Do the English Legal Origin Countries have More Dispersed Share Ownership and More Developed Financial Systems?

The essence of the legal origin hypothesis is that a country with an English legal origin provides better investor and creditor protection and experiences greater financial development; financial institutions and stock markets flourish, the general public participate more in financing investment projects of companies and so shareholding is less concentrated. The present paper examines this hypothesis on the basis of a cross‐country study of 85 countries. We find no evidence of more dispersed share ownership in the English law countries than in other countries with different legal origins irrespective of whether we adjust for the existence of transitional economies and less developed countries in the sample. Using three indicators of development of banking and other credit institutions and four indicators of stock market developments, we also find no evidence of more developed financial systems in the English law countries. As expected, there is some evidence of lower financial development in the less developed countries and transitional countries. It is not the English law heritage but the security of persons and goods that appears to explain the cross‐country variations in financial development.     

论法治化财政

财政的法治化是公共财政建设的重要内容.本文讨论法治化财政的理想指标体系,并结合中国现实,对中国财政的法治化进程进行定性评价.理想的财政法治化指标体系至少应涵括六个方面的内容:财政的民主立法、财政的法律至上、财政法律体系的完备(健全性)、财政的权利保障度、财政的司法公正、财政行政行为的受约束程度.中国财政立法奉行了民主立法原则,但民主立法进程仍需进一步加快;财政行为的法律至上度有待进一步提高;财政法律体系虽已覆盖财政各领域,但立法层次低,立法质量不高,法律体系尚不够完备;财政的权利保障度和财政司法的公正性正在得到逐步改善;财政行政行为已经有了各种各样的法律约束,但是财政法律体系的不健全从根本上影响了约束程度.     

Microfinance,the long tail and mission drift

Poor people were excluded from financial services until microfinance institutions (MFIs) emerged. The mission of MFIs is to alleviate poverty, contributing to women empowerment, especially in rural communities. Microcredits can be analyzed under Pareto's 80/20 Principle. Their clients are situated in the long tail of the wealth distribution function. This niche market is not very attractive, because of its high administrative costs, lack of deposits and the need for compensating low revenues with fluctuating subsidies. Some MFIs have drifted from their mission. This paper presents a model to explain microfinance mission drift, tested with hypotheses. The results from the empirical study show a pattern of mission centered MFI: a small NGO, with labor productivity, receiving donations and obtaining a high yield. It can be concluded that there is a need for reducing interest rates. According to the long tail theory, this could be done by using efficient technology, as it has been achieved in the e-commerce sector.     

论经济法的国家安全职能

国家经济安全是整个国民经济持续、健康、快速发展的前提，它可以被分为宏观经济安全和发展安全。要使一个国家经济能够安全运转，就需要强有力的保障措施。安全是法律持续性的制度安排，是一切法律的首要价值，所以保障国家经济安全，法律责无旁贷。在众多法律部门中，经济法作为国家干预经济的法律，目的就是克服市场调节的弊端，保障国家的经济安全。     

法国、英国的水务管理模式

对水资源等稀缺自然资源的合理利用和有效管理是可持续发展的重要前提.合理利用和有效管理自然资源在很大程度上有赖于相关的法律制度和科学管理模式的构建.欧盟国家以市场为基础,配置以法律和行政的手段,建立了行之有效的水法体系和现代水务管理模式.通过对法国和英国水务管理的实证研究,从立法和管理的角度解析欧盟国家现代水务管理模式,有助于中国城市化进程中现代化的水务管理理念、综合化的水资源管理、市场化的公共服务以及法制化的社会监管等的建立.     

Does the Law of One Price Hold within the EU? A Panel Analysis

This paper empirically tests the law of one price by applying unit root tests to three panels consisting of data on 90 consumer price indices for the EU-25, the EU-15 and the 10 new EU member countries that joined the EU in 2004. The four major findings of this paper are: (1) panel unit root tests find evidence of price convergence for about 70% of all product groups, (2) the results are sensitive to the choice of the numeraire country implying that any conclusions must be based on all bilateral combinations, (3) the average half life across all product groups is 2.0 years, (4) the overall evidence for the law of one price is weaker in the 10 new EU member countries than in the EU-15.

Does Gibrat's Law hold among young,small firms?

According to Gibrat's Law of Proportionate Effect, the growth rate of a given firm is independent of its size at the beginning of the examined period. Aimed at extending this line of investigation, the present paper uses quantile regression techniques to test whether Gibrat's Law holds for new entrants in a given industry: that is for new small firms in the early stage of their life cycle. The main finding is that for some selected industries in Italian manufacturing Gibrat's Law fails to hold in the years immediately following start-up, when smaller firms have to rush in order to achieve a size large enough to enhance their likelihood of survival. Conversely, in subsequent years the patterns of growth of new smaller firms do not differ significantly from those of larger entrants, and the Law therefore cannot be rejected.JEL Classification: L11, L60Previous versions of this paper were presented at the 27th Annual EARIE Conference (Lausanne, 7-10 September 2000) and at seminars held between 2000 and 2003 at the Economics Department of Harvard University, the Catholic University of Milan, the University of Ferrara, the University of Bologna, the Bank of Italy, and Athens University of Economics & Business. We would like to thank Carlo Bianchi, Giuseppe Colangelo, Giovanni Dosi, Steven Klepper (Editor), Stephen Martin, Ariel Pakes, Aman Ullah and, in particular, Helen Louri and two anonymous referees for their valuable comments on earlier drafts. Financial support from MIUR (Year 2000; protocol #MM13038538_001; project leader: E. Santarelli) is gratefully acknowledged.Correspondence to: E. Santarelly     

The effects of the 2005 Bankruptcy Reform in Brazil

This paper studies the effect of the 2005 Bankruptcy Reform in Brazil. Using firm-level data we found that the increase in the level of creditors' protection reduced the cost of debt and increased the amount borrowed by the firms.