A note on pro-poor social expenditures

This study extended the concept of ‘pro-poor growth’ in terms of social expenditures that measure whether social expenditures are pro-poor or not pro-poor. Using the idea of pro-poor growth, this study examines as to what extent the poor benefited from the growth of social expenditures i.e., human development, rural development, safety nets and community services. The monotonicity axiom sets out a condition that the proportional reduction in poverty is a monotonically increasing function of the pro-poor growth. This study satisfies the monotonicity criterion relative with social expenditures and proposes a ‘poverty equivalent social expenditure rate’, which takes into account both the magnitude of social expenditures growth and how the benefits of these expenditures are distributed to the poors and the non-poors. This methodology is applied to Pakistan’s unit record household surveys during the periods of 1964–2011 (21 household surveys) and examines the interrelationship between social expenditures, inequality, and poverty. It is argued that the satisfaction of a monotonicity axiom is a key criterion for measuring pro-poor growth. The results found that the social expenditures in Pakistan are not intrinsically pro poor. Although it was strongly pro poor in the 1980s and pro poor in the 1990s, growth in the 1970s and 2000s was anti poor, if the poverty related social expenditures still remains anti-poor in the subsequent years as reflected in the years 2008–2011, there is a likelihood that these expenditures may not trickle down to the poor but instead to the non-poor. It is indicative that to achieve rapid poverty reduction, the poverty equivalent growth rate ought to be maximized rather than the actual growth rate of social expenditures in Pakistan.     

A political-economy perspective on social expenditures: corruption and in-kind versus cash transfers

This paper presents a novel political-economy perspective on the composition of social expenditures. We take into account the possibility that institutions are weak, i.e. there is corruption, and analyze how this affects the government’s choice between cash and in-kind transfers. Our results show that the share of in-kind transfers (e.g. basic health care, public housing or food stamps), whose appropriation by corrupt politicians is more easily observed than in the case of cash transfers, increases with corruption. This positive relationship exists, however, only in highly democratic countries. We argue that voters use their political influence in democratic countries to ensure that a higher share of transfers is provided in kind thereby shielding transfers from appropriation by corrupt politicians.     

Discrete-space agglomeration model with social interactions: Multiplicity,stability, and continuous limit of equilibria

This study examines the properties of equilibrium, including the stability, of discrete-space agglomeration models with social interactions. The findings reveal that while the corresponding continuous-space model has a unique equilibrium, the equilibrium in discrete space can be non-unique for any finite degree of discretization by characterizing the discrete-space model as a potential game. Furthermore, it indicates that despite the above result, any sequence of discrete-space models’ equilibria converges to the continuous-space model’s unique equilibrium as the discretization of space is refined.     

Social distance,heterogeneity and social interactions

A crucial ingredient in social interaction models is the structure of peer groups, which link individuals with similar characteristics. We propose and study a dynamic binary choice model with social interactions in which heterogeneity of peer group effects is modeled introducing diversity in individual characteristics and linking pairwise influences to a social distance between individuals. Our framework allows for mimetic as well as anti-mimetic interactions and a heterogeneous structure of peer groups across individuals. Dynamic equilibria are studied in the limit when the number of agents is large. We show that the model exhibits multiple equilibria resulting from conflicts between various group pressures the individuals are subjected to. We study in particular the correlation in the population at equilibrium between the characteristics of the agents and their decisions: this quantity has an interesting empirical interpretation and solves a simple analytical equation when the number of agents is large. Finally we discuss the empirical content of the model and present a consistent estimator for the parameter describing which is consistent for any typical population regardless of the structure of individual characteristics.     

城市规划、城市空间环境建设与城市社会发展

在社会发展、社会发展目标内涵的基础上,总结了近现代城市规划中蕴涵的社会思想,分析了城市空间环境建设与城市社会发展目标之间的相互作用关系,提出了与城市规划建设相关的社会发展目标,并探讨了有助于实现社会发展目标的城市规划调控与改革的方向.     

A semiparametric stochastic volatility model

In this paper the correlation structure in the classical leverage stochastic volatility (SV) model is generalized based on a linear spline. In the new model the correlation between the return and volatility innovations is time varying and depends nonparametrically on the type of news arrived to the market. Theoretical properties of the proposed model are examined. The model estimation and comparison are conducted by Bayesian methods. The performance of the estimates are examined in simulations. The new model is fitted to daily and weekly US data and compared with the classical SV and GARCH models in terms of their in-sample and out-of-sample performances. Empirical results suggest evidence in favor of the proposed model. In particular, the new model finds strong evidence of time varying leverage effect in individual stocks when the classical model fails to identify the leverage effect.     

Political ideology,social capital,and government innovativeness: evidence from the US states

We use the number of finalists and winners recognized by the Innovations in American Government Awards (IAGA) programme to measure state government innovativeness from 1986 to 2013. The measure is moderately related to two existing state policy innovativeness indexes. The fifty states vary remarkably and persistently in government innovativeness, which is more driven by internal antecedents than external ones. We find that between-state effects outperform within-state effects in explaining government innovativeness. We also reveal that government ideology, citizen ideology, and social capital are positively related to government innovativeness. The index developed in this study can be used in pertinent studies, and the findings contribute to the literature on public sector innovation.     

