The diffusion of policy innovations -an experimental investigation

What causes a government to adopt a new program or policy? Despite a large number of empirical studies available to date, the relative importance of various determinants remains obscure because of difficulties of statistical identification. We present an experimental setting to study the diffusion of policy innovations in the laboratory. Our approach discriminates between experimentation, experience, and emulation as determinants of policy adoption. The policy innovation we study is an internalization tax to mitigate a local market externality. Our results demonstrate the importance of information about innovations in other states in the diffusion of policy innovations.JEL Classification: C9, D7, H7Correspondence to: Rupert SausgruberWe gratefully acknowledge financial support by the Austrian National Bank (Jubiläumsfonds under project no. 9134) and the Austrian Science Fund (FWF under project no. P17029). We are grateful for comments by Ernst Fehr, Simon Gächter, Simon Hug, Arno Riedl, Frans van Winden and seminar participants at the Universities of Amsterdam, Erfurt, and St. Gallen.     

Optimal choice of monetary policy instruments under velocity and fiscal shocks

This paper, in the spirit of Poole [Poole, William, 1970. The Optimal Choice of Monetary Policy Instruments in a Simple Macro Model. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 84, 192–216.], studies how differently monetary and fiscal shocks influence the appropriate choice of the monetary policy regime. Velocity shocks are introduced by embedding a stochastic cash-in-advance constraint within the New Keynesian framework. In addition to optimal policy under discretion, three classic rules, interest rate targeting, monetary targeting, and the Taylor rule are ranked under both fiscal and velocity shocks. The non-stationarity of prices under the Taylor rule makes it inferior to the other rules under which prices are stationary. Monetary targeting, by stabilizing aggregate demand under fiscal shocks, outperforms interest rate targeting, while the latter provides a better insulation against velocity shocks. Monetary targeting (under fiscal shocks) and interest rate targeting (under velocity shocks) even outperform the optimal policy under discretion for sufficiently high intertemporal elasticities of consumption substitution.     

Are environmental concerns drivers of innovation? Interpreting Portuguese innovation data to foster environmental foresight

The relationship between environmental concerns and innovation is analyzed in the context of Portuguese manufacturing firms, with the ultimate goal to foster measures of environmental foresight.Based on data from the Community Innovation Survey in Portugal, simple statistical tests, including Chi², t, and Levene's tests and contingency tables (adjusted standardized residuals), were used to study the relationship between firms' characteristics and the introduction of innovation aiming to reduce environmental damage. Environmental foresight is discussed based on three groups of variables that allow considering the industrial context that frames firm's actions, the economic performance of the firm and its innovation patterns.Results show that the development of innovation due to environmental concerns is positively associated with the firm's size and exports share, and negatively associated with its technological content. Moreover, it is shown that the firms that introduced innovations due to environmental concerns are likely to belong to an economic group, to have performed continuous R&D, or received public support. It is also shown that “lack of organizational flexibility” and “lack of receptivity by customers” are the two most relevant innovation barriers for these firms.     

Environmental regulation: choice of instruments under imperfect compliance

Compliance is an important issue in environmental regulation. We discuss some of the key elements of the problem and analyze a situation where emissions are not random and firms are risk-neutral. We study the firm’s decision on emissions and compliance when the environmental regulation is based on standards and the enforcement agency audits the firm with a certain probability. We compare total emissions when environmental regulation is based on different instruments: standards, taxes, and tradable permits. We show that when compliance is an issue, environmental taxes are superior to the other instruments, and we analyze the (static) efficiency of the solution. This paper originated from the AEE/REE presidential address for the XXX Simposio de Análisis Económico (Murcia 2005). It builds on the research project on optimal enforcement in environmental problems done in collaboration with David Pérez-Castrillo. I would like to thank David Pérez-Castrillo and Pau Olivella for their useful comments. I gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología (BEC2003-01132) and the Generalitat de Catalunya (Barcelona Economics - CREA and 2005SGR-00836).     

