"三农"问题的财政对策思考--治标更要治本

"三农"问题是我国转型时期社会、经济、人口、资源、环境等诸多问题的汇聚点,是关系我国改革、发展和稳定大局的重大问题.解决"三农"问题不能满足于一时的效果,而是要考察其更深层次的原因,达到治标与治本相结合.为此,本文提出发展城市经济以吸纳农村劳动力;加大农村教育投入,进行农村人力资源开发;以及进行农村制度创新,彻底改善农业和农村发展的外部条件等财政经济对策以求得"三农"问题的最彻底解决.     

财政教育支出的农村减贫效应研究——基于网络空间结构的分析

运用修正的引力模型测算出我国财政教育支出的空间关联关系,以及财政教育支出对农村减贫的空间关联影响效应。实证结果表明：我国财政教育支出在空间关联上呈现出复杂、多线程的网络结构;区域间财政教育支出差异和人力资本差异与农村贫困联动矩阵呈现显著负相关,区域间技术发展水平差异和经济发展水平差异与农村贫困联动矩阵呈现显著正相关。加强我国农村贫困的治理,需要考虑财政教育支出的空间关联作用,实施定向的、梯度推进的区域协同策略。     

财务柔性与企业绩效的动态关系 ——基于融资约束与代理成本的调节效应分析

财务柔性在为企业创造有利机会的同时,也带来了投资不经济、持有成本和协调困难,因此它对企业绩效的影响效应可能是非线性的。基于2006—2016年沪深两市非金融上市公司的数据,本文研究发现,财务柔性与企业绩效之间呈倒U型关系,表现为先增长、后下降的变化趋势。此外,考察融资约束和代理成本对于财务柔性与企业绩效之间关系的调节作用。分析结果显示,融资约束越高,财务柔性对绩效的促进效果越明显;代理成本弱化了财务柔性与企业绩效的曲线关系。进一步的中介效应检验结果表明,财务柔性部分地通过增加投资支出而间接影响企业绩效,投资支出在两者之间起着非线性中介作用。     

Analysing job creation effects of scaling up infrastructure spending in South Africa

In a first for South Africa, this article draws on literature on infrastructure productivity to model dynamic economy-wide employment impacts of infrastructure investment funded with different fiscal tools. Using a dynamic computable general equilibrium model, the South African investment plan is modelled, given the infrastructure externality. Alternative fiscal scenarios to finance the policy are modelled in the article. In the long run, unemployment decreases for all types of workers under one of the scenarios. In the short run, only elementary occupation workers benefit from a decrease in unemployment; for the rest, unemployment rises.     

HOW CAN PUBLIC SPENDING HELP YOU GROW? AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Although many studies indicate that both the level and composition of public spending are significant for economic growth, the results in the empirical literature are mixed. This paper suggests that the country sample selection and expenditure classification are important in explaining these conflicting results. The empirical analysis shows that the link between growth and public spending, especially its core component, is strong only for countries with macroeconomic stability and fast GDP per capita growth dynamics, which are also capable of using public funds for productive purposes.     

Determinants of discretionary fiscal policy in Central and Eastern Europe

This paper explores economic, political and institutional determinants of discretionary fiscal policy in 11 Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries from 2000 to 2013 and compares discretionary fiscal reactions before and during the global economic crisis. We find that fiscal policy was procyclical to the output gap both before and during the crisis, while no fiscal reaction to the absorption gap was captured. Our results also indicate a negative relationship between the level of public debt and deficits over the entire period and the pre-crisis period, suggesting that rising public debt represented a brake on future deficits. We also find that election cycles affect the fiscal deficit, but only during the pre-crisis period, while no evidence of a relationship between fiscal policy and government fragmentation was captured. We find some evidence that in the pre-crisis period the CEE countries with a fixed exchange rate regime ran lower deficits than those with a floating regime, whereas during the crisis no impact of the exchange rate regime on the fiscal deficit was found. There is also some evidence that an arrangement with the IMF was associated with lower deficits for the entire sample period. However, no impact of EU accession on the fiscal stance was identified.     

Multi-sectoral interdependencies of regional public infrastructure investments

Public investment decision-making processes involve multiple and interrelated sectoral and regional policy objectives and budget constraints. This paper presents a dynamic spatio-economic model that considers multi-sectoral investment interdependencies using data at the prefecture level in Greece. The expenditure allocation dynamics of most types of regional public investment are found to be competitive with each other. This outcome is attributed to the lack of policy coordination, technological and budget constraints, geographical factors, and equity and political considerations. The investment interrelationships may have a significant effect on future state funding needs and the strategic assessment of infrastructure development at the country level.     

Soft drink prices,sales, body mass index and diabetes: Evidence from a panel of low-, middle- and high-income countries

We take advantage of four different cross-country datasets containing data on 78 countries for the period 1999–2014, in order to assess the relationship of carbonated soft drinks’ sales, as well as their prices, with body mass index (BMI), overweight, obesity and diabetes. Using an ecological study design and multivariate regression longitudinal estimation approaches, we find that carbonated soft drink sales were significantly positively related to BMI, overweight and obesity – but only in the low and lower-middle income countries. This finding was robust to a number of sensitivity and falsification checks. In this sub-sample, an increase in per capita soft drink sales by 1 litre per year was related to an increase of BMI by about 0.009 kg/m² (p < 0.1).. This is a small effect, implying that halving annual consumption per capita in this group of countries would result in a drop of BMI by only about 0.03 kg/m². Although soft drink prices were negatively related to weight-related outcomes in the sample of higher middle income and high income countries, this finding was not robust to falsification checks. The results thus suggest that sales restrictions to steer consumers away from soft drinks could indeed have a beneficial health effects in poorer countries, although the effect magnitude appears to be very small. However, given potential limitations of using ecological research design, results from individual level studies would be required to further ascertain the role of soft drink sales and prices in obesity and diabetes.     

Cyclical fiscal policy,credit constraints,and industry growth

What are the effects of cyclical fiscal policy on industry growth? We show that industries with a relatively heavier reliance on external finance or lower asset tangibility tend to grow faster (in terms of both value added and of labor productivity growth) in countries that implement fiscal policies that are more countercyclical. We reach this conclusion using Rajan and Zingales׳s (1998) difference-in-difference methodology on a panel data sample of manufacturing industries across 15 OECD countries over the period 1980–2005.