整方略.     

基于科学发展观和经济增长的消费与投资比例动态调整

从社会再生产来看，消费包括生活性消费和投资性消费两部分。无论是消费还是投资对经济增长和社会就业都会产生重要的影响，关系到政府宏观调控能否有效实施。然而，我国经济发展的实践很难摆脱消费过热或投资过热的困境，因此，我们需要以经济增长为核心目标，来动态调整消费与投资比例关系，着力提高经济增长速度和经济增长质量。尤其是在坚持科学发展观的今天，更要从提高经济增长质量出发，动态调整消费与投资的比例关系。     

Pleasure and belief in Hume's Decision Process

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to introduce explicitly pleasure and belief in what aims at being a Humean theory of decision, like the one developed in Diaye and Lapidus (2005a). Although we support the idea that Hume was in some way a hedonist – evidently different from Bentham's or Jevons' way – we lay emphasis less on continuity than on the specific kind of hedonism encountered in Hume's writings (chiefly the Treatise, the second Enquiry, the Dissertation, or some of his Essays). Such hedonism clearly contrasts to its standard modern inheritance, expressed by the relation between preferences and utility.

The reason for such a difference with the usual approach lies in the mental process that Hume puts to the fore in order to explain the way pleasure determines desires and volition. Whereas pleasure is primarily, in Hume's words, an impression of sensation, it takes place in the birth of passions as reflecting an idea of pleasure, whose “force and vivacity” is precisely a “belief”, transferred to the direct passions of desire or volition that come immediately before action. As a result, from a Humean point of view, “belief” deals with decision under risk or uncertainty, as well as with intertemporal decision and indiscrimination problems.

The latter are explored within a formal framework, and it is shown that the relation of pleasure is transformed by belief into a non-empty class of relations of desire, among which at least one is a preorder.     

Globalization,Neoliberalism and the attack on social security

Neoliberal political movements advocate privatization of public pension systems. Globalization imposes pressure on nations to conform to neoliberal policy views with respect to the design and structure of social insurance, including public pension systems. The paper begins with an investigation of the economic, ethical and ideological dimensions of the privatization debates in the U.S.; it argues that privatization advocates may be largely moved by ideology, since the other reasons advanced appear weak or unfounded. The second part discusses the history of Social Security, the purposes for its creation, and some of its economic effects. Differences between public and private pension systems are considered. A brief international comparison of some aspects of public pension system finance and benefit structures is presented. The final section considers the ethical, macroeconomic and distributional implications of privatization, prefunding and payroll tax funding, and argues for a pay as you go system financed with income taxes. In order to promote equity, economic security, community, and social cohesion, public pension systems should be universal in coverage. In order to reduce the inequality, income insecurity, and aged poverty generated by market economies, public pension systems ought to be progressive: benefit/contribution ratios should be inversely proportional to income, and progressive income taxes should finance the system. To promote economic growth, the systems should be financed on a pay-as-you-go basis, and should not be prefunded except for an emergency reserve. The fiscal policy recommendations partially depend upon the theory developed by Abba Lerner in the 1940s, and recently advanced by Wynne Godley and Randy Wray: Lerner's “principle of functional finance.”     

Forecasting the price of gold

This article seeks to evaluate the appropriateness of a variety of existing forecasting techniques (17 methods) at providing accurate and statistically significant forecasts for gold price. We report the results from the nine most competitive techniques. Special consideration is given to the ability of these techniques to provide forecasts which outperforms the random walk (RW) as we noticed that certain multivariate models (which included prices of silver, platinum, palladium and rhodium, besides gold) were also unable to outperform the RW in this case. Interestingly, the results show that none of the forecasting techniques are able to outperform the RW at horizons of 1 and 9 steps ahead, and on average, the exponential smoothing model is seen providing the best forecasts in terms of the lowest root mean squared error over the 24-month forecasting horizons. Moreover, we find that the univariate models used in this article are able to outperform the Bayesian autoregression and Bayesian vector autoregressive models, with exponential smoothing reporting statistically significant results in comparison with the former models, and classical autoregressive and the vector autoregressive models in most cases.     

Planned adaptation in risk regulation: An initial survey of US environmental, health, and safety regulation

In principle, we want regulatory programs to be based on current realities, as reflected for example in the best knowledge of relevant experts. That would imply that old rules now on the books should be consistent with today's knowledge base, not just what was known when a rule or standard was originally set. This paper reports on a survey of US programs, examining how often existing rules are actually updated in light of better knowledge, and identifies five programs that attempt to make policy routinely adaptive. These programs exhibit what we term Planned Adaptation: they both revise rules when relevant new knowledge appears, and take steps to produce such improved knowledge. While Planned Adaptation is rare, it is used in several nationally prominent programs, including air pollution, airplane safety, and drug safety. Planned Adaptation is a policy tool that deserves more attention.     

Interest on reserves and inflation

The payment of interest on reserves has been a common practice in inflationary economies. This policy may seem paradoxical since it involves returning part of the seigniorage, generated by the inflation process, with the intention to finance the fiscal deficit. This paper argues that the motivation for this policy can be captured by the discretionary regime, where the policymaker pays interest on reserves because he is concerned with the erosion of real liquidity by inflation, which is in part beyond his control. However, this policy is an unlikely outcome in the commitment regime, where the policymaker is in full control of inflation.     

