The poor outside the lamplight: on the prevalence of poverty among population groups not included in household surveys

Poverty rate calculations are often based on household surveys that exclude some of the groups most vulnerable to poverty such as the homeless. This paper documents the nature of the excluded groups and the quantitative importance of their omission for the Czech Republic. Our study combines European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions data for 2011 with information from the 2011 Population Census. Our preferred estimate indicates an increase in the poverty rate by almost one percentage point. The paper contributes to accurately identifying the most vulnerable members of the society, which is essential for setting effective social policies.     

Do pensions foster education? An empirical perspective

The paper examines the effect of population ageing on public education spending. On the one hand, ageing is expected to have a negative effect on education, as an increasing number of retirees results in ‘intergenerational conflict’ and, hence, the condemnation of education expenditure. On the other hand, ageing, in combination with pay-as-you-go pension systems, offers incentives for the working-age generation to invest in the public education of the young in order to ‘reap’ the benefits (that is, higher income tax/contributions) of their greater future productivity. Empirical evidence derived from the application of a fixed effects approach to panel data for OECD countries shows that the increasing share of elderly people has a non-linear effect on education spending. This indicates a certain degree of intergenerational conflict. Nevertheless, we find that future population ageing, which reinforces the mechanism linking public education and pensions, reflects positively on education expenditure. Furthermore, by disaggregating total education expenditure by educational levels, we observe that this effect is led by levels of non-compulsory education, probably as a reflection of the direct connection to labor productivity.     

老龄化与碳排放：消费效应还是生产效应？——基于2002-2017年中国省级面板数据的实证研究

人口老龄化是经济增长的一大阻碍,它对碳排放的影响是做出环境政策抉择的关键因素.以中国2002—2017年的省级面板数据为研究样本,从理论与实证两个层面分析人口老龄化与碳排放的关系及影响机制.一方面,构建包含碳排放的世代交叠模型(overlapping generations,OLG),发现老龄化主要通过消费效应和生产效应两个路径对碳排放产生影响;另一方面,从实证层面发现老龄化与碳排放之间存在倒"U"形关系,而且消费效应在人口老龄化与碳排放的关系中起到部分中介作用,生产效应的影响则不显著.     

The long breadth of cities: revisiting worldwide urbanization patterns, 1950–2030

ABSTRACT

A comparative analysis of population dynamics worldwide contributes to profile distinctive demographic and economic trajectories of urban growth, discriminating processes of settlement concentration or dispersion under sequential cycles of urbanization. However, a wide-ranging characterization of urban cycles based on demographic dynamics worldwide is still missing. The present work is aimed at filling such a gap analysing long-term changes (1950–2030) in annual population growth rate of 1691 urban agglomerations with more than 300,000 inhabitants in 74 world countries. Results of this study indicate that metropolitan growth worldwide was associated with largely variable rates of population growth, highly positive before 2000 and progressively reducing over recent decades. Despite important differences at continental (and country) scale, demographic expansion of urban agglomerations showed two contrasting phases with a break point in the 1980s denoting a progressive reduction in spatial heterogeneity of population growth rates and a moderate slowdown in demographic dynamics. Intensity of urban expansion and spatial heterogeneity in population growth rates across metropolitan agglomerations evidences a trade-off between fast and slow demographic dynamics. These findings can be better understood to support theories of sequential city growth, making a suitable contribution to policy making, especially in countries where urban population is expanding more rapidly.     

经济密度、人口规模与环境污染——基于城市面板数据的实证分析

选取2005-2016年285个地级及以上城市数据,利用静态和动态短面板模型分析经济密度和人口规模对环境污染的影响,分析表明:经济密度与环境污染之间存在“倒U型”关系,人口规模扩大会抑制污染物排放;不同等级城市经济密度、不同规模城市人口对环境污染的影响方向一致,但影响程度有所差异;前期污染排放对当期具有正向影响,环境污染物排放存在路径依赖;经济发展水平、工业产值占比和对外开放也是影响污染物排放的重要因素,但各指标对三类污染物排放的影响方向和影响程度存在差异。据此认为,在综合考虑城市具体空间区位条件下,人口适度集聚,提高城市经济密度,优化产业结构以及加强环境监管是环境治理的重要方向。     