区域前瞻性创新政策网络构建有效性分析

区域创新政策网络的全面参与,包括政策社群参与、专业网络参与、府际网络参与、生产者网络参与和议题网络参与。区域创新政策网络结构的优化强调网络高密度、网络中心均衡、凝聚子群力量约束和网络高协同性。区域创新政策网络的治理策略有行动者的选择、引入与激发,共同价值观的凝炼和培育,组织规则的明确与调适,以及利益冲突的妥善处理。     

跨越竞争丛林与范式重构：全球治理改革进程中的疫苗产业创新治理

疫苗作为新冠疫情防控的最关键手段之一,已在各国抗疫中发挥积极影响。疫苗研发、生产、注射意愿以及全球分配的公平性与可及性等一系列问题日益受到世界关注。分析全球治理改革中,疫苗作为一种全球公共产品的创新治理问题,讨论疫苗产业发展特征与创新规律演化,剖析西方国家疫苗产业创新治理困境以及“竞争丛林”逻辑,阐释中国行动方案及对全球治理改革的贡献。最终提出疫苗产业创新治理机制对推动全球治理改革的政策含义。     

Economic policy making in evolutionary perspective

Economic policy making is discussed from three different angles: the political economy of actual policy making (“what policy does do”), the analysis of policy instruments for given ends (“what policy could do”), and the debate on policy goals and their legitimization (“what policy ought to do”). Center stage in the evolutionary perspective is new, positive and normative knowledge which is unfolding during the policy making process and in its aftermath. It is argued that this implies regularities and constraints which extend and modify the comparative-static interpretations of public choice theory, economic policy making theory, and social philosophy. RID="*" ID="*" The author should like to thank three anonymous referees of this journal and the editor for helpful comments on an earlier version of the paper.     

论低碳经济发展视阈下的公共政策创新

在全球变暖及其所带来的一系列生态环境问题备受国际关注的时代背景下,低碳经济发展越来越受到各国政府的普遍重视。本文分别从能源安全政策、产业、财税政策、公共参与政策、人才政策以及消费政策五方面展开分析,在此基础上提出适合我国国情的低碳政策创新建议。     

公司治理结构、股利分配与企业创新绩效三元关系实证研究

公司治理是现代企业管理理论的重要组成部分,直接影响公司经营状况、股利政策及创新绩效。采用回归分析法对公司治理、股利支付及企业创新绩效关系进行实证分析。研究发现,董事会结构、第一大股东持股比例与公司创新绩效显著正相关;第一大股东持股比例及前十大股东持股比例平方和越高,企业越倾向高股利支付;高股利支付与企业创新绩效间并无正相关关系,股利支付与企业创新绩效间存在负相关关系,但不显著。最后,从完善公司治理和股利政策方面提出了促进企业技术创新的政策建议。     

公共政策对国家创新系统影响研究

国家创新系统的建立与完善需要政府推动,政府使用的重要工具是公共政策。通过探讨公共政策对于国家创新系统的影响和作用,以及对于影响中国国家创新能力的公共政策的分析,提出了政府应用公共政策应注意的问题。     

公共采购塑造创新的方式、机制及障碍:文献综述与展望

作为创新政策需求方复兴的核心工具之一,公共创新采购（PPI）具有改善公共服务效能和促进技术创新的双重功能。通过梳理国内外文献,从方式、机制及障碍等方面对公共创新采购研究进展进行评述。从原理看,以公共采购者、创新提供者和中介为主要参与者的公共创新采购,其本质是一个由采购过程和创新过程耦合而成的系统且包含3种机制,即交易实现机制、创新生成机制和创新扩散机制;从实践看,框架条件、组织能力、需求识别和传递、风险管理是影响公共创新采购政策效果的主要障碍。最后,总结公共创新采购研究理论框架,提出未来研究方向。     

The optimal choice of monetary policy instruments in a small open economy

Abstract.  This paper studies how the nature of shocks affects the optimal choice of monetary policy instruments in a small open economy. Three classic rules, fixed exchange rates, monetary targeting, and inflation targeting are studied and ranked by comparing with the optimal monetary policy under commitment. We find that the ranking of the simple rules can be mapped to the terms-of-trade variability that the rule allows relative to what a particular shock optimally calls for. It turns out that inflation targeting dominates the other two rules under productivity or velocity shocks, whereas monetary targeting is the best performer under fiscal shocks.     

The role of ad hoc factors in policy rate settings

Policymakers do not always follow a simple rule for setting policy interest rates for various reasons. Thus their behavior can be represented by a standard Taylor type policy rule amended with an additional variable representing an ad hoc factor. Consequently, ignoring the presence of the ad hoc factor causes bias in conventional policy rule estimators. I contrast the unbiased estimates of a procedure that accounts for the ad hoc factors and the bias of least squares on a unique data set of an unconditional inflation targeting episode.     

