The nonprofit sector and industry performance

Despite the importance of nonprofit industries in the economy, little analysis has been conducted as to whether the behavior of such industries differs from that of for-profit industries. Extending previous firm-level analyses, we propose a neoclassical theory with an endogenous nonprofit sector. Our analysis implies that nonprofit firms have a competitive advantage over for-profit firms, so that marginal changes in the industry operate through the for-profit sector. As such, marginal industry behavior is identical to that of a for-profit industry and nonprofit regulations may have a limited impact or even no impact on overall industry performance. Our theory has the methodological advantage that standard for-profit analysis applies directly to nonprofit firms, because they can be analyzed as for-profit firms with lower costs. We discuss aspects of the empirical literature that test this theory of nonprofit activity.     

The Swedish nonprofit sector in international comparison

The previous picture of the nonprofit sector in Sweden has been biased by a narrow US perspective. Mainstream nonprofit literature seems to neglect work carried out in the important but more complex tradition of the civil society. In this article, recent cross-national data reflecting both these paradigms are presented. This gives us a better picture of the Swedish sector and highlights limitations of earlier approaches, not only for our understanding of the Swedish sector but also of the sector elsewhere. To continue the quest for the raison d'être of the sector, not only are more cross-national data needed but we must also develop a multidisciplinary framework in which to understand the data.     

Coexistence of nonprofit, for-profit and public sector institutions

If nonprofit organizations are superior institutions in resolving informational asymmetry and resulting contract failure, why do nonprofit (NPs), for-profit (FPs) and government/public institutions (GPs) survive in the same industry? This article explicitly models the nonconvex budget set for the consumer that arises through the juxtaposition of the inefficiencies and contract failures that occur in the three sectors. Because the consumer is willing to trade quality for efficiency and price, varying market shares for NPs, FPs and GPs can exist in the same industry. The theory offered complements the functionalist explanation of the existence of nonprofits advanced by Weisbrod and Hansmann using a micro-analysis.     

The nonprofit sector in international perspective: The case of Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, a developing country, has a small but growing nonprofit sector that engages in the formation of social overhead and human capital, as well as in more traditional social services. The most active multipurpose organizations combine large foreign monetary donations with domestic donations of volunteer labor. Smaller organizations depend primarily on modest government grants for financial support. Private domestic monetary contributions, unlike in the U. S., play only a minor role. Origins of these nonprofit institutions, motivations of foreign donors and of volunteer labor, interactions with the government, and implications for economic development and social welfare are examined.     

The future of the global economy

Although world growth is continuous throughout history, the balance of power is constantly shifting from one nation to another. From Egypt to Ancient Greece and Rome, all the way through modern western civilization, different nations struggle for power through various ways such as: war, science and technology, arts, commerce, economical transactions, and other forms of interaction.In this article we use the assumption that global activity, as measured by real GDP, follows the well known s-curve of natural growth. Furthermore in order to model the relative power of specific regions, namely Western Countries, China and the rest of the world, we use the Logistic Substitution method developed by Nakicenovic and Marchetti. Estimates from the derived models are tested against actual data and linked to real historical events where appropriate.The bottom line of these forecasts is that World GDP will continue to rise in the next years, and will probably reach its peak growth by the end of the next decade. China's emergence as a superpower is verified and could have been predicted even as way back as 1985 by using the Logistic Substitution method. If the current trend persists it is expected to more than double its percentage contribution to the World's gross domestic product during the next two decades and exceed Western Countries' aggregated GDP by 2034 at a level of almost 40%. By the year 2024 though China's economy is expected to enter the substitution phase, as our world will most likely experience the emergence of a new “superpower” that will take its place, and once more will change the international landscape as we know it today.     

