‘Conscience Capitalism’ and the Neoliberalisation of the Non-Profit Sector

This article analyses a range of initiatives, labelled as ‘conscience capitalist’, that have become prominent since the 2008 financial crash. Conscience capitalism encompasses projects emerging in both the for- and non-profit sectors that seek to connect neoliberal capitalism with concepts of morality and conscience. The article begins by unpacking conscience capitalism, showing how its for-profit advocates seek to transform capitalism by orienting it towards accounting for social and environmental externalities, and how its non-profit supporters seek to incorporate components of neoliberalism to serve their environmentally and/or socially focused agendas. Conscience capitalism appears to be a re-evaluation and call for reform of the prominent forms of neoliberalism. However, this article argues that, rather than comprising a hindrance, conscience capitalism offers a means of advancing the project. This is evident in its attempts to reconstitute social and environmental externalities in terms relatable to the market, and represent social and environmental problems in quantitative terms in which the success of market-based solutions can be read. Acknowledging some of the successes of conscience capitalist campaigns, the article concludes by arguing that this continued neoliberalisation of the non-profit sector favours campaigns consistent with neoliberalism and has the potential to undermine the democratic governance of non-profits.     

Can China escape the middle-income trap?

Can China continue its relatively rapid economic growth and rise to the high-income status in the coming decade? In this article we address this question by examining three issues. One, is the current slowdown mainly a cyclical or a structural phenomenon? Two, can China successfully transform its growth model? And, three, what does China need to do to foster its capability of technological innovation and industrial upgrading? We conclude that, with necessary reforms, such as improvement in the education and research capability, liberalization of the financial system and introduction of a more transparent and accountable political system, China will most likely be able to escape the middle-income trap in the next 10 years.     

International policy coordination mechanism with respect to the moral hazards of financial intermediaries

This paper examines the impact of cross-border financial externalities on moral hazards of the banking sector, and an international policy coordination mechanism to reduce the moral hazards of the banking sector considering cross-border financial externalities. We demonstrate that the moral hazard of banking, such as reducing the monitoring efforts, is aggravated by cross-border financial externalities, while the introduction of an international policy coordination mechanism might reduce the moral hazard caused by these externalities. Moreover, international policy coordination is less likely to be sustained when the policy maker is short-sighted and the banking sector has greater political influence. However, when the distortionary cost of a liquidity aids policy is lower with high administrative transparency, and cross-border financial externality is greater, the coordination mechanism is more likely to be sustained. The results imply that efforts to launch an effective international financial coordination mechanism should start with countries with higher administrative transparency, more political stability, and enhanced financial integration.     

FINANCIAL MARKET COMPETITION AND ECONOMIC GROWTH: THE IMPORTANCE OF HOW PROFITS ARE RETURNED

If households have finite lives, the effect of imperfect competition in the financial sector on economic growth depends also on how its profits are returned. The return may be exogenous though fiscal transfers to the young and/or the old or endogenous through dividend payments to a subset of old households that have acquired financial sector equity. Returning financial profits to the old, either exogenously or endogenously, unambiguously reduces growth, but through the two respective mechanisms of consumption-smoothing and of encouraging 'unproductive saving'. As the latter is the more powerful, a public pension paid for by taxing financial profits will raise steady-state growth rate. However, the main results are that if profits are returned to the young, growth will be highest with monopolistic finance, if the elasticity of intertemporal substitution is sufficiently low; and, generally, the number of Nash–Cournot financial firms that maximizes growth is increasing in the value of this parameter.     

The sustainability of economic transformation

The paper analyzes the feasibility of sustaining both macroeconomic stability and political support during economic transformation. Macroeconomic stability requires that state sector losses plus public infrastructure investment be financed by tax revenue plus any external assistance. Political sustainability depends on the income gains and losses experienced by three groups—state sector workers, private sector workers, and private savers/investors. The aggregate income gains from allowing heterogeneous workers to make occupational choices consistent with their comparative advantages can outweigh or significantly offset the short-run economic efficiency costs of maintaining political support for the transformation. Successful transformation may depend on external assistance, but this need will diminish over time.     

REASSESSING THE IMPACT OF BARRIERS TO CAPITAL ACCUMULATION ON INTERNATIONAL INCOME DIFFERENCES*

Can barriers to capital accumulation account for large differences in GDP per capita? We reconsider the claim that these barriers have an amplified effect on income levels in a model where both modern and traditional sector technologies are active. We show that this claim is not correct. We do find, however, that the removal of barriers to capital accumulation can cause large changes in the employment shares of labor. Thus the model can account for an important stylized fact of the development process, with labor moving from the traditional to the modern sector as income levels rise.     

