Watering Down Austerity: Scalar Politics and Disruptive Resistance in Ireland

Across Europe, resistance to austerity takes place in the household, the local community, and the everyday. Disruptive practices of refusal and subversion leave elite domination incomplete in the age of austerity. Under what conditions, disruptive resistance affects national and international policy-making is less clear. The article uses the analytical concept of scalar politics to engage this question. Exploring anti-water charges/anti-austerity protests in the Republic of Ireland, I highlight the importance of the scalar dimensions of materiality and culture in making disruptive resistance partially successful in this case. Economic crisis allowed Irish elites to transfer water reforms onto international and European political scales. The physical conditions required for reform meant that sustained local disruptions rendered implementation impossible. Irish history and culture provided semiotic signifiers to mobilise against an overwhelming force of domination. Scalar politics constitutes a useful theoretical frame for analysing the social embeddedness of the economy beyond the Irish case. If political economists acknowledge the social construction of scalar arrangements, we can investigate how political actors use dimensions of scale strategically to pursue their goals. We can also pay analytical attention to how certain normative preferences come to dominate certain policy domains through processes of scalar contestation.     

中国国有银行的资本金谜团

本文旨在考察中国国有银行资本金谜团的由来 ,并为破解该谜团提供一种可能的视角。本文的讨论表明 ,国有银行之所以能在真实资本极少得到补充且不良贷款比率居高不下的情况下保持稳定 ,是因为国家与居民在中国特殊的改革背景下建立起了一种奇妙的资本联盟。由于在这种联盟中 ,国家以声誉入股且具有不可分性 ,因此 ,中国国有银行改革的可行方式是谋求改变资产结构 ,而不是试图重组资本结构。     

Fiscal consolidation and financial reforms

We use a rare events logistic regression model as well as traditional probit and logit models to investigate the impact of fiscal consolidation on the likelihood of financial reforms for a panel of 17 countries over the period 1980–2005. We show that large austerity plans, mainly implemented through spending cuts rather than tax hikes, promote financial reforms. By considering reforms affecting specific areas of the financial sector, we find that the banking sector reforms and domestic finance reforms are more likely to occur when fiscal adjustments are put in place. Interestingly, while banking sector reforms are mainly prompted during periods of tax-driven consolidations, spending cuts driven consolidation packages seem to propel the implementation of domestic finance reforms. Finally, we show that higher inflation, lower degree of trade openness, a deterioration of financial conditions and, to some extent, a fall in the degree of competitiveness enhance the probability of financial reforms.     

CORRUPTION AND CORPORATE FINANCE PATTERNS: AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract.  This study demonstrates the importance of government corruption in shaping corporate finance patterns across countries. Corruption contributes to a more prevalent and higher degree of corporate equity ownership concentration and more reliance on bank financing in raising external finance. It argues that corporate governance under corrupt governments is particularly poor. Firm management, taking advantage of political capital acquired through bribery, is especially powerful in expropriating from outside investors. Ownership concentration and reliance on bank financing are means of mitigating the corporate governance problem under a corrupt government.     

The effect of privatization on wealth distribution in Russia

The paper considers the Russian privatization process and examines how its deviation from the competitive sale standard was likely to affect wealth inequality. (Privatization here is defined narrowly as the transfer of existing assets from government ownership to private hands.) While empirical evaluation is all but impossible due to the dearth of reliable data, it is feasible to analyze the institutional features of Russian privatization in terms of their effect on redistribution of wealth. The paper argues that the most relevant and interesting issue is to evaluate privatization's distributional consequences relative to the informal pre-reform property rights. In light of this, privatization is modelled as a rent-seeking contest with incumbency advantage of enterprise managers who initially held the greatest informal rights over assets. The rent-seeking contest is shown to strongly magnify this pre-reform wealth inequality reflected in the incumbency advantage.
In addition, the paper analyzes the distributional consequences for various wealth groups of the differences in the composition of their pre-reform informal wealth, most importantly a relatively large share of housing assets in the wealth of the poor. The effect of wealth redistribution on economic growth in Russia is also discussed.     

The quality and quantity of bank intermediation and economic growth: evidence from Asia Pacific

We investigate the impact of the quantity and quality of bank intermediation on economic growth across 14 Asia-Pacific economies over 2003–2015. Measures of bank shareholder value efficiency as well as profit and cost efficiency are used as indicators of intermediation quality. We also employ measures of liquidity creation (fat and nonfat) as a proxy for the quantity of bank intermediation. Our main finding is that the quality of bank intermediation (enhanced credit allocation) is a driver of economic growth in developed Asia-Pacific economies, whereas it is the quantity of bank intermediation (capital accumulation) that positively influences growth in developing nations. From a policy perspective, our findings suggest that policymakers in developed nations should concentrate their efforts on reforms that enhance bank efficiency. Second, reforms that stimulate capital accumulation should be encouraged in developing economies because this is the main channel that spurs economic growth.     