The greenhouse effect: Damages,costs and abatement

The buildup of so-called greenhouse gases in the atmosphere — CO₂ in particular-appears to be having an adverse impact on the global climate. This paper briefly reviews current expectations with regard to physical and biological effects, their potential costs to society, and likely costs of abatement. For a worst case scenario it is impossible to assess, in economic terms, the full range of possible non-linear synergistic effects. In the most favorable (although not necessarily likely) case (of slow-paced climate change), however, it seems likely that the impacts are within the affordable range, at least in the industrialized countries of the world. In the third world the notion of affordability is of doubtful relevance, making the problem of quantitative evaluation almost impossible. We tentatively assess the lower limit of quantifiable climate-induced damages at $30 to $35 per ton of CO₂ equivalent, worldwide, with the major damages being concentrated in regions most adversely affected by sea-level rise. The non-quantifiable environmental damages are also significant and should by no means be disregarded.The costs and benefits of (1) reducing CFC use and (2) reducing fossil fuel consumption, as a means of abatement, are considered in some detail. This strategy has remarkably high indirect benefits in terms of reduced air pollution damage and even direct cost savings to consumers. The indirect benefits of reduced air pollution and its associated health and environmental effects from fossil-fuel combustion in the industrialized countries range from $20 to $60 per ton of CO₂ eliminated. In addition, there is good evidence that modest (e.g. 25%) reductions in CO₂ emissions may be achievable by the U.S. (and, by implication, for other countries) by a combination of increased energy efficiency and restructuring that would permit simultaneous direct economic benefits (savings) to energy consumers of the order of $50 per ton of CO₂ saved. A higher level of overall emissions reduction — possibly approaching 50% — could probably be achieved, at little or not net cost, by taking advantage of these savings.We suggest the use of taxes on fossil fuel extraction (or a carbon tax) as a reasonable way of inducing the structural changes that would be required to achieve significant reduction in energy use and CO₂ emissions. To minimize the economic burden (and create a political constituency in support of the approach) we suggest the substitution of resource-based taxes in general for other types of taxes (on labor, income, real estate, or trade) that are now the main sources of government revenue. While it is conceded that it would be difficult to calculate the optimal tax on extractive resources, we do not think this is a necessary prerequisite to policy-making. In fact, we note that the existing tax system has never been optimized according to theoretical principles, and is far from optimal by any reasonable criteria.During the academic year 1989–90 Dr. Ayres was at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg, Austria.During the summer of 1989 Mr. Walter was a member of the Young Scientists' Summer Program at IIASA.     

SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY: TRACING THE FLOW OF BASIC RESEARCH THROUGH MANUFACTURING AND TRADE

This paper describes flows of basic research through the US economy during the late 20th century. In addition, the paper studies the effect of the flows on scientific papers in industries and fields. This article differs from others in its use of measures of science rather than technology. Together, its results present a picture of the structure of basic research flows in a modern, science-intensive economy. Basic research flows are large within petrochemicals and drugs, and within software and communications. Flows of chemistry, physics, and engineering are common throughout all industries – biology and medicine are almost confined to petrochemicals and drugs; and computer science is nearly as restricted to software and communications. In general, basic research flows are more concentrated within scientific fields than within industries. Our findings concerning the production of scientific papers indicate that the effect of a 1% change in academic R&D spillovers significantly exceeds that of industrial spillovers. In addition, within-field effects exceed effects between-fields, while within- and between-industry effects are roughly equal. It follows that scientific fields limit basic research flows more than industries do, perhaps because large firms implicitly span a range of industries.     

Bayesian estimation of duration models: An application of the multiperiod probit model

The multiperiod probit model is presented and Bayesian estimation using the Gibbs sampler with data augmentation is described. As an empirical illustration, the multiperiod probit model is then used to estimate a duration model using employment duration data for the Canadian province of New Brunswick. Bayesian estimation with unobserved heterogeneity is shown to be a simple extension of estimation of a duration model with no unobserved heterogeneity. More importantly, perhaps, some numerical problems encountered by other authors using Maximum Likelihood are avoided.I would like to thank M. Baker, G. Koop, A. Melino and D. Poirier for helpful comments and discussions. I would also like to thank M. Baker for providing his data.     

Scenarios and creativity: Thinking in new boxes

To be creative and make change happen, leaders must do more than simply ‘think outside the box’, as the traditional business manuals suggest, using the popular American expression. After all, the space outside the box is infinitely expansive. Moreover, there can be no guarantee that a solution to the problem will be found. The answer: ‘Think in new boxes.’ This requires developing the right new box; in other words, useful new models, a helpful new approach to a problem. That is the real art of practical creativity. This short article outlines the approach (Thinking in New Boxes) and its application to classic scenario planning with a few examples. The authors also present the ‘Expressway to Scenarios’, an approach that wins in impact and practicality what it loses in deep analysis, by having top executives involved in key steps.     

On the Role of Paradigms in Understanding Economic Globalization

Any adequate analysis of economic globalization necessarily requires fundamental understanding of the worldviews underlying the views expressed with respect to the nature and role of economic globalization. This paper is based on the premise that any worldview can be associated with one of the four basic paradigms: functionalist, interpretive, radical humanist, and radical structuralist. It argues that any view expressed with respect to economic globalization is based on one of the four paradigms or worldviews. It, therefore, discusses four views with respect to the nature and role of economic globalization which correspond to the four broad worldviews. The paper emphasizes that the four views expressed are equally scientific and informative; they look at the nature and role of economic globalization from a certain paradigmatic viewpoint. Emphasizing this example in the area of economic globalization, the paper concludes that there are opportunities for each paradigm to benefit from contributions coming from the other three paradigms.