Labour markets, welfare, and the personal scope of employment law

The issues which confront those concerned with employment law,about the types of workers to whom employment laws apply, arehighly relevant to the subject of labour markets and welfare.The formulation and application of the personal categories ofemployment law is or involves a welfare allocation, often seenas a trade-off between welfare and efficiency. This articledescribe the basic legal framework for determining the personalscope of employment law in the UK, considers some recent adaptationsto that framework, engages in comparison with some continentalEuropean legal systems, examines empirical evidence about theworking of the personal categories of employment law, describesthe debate within the ILO about employment status and 'contractlabour', canvasses some ideas about the growth of complex workrelationships, and concludes by assessing a remaining task offurther refinement of theory in this area.     

A test of prohibition's effect on alcohol production and consumption using crop yields

The effect of alcohol prohibition in the United States has been the subject of continuing debate. Due to a lack of data, one question that remains unanswered is the effect prohibition had on the actual production of alcohol. This article attempts to answer this question by estimating prohibition's impact on the yields of grains that constitute the principal inputs in alcohol production. Using a variety of data sources and exploiting the variation in timing of state prohibition law adoption, we estimate the effect of prohibition on several measures of crop production. Our preferred identification strategy compares contiguous counties in states with differing prohibition laws. Our findings suggest that state prohibition laws decreased the production of barley and may have increased the production of corn. Using these estimates, we calculate that prohibition decreased alcohol production, and by extension consumption, by at least 18 gallons per adult per year.     

Computable General Equilibrium Models,Adjustment and the Poor in Africa

Sahn and others at Cornell have conducted a major research program on the impact of adjustment policies on the poor in Africa, making use of Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models. Their work was summarized in World Development April 1996. They concluded that adjustment policies have not hurt and may have helped the poor. This paper shows that such conclusions are highly dependent on the assumptions made about parameters, relationships and closure in the models. Moreover, in Madagascar and Tanzania, where the Cornell models suggest the poor benefited from adjustment, there is evidence of worsening social and economic indicators. Our conclusion is that the Cornell results are more a reflection of the assumptions made in developing the CGE models than of reality.     

Fiscal Policy after the Great Recession

The Great Recession has severely hit the economies of most of the countries. Given that, fiscal policies have gained back a central role in the debate as a tool to recover from this situation. This paper provides an overview about the main controversial issues related to the fiscal policy. In particular, we analyze the role and the different effects played by discretionary counter-cyclical policies – say, for instance, tax cuts or increased government spending. Disagreement on this topic follows from the fact that it is extremely difficult to isolate the exogenous effect of these policies on GDP. We review several ways in which economists have tried to deal with this problem of estimation. Finally, we discuss why spending-based adjustments are preferable and less likely to be costly than tax-based ones and why large fiscal consolidation accompanied by appropriate policies can be much less costly than what we think.     

Universities and Fundamental Research: Reflections on the Growth of University-Industry Partnerships

The recent rise in university–industry partnerships hasstimulated an important public-policy debate regarding how theserelationships affect fundamental research. In this paper, weexamine the antecedents and consequences of policies to promoteuniversity–industry alliances. Although the preliminaryevidence appears to suggest that these partnerships have nothad a deleterious effect on the quantity and quality of basicresearch, some legitimate concerns have been raised about theseactivities that require additional analysis. We conclude thatadditional research is needed to provide a more accurate assessmentof the optimal level of commercialization.     

Poverty among the elderly in late Victorian England1

Despite rapid increases in manual workers' wages, poverty rates among the elderly remained high in late Victorian England, although they varied significantly across Poor Law Unions. This paper begins by examining the ability of workers to provide for their old age. A data set is constructed, consisting of all English Poor Law Unions in 1891–2, and regression equations are estimated in order to explain variations across unions in pauperism rates. This is followed by the testing of several conjectures made by contemporaries, and repeated by historians, regarding the deterrent effect of workhouse relief, the effects of wages and of the industrial character of Poor Law Unions on pauperism rates, and regional differences in workers' reliance on the poor law. The paper then examines the implications of these results for the debate over national old age pensions in the decades before the adoption of the Old Age Pension Act.     

超越经济人的社会偏好理论:一个基于实验经济学的综述

实验经济学对传统经济人假设的系统反驳促使社会偏好理论应运而生.社会偏好理论的各个模型试图在维持理性假设下,通过将基于心理学和社会学的诸如公平、互利等与“自利”假设有着明显涵义辨识度的一些人类社会性情感因素纳入到效用函数中来进而修正经济人假设,并以博弈论为基本的分析工具力图构建新的博弈均衡来解释实验经济学所揭示的一系列悖论.本文围绕社会偏好在已有文献的基础上对其产生的背景、模型、测度、外溢以及检验等问题作了一个详细而系统的梳理     