Financial market and housing wealth effects on consumption: a permanent income approach

The objective of this study is to examine the financial market and housing wealth effects on consumption. Housing has the dual functions as both a commodity yielding a flow of housing services and an investment asset yielding a flow of capital income. With the construction of an empirical framework based on the vector autoregression approach, the findings from this study suggest that a rise in housing price has both a positive wealth effect and a negative price effect on consumption. While the positive wealth effect is caused by an increase in capital income, the negative price effect is caused by an increase in the cost of housing services. In addition, the housing market wealth effect increases, at the expense of the price effect, with the level of housing-market leverage. These findings imply that the government policy of land supply aiming to stimulate the economy should strike a balance between the possible wealth and price effects of the housing market.     

“两房”与美国的住宅金融市场--兼论中国保障房融资机制创新

金融危机使“两房”和证券化倍受诟病。本文试图从历史、政治、经济、内生机制和外部市场环境等多个视角系统梳理美国住宅金融体制演变及“两房”和证券化的作用。通过梳理历史,客观评析了“两房”的创立对促进美国传统住宅金融向现代金融转变的积极作用,分析了网络经济泡沫破灭后金融市场环境和“两房”自身资产结构变化及诱发的危机的金融与实体经济因素。并着重剖析了后危机时代“两房”成为政府救市的工具运作机理和未来美国住宅金融市场改革的要点。最后提出我国保障房融资机制匮乏,应建立政策性住宅金融体系。     

浅析农发行增量贷款风险的控制与防范

政策性银行作为当今金融体系的一部分，在贯彻政府意图、补充商业银行金融活动缺陷和不足等方面起了不可或缺的作用，但其在经营活动中同样存在资产损失的问题。因此，正确认识政策性银行的风险并予以防范和化解。对维护我国金融体系稳健发展具有重大意义。     

金融支撑体系对我国物联网产业发展的作用——基于我国物联网上市企业的实证分析

界定了金融支撑体系的内涵及其构成,阐述了国内外物联网产业发展现状,从理论层面分析了财政税收、商业银行、创业投资和资本市场对中国物联网产业发展的影响,并提出相关研究假设。以2010—2012年中国46家物联网上市企业的数据为基础,建立面板数据混合回归模型,实证分析不同金融支持方式对物联网上市企业绩效的影响。研究发现:留存收益、财税、股权和创业投资4种金融支持方式与物联网上市企业的绩效显著正相关;商业银行信贷支持与物联网上市企业绩效正相关但不显著,说明信贷资金利用的有效性有待加强。最后提出完善金融支撑体系以促进中国物联网产业发展的对策建议。     

企业融资中的银行角色与最优融资契约

本文对企业融资中银行所扮演的角色进行分析,发现银行以债权人身份参与企业融资时,只有当企业的自有资金达到一定数量时银行才会接受契约,但是银行的清算威胁不起作用;当银行以股东角色参与企业融资时,清算威胁会降低企业的道德风险,企业的清算价值与自有资金之间的关系会对企业的融资起到至关重要的作用;当银行以混合角色参与企业融资时,银行的清算威胁仍会起到一定的作用,但是对企业的清算价值具有一定的放松,同时企业与享有股权的银行会产生共谋,损害以债权进行投资的银行的利益,企业的最优努力程度会发生偏离,增加了企业的道德风险.     

上市公司、资本虹吸与房价的地区差异

鉴于上市公司与房价地区差异的研究鲜见,文章首次从地区层面寻找上市公司影响房价的微观传导路径.研究发现,上市公司从一级市场上融资、内部人在二级市场上减持均会"虹吸"全国资金,增加当地货币资本,进而正向影响房价,即高融资或高减持地区成为"虹吸方";融资虹吸与减持虹吸对房价的影响存在差异,减持虹吸引起财富集聚,对房价的影响更多地由富裕阶层的购房需求所推动,而融资虹吸带来的财富影响比较分散.地区股票市值与房价呈现螺旋增长关系,在股市上涨期间替代效应占主导地位,两者的增长率负相关;而在下跌期间财富效应占主导地位,两者的增长率正相关.文章从企业层面阐释了房价地区差异的金融成因及路径,并试图厘清股票市场与房价的增长结构,为地区经济的协调发展提供了参考.     

Capital,the State,and the Monetary Mode of Power: A Review of Nitzan and Bichler's Capital as Power

In their recent book Capital as Power, Jonathan Nitzan & Shimshon Bichler depict capitalism as a mode of power rather than a mode of production, in which political and economic power are no longer distinct. In addition, they argue, contrary to neoclassical theory, that capital has nothing to do with productivity but instead represents power. I make three broad criticisms: first, their elimination of the distinction between economics and politics renders any empirical test of their ostensible integration impossible; second, they do not adequately define their main concepts, including capital, capitalization, capitalism, and power; and third, they do not acknowledge the possibility that the patterns they attribute to power may in fact be self-organized. This paper argues that money is a claim to wealth, not wealth itself, that it measures and distributes the power of payment, and that payments redistribute the power of ownership, including the ownership of money. Finally, I suggest that, in light of the global debt crisis, a theory of capital-as-power should examine the power of finance, which entails the privatization and concentration of the power to create money as debt.     

