The impact of agricultural policy on farm income concentration: the case of regional implementation of the CAP direct payments in Italy

One of the objectives of agricultural policy worldwide concerns the support of farm income. Common Agricultural Policy direct payments (DPs) are the main instruments to support farm income in the European Union. This article addresses their role in the concentration of farm income. This is done by calculating the Gini coefficient and its disaggregation in a large sample of Italian farms in the period between 2006 and 2007. Although this approach has been used to develop ex‐post analysis in previous studies, this article is innovative given that it is used here in an ex ante analysis aimed at evaluating the likely impact of a recent reform proposal. This latter requests changing the current model to a regional model of DPs application to make payment rates (i.e., payment per hectare) homogeneous among farms in the same region. The analysis shows that DPs and farm incomes are both very concentrated but that DPs allow for an income concentration reduction in Italian farms. The shift to a regional implementation reduces DPs concentration and, to a limited extent, farm income concentration. Of the considered regionalization scenarios, those that redistribute DPs among regions are the most effective in reducing concentration. The extension of the Gini considered approach to an ex ante setting seems effective because it provides insights that could feed the policy debate regarding the forthcoming reform.     

Capital taxation, long-run growth, and bequests

It has been shown that higher capital taxes can have a growth-enhancing effect when combined with a revenue-compensating cut in wage taxes or with an expansion in productivity-increasing public services. The present paper demonstrates that these results critically hinge on the existence of a bequest motive. It is shown that a wage-tax cut is no longer growth-enhancing when bequests are operative. By way of contrast, increasing productive public services may well boost growth. The theoretical findings are illustrated by numerical simulations based on US data.     

Why do satisfied customers switch? Focus on the restaurant patron variety-seeking orientation and purchase decision involvement

Company efforts to make customers switch from competitive brands to their own or induce them to repurchase their own brands are very important in their marketing activities and in this regard studies of customer variety-seeking orientation and level of involvement in decision making play a crucial role in explaining customers’ product selection activities. The purpose of this study intends to examine interrelationships among customer satisfaction, loyalty, and switching intent in family restaurants and verify the moderating effect of customer variety-seeking orientation and purchase decision involvement. A total of 305 patrons in Korea participated. The results showed a positive relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty. Participants expressing a high level of satisfaction were more likely to switch restaurants. Whether customers feel loyalty determines their switching intent. There were moderating effects related to customer variety-seeking orientation in the causal relationships between customer loyalty and switching intent. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed.     

我国城乡收入差距的地区类型分析

改革开放以来,我国各地区的城乡收入差距均表现为扩大趋势,但由于各地区城乡发展条件的差异,各地区的城乡收入差距及其变化也表现为不同的类型。本文通过将反映各地区收入水平、工业化和城市化水平的变量进行聚类分析,将我国各地区的城乡收入差距划分为城乡高度协调型、城乡中度协调型、城乡低度协调型、城乡低度扭曲型、城乡中度扭曲型和城乡高度扭曲型共六种类型。各地区在1985-2006年期间,城乡收入差距的类型也并不是全部保持不变的,表现为有的地区城乡扭曲程度加剧,有的地区缓解,有的地区时而扭曲加剧、时而扭曲缓解,从而衍生为十种变化类型。这为我国中央和地方政府不是采取＂一刀切＂的政策措施,而是依据不同的城乡收入差距地区类型,有所侧重的治理城乡收入差距提供了参考依据。     

生育政策、子女数量与中国的性别教育平等

近年来,中国性别教育差距快速缩小并呈现出女性高等教育在校生比重超越男性的现象,文章从生育政策视角对这一现象进行了解释,认为计划生育政策通过改善女性教育获得显著促进了性别教育平等。队列分析显示,生育政策之后的出生队列中女性相对教育水平明显提高,性别教育差距明显缩小。基于生育政策地区差异和出生队列差异构建的双差分模型分析发现,以农村二孩政策地区为参照组,严格的独生子女政策在提高女性相对受教育机会方面更为明显。但相对于二孩政策,一孩半政策在促进性别教育平等方面不存在显著差异,这可能由于在一孩半政策下独女户和双女户数量较少,家庭受性别偏好影响会将资源向男性倾斜,导致政策没有通过控制家庭规模提高女性相对教育获得机会。研究认为,随着中国放松生育政策,农村地区由一孩半政策过渡到二孩政策并不会对女性教育获得产生明显影响,应该关注生育政策调整对严格独生子女政策地区女性教育获得的影响。同时,随着性别教育差距逐步缩小,可以利用劳动力市场政策降低市场性别歧视,进一步提高女性地位并促进性别平等。     