农地权益保障与农业转移人口市民化

研究目的：明晰农地权益对农业转移人口市民化的影响，进而揭示当前全国各地对农业转移人口农地权益保护状况。研究方法：基于Probit模型的实证分析。研究结果：（1）从全国范围来看，农业转移人口的农地权益只得到部分保障；（2）农地权益保障状况存在较大的地区差异，区域经济越发达，农地权益保障越完善；（3）农地权益只得到部分保障对推动农业转移人口向城市迁移起着促进作用，但却对农业转移人口市民化有着显著负面影响。研究结论：农地权益保障是农业转移人口市民化的重要影响因素，农地权益的不充分保障对农业转移人口市民化具有负面影响，而经济越不发达的地区这种影响越显著。     

股权集中度视角下高管团队特征对现金股利政策的影响

现金股利政策是上市公司对盈利进行分配或留存用于再投资的决策问题,在公司经营中起着至关重要的作用。探究了高管团队特征(规模、年龄、性别、学历背景)对企业现金股利政策的影响,研究发现管理团队的规模越大、平均年龄越大,企业现金股利支付率越高,表明企业管理团队人数越多,年龄越大,越容易采用较高的股利支付率,而管理团队的平均学历越高,越倾向于选择较低的现金股利分配率。说明更高学历的管理层认为,较低的现金股利支付水平才是有利于企业发展的股利支付水平。男性管理层和女性管理者对企业支付现金股利的高低并没有明显的差异。进一步研究发现,企业的股权越集中,管理者的特征对现金股利政策的影响会被弱化。也就是说,股权集中度会显著削弱管理者特征对公司现金股利政策的影响,该实证结果也印证了上市公司中代理问题的普遍存在。研究结果可为企业管理团队的合理配置提出可以借鉴的依据以及实证结果的支持。     

Political budget cycles revisited: Testing the signalling process

A widespread view in the ‘political budget cycles’ literature is that incumbent politicians seek to influence voters’ perceptions of their competence and/or preferences by using the composition of the fiscal budget as a signalling tool. However, little is known about whether voters actually receive and perceive the signal in that way. To empirically assess the relevance of the signalling channel at the municipal level, we conducted a survey among 2000 representative German citizens in 2018. Only a small fraction of voters feel well-informed about the fiscal budget signal and use the information it contains to decide whether to vote for the incumbent politician. Persons paying more attention to the signal sent by local politicians live in smaller municipalities, are more satisfied with their economic situation, are more educated, and do not feel that they are being electorally manipulated. Our analysis raises doubt about the relevance of budget composition as a signalling mechanism for voters at the local level.     

人口新常态约束下特大城市的规模调控与转型升级

不同国家、不同历史时期的特大城市人口规模变动极大,运用 Kernel 密度函数对中国城市人口规模分布的分析表明,当前以城区常住人口“500万以上”为特大城市的划分标准是合理的。从城市人口规模变动的动态历程来看,该变动主要受城市产业与经济发展的影响。对中国主要特大城市实有人口规模变动的分析表明,特大城市的人口规模调控应因时因地而动,不能搞一刀切,而且人口调控政策重点应该从数量控制转向结构优化。特大城市转型升级面临着农民工供给短缺、大学毕业生相对过剩、老年和少儿非劳动力人口持续增长等人口新常态约束。在这种人口增长新常态背景下,特大城市应坚持市场化改革方向,促进政府制度创新和企业技术与管理创新是城市转型升级的根本动力。     

基于劳动力测度指标对我国延迟退休制度理性分析

延迟退休已成为国际趋势。近年来,随着我国人口老龄化问题的进一步加剧与计划生育政策的持续实施,我国经济活动人口规模增速减缓,国家支付养老金压力增大。延迟退休问题已成为社会各界关注的热点问题,该政策实施也一波三折。基于劳动力测度指标,如劳动力参与率、老龄人口与就业人口之比、抚养比等为参考依据,得出了目前我国实施的退休年龄制度已不符合劳动力市场的发展趋势的要求,从而理性得出延迟退休年龄势在必行。