国有经济的战略调整与国有企业改革

加快调整国有经济的战略布局，收缩国有经济战线，既有利于坚持公有制，又有利于政府真正转变职能。国有经济的战略调整一是要把大量的国有资本从漫无边际的战线和领域退出；二是要形成国家控制、多元化的控股格局。因此，我国现代企业制度建设重点在于，国有资产的管理和运营既要保持国家资产的所有权，又要使国有资产的运营充满活力。     

The Third Way and the third sector: New Labour's economic policy and the social economy

This paper reviews the relationship between Labour's economicpolicy and the third sector. Since 1997, the third sector hasreceived significant government support and has gradually movedfrom the economic periphery towards the centre such that itis now instrumental in the delivery of a range of governmentpolicies. It operates alongside both the private and publicsectors in delivering employment, education, health and socialcare, housing and environmental policies. The impact of thishas been seen in measures of social exclusion, poverty, theenvironment, social capital, as well as GDP and employment.Future policies should strive to maintain and develop the distinctivecapabilities of third sector organisations and the balance betweeneconomic, social and environmental objectives.     

The farmer and the money economy: The role of the private sector in the agricultural development of LDCs

The world's food/people balance is precarious now and will become more precarious in the future, in terms of both supply and price.The grain producing industrial countries have come close to reaching their production potential. The solution lies in exploiting the production capacity of the developing world.At present only half of the world's good arable land is being farmed. Most of the other half does not have the necessary infrastructure, and opening it up to cultivation will require major capital investment. This means that a serious political commitment is required, primarily by LDC governments. There are concomitants for aid policies as well.The key action-oriented question is where, and how, productivity increase can take place. The authors suggest that the most effective method requires involvement of the private sector, specifically the participation of small landholders, working 1–5 acres, grouped around a corporate core. The corporate core provides technical, educational, and financial inputs, processes, and/or markets the output. In a widening circle of socioeconomic benefits, as small holder productivity increases, work can be offered to landless peasants, and both the farmer and the peasant are brought into the money economy with the overall developmental dynamic this implies.Most effective is a holistic approach involving all segments of the rural community, particularly women.This paper will offer empirical data from case histories in developing countries and will derive from this data (and the extensive exposure of the coauthors to the problems and opportunities of agribusiness worldwide) policy implications for the public sector and strategy implications for the private sector.In planning the transition to sustainable societies, the concept of “triage” is ethically repugnant, politically explosive, and economically devastating. An effective approach to the problem of agriculture would eliminate the current de facto triage, where food/people imbalance leads to the death of hundreds of millions through starvation and malnutrition.     

Russian oil: the role of the sector in Russia's economy

Russia's oil sector is critical to the country's overall economic development at present and may affect the whole Russian economy in the next several years. Nevertheless, like all other energy sectors in the Russian Federation, it faces a number of problems, including low domestic prices, a poor regulatory framework, little competition, underinvestment and environmental failure. There is little know‐ledge of the real needs and problems of the sector, including high production costs, weak transport infrastructure, low investment and obsolete technical equipment, but instead there is permanent political pressure to increase the tax burden. In this context the analysis presented in the article contributes to ongoing discussions and presents a number of numerical estimations relating to the current situation of the oil sector in Russia, including overall sector revenue, cost estimates, total tax burden, present level of investment etc., and simulations of the situation in the sector under different future oil price scenarios.     

共享经济在我国发展的现状及其未来趋势初探

近年来,我国共享经济迅速发展,已经涉及到社会各个领域,这样有利于促进社会发展。基于此,本文以我国共享经济发展为研究对象,首先介绍了共享经济的基本含义与发展意义,然后分析了我国共享经济的发展现状,最后提出了我国共享经济将来的发展趋势,希望可以为有需要的人提供参考意见。     

Characteristics of households in the informal sector of an emerging economy

Using the case study of Trinidad and Tobago, we investigate the socio-economic, demographic and attitudinal characteristics of households that participate in the informal sector of an emerging economy and their perception of the risk of detection by tax authorities while doing so. Data are gathered from a cross-sectional field survey covering 570 households. Results using multinomial logit and ordered probit models suggest that households are motivated to participate in the informal sector when members spend little time in formal sector activity, believe that taxes are too high and their incomes are too low, have dependents to support and believe that the resulting tax evasion will go undetected. Their perception of the risk of detection by the tax authority is determined largely by the income they earn in the formal sector and the extent of government bureaucracy prevailing there.     