The Evolutionary Stability of Moral Objections to Free Riding

In this study we explore the endogenous determination of moral objections to free riding. We first derive the individually rational behavior for given preferences. The motivational structure is allowed to evolve evolutionarily based on the comparison of the relative reproductive success of all possible preference types. The tastes that emerge are not necessarily those assumed in models resorting to altruism or moral obligations. In general, an effective social conscience preventing free riding need not be evolutionarily stable. In the first model that we explore, moral objections to free riding and, in turn, voluntary contributions to the provision of public goods are not to be expected with one notable exception, namely unanimity games. In the second model that we explore, the evolutionarily stable probability that an individual develops social conscience is positive.     

Unemployment and Economic Integration for Developing Countries

While financial or trade integration between countries may increase the size of the market and aid the adoption of more advanced technologies, will it also increase the level of urban unemployment for a developing country? In this model, there is unemployment in the urban sector. Manufacturing firms engage in oligopolistic competition and choose increasing returns technologies to maximize profits. Financial firms provide capital to manufacturing firms and they also engage in oligopolistic competition. We show that an increase in the wage rate in the manufacturing sector changes neither the level of technology nor the level of employment in the manufacturing sector. While financial or trade integration between developing countries leads manufacturing firms to adopt more advanced technologies, the level and rate of employment in the manufacturing sector will not deteriorate.     

An Examination of Borrower Orientation and Scale Effects in UK Credit Unions

At present there are 597 credit unions operating within the UK with their growth, be it defined in term of new credit union establishment, asset growth or membership growth, placing them as the fasting growing financial grouping in the UK over this last decade.
The fundamental motivation of a credit union is to provide financial services to its membership, in particular a depository for savings and an access to consumer credit. As a practical problem there are, however, a number of reasons why credit unions may achieve a less than perfect balance in the treatment of borrowers and savers. For example, maintaining low loan rates may reduce the credit union's ability to offer high dividend rates while the maintenance of high dividend rates may require higher loan rates. Consequently, the competing pull of these two objectives may result in the emergence of conflict between those credit union members who on the one hand are net savers and those that are net borrowers. If such conflict does emerge it is then likely to place in jeopardy other aspects of a credit union's function most notably their role as financial counsellors and promoters of thrift within low income communities.
The approach taken in this study is to derive an index of member group imbalance and then to employ this index to determine whether member group imbalance has an adverse impact upon the generation of total benefits by individual credit unions. The analysis demonstrates that there is a strong pro-borrower bias in the operation of UK credit unions with this pro-borrower bias driven by the regulatory environment within which they operate.     

The impact of institutional volatility on financial volatility in transition economies

What have been the determinants of financial volatility in the transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union? This paper posits that institutional changes, and in particular the volatility of crucial institutions such as property rights, have been the major causes of financial volatility in transition. Building a unique monthly database of 20 transition economies from 1991 to 2017, this paper applies the GARCH family of models to examine financial volatility as a function of institutional volatility. The results show that more advanced institutions help to dampen financial sector volatility, while institutional volatility feeds through directly to financial sector volatility in transition. Democratic changes in particular engender much higher levels of volatility, while property rights are sensitive to the metric used for their measurement.     

The Influence of Financial Factors on Corporate Investment

Abstract
Recent theoretical developments have shown that cash flows and the structure of a firm's balance sheet may have an important influence on investment. Establishing a link between cash flows, leverage and investment provides insights into the way that monetary policy and cyclical factors more generally influence the corporate sector. If cash flows are an important determinant of investment then changes in monetary policy (by changing interest rates) will influence investment through a cash flow effect as well as through altering the rate at which the returns to investment are discounted. If this is the case, the higher leverage of the corporate sector implies, other things being equal, that monetary policy may have a larger impact on investment than in the past .
In this article we use panel-data analysis to examine the impact of financial factors on investment decisions of firms in the Australian corporate sector. We find strong support for the influence of financial factors on investment decisions. Leverage, internally generated cash flows, and the stock of cash and liquid financial assets are all important influences on investment behaviour, particularly for smaller firms, highly leveraged firms, and firms with high retention ratios .     

Does Financial Sector Development Augment Cross-Border Capital Flows?

ABSTRACT

The sharp increase in volatility of capital flows in recent years has resulted in many countries altering the regulations governing the flow of foreign capital only to find such changes having a limited impact. We postulate that one reason for the limited effectiveness of such changes in regulations is the level of financial sector development in the country. As a country enhances its level of financial sector development, it also develops more and more sophisticated financial instruments. The more advanced the domestic financial instruments are, and the deeper is the integration of the domestic financial markets with the world markets, the greater is the likelihood of developing strategies to bypass capital account management measures. In this paper, we use various empirical techniques to identify the impact of financial sector development on capital flows, after accounting for regulatory regime. The empirical results indicate that there is a threshold effect in the financial sector development capital flow relationship. In particular, financial sector development augments greater integration with global capital flows only above a threshold level. Below the threshold level we find financial development reduces the extent of integration with global capital markets.     

