Accounting for crime in the neoliberal world

This paper examines the recent European public sector accounting reform which introduces controversial calculative practices for the recognition of criminal activities in national accounts. Namely, accounting for unlawful drug production and drug trafficking, and accounting for prostitution. Challenging the presumption of accounting neutrality, this study analyses this “accounting for crime” policy from a semantic and an epistemological view point as a cognitive system of creation of meaning and formation of knowledge. The analysis reveals the polyhedrality of neoliberalism, and the way it exerts its influence on society through its circuitous discursive process of social construction and transfiguration of reality which flows crosswise its multiple dimensions. At the macro level this policy operates as a ‘hegemonic project’: It bonds together the economic and political interests of different ‘historical blocs’, making the implementation of these practices a matter of ‘common sense’. At the micro level this policy functions as an ‘apparatus of governmentality’: It encapsulates the cognition of crime within a panoptic logic of economic rationality, transforming its outcome into a contributory value of a country's prosperity. In this context, this study outlines the centrality of accounting practice as a pivotal tool of the neoliberal ideology: It permits extending the realm of calculative methodologies to the commodification of human weaknesses, addictions, and sexuality, in a rational process of accounting to balance the supply and demand of sex and drugs, between prostitutes and clients, pushers and addicts.     

Unexpected opportunity for girls: Earthquake,disaster relief and female education in China's poor counties

The Wenchuan earthquake in 2008 devastated poverty-stricken areas in Sichuan Province, China. This paper examines the long-term effect of a disastrous earthquake on children's educational attainment using China's 2015 Population Census. Our cohort difference-in-differences results show that exposure to an earthquake has an unexpected significant positive impact on girls’ educational attainment in poor counties, but not on boys. We suggest that this surprising educational gain may be attributable to the reconstruction of schools and the reduction in school fees after disaster. In the long run, girls in poor affected counties are more likely to delay marriage, postpone childbearing and become self-employed compared with girls in poor unaffected counties. These findings potentially exhibit the unintended benefits in education from post-disaster interventions in poor areas.     

小议公共选择理论——基于对《同意的计算:立宪民主的逻辑基础》的思考

《同意的计算:立宪民主的逻辑基础》将经济学的个体主义方法论运用到政治问题的分析之中,是公共选择理论第一著作。该书强调对决策规则选取的重要性,一致同意规则被视为符合帕累托效率的决策规则,但为了防止决策成本过高,在现实中往往会偏离这一理想规则。该书作者布坎南不仅完善和发展了公共选择理论,还首创了立宪经济学,为政府改革提供了理论支持,具有很强的实践意义。根据《同意的计算:立宪民主的逻辑基础》以及布坎南的公共选择理论,可以看出未来我国应该在监督机制的完善、市场力量的引入等方面进行改革。     

政府补贴、产权性质与战略性新兴产业创新绩效

政府补贴和产权性质作为战略性新兴产业发展的重要影响因素，其对创新绩效的影响已引起国内外广泛关注。采用Wind数据库中的中国战略性新兴产业上市挂牌公司面板数据，建立随机效应面板数据模型，科学评估政府补贴、产权性质对战略性新兴产业创新绩效的影响。结果发现：①现阶段中国战略性新兴产业政府补贴对企业绩效具有负向激励作用；②由于企业产权性质不同，政府补贴对非国有企业创新绩效的影响大于其对国有企业的影响。最后，提出完善政府补贴监管制度，营造合理透明发展环境，优化政府补贴政策，确保补贴方案因地制宜等政策建议，以期为政府制定更有效的补贴政策提供理论借鉴和决策支持。     

Dynamics between government spending and economic growth in China: an analysis of productivity growth

This study investigates the dynamics between government spending and economic growth in China through influencing the productivity growth of human capital byapplying Markov switching estimates for the annual time series data of China over the period 1952–2014. Firstly, we found that the Chinese economy exists in two states including state one with low growth and state two with high growth. Secondly, the consumption spending has significantly positive effect both states, while the military spending has only positive effect in state two. Interestingly, the growth effect level of consumption spending in state two is smaller than that in state one, implying a reducing effect of total factor productivity in state two. Thirdly, the combined effects of consumption spending and military spending with human capital are state dependent. This combined effect is reduced in both states, suggesting that government spending does not improve the productivity growth effect of human capital.     

