The persistent institutional effect of liberal colonialism: evidence from China’s financial policies

ABSTRACT

The effect of liberal colonialism on the allocation of capital persists to this day. We exploit the colonial history of China during 1896-1911 with qualitative evidence to measure liberal colonialism. We document that liberal colonialism promotes the subsequent efficiency of financial policies on the capital allocation in 2004 through the quality of economic institutions.     

Estimating input-mix efficiency in a parametric framework: application to state-level agricultural data for the United States

ABSTRACT

This paper contributes to the productivity literature by demonstrating novel econometric methods to estimate input-mix efficiency (IME) in a parametric framework. Input-mix efficiency is defined as the potential improvement in productivity with change in input mix. Any change in input-mix (e.g., land to labou r ratio) will result in change in productivity. The advantage of this approach is that it does not require data on input prices to estimate the mix efficiency levels. A nonlinear input-aggregator function (e.g., Constant Elasticity of Substitution) is used to derive an expression for input-mix efficiency. Bayesian stochastic frontier is estimated for obtaining mix efficiency using US state-level agricultural data for the period 1960–2004. Significant variation in input-mix efficiency is noted across the states and regions, attributable to diverse topographic and geographic conditions. Furthermore, comparisons of allocative and mix efficiencies provide insightful policy implications. The production incentives such as taxes and subsidies could help farmers in adjusting their input mix in response to changes in input prices, which can affect the US agricultural productivity significantly. The proposed methodology can be extended by i) using flexible functional forms; ii) introducing various time- and region-varying input aggregators; and iii) defining more sophisticated weights for input aggregators.     

Political uncertainty and labour investment efficiency

ABSTRACT

We examine the impact of political uncertainty on the labour investment efficiency (LIE) of a firm. Using a sample of Chinese firms, we test the market discipline and managerial entrenchment hypotheses. Our findings suggest that political uncertainty adversely affects LIE. The results are consistent with the managerial entrenchment hypothesis. That is, firms hire more labour in a period of increased information asymmetry due to the political uncertainty, which deteriorates LIE. Our findings are robust to a battery of alternative measures of LIE and estimation methods. We conduct several additional analyses and document that the adverse impact of political uncertainty is stronger when the newly appointed government official is older, the firm is state-owned, the firm belongs to a politically sensitive industry or the firm operates in locations with stringent labour protection. By contrast, when the firm locates in a region with weak Chinese government intervention or after President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign, the adverse impact of political uncertainty on LIE is less pronounced. Last, we document that after hiring more labour, firms receive tangible and intangible benefits in terms of receiving more loans, collect more government subsidies, and able to re-establish some political connection but at the cost of lower performance.     

How to reduce energy intensity to achieve sustainable development of China's transport sector? A cross-regional comparison analysis

China's transport sector has been attracting great attention for its excessive energy consumption and ever-increasing pollution emissions. Thus, reducing energy intensity is one of the top priorities of China's ongoing transport upgrade. In this paper, by establishing a panel data regression model derived from the Cobb–Douglas cost function, we focus on investigating the impacts of energy price and transport productivity on transport energy intensity at the national and regional levels. The study uses the provincial panel data for 2005–2016 to perform regression analysis. The results show that: (1) energy price has a significantly negative effect on transport energy intensity in the whole China and the eastern region, whereas it has no significant impacts in the central and western China. (2) Improvements in transport productivity can effectively decrease transport energy intensity in the whole China and the three major regions. (3) Applying an extended data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach, we decompose transport productivity into four components (i.e., technical change, technology gap change, scale efficiency change, and pure efficiency change) and further differentiate their impacts in different regions. The results indicate that these four components have substantially different impacts in each region. These results provide some valuable insights for policymakers and enterprise entities aiming to adopt measures to reduce energy intensity and achieve sustainable development in China's transport sector.     

Socio-institutional determinants of educational resource efficiency according to the capability approach: An endogenous stochastic frontier analysis

We investigate the role of private and public resources in educational attainments and the socio-institutional determinants of educational resource efficiency in Italy. Following the Sen's capability approach, we consider social capital and the quality of government part of the social conversion factors through which resources can be converted into human capabilities, such as education. We analyze the case of Italy by constructing a new longitudinal dataset from 1993 to 2012, using repeated cross sections from the main social survey of the Italian Statistical Institute and a panel stochastic frontier model that takes into account endogeneity. The results show the relative importance of private resources (measured by an ad hoc constructed wealth index), the complementarity between private wealth and public expenditures on education, and the positive impact of social capital and the quality of government on educational resource efficiency.     