当公平成为更大的效率——新破产法中劳动债权特别优先合理性之探讨

新破产法草案曾经试图赋予企业职工劳动债权先于担保债权受偿的特别优先权,一场要人本还是要市场经济秩序的讨论因此展开。一般的看法认为劳动债权特别优先只是单纯涉及分配正义,而与提高分配效率无关,因此只是经济学上要公平还是要效率这个古老争论的延续。本文以法理经济学为进路,介绍了近20年西方担保法和破产法领域的一些主要成果和共识,提出:破产清偿顺序因其在促进公司治理方面的潜力而具有提高分配效率的特殊意义。同时充分阐释了劳动债权特别优先在中国背景下的历史合理性及实践意义:即是对市场经济规律的一种历史性回归。新法用老人新人的办法折衷了这场争论,但更进一步"的理论阐示在理论和现实层面都仍然非常必要。     

多边体制的改进路径和未来——以WTO为例

金融危机对现行的多边体系提出了重大挑战,同时也提供改进的契机。改进的路径将遵循基础原则、决策机制、机构改革、权限扩展、谈判模式等多方面展开。本文选择WTO作为范本,考察到目前为止各项改革的建议,分析其内外复杂分歧的实质和可能的突破点。在WTO不断演进的经验中,即使自由化有所停顿,多边化却仍然可以以更多的面貌、更深层次的形式继续扩展。     

The impact of public investment on private investment spending in Latin America: 1980–95

This paper investigates the theoretical and empirical links between key economic variables and private spending in Latin America during 1980 to 1995. The empirical findings of this paper directly address the complementarity hypothesis which suggests that increases in public investment spending raise the marginal productivity of private capital, thereby inducing higher rates of private investment spending. This paper also addresses the issue of whether changes in the real exchange rate (expenditure-switching policies) have a deflationary effect on the economics of Latin America. The findings in this paper make an important contribution to the ongoing debate about which policies need to be promoted to raise and sustain the rate of private capital formation in Latin America—the region's future source of employment and income creation.     

California’s Three Strikes Law Revisited: Assessing the Long-Term Effects of the Law

Previous studies on the three strikes legislation in California draw conclusions based on data immediately following the passage of the law, which cannot account for the full deterrent effect of the law. Moreover, they do not account for the incapacitation effect. Distinguishing between deterrence and incapacitation is important for determining the efficacy of the law. Using data from 1991 to 2009, this paper is the first to examine the long-run effects. Our results show that the law had a significant deterrent effect on all crimes, including non-triggering offenses. Overall, the incapacitation effect is less significant. Further, enhanced penalties cause some felons to substitute between violent crimes and property crimes which carry a lower sentence. However, there is little evidence of substitution within crime categories. Surprisingly however, the added deterrent effect of the third strike is significantly smaller than for the second strike. The small marginal deterrence from the third strike also raises questions about the justification for such extreme severity of punishment.     

The Assessment: labour markets and welfare

Rapid and radical changes in the labour markets of developedeconomies have had profound implications for the welfare andwell-being of their citizens. This Assessment argues that thereis still considerable divergence in labour-market processesand outcomes across countries. This is likely to remain thecase. Nevertheless, there is a range of common problems. Importantamong these are what is happening to the rights of people atwork and how they should be protected. Views about appropriaterights have altered in recent years. In the future, debate aboutthis is likely to be even more closely linked to debate aboutlabour-market flexibility. The Assessment goes on to discussa variety of distributional problems related to joblessnessand low pay, and evaluates policy interventions designed totackle them. Although there has been progress in terms of policyeffectiveness, interventions are fragile in helping people toescape from cycles of repeated misfortune and long-term disadvantage.     

The Eternal Debate Over Conservatism and Prudence: A Historical Perspective on the Conceptualization of Asymmetry in Financial Accounting Theory*

The recent revisions of conceptual frameworks (CFs) by the IASB and the FASB included changes to the status of prudence/conservatism, accompanied by a broader debate about the meaning and role of asymmetry in financial accounting theory (FinAT). This paper adopts a historical perspective to identify possible sources of the current controversies by examining how the discourse on asymmetry has developed over time. For this purpose, we trace the conceptualization of asymmetry in FinAT building from the 19th century until 2018, covering contributions to the US FinAT literature and the conceptual reasoning of standard setters (and their constituents) in the United States and at the international level. We identify four distinct constructs of asymmetry (ultra-, specified, discretionary, and neutral asymmetry) developed in FinAT under the headings of “conservatism” and/or “prudence.” Our analysis reveals that the respective historical circumstances strongly influenced which notion and role of asymmetry were commonly accepted in FinAT, while the arguments underlying the debates were going in circles and were characterized by an increasing level of abstraction over time. We conclude that the controversy about asymmetry is partially due to conceptual ambiguity but also due to different assumptions about the objective of financial reporting and attributes of the preparer, which are indicative of two conflicting paradigms shaping the FinAT discourse on asymmetry. Our findings point to gaps and limitations in the deductive CFs currently employed by the IASB and FASB. Our study highlights future research potential regarding the construction of the preparer in standard setting and analyses of the ways in which deductive CFs (fail to) translate into consistent standards.     

