Welfare rights and wrongs: The limits of local anti-poverty strategies

This article discusses the development of local authority anti-poverty initiatives in Britain over the last two decades, setting them in the context of previous targeted anti-poverty activity in this country and in the United States, and focusing in particular upon the important role played by welfare rights within local anti-poverty work. The article also describes in some detail the initiatives in the welfare rights field undertaken by Sheffield County Council in the 1980s as part of its more general commitment during this period to challenging poverty and deprivation in the city and improving welfare services. It is argued that Sheffield provides an example of many of the strengths, and weaknesses, of the welfare rights theme within local authority anti-poverty action; and that from this lessons can be drawn for the role of welfare rights in future anti-poverty initiatives here and elsewhere. In conclusion the more general limitations of local anti-poverty strategies are discussed, contrasting their tactical successes with their more general policy failure in preventing the growth of local poverty.     

中国农村土地产权制度浅析

产权是一个集合,是一系列权利束,在动态中体现自身的存在。①家庭联产承包责任制克服了以往土地产权制度的不足,可随着经济的发展,也日益暴露出其自身的缺陷,因此,中国的土地产权制度需要变革。许多学者就此提出了自己的看法,本文在对土地产权制度进行分析的同时也提出了自己的设想。     

Communal property rights and land redistributions in Late Tsarist Russia

Communal property rights have long symbolized the apparent backwardness of rural Russian society in the late nineteenth century. Drawing on newly compiled data and qualitative sources, this article summarizes the institutions and practices of rural property rights in late Imperial Russia and shows that there was substantially more heterogeneity in what constituted peasant property rights than is commonly assumed. Archival and documentary accounts suggest that the emblematic practice of repartitioning communal land occurred relatively infrequently and, when undertaken, was generally managed in low‐cost ways. Econometric evidence from Moscow province implies that repartitions were driven more by concerns over the distribution of associated tax burdens than the desire to reallocate productive assets. Along with an analysis of cross‐sectional data on property rights and grain yields from European Russia, these findings suggest a weaker causal link between communal land practices and agricultural productivity than is typically asserted.     

An Essay on Human Rights and the Market for Social Contracts

In this article, I discuss an economic theory of human rights. Interpreting the social contract as a market good, a vector of rights that cannot be unbundled, I construct a competitive model in which citizens demand and states supply social contracts. An international market for social contracts matches citizens with states and determines the optimal social contracts. Human rights are the set of rights common to all equilibrium social contracts under perfectly competitive conditions. I explain that in reality, states may renege on their promises to citizens and may interfere with the market for social contracts. Thus, I argue for limits on state sovereignty and suggest that the international authority enforce social contracts and enhance the efficiency of the market for social contracts.     

The value of institutions for financial markets: evidence from emerging markets

This paper investigates the value of political institutions for financial markets, using panel data from emerging market countries. We test the hypothesis that changes in political institutions, such as improvements in democratic rights and increased government accountability, have a direct effect on sovereign interest rate spreads. We find that financial markets value institutions over and above the economic and fiscal outcomes these institutions shape. Democracy and accountability generally lower sovereign spreads, political risk tends to increase them, and financial markets view election years negatively.     

NEA Presidential Address: The role of race-conscious policies in addressing past and present discrimination

The impact of the current recession on the labor market situation of African-Americans highlights their longer-run plight. While there have been signs of improvement, especially during the 1960s, black per capita earnings have fallen despite improvements in their relative wages and occupational standing. Public debate over the recent Civil Rights Bill, the nomination of Justice Clarence Thomas, and the Supreme Court’s Croson decision, has raised again the issue of using race-conscious policies to address past and present discrimination. This article reports on a study of Birmingham, Alabama as a case study. It suggests that a combination of race-neutral and race-conscious approaches may be needed to address the problems blacks continue to face in the United States economy. This article was adapted from the Presidential Address to the National Economic Association, Allied Social Sciences Associations Meetings, January 3, 1992, New Orleans, LA.     