社会互动与家庭金融资产配置

运用中国家庭金融调查(CHFS)数据,研究社会互动与家庭金融资产配置之间的关系。研究发现,适当增强社会互动会促进家庭更多地参与风险金融市场,增加投资风险资产的比例,提高金融资产的分散化程度,优化资产的配置效率。但当社会互动达到一定程度后,过度的社会互动则会抑制家庭参与风险市场,减少风险资产的投资比重,降低金融资产的分散化程度以及资产配置的有效性。因此,家庭需要建立适度而高质量的社会互动,这有助于家庭获得更多的外部资源,缓解信息不对称,降低交易成本,从而优化家庭金融资产配置。     

新审计报告与资本市场的信息反应——来自股价同步性和股价预测能力双维度的经验证据

新审计报告准则的施行旨在增加审计报告的信息含量及其决策相关性。以2015—2018年沪深非金融上市公司为样本，研究发现新审计报告施行后，上市公司的股价同步性显著下降，公司特质信息含量比例显著上升，股价特质信息效率显著提升,同时新审计报告的施行产生了增量信息。在此基础上，进一步分析新审计报告准则对资本市场特质信息效率的传导机制，发现投资者关注度对新审计报告(关键审计事项的披露数量)影响资本市场特质信息效率的过程中表现出显著的部分中介效应。分样本检验的结果表明，虽然AH股共同上市公司和非AH股共同上市公司之间的结果存在细微差异但整体趋势相似。通过对新审计报告的影响的分析，可以更好地理解该政策对资本市场的影响。     

粤东西北与珠三角物流产业技术效率比较

运用DEA效率测度方法,通过对2013-2017年粤东西北与珠三角区域物流产业技术效率的对比研究,探索推动广东省区域物流协调发展的路径。结果显示:对比珠三角区域,粤东西北区域物流产业技术效率与珠三角区域存在较大差距,尤其是粤东与粤西地区,粤东区域物流产业技术效率值仅为0.4,粤西区域物流产业技术效率值为0.81,均远低于珠三角区域物流产业技术效率值0.94。纯技术效率低下是制约粤东西北地区物流产业技术效率提升的主要因素,应加强物流产业信息技术应用,推进物流技术装备现代化,提高技术创新能力水平。     

丝绸之路河西走廊物流业效率演化分析

构建了分析河西走廊物流业效率演化的指标体系,基于2009-2017年河西走廊物流业统计数据,运用DEA-Malmquist指数法测算了各市物流业效率和技术进步率,采用Tobit回归模型分析了该地区物流业效率的影响因素,并从省内、省域间、各经济区域间三个方面进行了对比分析。实证分析表明,相较于全国各省市地区,河西走廊物流业整体水平较低,物流业效率和技术进步率的强正相关性普遍存在,其物流业发展对政策偏向具有较强的依赖性;同时,技术进步率低下和基础设施匮乏也是制约物流业发展的重要因素。基于此,从政策照顾与资金投入、科技进步与管理水平和市场运营与体系建设三个方面,为河西走廊物流业发展提出了建议与改善措施。     

行政审批改革与制度性交易成本——基于效率评价的视角

制度性交易成本是经济主体为遵守制度规定而产生的非生产性成本,行政审批改革通过提高经营效率、节约时间成本、降低资金成本和促进行业竞争四种途径降低制度性交易成本。本文通过对我国地市级面板数据的实证分析后发现,行政审批改革可以有效降低地区制度性交易成本;当行政审批改革发生在营商环境相对较差的中西部城市、距离省会城市较近的城市以及当城市获得法律支撑时,能够更显著地降低当地制度性交易成本。本文据此提出如下政策建议:深化行政审批改革,减少不必要的审批事项;健全改革激励机制,确保政策的贯彻与落实;通过机构设置、法律规定、权责划分等进行配套措施改革。