Do dictatorships redistribute more?

This paper examines the effect of political institutions on fiscal redistribution for a country-level panel from 1960–2010. Using data on Gini coefficients before and after government intervention, we apply a measure of effective fiscal redistribution that reflects the effect of taxes and transfers on income inequality. Our findings clearly indicate that non-democratic regimes demonstrate significantly greater direct fiscal redistribution. Subsequently, we employ fiscal data in an attempt to enlighten this puzzling empirical finding. We find that dictatorial regimes rely more heavily on cash transfers that exhibit a direct impact on net inequality and consequently on the difference between market and net inequality (i.e., effective fiscal redistribution), whereas democratic regimes devote a larger amount of resources to public inputs (health and education) that may influence market inequality but not the difference between market and net inequality per se. We argue that the driving force behind the observed differences within the pattern on government spending and effective fiscal redistribution is that democratic institutions lead survival-oriented leaders to care more for the private market, and thus to follow policies that enhance the productivity of the whole economy.     

The expectations hypothesis of the term structure of interest rates: The Brazilian case revisited

This article tests the Expectations Hypothesis (EH) using Brazilian monthly data for bond yields spanning the 2000–2017 sample period and ranging in maturity from 3 months to 5 years. Three tests are examined: the first is based on interest rates spread and the other two are based on the forward rates. On balance our results suggest rejection of the EH throughout the maturity spectrum examined, and are broadly consistent with previous findings that a linear combination of forward rates provides a statistically significant prediction of bond excess returns.     

利率市场化要求建立全方位的银行风险管理模式

利率市场化作为我国迈向市场经济的重要标志之一，不仅意味着我国金融机构自身的经营管理风险水平提高，同时也增加了所有其它行业发展的不稳定因素，从而使得最终积聚在银行的风险更复杂而突出。因此，我国商业银行的风险管理任务很重，必须不断深化银行改革，建立全面风险管理模式。     

美墨卡车跨境运输争端案及其启示

卡车跨境运输争端是美国与墨西哥在《北美自由贸易协定》下发生的涉及卡车跨境运输的服务贸易争端。该争端前后历时16年之久,全面展现了美国国内利益集团在对外贸易政策制定方面的影响力,更凸显了美国“实用主义”的国际法观及其对外贸易政策制定的国内政治博弈特点。而该争端的解决为世界各国如何在多边贸易体制中处理与贸易相关的社会问题提供了有益的借鉴。     

Estimating multimodal public transport mode shares in Athens,Greece

We analyze market shares for each public transport mode in total public transport ridership for the multimodal public transportation system of Athens, Greece. This analysis provides useful information for making investment decisions concerning the public transport infrastructure and for allocating subsidies. Due to the non-stationary properties of the data, cointegration techniques are applied to investigate the long run equilibrium relationships. Error Correction Models are implemented to estimate short run dynamics as well as the speed of adjustment from the short to the long run. Results suggest that fare and GDP are the main determinants of the public transport mode shares both in the short and in the long run. Findings also indicate the role of total ridership fluctuations in explaining variations in public transport mode shares.     

Markets for information: Of inefficient firewalls and efficient monopolies

In this paper we study market environments where information is costly to acquire and is also useful to potential competitors. Agents may sell, or buy, reports over the information acquired and choose their trades in the market on the basis of what they learnt. Reports are unverifiable – cheap talk messages – hence the quality of the information transmitted depends on the conflicts of interest faced by the senders. We find that, when information has a prevalent horizontal differentiation component, in equilibrium information is acquired when its costs are not too high and in that case it is also sold, though reports are typically noisy. The market for information is in most cases a monopoly, and there is underinvestment in information acquisition. We also show that regulatory interventions, in the form of firewalls, only make the inefficiency worse. Efficiency can be attained with a monopolist selling differentiated information, provided entry is blocked.     

论我国土地征收法律制度的市场化改革路径

长期实践证明,以政府为中心的土地征收资源配置方式导致了日益严重的"城乡二元结构"经济社会问题。文章指出,目前,无论是在立法层面还是在政策层面,我国都有意无意地排斥市场决定性作用的发挥。"土地财政"之瘾、"对上负责"之道和"身兼数职"之状是导致上述问题的经济、政治和体制利益根源。文章认为,遵循市场规律、以市场为主导、使市场在资源配置中起决定性作用和更好地发挥政府的监管职能,是我国土地征收法律制度改革的正确路径。     

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.     

大众知情权侵犯个人隐私权的成因及其制约

个人隐私权和大众知情权是一对矛盾体。媒体在新闻报道中侵犯个人隐私权的状况时有发生,但是其成因却是各种各样的。在深入讨论大众知情权对隐私权侵犯的成因后,得出公共利益、媒体利益和个人利益冲突,是造成这种现象的主要成因;并在此基础上,对如何平衡个人隐私权和大众知情权提出建设性的解决方案。     

Public sector enterprise disinvestment in India: Efficiency gains in a political context

India instituted a program of state enterprise disinvestment in 1991 as part of a sweeping reform initiative. This study analyses the effect of disinvestment on enterprise performance, conditioned on political context as characterized by the ideological leanings of the parties in power at state and central levels. Using stochastic frontier analysis, measures of firm efficiency are generated for 238 central public sector enterprises for the period 1991–1992 to 2010–2011. The relationship between efficiency so measured and disinvestment is then estimated using a two-stage instrumental variables approach to control for endogeneity between firm efficiency and selection for disinvestment. Initial disinvestment is associated with substantial efficiency gains, but subsequent disinvestment much less so and the proportion of shares disinvested only loosely so. This may be explained by the transformative effect of initial stock market listing on accountability and profit orientation that is not repeated with further rounds of disinvestment. The effect of disinvestment on performance is stronger if the enterprise is located in a state governed by a right leaning party or one that is ideologically aligned with the party in power at the centre.