THE SIZE DISTRIBUTION OF HOUSEHOLD DISPOSABLE WEALTH IN THE UNITED STATES

In this study, new estimates are presented of the size distribution of household wealth in the U.S. in 1969. Compared to previous studies, its major advance is the inclusion of all marketable or discretionary household assets and liabilities and their alignment with national balance sheet totals. Household disposable wealth (HDW) is defined as the sum of all marketable or fungible assets held by households less liabilities. The Gini coefficient for HDW is 0.72, the share held by the richest one percent of households is 31 percent, and the share held by the top five percent is 49 percent. There is, however, a large variation in the concentration of different household assets. The Gini coefficient is 0.30 for household durables and inventories, 0.69 for equity in owner-occupied housing, 0.94 for bonds and securities, and 0.98 for corporate stock. HDW is then divided into two mutually exclusive components. The first, called "life-cycle wealth," is defined as the sum of equity in owner-occupied housing, durables, household inventory, demand deposits and currency, and the cash value of life insurance and pensions less consumer debt. This form of wealth tends to be accumulated over the life-cycle for either consumption, liquidity, or retirement purposes. The second, called "capital wealth," is the sum of time and savings deposits, bonds and securities, corporate stock, business and investment real estate equity, and trust fund equity. Life-cycle wealth is substantially less concentrated than capital wealth. The Gini coefficient for it is 0.59, while that for capital wealth is 0.88. Moreover, among the lower wealth groups, over 80 percent of household wealth takes the form of life-cycle wealth, whereas among the top wealth groups the proportion is under 20 percent. The results suggest substantially different savings motivations between the two groups.     

商业银行流动性过剩的危害及其解决对策

银行流动性过剩加大了商业银行的竞争风险，增加了商业银行战略转型的难度，已成为当前金融运行中的突出问题。因此，央行应灵活运用各种货币政策工具加大政府投资力度，大力发展资本市场，拓展新的存贷款业务，创新金融产品，解决流动性过剩问题。     

The Significance of Credit Rationing on Real Investment Activity – A Test for the Significance of Capital-Market Imperfection in Japan

Does bank credit matter to the real investment finance of firms? If so, to what kind of firms does it matter, and why? Despite the progress of research in this field, there is still little empirical consensus on these problems. This paper contributes to the understanding of capital-market imperfection in Japan by answering these questions. I introduce new methods to test the significance of credit rationing and show that bank credit is indeed a very important determinant of real investment activity of small firms. The availability of long-term loans has particularly significant effects on the investment opportunities of small firms, although large firms with capital of more than 1 billion yen are free from credit rationing. JEL Classification Numbers: C51, E44, G21.     

我国两种金融结构体系运行效率考察

笔者立足对金融在经济增长中配置资金和提供服务这一核心功能进行考察，通过对我国金融运行的实证检验和分析发现，以银行中介和资本市场划分的两种金融结构各有优势，只要能够满足金融资源高效配置的金融结构都符合经济发展的需要，不必对金融结构进行人为的割裂，我国的金融体系存在着转化投资的高效率和资源配置的低效率这样一对突出矛盾。主要的原因是金融资源的配置失当，解决问题的关键是要对金融体系进行市场化改革并完善基础设施建设。     

Capital flight from the countries in transition: Some empirical evidence

This paper presents empirical evidence suggesting that the transition economies have tended to experience capital flight during periods of macroeconomic instability, such as high inflation and sharply declining output. The timing of these outflows, however, has differed somewhat across countries. Poland and Czechoslovakia experienced significant capital flight early in the transition process, but as reforms have progressed, capital outflows have slowed. By contrast, Russia registered a relatively steady flow of capital flight from 1991-94, with cumulative outflows totalling about $40 billion. Finally, capital flight from Hungary has been subdued, paralleling the gradual course of economic reforms and the country's comparative political stability.     

美国预算和财政管理改革的演进及对中国的启示

一直以来,美国公共预算和财政管理的改革都是务实的、政治的、演进的,有时也不乏创新性。通过对美国公共预算和财政管理改革的历史进行回顾,可以得出一个理解公共预算和财政管理改革的理论框架,这将有助于理解美国现行预算和财政制度体系。这些改革经验对于包括中国在内的世界各国均具有一定的启示和借鉴意义。     

论人力资本产权收益

本文从财务角度对人力资本产权收益的实现机制进行研究.从财务角度来看,人力资本是有意识投资的,具有促进财富和经济增长的内在特性的,一种能享有资本产权收益的价值.所有员工都符合人力资本的特性,因此都是企业人力资本的栽体.按层次可将人力资本分为高层、中层、基层人力资本.人力资本产权特性具有债权和股权双重特性,不同层次人力资本在双重特性上的分布程度是不同的.人力资本产权收益的构成既包括债权投资意义上的收益,也包括股权投资意义上的收益.相对于非人力资本享受的税后收益,人力资本的税后收益的意义更为广泛,还包括剩余控制权相对应的收益.文章提出构建以契约底薪和法定保险为基础,以税后收益分配为调节,同时实施人力资本产权基金制度的人力资本产权收益的实现模式.