China and the world financial markets 1870–1939: Modern lessons from historical globalization1

In this article we review the development of Chinese capital markets over a crucial period in the history of markets worldwide, and place that development in context. Despite fundamental differences between China today and China 100 years ago, it is still important to consider the effects of an imbalance between domestic and international investor markets, and the mismatch between domestic and foreign expectations about investor protection. The lessons of the last century suggest that China today should consider opening Chinese investor access to foreign capital markets in order to equilibrate the level of diversification between foreign and domestic investors. In addition, our analysis suggests that protecting of domestic corporate investor rights is at least as important as protecting foreign investor rights.     

基于产权理论的我国国防科技工业产权制度的改革研究

文章阐述了新制度经济学产权理论中关于产权制度的效率标准,高效率产权制度的特征,以及产权的最优配置模型等有关内容。在此基础上,与我国国防科技工业相联系,从产权理论的视角,探讨我国国防科技工业产权制度的改革目标及对策措施。     

Updated estimates of UK GDP from the income side, 1841–1920

This article brings together some of the improvements to GDP estimates from the income side since the publication of Charles Feinstein's 1972 volume National income, expenditure and output of the United Kingdom, 1855–1965. Many of the improvements and refinements were made by Feinstein himself and this paper makes a start in bringing the different elements together, focusing chiefly on reconstructing the income-based estimates for the period 1841–1920. The new data are then used to comment on several features of the late nineteenth-century UK economy, considering both the trend and cyclical path of the economy. The new data, coupled with modern de-trending methods, suggest that there was a long-term slowing of the UK economy from the late nineteenth century, starting from the 1870s. To undertake the trend–cycle decomposition, we employ a wavelets methodology to describe the time–varying features of trends and cycles over this period.     

后税费改革时代农民权益保护的新制度经济学分析

税费改革政策在中央政府强力推动之下,于2004初在全国范围内普遍实施之后,中国进入了所谓的"后税费改革时代"。文章试图从新制度经济学角度出发,运用产权理论、交易成本理论、制度变迁理论等,对后税费改革时代的农民权益保障问题进行制度性探讨。     

Economic nationalism and economic integration: the Austro‐Hungarian Empire in the late nineteenth century 1

This article seeks to square two seemingly contradictory strands in the literature on economic development in the late nineteenth‐century Habsburg Empire. On the one hand, there is an extensive historiography stressing the rise of nationalism and its close correlate of growing efforts to organize economic life along ethno‐linguistic lines. On the other, there is a substantial body of research that emphasizes significant improvements in market integration across the empire as an outcome of the diffusion of industrialization and an expanding railway network, among other factors. In this article, it is argued that the process of market integration was systematically asymmetric, shaped by intensifying intra‐empire nationality conflicts. While grain markets in Austria‐Hungary became overall more integrated over time, they also became systematically biased: regions with a similar ethno‐linguistic composition of their population came to display significantly smaller price gaps between each other than regions with different compositions. The emergence and persistence of this differential integration cannot be explained by changes in infrastructure and transport costs, simple geographical features, asymmetric integration with neighbouring regions abroad, or communication problems. Instead, differential market integration along ethno‐linguistic lines was driven by the formation of ethno‐linguistic networks due to intensifying conflict between groups—economic nationalism mattered.     

组织员工授权知觉与员工服务质量关系探析——基于典型相关分析

以国家会议中心各部门的一线服务人员及其所服务的客户作为主要调查对象，259份有效问卷作为样本，利用SPSS20.0对调查结果进行典型相关分析，探析了员工授权知觉与服务质量的关系。结果表明：组织员工授权知觉和员工服务质量之间存在正相关关系，员工对自己工作能力的信心强度和对自己是否拥有工作自主权与独立权的感知程度更能有效的影响到客户对员工服务质量的评价，在提高员工授权知觉的情况下，员工的服务质量会得到提高，并凸显在服务的效率和可靠性这两方面。对一线服务员工进行适当的放权，使其授权知觉水平提高，有利于增强员工自信心，树立员工的责任感和价值感，提高员工服务工作的效率及可信赖性。     