An alternative interpretation of the discontinuity in earnings distributions

We show that the asymmetric effects of income taxes and special items for profit and loss firms contribute to a discontinuity at zero in the distribution of earnings. Income taxes draw profit observations towards zero while negative special items pull loss observations away from zero. These earnings components are thus expected to contribute to a discontinuity even in the absence of discretion. We show our results are not an artifact of deflation and that other common components of earnings do not have similar effects on the earnings distribution around zero.

“家庭氛围型”激励模式的构建——激励知识型员工新途径的探讨

知识型员工的作用和地位已日益得到彰显,但以往专家学者的激励模式中仍存在不足,本文在“以人为本”的理念基础上,建立了“家庭氛围型”激励模式激励知识型员工,以期实现员工、企业与国家之间的多赢。     

关系型借贷视角下购房融资方式与家庭创业行为——基于2017年中国家庭金融调查的实证研究

本文利用2017年中国家庭金融调查数据深入考察购房融资方式对家庭创业行为的影响。研究结果显示,相较于民间借贷购房的家庭,按揭贷款购房的家庭参与创业活动的可能性更高,且更倾向于主动创业。进一步机制分析发现,相较于民间借贷购房,按揭贷款购房能够降低家庭的流动性约束,缓解家庭的资金压力,从而促进创业。同时,按揭贷款购房能使家庭获得充足的贷款额度与较长的贷款期限,进而有助于家庭创业。而且在偿还按揭贷款的过程中,家庭能与银行建立长期良好的信贷关系,从而有助于提高家庭获得正规信贷的可能性,促进家庭创业。为了积极推进创业创新的战略部署,应进一步健全银行信贷体系,发展和完善住房金融制度,从而有利于缓解小微企业融资难、融资贵的问题,释放和激发家庭创业活力。     

城市居民住房承受能力测度研究——剩余收入视角

借鉴扩展线性支出系统模型确定家庭食品、衣着、家庭设备用品及服务等非住房基本消费支出的基础上,运用剩余收入法测度了2003—2008年武汉市七种不同类型家庭的住房承受能力。剩余收入法测度结果能反映出不同类型家庭住房承受能力的具体差距,显示出武汉市中等偏下收入及以下收入家庭面临住房承受能力问题,并且收入越低住房承受能力问题越突出,结果比传统比率法更具有说服力。而比率法测度显示中等偏上户及以下家庭面临住房承受能力问题,扩大了存在住房承受能力问题的家庭范围。运用剩余收入法可以定量地测度各类家庭住房承受能力的大小和绝对差距,有助于确定城市中低收入家庭住房补贴的对象及标准,制定我国公共住房销售、租赁政府指导价格,促进完善住房保障政策。     

公司高管人员薪酬与绩效的相关性研究——基于家族企业与非家族企业的比较分析

家族企业与非家族企业的差异一直是家族企业学研究领域的一个热点问题。现有的研究多是基于资源基础观理论,从家族性角度进行分析。本文则基于委托代理理论和管家理论,从高管薪酬与企业绩效关系的视角对家族企业与非家族企业之间的差异进行深入的研究。论文以2008年年报中的100家家族上市公司与100家非家族上市公司为样本,从高管年薪和高管持股比例这两个方面探讨高管薪酬与企业绩效的相关性。实证研究表明：非家族上市公司与家族上市公司除了在高管年薪上差异不是很大,其余变量皆有显著的差异,其中家族上市公司的高管持股、企业绩效皆高于非家族上市公司。家族上市公司与非家族上市公司高管年薪对公司绩效影响都显著,且都呈正相关,但家族上市公司高管年薪对公司绩效的影响比非家族上市公司大。高管持股比例对公司绩效影响则都不显著。