THE POLITICS OF MAASTRICHT

The Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) treaty signed at Maastricht does not guarantee the recreation of German-style economic policies and outcomes at the European Community (EC) level. Membership was not limited to countries that mimic the German commitment to price stability. National representatives may outvote inflation-averse EC central bankers in monetary policy decisions. The Council of Ministers has the power to set exchange rate policy vis-à-vis third currencies. The treaty does not provide binding constraints against fiscal profligacy in member states. The German government agreed to this suboptimal outcome because in the wake of the demise of the Soviet Union and German unification it had broader political interests in maintaining the pace of European integration at Maastricht. The Bundesbank's policy of high interest rates in 1992, however, has effectively guaranteed a two-speed monetary union, in which the first group of members will be limited to a narrow deutschemark zone. Given the waning enthusiasm for integration across the EC, the German government has no incentive to alter this outcome.     

土地征用中存在的主要问题

伴随着城市建设和经济发展,土地市场开发和土地征用日渐频繁。实践中,我国对征用土地的大部分使用都是为了商业目的,而且在征用过程中存在许多有待思考和解决的问题。因此,正确处理经济发展与土地保护的关系,加强对征用土地的监督管理尤为必要。文章通过对土地征用中一些主要问题的归纳和分析,期望完善立法以进一步维护农民的利益,真正实行最严格的土地管理制度,保护和利用好每一寸土地。     

浅析我国征地制度中"公共利益"界定与征地范围划分问题

在我国,土地征用权的法律规定主要来自《宪法》、《土地管理法》和《城市房地产管理法》。我国宪法,虽然赋予国家征用土地的权利,却没有为这种权利的行使划定明确的范围、界限、方式和程序;现行法律中关于土地征用权的规定互相矛盾,从而导致土地征用权的滥用,同时还存在对农民的补偿和安置不到位等问题。因此迫切需要完善土地征用制度,明确界定“公共利益”的范围,文章就此问题进行了初探,并提出了完善征地制度的建议。     

THE NUMBER OF FIRMS AND THE POLITICS OF STRATEGIC TRADE POLICY

Incorporating home firms' lobbying in a country into a third market model of oligopoly, this paper studies how such lobbying affects the government's strategic export policy scheme. We pay special attention to the home firms' lobby formation and its effect on domestic welfare. The home firms can organize a lobby more easily when the number of their rival foreign firms is larger than that of them, and/or when the government is overly concerned with political contribution relative to domestic welfare. The strategic export policy under lobbying cannot improve the domestic welfare, which depends on the number of firms, the government's concern about political donation and the level of socially wasted lobbying costs.     

THE POLITICS OF INVESTMENT PARTISANSHIP: AND THE SECTORAL ALLOCATION OF FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT

This paper explores the existence of partisan cycles in foreign direct investment performance. Our theoretical model predicts that the incumbent government's partisanship should affect foreign investors' decision to flow into different sectors of the host country: pro-labor governments would encourage the inflow of the type of investment that complements labor in production; pro-capital governments would promote the entry of investment that substitutes for labor. Empirical evidence from a sample of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries reveals a pattern of foreign investors' response to partisan cycles consistent with the predictions of the model. First, foreign investment systematically flows into different sectors of the host economy under left- and right-leaning incumbents. Second, we find a positive correlation between foreign investment and changes in average wages under left-leaning incumbents, but no effect on wages under right-leaning governments.     

中国土地征用制度对土地市场均衡的影响

根据对土地市场的微观模型和帕累托次优条件下的土地供给模型所进行的分析,农民经济利益的损失是可以通过市场行为来弥补的。我们可以将政府投资于征用土地的基础设施费用计入土地的销售价格,将房地产开发商投资于征用土地的基础设施费用计入开发成本和销售价格,按照市场行为运作,追求利润最大化,而不能将此作为城市政府占有农民土地收益的理由。     

THE POLITICS OF PRECOMMITMENT WITH ELECTORAL UNCERTAINTY AND TRANSACTION COSTS

Despite the lack of legal channels through which binding commitments can be made by the government, economic and political factors enable it to affect future outcomes. In practice, large transaction costs are associated with any significant change of policy, and therefore the current government can adopt policies so that certain outcomes are more likely to be realized by its successor. In this paper it is argued that transaction costs combined with electoral uncertainty are likely to drive the current government to adopt a policy which is extreme relative to the preferences of the existing political parties. This policy is adopted in order to ensure that due to transaction costs, the future government will not depart radically from the most preferred policy of the current government. If the current policy is likely to affect the election outcome, then, in addition to the above considerations, the electorate attitudes would have to be taken into account by the government. Hence, the current government confronts two factors in choosing its policies: the behavior of the future government and the behavior of the electorate. The interplay between the two factors determines the choice of the current policy.     

FDI与中国就业结构的演进

外商在华直接投资(FDI)对中国经济发展的积极作用之一是促进中国就业结构的演进。FDI促进中国就业结构演进主要有两个路径:一是推进农业劳动力向非农产业的转移;二是促进劳动力素质结构升级。我们应该高度重视就业导向性引资,并通过发展外资经济来促进就业和劳动力素质的提升。     

POLITICS AND THE FEDERAL RESERVE

Evidence presented here supports a two-part hypothesis that (1) the Federal Reserve is a powerful political entity, not independent of politics, and (2) it preserves its political power by carrying out the monetary policy desired by the President of the United States. This evidence includes the historical record from the Truman to Reagan administrations, politicization of Federal Reserve research, and political lobbying by the Federal Reserve. Formerly secret minutes of the regional Federal Reserve Banks' boards of directors meetings provide source material. The conclusion suggests a more efficient method of translating political signals and a rule for more predictable monetary policy.     

