The State as Both Regulator and Player: The Politics of Transfer of Development Rights in China

The conventional argument that the introduction of transfer of development rights (TDR) shifts the power of land use regulation from the state to the market is increasingly under challenge. In China, the state's grip on land is reinforced through TDR, in which the state is both regulator and player. This state-dominated form of TDR affects China in three ways. First, competing aspirations of different scales of government complicate how TDR is implemented. Although the central state promotes TDR to maintain a national balance of arable land, some local states instrumentalize it to expand their landed basis of accumulation. Secondly, TDR tends to benefit the state but not its people. It may increase the fiscal income of the sending government and lessen the land shortage of the receiving government, but sometimes at the expense of the interests of land users without land ownership. Thirdly, given the state's deep involvement in TDR programs, the key for China's TDR to protect arable land lies not so much in clear property rights or a fully fledged market as in effective checks and balances regarding the state's powers over TDR. These three observations attest to the embeddedness of TDR in the local political economy.     

Efficiency of New Zealand’s District Health Boards at Providing Hospital Services: A stochastic frontier analysis

Journal of Productivity Analysis - The majority of secondary and tertiary healthcare services in New Zealand are provided through public hospitals managed by 20 local District Health Boards. Due to...     

The effects of slack resource of R&D professionals on firm performance: evidence from traditional manufacturing firms in an emerging economy

Abstract

As an important component of organizational human resource slack (HR slack), the slack of research-and-development (R&D) professionals has been studied by several authors. However, it remains unclear whether and how this small component of general HR slack, i.e. the slack of research-and-development professionals (RHR slack), may affect overall firm performance in an emerging economy without much R&D tradition or pro-R&D institutions. Based on two organizational theories, i.e. institutional theory and the resource-based view of the firm (RBV), we propose competing hypotheses on the relationship between RHR slack and firms’ accounting performance. We also examine whether the relationship between RHR slack and firm performance should be linear or curvilinear. Finally, we also test the relationship between RHR slack and other dimensions of firm performance. Several interesting findings have been obtained. For instance, neither the perspective based on institutional theory nor that based on RBV can fully predict all types of RHR slack-performance relationships, be these relationships linear or curvilinear.     

Potential Spatial Labor and Human Capital Mobility in China: Evidence from College Admissions Under the National College Entrance Examination System

Abstract:

Higher education in China plays an important role in promoting labor and human capital mobility. In this paper, I empirically address the issue of regional disparities, college admissions under the National College Entrance Examination (CEE) system, and potential interregional labor and human capital mobility in China. The results show that examinees from western provinces have a strong preference for coastal universities, compared with examinees from central provinces. College admissions in China then seem to have a stronger effect on potential labor and human capital movement from the western to the coastal regions than from the central to the coastal regions.     

“产学研”基地建设的理念、目标及手段——以浙江大学西溪校区为例

高校“产学研”基地是集教学实践，创新研究、科技成果转化于一体的产业基地，加强产学研协同创新、提升创新能力是科技创新的重大发展趋势，也是推动区域经济发展的重要力量。根据杭州市的战略定位，浙江大学西溪校区应将“产学研”基地建设成为杭州市文化创意产业、科技人才创新创业中心，集工作、生活、休闲为一体，并据此分析“产学研”基地建设的理念、目标及手段。     

中国养老服务现状、问题与公共政策选择

中国老龄化和高龄化推动失能老人的数量不断增加。然而,机构养老、家庭养老以及引导社会服务市场发展的政策都存在供给不足现象:专业的养老机构以收住健康老人为主,大多数完全失能老人无法得到专业机构的养老服务,机构养老供求存在"错位";因空巢家庭增加和中年女性人口相对减少,非正式的家庭养老也面临供给不足;社会养老服务市场没有发育,政策引导不足。解决上述三个问题,是建立老年长期照护制度的关键。为此,要通过社会化和产业化政策,培育社会养老服务市场,从而增加养老服务人员供给;长远来看,必须建立强制性长期照护保险,以解决老年养老筹资问题;政府应对长期照护需求最强但给付能力较弱的老年群体给予资金支持。     

影响我国农民消费的市场因素及对策

1998年以来,我国政府开始实行扩大内需的政策,进一步开拓农村市场.然而,由于种种原因,目前我国农村商品市场依旧存在许多不足之处,极大地阻碍着农民的消费积极性和潜在消费力的实现,本文拟就农民消费和农村商品市场之间的关系作一些初步探讨.     

中国旅行社业发展的回顾与前瞻

本文首先对中国旅行社业的发展历程进行了梳理和回顾，认为二十余年来的发展进程基本上可以划分为四个阶段，即初步形成、快速发展、结构调整和全面开放，并在此基础上对中国旅行社业的现状进行了简要剖析。对未来的发展趋势则分别从市场基础、竞争主体、企业制度、品牌和分工体系等角度进行了分析，并据此提出了市场、产业、企业和产品等旅行社不同运作层面上的一系列观点。     

中国出境旅游变动趋势分析

为了把握中国作为新兴的全球旅游业重要出境客源地的发展前景和变动趋势，本文从出境旅游市场发展规模、决策类型和价格影响、目的地偏好、旅游方式、消费能力等方面作了详细的分析，并提出了相应建议。     

韧性城市基层应急第一响应人制度的实践分析与探讨

韧性城市建设可有效提升城市减灾与恢复能力,与城市应急管理功能交叉融合,第一响应人制度能显著提升基层应急能力,促进韧性城市社区的良好运行。基于研究现状分析,通过问卷调查对雅安市芦山县某行政村（社区）基层第一响应人队伍建设现状展开调研,进而分析了基层应急第一响应人制度的实践效果。调研发现,基层群众对第一响应人队伍有较为清晰的认知,对其应急响应能力总体满意且有较强烈参与意愿,但认为救援装备和知识等方面有待提高。实践分析表明,第一响应人制度已基本形成但队伍建设有待完善,应急预案体系已建立但培训与演练仍需加强,此外,科普宣教应急知识促使群众应急能力明显提升。最后,从强化政府作为、丰富培训演练、规范队伍建设、构建交流平台、鼓励公众参与等五个方面提出改进措施。