中小企业信用担保体系的发展方向与政府角色

文章分析了我国信用担保体系的发展与变革问题。综合西方学者的理论观点,认为信贷市场需要信用担保的原因,主要是信用担保可以有效缓解信贷市场信息不对称困境,保障贷款者的利益不受或少受损失;可以缓解信贷市场的信贷配给问题;信用担保能够传递借款者的信息;信用担保可以强化债务信用。我国从上世纪９０年代初期开始启动了信用担保体系建设,形成了“一体两翼三层”的格局,目前却陷入了发展困境。研究认为,从我国中小企业的特色出发,应大力发展互助式信用担保机构,减少政策性担保机构的市场份额,建立以互助式信用担保为主体的新体系。政府应选择适当的方式重点扶持互助式担保机构的发展。     

政府卫生支出绩效评价研究——以北京市为例

公共支出的绩效评价日益成为世界各国公共财政管理的重要内容。近年来,随着医药卫生体制改革的深化,各级政府在医疗卫生领域中的主导地位逐渐明确,医疗卫生领域的政府投入也日渐增加。在此背景下,政府卫生投入的效率和效果就非常值得深入探讨和评估。本文初步设计了政府卫生支出绩效评价体系,通过模糊层次分析法计算指标权重,利用北京市的统计数据对政府卫生支出绩效评价进行了实证分析并得出了相关结论。     

从裁判型国家的演化看有为政府的济民功能及防蜕约束

新结构经济学中有为政府实际上对应了一种裁判型国家。裁判型国家根本上把国家视为服务于所有成员的公共性社会机构,从而具有善的性质;正是为了发挥善的行为,人们往往赋予这种国家及其政府相当大的权力。但在现实世界中,那些掌握公权力的代理人往往会为了个人目标和利益而滥用组织手段,从而导致裁判型国家及其政府的功能发生蜕变。从这个意义上说,任何承担积极功能的有为政府都不能是无限政府,而必须在一套相对成熟和完善的规范和监督体系下运作。     

重庆改革开放四十年历程与未来发展趋势

重庆改革开放取得了辉煌成就。四十年来,重庆的改革开放经历了四个发展阶段,是全国改革开放的重要组成部分,既有全国的共性,又有其区域特殊性。党的十九大后,重庆的改革开放进入了新时代。重庆未来的发展趋势是把重庆建设成为西部大开发的战略支点和“一带一路”与长江经济带的联结点,实现内陆开放高地和山清水秀美丽之地的目标。在未来,重庆应积极建设国家级的综合交通枢纽和先进制造业的国家战略基地建设,以实现这一目标。     

Examining the relationship between municipal consolidation and cost reduction: an instrumental variable approach

This study explores the cost-reduction effects of local government consolidation, using data from Japanese municipalities. We use municipal panel data from Japan for the years 2000, 2005 and 2010, a data set including numerous consolidation cases. Reverse causality between consolidation decisions and size of municipal expenditure is a concern in the voluntary consolidation of local governments. An instrumental variable (IV) methodology is employed to deal with possible endogeneity associated with consolidation decisions. The main finding is that municipal current expenditure per capita increases immediately after consolidation, but then gradually declines. Because consolidation seems to increase per capita expenditure in the absence of the effect of this long-term declining trend, incorporating this trend into estimation is crucial in cost-efficiency analysis of consolidation. It is also shown that conventional panel data regressions yield biased consolidation effects, suggesting the superiority of the IV approach.     

Distance and government resource allocation: from the perspective of environmental information disclosure policy change

This article investigates the relationship between environmental information and government resources and focuses on the moderate effect of distance. The results show that (1) the promulgation and implementation of the Measures for the Disclosure of Environmental Information (MDEI) can improve the level and quality of environmental information and then increase resource allocation and (2), after the MDEI are issued, distance has a significant negative moderate effect on the positive impact of MDEI, and the negative moderate effect of distance is more significant in low GDP and marketization regions, high-polluting industries and firms audited by the non-Big 4 accounting firms.     

Government size,government debt and globalization

This article empirically investigates the effect of globalization on government size and debt. Using panel heterogeneous cointegration techniques to a panel of developing and developed countries, it finds that globalization reduces government size and debt. In terms of components of globalization, government size is found to increase with trade openness but decreases with financial, social and political globalization. On the other hand, government debt increases with financial and trade openness but decreases with social and political globalization. The evidence is robust to different estimation methods and different samples. Our data also indicate unidirectional causality running from globalization measures to government size and debt.     

Estimating the value of political connections in China: Evidence from sudden deaths of politically connected independent directors

This paper estimates the value of political connections by examining stock price reactions to sudden deaths of retired government officials who were acting as independent directors of private firms in China from 2003 to 2012. Employing an event study, we find that, if a private firm loses political connections because of the sudden death of an independent director who was previously a government official, its stock price drops 3.61% on average within ten trading days. After the loss of political connections, we find that it is possible but infeasible for a private firm to reestablish political connections with the government in a short period of time. Moreover, the sudden death of a retired government official leads to a reduction in the economic benefits (e.g., bank loans, tax preference, and government subsidies) obtained by a private firm, which provides a reasonable explanation for the negative stock price reaction after losing political connections.     

Performance budgeting: effects on government debt and economic growth

This article examines the effects of performance budgeting on government debt and economic growth rates. The results show that countries with a higher share of ministries using performance targets in budget negotiation tend to have lower government debt and higher GDP growth rates. A simple fixed-effect model shows similar results. The evidence suggests that these results hold only in those countries with relatively lower corruption.     

Local government type and municipal bond ratings: what’s the relationship?

There is an extensive literature analysing the executive branch within local U.S. government jurisdictions. This has largely revolved around the differences between elected mayors and appointed city managers. Much of the academic work has considered the potential efficiency gains that may be associated with either form of government and comparative analyses between the two. However, the empirical literature has been divided regarding the relative efficiency of either form. This article attempts to add to that literature by considering how bond markets may perceive potential efficiencies that emerge from one executive type over the other by evaluating bond ratings for a sample of large municipal governments in the United States. Overall, the results suggest that municipalities headed by a city manager are associated with increased bond ratings (and thus lower borrowing costs), which may lend support that this form of administration is, on some margin, relatively more efficient than others. These results are robust to a number of specifications.