Welfare costs of monetary policy uncertainty in the economy with shifting trend inflation

We study welfare costs of the uncertainty about monetary policy in the economy featuring shifting trend inflation. We follow Ruge-Murcia (J Econ Dyn Control 36: 914–-938, 2012) to employ the SMM approach to fit the model to the US data (1979Q1-2015Q1). We find that the monetary policy uncertainty affects economic welfare through different dimensions. On the one hand, the policy uncertainty itself distorts the economic welfare negligibly, not only by increasing volatilities of consumption and leisure, but also by decreasing their average levels. A higher level of trend inflation then signifies these changes to produce greater welfare costs. Furthermore, the adverse impacts of policy uncertainty on the economy, documented by the impulse response functions of macroeconomic variables to policy uncertainty shock, become larger when central banks raise their inflation targets. On the other hand, the costs of exogenous variations in trend inflation are larger if there is policy uncertainty.     

Political economy of cross-border income shifting: A protection racket approach

Multinational firms often shift their incomes to low-tax jurisdictions, thus robbing host states of tax revenue. I offer a new theory to explain why some firms do this while others do not. I argue that firms that are more vulnerable to government expropriation are, counterintuitively, less likely to shift income offshore, since complying fully with tax law gives the government a greater stake in their survival. Analyzing a registry-based panel data on multinational firms, their tax burdens, and a cross-sectional information of the firms’ connections to tax havens, l find that, other things equal, firms with more concentrated fixed assets are less likely to use havens. These results challenge existing theories of the political economy of development. Whereas the “Pillars of Prosperity” theory suggests that successful states simultaneously develop protection of property rights and fiscal capacity, my results show that perfect property rights protection can actually undermine the state’s ability to tax.     

Second best welfare economics in the mixed economy

The general problem of measuring welfare for large government projects is considered in a context where the government may interfere with the private market sector in a variety of ways. Measures are decomposed into a pure efficiency part and a pure equity part and it is shown that the efficiency part is measured by integrals under ‘uncompensated’ market demand functions. It is also shown that the efficiency part may be further decomposed into second best contributions due to commodity taxation, monopoly power and quantity constraints.     

The value of changes in individual risk in a large mixed economy

Changes in an individual's risk will affect all other individuals in the economy because of the interdependence created by the government's budget constraint. If government policy is optimal, these spillover benefits are measured by the change in the expected government budget surplus.     

Popular economy in the south,third sector in the north: are they signs of a germinating economy of solidarity?

This article compares some components of the so-called informal sector in countries of the North and of the South. We establish a parallel between the movements of the popular economy in the South and the social economy (third sector) in the North (Santiago de Chile and Belgium are the respective illustrative cases). Although the institutional contexts differ, we emphasize the similarities in evolution induced by the corresponding modes of regulation. Both the popular economy developing in the large cities of the Third World and the nonprofit organizations emerging in the North are a challenge to dominant modes of regulation, in particular to the 'state–market synergy'. Both have also given rise to an abundant literature which puts theoretical frameworks, particularly the economist's, into question. Modes of regulation still remain locked into the market/nonmarket dilemma, and this seems to indicate a certain 'blindness' to the plurality of modes of organization which are intermeshed in socio-economic life. We would like to overcome this binary picture and show the fruitfulness of an approach to economics which takes into account a mixture of principles. Such combinations exclude neither the market nor the state, but do not reduce to them. This draws out the contours of a new mode of economic regulation, one which certainly challenges the philosophy of 'all to the market', but whose potential is nevertheless rooted in existing economic practices.