中国FDI地点选择的因素分析

在中国改革开放的20年中,政策优惠、产业结构、开放水平和市场化程度都对 FDI 的地区选择发挥了很大的作用,而各个因素的作用是随中国经济结构的变化而变化的。优惠政策一直是吸引外资的最主要因素;而外商对产业结构的重视程度经历了一个由弱到强的过程;1992年以后,开放水平对外资的吸引力作用有所下降,相反,市场化程度对外资的吸引作用却有所增强,这些因素在地区间的差距是造成外资地区分布不平衡的重要原因。     

基于BP神经网络的征地区片综合地价评估

文章提出了征地区片综合地价的BP神经网络系统的基本构造,并在充分考虑城市规划和生活水平对征地区片土地价格影响的基础上,对神经网络的评估系统进行了设计.给出了征地区片综合地价评估的指标体系及特征指标的量化计算公式.以雅安市雨城区最新的征地区片综合地价为基础,利用改进的BP神经网络模型对它们进行了训练和模拟,取得了良好的模拟结果,证明了ANN法用来测算征地区片综合地价的可行性和先进性.     

POLITICS AND THE NEW RESOURCE ECONOMICS

Two competing theories generally used, at least implicitly, to justify and analyze public resource management are scientific management and pluralism. We briefly review these theories and compare them to the new resource economics, an emerging body of theory which revises resource economics by introducing concepts from Austrian economics, property rights theory, and public choice. We argue that the new resource economics is superior to these traditional theories and then present specific policy proposals for the national forests, wilderness areas, and the public grazing lands. We also criticize new resource economists for not clearly distinguishing ideology from science, for emphasizing efficiency as a criterion for policy analysis, and for lacking political strategies for implementing their proposals     

THE ELECTORAL COSTS OF SPECIAL INTEREST POLITICS WHEN VOTERS ARE IGNORANT*

It is widely believed that the free-rider problem and the incentives to build minimum winning coalitions cause politics to reflect the preferences of special interest groups. Nevertheless, if voters do not know all the positions of all the candidates, then a candidate who proposes policies that benefit the public at large may defeat a candidate who depends on the support of special interests. Moreover, even if the latter candidate can win, he must use a publicity strategy which allows any voter to hear of proposals that benefit groups other than the voter's.     

湖南省外商直接投资的环境效应分析

对湖南省FDI与环境污染的关系进行分析,并借鉴JIE HE的分析方法,对湖南省FDI的环境效应进行了综合分析.结果表明,湖南省污染物排放量的变化不是外商直接投资变化的格兰杰(Granger)原因,但外商直接投资在一定水平上影响了湖南省的环境质量且FDI存量诱致的经济规模扩张和经济结构变化带来的环境效应均为负面的,而其诱致的技术转移带来的环境效应为正面的,FDI存量的总体环境效果是消极的.     

FDI工业内部投资结构的生态环境效应分析

国际跨境环境污染问题已成事实,一方面具有用来解析FDI以投资行业偏好形成跨境环境问题的理论依据,另一方面从FDI对中国的投资结构可以判断,FDI偏好投资工业部门以及工业中的污染密集型行业,这在一定程度上对生态环境产生了一定的影响。     

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF U.S. FOREIGN AID: AMERICAN LEGISLATORS AND THE DOMESTIC POLITICS OF AID

Are there systematic political economy factors that shape preferences for foreign aid, a key component of American foreign policy? We analyze votes in the House of Representatives from 1979 to 2003 that would increase or decrease foreign aid by considering the political, economic, and ideological characteristics of legislators and their districts. To understand who supports and opposes foreign aid, we utilize theories of foreign economic policy preferences. By examining different types of aid policy, we show that domestic politics and especially the distributional consequences of economic aid can matter. The economic characteristics of a district and its left–right ideological predispositions influence support for aid in a systematic fashion over the nearly 25‐year period. Stolper–Samuelson models along with political ideology can help explain legislators' preferences toward aid.     

TRADE NEGOTIATIONS, INFORMATION AND DOMESTIC POLITICS: THE ROLE OF DOMESTIC GROUPS

A domestic ratification game nested within an international bargaining game establishes that domestic politics influences the outcome of international negotiations. When information on the domestic side is incomplete, an informational role of lobbies is established. Cooperation is more likely when domestic lobbies provide information to Congress about a treaty presented for ratification, especially when cooperation would not otherwise occur. As government becomes more divided, cooperation is less likely; when it does occur, the legislature is better off – internal divisions worsen the external leverage of states, while a united home front is the executive's best chance for obtaining her ideal agreement.     

FORECASTING FDI EQUITY INCOME FOR THE DANISH BALANCE OF PAYMENTS

Late and significant revisions are often observed in FDI equity income in many countries, hampering the quality of preliminary balance of payments statistics. We test a range of models on Danish data and find that forecasts for FDI equity income based on a combination of past profitability and consensus data for changes in expected private consumption growth outperform forecasts solely based on historical profitability. When the refined models are applied to the Danish balance of payments, the largest improvements are observed for outward and inward FDI separately. Revisions of net FDI equity income only decrease marginally because the significant revisions in gross terms resulting from the historical models have a tendency to (partly) cancel out each other on a net basis.