Some basic questions on human rights and development

Concern in developed countries over human rights in the world has mainly focused on the first generation, or ‘civil’ rights, which circumscribe the actions of governments vis-a-vis the citizens. On the other hand, Third-World representatives have placed increasing emphasis on social, economic and cultural rights, which are really aspirations to be progressively achieved. With respect to these, because of scarcity of resources, choices often need to be made over the priority to be given to different aspirations (rights). These choices are similar to those involved in formulating development strategies, and (as with the latter) the concrete meaning given to these rights differs in different places. Much confusion has resulted from this, part of it deliberate and related to the fact that governments are parties to international agreements whose beneficiaries are supposedly the people, who may be repressed or exploited by those same governments. Though there is less ambiguity as regards the core of the ‘civil’ rights than over the ‘social’ rights, there are various reasons to emphasize the indivisibility of all human rights. In spite of the muddle, there is widespread consensus about the desirability of the progressive achievement of a widening range of such rights.     

The Determinants of the Cost Efficiency of Electric Generating Plants: A Stochastic Frontier Approach

This article provides a detailed analysis of generation plant operating cost efficiency over the period 1988-1997. I estimate a stochastic frontier cost function together with a model of plant inefficiencies to measure the operating efficiencies of individual plants and identify factors that are associated with variations in plant efficiencies. I find evidence that plant efficiencies are associated with capacity utilization of the plant, the number of plants under utility management, and ownership form. I also find that regulatory restructuring activity in certain states is associated with improvements in plant operating performance.     

论企业商誉权保护模式的选择

随着市场经济的发展,商誉权侵权案件逐渐增多,企业商誉权保护备受关注。文章分析了商誉权客体的无形财产性特点,指出商誉权的知识产权属性;从理论基础、立法目的等方面分析了我国商誉权保护的缺陷,在评析各国商誉权保护模式基础上提出应在民事基本法中确立商誉权的法律地位并制定单行《商誉法》,以实现商誉权的直接保护模式。     

农民工权益保障缺失的深层原因探析及对策建议

农民工是中国经济发展的重要力量。在辛勤付出的同时,他们的合法权益保障严重缺失。本文从制度、地方政府观念偏差、行政不作为、工会不履责等四方面深入探究农民工权益保障缺失的原因,并提出相应的对策建议。     

我国对外贸易壁垒调查制度评析

为消除国外贸易壁垒对我国对外贸易的影响,促进对外贸易的正常发展,我国自从2002年开始建立起对外贸易壁垒调查制度。此后又经历了一系列的修改和完善。但仍存在不尽如人意的地方,需要进一步健全才能更好地维护我国国内产业的合法权益,促进我国对外贸易的顺利发展。     

已建成成规模小产权房治理途径探讨

本文将已建成成规模小产权房治理作为研究目标,综合分析了其产生的原因和影响。并提出了以严格管理为前提,以符合规划为标准,以产权保障为核心,以市场机制为基础,对符合规划原则和建筑质量标准的小产权房通过交易时征收和年化征收两种方式征收土地出让金,实现违法处罚,并最终通过颁发产权证实现小产权房规范引导的治理方式。     

公司治理框架下的财务监控权配置模式研究

财务监控权与财务决策权和财务执行权"三权"共同构成完整的财务治理权。文章从监控权的角度出发,通过对不同公司治理模式下财务监控权的比较,指出了财务监控权在财务治理中的重要意义,并结合我国的实际情况讨论了财务监控权的配置模式。     

非股权安排与公司治理模式创新——以南通中远川崎船舶工程有限公司为例

先进的管理手段和较高的技术水平是工业企业取得良好业绩的重要因素,但从深层次来看,治理的结构和模式直接引导着公司的资源配置结构和发展方向,因此,治理水平的高低是判断企业是否具有生命力的最根本的因素.南通中远川崎公司自成立以来,在船舶建造领域取得了骄人的业绩,许多同行为破解其成功的奥秘,多从技术水平和管理手段方面入手对其进行研究,却忽视了该公司与众不同治理特征.文章从股东治理权的分配、非股权因素对治理的影响、治理权均衡与治理动态性矛盾的解决、子公司特定优势的形成等方面,以实证研究的方法剖析南通中远川崎船舶工程有限公司成功的深层次原因,并对投资者运用治理效用资产增加决策权重,实现治理意图的途径进行了探讨.