A zero inefficiency stochastic frontier model

Traditional stochastic frontier models impose inefficient behavior on all firms in the sample of interest. If the data under investigation represent a mixture of both fully efficient and inefficient firms then off-the-shelf frontier models are statistically inadequate. We introduce the zero inefficiency stochastic frontier model which can accommodate the presence of both efficient and inefficient firms in the sample. We derive the corresponding log-likelihood function, conditional mean of inefficiency, to estimate observation-specific inefficiency and discuss testing for the presence of fully efficient firms. We provide both simulated evidence as well as an empirical example which demonstrates the applicability of the proposed method.     

A discrete‐choice model with social interactions: with an application to high school teen behavior

We develop an empirical discrete‐choice interaction model with a finite number of agents. We characterize its equilibrium properties—in particular the correspondence between interaction strength, number of agents, and the set of equilibria—and propose to estimate the model by means of simulation methods. In an empirical application, we analyze the individual behavior of high school teenagers in almost 500 school classes from 70 schools. In our baseline model endogenous social interaction effects are strong for behavior closely related to school (truancy), somewhat weaker for behavior partly related to school (smoking, cell phone ownership, and moped ownership) and absent for behavior far away from school (asking parents' permission for purchases). Intra‐gender interactions are generally much stronger than cross‐gender interactions. In a model with school‐specific fixed effects social interaction effects are insignificant, with the exception of intra‐gender interactions for truancy. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A stochastic dynamic model of trade and growth: Convergence and diversification

There is a growing literature that studies the properties of models that combine international trade and neoclassical growth theory, but mostly in a deterministic setting. In this paper we introduce uncertainty in a dynamic Heckscher-Ohlin model and characterize the equilibrium of a small open economy in such an environment. We show that, when trade is balanced period-by-period, the per capita output and consumption of a small open economy converge to an invariant distribution that is independent of the initial wealth. Further, at the invariant distribution, there are periods in which the small economy diversifies. Numerical simulations show that the speed of convergence increases with the size of the shocks. In the limit, when there is no uncertainty, there is no convergence and countries may specialize permanently. The paper highlights the role of market incompleteness, as a result of the period-by-period trade balance, in this setup. Through an analytical example we also illustrate the importance of country specific risk in delivering our results.     

Women,urban social movements and the lesbian ghetto

Le but de cette étude ect d'éclairer sous un autre jour la position des femmes en sociologie urbaine. Cette discussion va illustrer les directions dont on a tiré les analyses précédentes et l'effet qui s'ensuit sur la sociologie urbaine vis-à-vis des femmes. Tout d'abord, la présentation s'attache principalement à l'articulation de la politique des femmes au sein de l'expérience urbaine. Un exemple de ce développemcnt est l'émergence du mouvement de libération de la femme. On soutient que ce domaine constitue un sujet d'enquête valable en sociologie urbaine. De ce fait, des phénomènes liés à sa progression en tant que force sociale seront discutés. Finalement, l'étude d'un cas, (le ghetto lesbien) dans un contexte urbain précis, sera inclus.     

Fragmented government and the us urban fiscal crisis

Book reviewed in this article: Alcaly, R. and Mermelstein, D. 1977: The fiscal crisis of American cities: essays on the political economy of urban America with special reference to New York. MacManus, S. 1978: Revenue patterns in US cities and suburbs: a comparative analysis. Passell, P. and Ross, L. 1978: State policies and federal programs: priorities and constraints.     

Action embedded in social structure: A systematic theory Part II,explanations

This research develops a systematic theory, which premises a responsible and reasonable actor, of how social structure can affect rational social action, applies this general theory to explain 29 specific empirical findings about voting, and illustrates how deductive theories can synthesize prior empirical findings and provide a focus for subsequent empirical research. Part II, Explanations applies the systematic theory to account for specific empirical propositions that relate social statuses to the decisions voters make. Voters are classified by such graduated social statuses as socioeconomic class, age, and education; and by such nominal social statuses as religion, urban or rural residence, region, gender, race, and ethnicity. Positions on two key issues affect voting choice, the desire for economic equity and the desire for social equality. The members of the various social groups interpret these issues as they affect their own self-interest, and align with the party they perceive as furthering their interests. To corroborate aspects of the theory and to quantify the effects of the variables, survey data are analyzed.     

Intraurban residential mobility: The role of transactions costs, market imperfections, and household disequilibrium

This paper presents a model of household residential search and mobility that focuses on microeconomic elements of household behavior and incorporates housing market features. The model is cast explicitly in terms of a rigorous model of housing demand, allowing the benefits from moving to be measured as the compensating income variation of the potential change in consumption. The empirical results indicate that large changes in economic variables, such as income and prices produce only small potential gains from moving and that a major factor in the moving decision is the magnitude of search and moving costs.     

社会多元化与政府转型情境下的规划模式转变——浅析多伦多新型社会规划

面对当前社会日益多元化的发展趋势,以及政府职能调整为社区发展带来的两难困境,加拿大多伦多市在反思传统社会规划模式局限性的基础上,开创性地进行了新型社会规划模式的探索,为我国城市规划领域中社会规划的发展提供了新的思路和启示.     

Innovation,market structure and firm size: A simultaneous equations model

This study uses a hwequation model and data for four-digit SIC manufacturing industries to examine the joint endogeneily of output measures of innovation activity and market structure (industry concentration). Its results confirm recent studies finding high concentration to have a negative effect on innovation output (especially smabfinn innovations), and Anding that large-firm innovations and small-finn innovations respond Werently to economic and technological conditions. The study also reveals that, contrary to some previous research, and consistent with modern ‘Schumpeterian’ propositions, innovation output (especially largefirm innovations) has a significant positive effect on industry concentration.