Scaling behaviour of Treasury rates in India

This study finds that the scaling properties of India’s nominal and real Treasury rates are time varying, as is their multiscaling behaviour. We observe an association between the scaling behaviour of interest rates and the stages of development of the bill market. Interest rate behaviour is influenced by structural reforms, microstructure changes, and improvement in the operational efficiency of the Treasury market. Our findings suggest that monetary policy shocks have a persistent effect, but rates eventually revert to the mean. We show that the adaptive market hypothesis helps to delineate the dynamics of an emerging market undergoing a series of institutional and structural changes.     

The COVID-19 pandemic: The mitigating role of government and hotel support of hotel employees in Egypt

We investigated the effect of government support of hotels on hotels' employee support (namely, health support, staff retention, and staff training) and consequently on employee job satisfaction and organizational commitment, through the moderating role of perceived overall organizational justice and ethical climate, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a quantitative approach and a framework that drew on the stakeholder and organizational support theories, we collected data from 669 employees in Egyptian hotels through a web-based survey. The results support the proposed framework and show a positive effect of government support through the strengthened perception of perceived overall organizational justice. Surprisingly, findings indicated that the association between job satisfaction and organizational commitment is significantly and negatively influenced by hotel ethical climate. Furthermore, job satisfaction partially mediates the association between hotels’ support of employees and organizational commitment. The study holds important implications for both theory and practice.     

The US debt–growth nexus along the business cycle

We use the US data gathered by Reinhart and Rogoff (2010) to assess whether debt affects economic growth differently at different phases of the business cycle. In order to do that, we extend the threshold regression model of Chudik et al. (2017) and propose a new threshold quantile ARDL regression model. Our results show that to stimulate growth policy makers can manage the debt/GDP percentage according to how well the economy is doing. The estimated quantile thresholds (range 31–53 per cent) are larger than the one found by Lee et al. (2017) using median regressions, but still (much) smaller than the 90 per cent of Reinhart and Rogoff. In particular, when the US economy observes growth rates above their median value, that is when a smaller debt-to-GDP threshold affects the performance of the economy. In a steady-state situation, in general, regardless of the position of the business cycle and whether the debt-to-GDP ratio is below or above its threshold effect, less debt as a percentage of GDP boosts the US growth. Remarkably, this effect was always greater before than after World War II. Moreover, the most recent decades have witnessed the negative (positive) effect of more (less) debt when the economy had growth rates at their first quartile (median and third quartile). That is, the US policy makers are advised to reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio during expansions to promote growth.     

Does government funding promote or inhibit the financialization of manufacturing enterprises? Evidence from listed Chinese enterprises

This study examines how government funding type affects the financialization of manufacturing enterprises in China and discusses the different impacts of environmental factors. Funding for production can induce managers to increase expenses and reduce main business income by assigning social objectives, promoting corporate financialization. However, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) may suffer from soft budget constraints and ignore short-term revenue; enterprises in competitive industries tend to hold cash for precautionary motivation. Therefore, their financialization is insensitive to government funding. In addition, funding for interest can inhibit corporate financialization by increasing debts for non-SOEs and those with financial background employees or facing strong financing constraints, because they are lacking in capital or sensitive to financial risks.     

政府支持与民营科创企业绩效关系研究：企业家科创领导力的调节作用

民营科技创新型企业（以下简称科创企业）是经济社会发展的重要驱动力量。相关研究发现政府支持对科创企业绩效具有显著影响，但对具体影响方向和作用机制尚未达成一致意见。采取文献综述、问卷调查等研究方法，采集437家科创企业样本数据，实证检验政府支持与科创企业绩效间关系，并构建调节模型。研究发现：政府支持对科创企业绩效具有显著正向影响；同时，企业家科创领导力对政府支持与科创企业绩效间关系具有显著调节效应，科创企业家科创领导力越强，政府支持对科创企业绩效的正向影响越大。