Language and consumption

We examine the relationship between proficiency in Mandarin and consumption in China. We find that proficiency in Mandarin has a positive effect on an individual's total consumption expenditure as well as most categories of consumption expenditure. We also find considerable heterogeneity in the effects of Mandarin proficiency on consumption across subsamples. In addition, we find that proficiency in Mandarin has a positive effect on relative consumption, irrespective of the manner in which the reference group is defined. Our results have important policy implications for debates on the promotion of a national language and, in particular, recent debate about the promotion of speaking Mandarin in China.     

Expected Failures and Unexpected Successes of Land Titling in Africa

The imposition of market-oriented economic reforms throughout Africa in the 1990s has sparked renewed debate over the desirability of state-sponsored land titling programs. Proponents argue that land titling is an essential foundation for economic growth. Opponents contend that titling programs are unnecessary and premature at best, or detrimental at worst. This paper addresses these concerns through an examination of Cameroon's 1974 Lands Ordinance. Using both quantitative and qualitative data, we find that the 1974 Lands Ordinance has not introduced Western-style private property rights in Cameroon's agrarian sector. Nevertheless, the ordinance is not irrelevant to rural farmers. Rural farmers have used the ordinance to obtain concrete boundary markers on their land, enhancing their tenure security. In addition, administrators have used the ordinance to register underdeveloped land, reducing the contradictions between state law and customary law. These findings suggest that policy-makers could fruitfully redesign their land tenure policies to render them more attractive to rural farmers, and thereby give the state a more constructive role in enhancing tenure security, and in promoting economic growth.     

Outsourcing and Audit Risk for Internal Audit Services*

Some companies now outsource their internal audit function to public accountants. Internal auditors and accounting firms disagree about the merits of outsourcing. Each type of auditor claims to provide more cost‐effective services and appears to claim superior expertise. This paper uses agency theory to examine outsourcing and reconciles the outsourcing debate without resorting to differential auditor expertise. Under the assumptions that public accountants' “deep pockets” provide incentives to outsource and their higher opportunity cost provides a disincentive, we characterize the optimal employment contract with each auditor. We find that public accountants provide higher levels of testing, but possibly for a higher expected fee. This result supports both the internal auditor's claim as the lower cost provider, and the public accountant's claim of higher quality. We also find that incentives to outsource generally increase in various measures of risk, including the risk that a control weakness exists and the size of the loss that can result from an undetected control weakness.     

The historiography of French economic growth in the nineteenth century

There has been a long-standing debate about French nineteenth-century economic growth. After 1945 the ‘retardation—stagnation’ thesis dominated. From the 1960s ‘revisionists’ painted a more optimistic view. Recently, ‘anti-revisionism’ has revived gloomy ideas. New research has been primarily responsible for changes of view. National income estimates, and later cliometric studies, bolstered the revisionist argument. Work on the ‘great depression’ stimulated anti-revisionism. Scholars have also been influenced by the economic and political state of France at the time they were writing and the debate has been somewhat politicized. The article ends by surveying the ‘moderate revisionism’ which now prevails.     

The effects of immigrants,women, and teenagers on the relative earnings of black males

There is currently a debate taking place on the impact of immigration on the employment of native-born Americans. Several recent studies have attempted to empirically examine the effect on nativeborn workers but few have investigated the impact on the economic status of black workers. This article attempts to address this question by examining the effects of competition from recent immigrants on the relative earnings of black males. The effects of potential competition from female and teenage workers is also investigated. The results suggest that the relative earnings of centralcity black makes are, in fact, sensitive to the degree of labor force penetration of recent immigrants and female workers.     

港台地区关于中国大陆对外开放政策研究述要

本文对港台地区关于中国大陆对外开放政策的研究成果进行了简要的介绍,主要内容包括大陆对外开放的动因、特点、成就、问题、资金引进、技术引进以及对中国台湾地区的影响;同时也对中国港台学者对于对外开放政策的争议进行了介绍。     

The effects of communal land resource management on forest conservation in northern and north-eastern Namibia

The area under natural forests has diminished steadily while deforestation has escalated progressively in the past 10 years. Strategic constraints leading to this ever-increasing rate of forest depletion are examined, and relevant policy interventions for overturning them are suggested. Communal ownership and management of natural resources in the northern and north-eastern Namibia are identified as a major underlying constraint on natural resource conservation because the communal system lacks mechanisms for regulating access. Nonetheless, the study acknowledges the optimistic views on communal use and management in other parts of the world. The assumptions about community, the willingness of its members to realise joint environmental or social goals, and their motivation and skills for natural resource management have been challenged. The perception that communities are custodial and non-materialistic in their attitudes to natural resources is rejected. It is concluded that common resources should be brought under more formal management. There should be a state-community/private partnership, with the state performing an advisory function, and implementation at the highest level through the use of state institutions for law enforcement, while the community or the private interest undertakes day-to-day management and law enforcement activities. Maintaining state ownership of natural resources in communal areas and inviting local people to manage them on their own, or mainly on government terms, is not a solution to natural resource degradation.