The economics of land transfer and title insurance

In the presence of uncertainty over the title of land (due to fraud or error), a legal system can protect either the current (innocent) owner, or a previous owner who claims title. The predominant system in the United States generally awards title to the latter in the event of legitimate claim. Thus, current owners frequently purchase title insurance to provide indemnification in the event of a loss. In contrast, the Torrens system awards title to the current owner, but provides for indemnification of any legitimate claimants. We evaluate these two systems and argue that if transaction costs are low, both promote efficient assignment of title (according to the Coase Theorem), but if transaction costs are high, the Torrens system is more likely to award title to the party that values it the most (namely, the current possessor).     

Goodwill—an Example of Puzzle-Solving in Accounting—a Reply

Grinyer and Russell's (G&R, 1992) contention that Ma and Hopkins (1988) have imposed the mutually exclusive rules of the valuation-based paradigm on the matching-based paradigm that underlies accounting practice is overly defensive and misguided. Our 1988 paper was an attempt to throw light on why there was so little agreement on the rules governing the treatment of goodwill. G&R's comment does not change our view that the only answer to the 'puzzle' lies in the lack of a full understanding of the nature of goodwill.     

美日两国产业结构政策比较

日本产业从战后的废墟中得以重建和繁荣,并以惊人的速度赶超欧美,成为世界第二大经济强国,日本政府英明的产业结构政策功不可没。然而面对20世纪90年代日本经济的极度萧条,政府的产业结构政策已无回天之力。相比之下,美国政府通用的产业结构政策却引导美国的产业发展在信息时代仍然处于不败之地,这不能不引起我们的思考。     

战后日本经济发展中积极财政政策的研究

战后，在实现经济恢复和高速发展过程中，日本政府高度重视财政政策的宏观调控作用，在运用财政政策调节经济方面开辟了一条符合本国国情、突出本国特点的路子．对日本战后积极财政政策进行分析和评价，对我国经济发展具有重要的参考借鉴意义。     

Optimal failure rates and penalty-bonus policies in the offshore petroleum sector

We characterize optimal time profiles of risk-reducing expenditures and wreck probabilities for petroleum platforms. The input to our analysis is the development of wreck cost, direct and imputed. Particular attention is paid to the question of how private companies deviating from socially optimal standards may be induced to comply with such standards by means of a) a time-variant penalty, b) a no-wreck bonus and c) a time-invariant penalty.     

日本转移定价税制研究

转移价格是指跨国关联企业之间进行交易时使用的价格。70年代以后，随着日本经济实力的增强，日本企业经营国际化迅猛发展，出现了许多利用国际关联企业转移所得而避税的情况，而日本有关跨国公司转移定价的税制的实施，使这一避税现象得到了了的避免。随着我国加入WTO后外资的更多进入，加强转移定价的管理势在民行，学习发达国家的先进做法，将有助于我们在这方面少走弯路。     

基于技术生命周期的技术转让评价方法探讨

随着经济的快速发展，业界对技术的重要性认知与获取技术的需求日益增强。技术转让是获取技术的重要方式之一，对技术进行科学的评价是技术转让能否成功的关键。本文探讨了不同技术生命周期阶段的技术转让评价问题，以供参考。     

财政补贴改革刍论

财政补贴是国家宏观调控的杠杆之一,但是,目前补贴不规范,财政补贴数额大、项目繁杂,补贴效果‘异化’,加大了社会不公。为了强化财政补贴杠杆功能,提高财政补贴效益,必须按照建立公共财政的要求,本着满足公共需要原则、弹性补贴制度原则和补贴方式间接化原则,改变“一刀切”和补贴刚性的局面,确保采暖费收支合理化,取消肉食、副食品、粮食等价格补贴,改革国有企业的亏损补贴制度。