Endogenous public policy and multiple equilibria

One of the well known roles of public policy in models with indeterminacy is to reduce the set of equilibria. However, agents' expectations regarding future policy may be self fulfilling when public policy is endogenized. We show that a simple overlapping generations economy with public education may yield multiple equilibria. Under a laissez-faire system, our model has a unique equilibrium. Thus, the presence of public policy may generate, rather than eliminate, multiple equilibria.     

Environmental policy instruments and imperfectly competitive international trade

Policy makers, industrialists and environmentalists express concern that the imposition of tough environmental policies in some countries displaces production, and hence pollution, to countries which impose less tough environmental policies. Yet empirical studies of such impacts suggest they are small. However, these findings are derived from models in which international trade is modelled as being perfectly competitive. In this paper I model trade as imperfectly competitive with scope for strategic behavior by producers, in this case investment in capital. I show that the choice of environmental policy instrument can have a marked impact on the incentives for producers to act strategically, with environmental standards significantly reducing the incentives for strategic overinvestment relative to environmental taxes or no environmental policy at all. Whether welfare is higher using standards or taxes depends on whether producing countries are also significant consumers of the polluting product, and on whether all producing governments act to reduce emissions or only some subset of governments. To assess the quantitative significance of these theoretical results I conduct policy simulations on a calibrated model of the world fertilizer industry. These simulations show that the impact of environmental policy on strategic behaviour can be large.     

基于宏观视角的产业技术创新团队建设研究

技术创新,特别是产业技术创新直接影响一国的产业竞争力和国家未来,是实现国家创新驱动战略的重要途径,而产业技术创新更多表现为依托团队的合作创新。借鉴典型发达国家推动产业技术创新团队建设的成功经验,如日本和美国产业技术创新团队体制机制与宏观公共政策,分析我国创新团队建设现状及存在的问题,从宏观层面提出我国产业技术创新团队建设的政策建议,如采用旗舰护航制、技术研究组合等创新团队体制来获取产业关键技术和共性技术,同时加强支持合作创新的法律体系建设。     

国家治理视角下公共政策审计的内容界定与发展规划

随着国家治理免疫论的提出,公共政策审计作为审计服务国家治理的一种新模式日益受到关注,但是系统、完整的相关理论框架尚未形成,真正意义上的公共政策审计实践也是屈指可数。本文在阐释公共政策审计的含义、本质、立项依据、服务国家治理依据和审计机关权力边界的基础上,试图构建出公共政策审计的内容框架,并就我国公共政策审计的三阶段发展规划作出关于阶段审计重点的分析。     

The social efficiency of instruments of promotion of renewable energies: A transaction-cost perspective

This paper compares the social efficiency of the regulatory instruments used to promote renewable energy sources in electricity generation, taking into consideration their role in promoting the preservation of collective goods. They are based on a purchase obligation and act either by price (feed-in tariffs) or by quantity (bidding for new RES-E capacities; RES-E quotas). From the Public Economics perspective, the two instruments are distinct in terms of cost-efficacy and market incentives in a world of imperfect information. Exchangeable quotas of green certificates are preferred because this instrument allows better control over consumer costs and whilst retaining market incentives. Transaction cost economics (TCE) contributes to the assessment of these instruments, by introducing RES-E investment safeguard as a major determinant of social efficiency, and the instruments' conformity to its institutional environment as a determinant of its viability. In light of this additional consideration, the arrangements between RES-E producers and obligated buyers inherent in each instrument are in fact quite similar—either long-term contracting or vertical integration. We compare and assess RES-E price- and quantity-instruments on several dimensions from both the public economics and TCE perspectives: control of the cost for consumers, safeguards of RES-E investments, adaptability of the instrument in order to preserve its stability in the long run, market incentive intensity, and conformity with the new market regime of electricity industry. It shows neither instruments offer an optimal solution in each of these dimensions. The government will thus select an instrument in accordance with the relative importance of its objectives.     

论公共政策的有效执行

公共政策的有效执行是政策目标实现的关键,公共政策的四大主要环节即政策制定、政策执行、政策评价机制以及政策监督都会对政策的实现产生一定的影响.政策制定时要考虑方案的科学合理性和连续稳定及与其他政策间的协调,政策执行过程中应重点考虑执行主体、目标群体和政策环境对政策执行的影响,另外还要完善政策执行评价机制以及加强政策的事中监督.