黑龙江省农村金融领域的信用风险及其防范

信用是市场经济的基础,也是市场经济的必然产物,因此,信用风险一旦发生就会对经济发展产生诸多不利影响,在金融领域的影响尤为严重。中国作为一个农业大国,农村金融领域发生信用风险就会严重地制约经济的总体发展水平。因此,从农村金融的角度,以黑龙江省为例,提出合理防范农村金融领域的信用风险,对黑龙江省整体县域经济发展具有重要意义。基于此,分析了农村金融领域信用风险产生的原因和对区域性农业经济发展的影响,提出了相应的风险防范措施.     

Leading by numbers

We measure to determine where we stand financially or in our quality outcomes. As people see the connection of measures and the success of the company, everything makes more sense. Izzo (2005) writes that profits/net margins are important to an organization and are like oxygen to a person. If we have oxygen, we can focus on the important things in life; if we don't we are preoccupied with gasping for air. Organizations are the same way. With the oxygen of profits, organizations can focus on those things that matter most to the staff and the customer. But when the search for profits becomes obsessive because of greed for excess profits or impending financial doom, everybody loses. Izzo (2005) reminds us that organizations shouldn't exist for only profit, just as people don't exist for only oxygen. Oxygen is merely an enabler for us to do the work of living. Measurement and numbers are the oxygen needed to achieve excellence. As people in organizations use numbers as their servants rather than being slaves to numbers, everyone will succeed. If the use of measurement is seen as punitive, and not a system of serving people to attain that zest for business and a higher mission, we will not achieve the level of excellence our people, patients, and communities deserve.     

政府审计、媒体监督与财政安全

媒体对政府审计的监督是否有利于保障财政资金的运行安全?研究结果表明,在审计前期和中期,媒体对政府审计情况报道越多的地区,地方审计机关发现的违规资金越多,应上缴的财政资金越多。在审计后期,媒体对政府审计情况报道越多的地区,被审计单位整改情况越好,已上缴的财政资金越多。因此,审计部门应尊重新闻自由,重视媒体对审计机关的监督权力,借助媒体减少审计工作中的阻力。媒体应加大报道力度来改善政府审计效能,督促被审计单位进行整改,进而提高财政资金运行的安全性。     

The impact of lifestyle health risk on the bottom line: a case study

As the Lifestyle Advantage study continues, HPS expects to follow the utilization trends for a consistent group of participants and nonparticipants, maintaining full confidentiality. Several key issues will be addressed in the process: As the participation rate increases, will the claims payment gap between participants and nonparticipants be reduced? Can a company hope to see a return on an investment in a health promotion program? If so, over what period of time? Finding answers to these questions will contribute to the larger issues of long-term health care cost containment and health care reform.     

Financialization of the Economy and Income Inequality in China

The income gap between the financial sector and other sectors has been widening since the mid-1990s. Why do financiers in China earn more than others? We analyze this issue against the background of financialization of the economy. The year 1993 was a watershed year, in which China began the process of rapid financialization. Since 1993, the financial sector has become increasingly powerful, overshadowing other sectors. Evidence shows that the high income levels that exist in the financial sector are related to this process of financialization in China. Financialization influences income distribution in China through two channels: money issuance and liquidation of social capital. The labor market equilibrium of the financial sector and wage level determination are not naturally formed but constructed. The increasing income inequality between the financial sector and other sectors is a consequence of financialization of the economy in China.     

虚拟经济新探

长期以来,我们主要从道德角度对虚拟经济进行批判并予以否定,笔者认为,虚拟经济的存在和发展,是一种不以人的主观意志为转移的历史发展的必然,它对我们的社会发展和经济生活产生了重要的影响,因此,我们应转变思想观念,消除有关思想和认识上的误区,并认真研究国外发展虚拟经济的经验和教训,为我国虚拟经济的健康和稳定发展提供借鉴和启示。     

双重委托—代理视角下的金融中介、金融加速器与经济波动的研究

本文在BGG模型基础上,建立了包含企业、金融中介、投资者的双重委托—代理模型,将金融中介纳入信贷市场摩擦的分析框架内。分析了金融中介自身受信贷约束时,其资产净值变化对经济产生的金融加速器效应。得出在双重委托代理的信用契约下,企业外部融资溢价不但受自身资产净值的影响,还受金融中介资产净值的影响。各种外部冲击通过信贷市场中金融中介的传导对经济波动造成进一步放大的效应,经济波动的金融加速器效应在考虑金融中介资产净值的影响后得到了增强。