Why Sweden's pension reform was able to be successfully implemented

Governments that do not reform pay-as-you-go (PAYG) pension systems will eventually face a pension crisis. In a democracy, reforms require majority support. The problem is that pension reform requires today's generation to bear the burden to avoid burdening tomorrow's generation. Sweden recently passed pension legislation that specifies a gradual transition from a public defined-benefit plan to a defined contribution plan. Why was Sweden successful in reforming its pension system? We find that a political economy perspective helps to answer this question: there are more winners who would vote in favour of the reform than non-winners who would vote against it. When comparing the net effect (present value of expected benefits minus present value of remaining contributions) of the new and old systems, contributions of the working generation (age < 53) are reduced by more than their expected benefits.     

论发展观念的演进——兼评制度主义的兴起

发展经济学从结构主义到新古典主义复兴,再到後来的新制度主义,发生了两次重大的转变。本文认为,封市场认识的深化是经济理论转变的重要原因,而封制度的强调是发展经济学的重大突破。但还要深入考察制度如何形成的逻辑,这样才能封发展问题有更清晰的认识。     

The Financial Stability of Notional Account Pensions

A number of European countries are reforming their pension benefit formulas by adopting 'notional' accounts. These accounts are used to determine individual benefits, but pay-as-you-go financing is retained. This paper addresses the belief that by choosing adjustment rules cleverly, notional accounts can provide automatic financial equilibrium in the short run. If this were true, it would be a valuable advantage in terms of insulating the government budget from demographic pressures, while insulating the pension budget from fiscal pressures. It is shown that notional account benefit formulas cannot provide automatic financial equilibrium in the short run. The paper also suggests that if indexing rules are chosen in a particular way, and shocks revert rapidly to a mean, the pension institution may achieve financial stability in the long run. However, long-run stability is unlikely to be valuable because political interference occurs in the short run.     

Conditional Cooperation and Voluntary Contributions to Public Goods

We compare a partners condition , where the same small group of subjects plays a repeated public good game, to a strangers condition , where subjects play this game in changing group formations. From the first period onward, subjects in the partners condition contribute significantly more to the public good than subjects in the strangers condition. Strangers' contributions show continual decay, while partners' contributions fluctuate on a high level prior to decreasing in the final periods. We interpret subjects' behaviour in terms of conditional cooperation which is characterized by both future-oriented and reactive behaviour.
JEL classifications: C 91; C 92; H 41     

Response to Shuklian

The Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA) was enacted by the State of Alaska in 2007 in an attempt to progress the construction of a natural gas pipeline from the Alaska North Slope to North American markets. The Act conveys monetary inducements from the state to the exclusive licensee in exchange for certain performance requirements. The financing of any pipeline requires the contractual commitment from the shippers (producers) to pay to ship the gas over an extended period of time. However, many of the performance requirements of AGIA are antithetical to the commercial interests of the shippers. A flawed financial analysis of the project by the administration overstated the economic vitality of the project, and hence understated the severity of the commercial issues. Consequently, the prospects for success in getting a pipeline constructed appear doubtful.     

强度与指向：政府支持企业创新发展的注意力研究——基于中央科技政策文本的分析

政府支持企业创新发展的注意力变化及其分配对我国企业的创新发展具有重要的意义,而当前学界缺乏对此问题的深入探索。本文主要采用ROST CM 6.0软件对1983—2019年中央科技政策文本进行分析,总结提炼了此时期内中央政府支持企业创新发展的注意力强度与指向变化。结果表明：(1)中央政府支持企业创新发展的注意力强度经历了从“波动上升”到“相对稳定”的变化过程;(2)中央政府支持企业创新发展的施政重心经历了从“增强企业活力”到“创新驱动发展”的变化历程,不同时期中央政府对支持企业创新发展的认知以及需求存在差异,中央对支持企业创新发展的总体认知也在不断深化。(3)中央政府支持企业创新发展的注意力指向发生了明显转移,技术发展实现了从“重引进学习”到“创新驱动发展”的战略转型,制度建设则朝着从“重管理”到“重服务”的方向转变,体现了政府在“瘦身”的同时,为企业创新发展“放水养鱼”。     

“安倍经济学”与“李克强经济学”孰优孰劣

在外界看来,安倍经济学喜迎东风,李究竟哪一种发展模式能够真正实现经济持续健康发展的神话?然而,哪一种发展模式更加适应本国国情,真正能实现国富民强?     

Industrial Policy—An Institutional Economic Framework for Assessment

Abstract:

In this article we suggest an institutional economic approach to classifying government policies, thus offering suggestions to improve the expected outcomes of government policy as well. We elaborate the argument for industrial policy-government policy to directly influence investment and resource allocation decisions by private companies. By adopting dimensions for industries that are stable over time, we can suggest which policies are suitable for which industries.     

Price policy and returns to soil conservation in semi-arid Kenya

This paper develops an approach that uses relatively easily-available data to examine empirically how policy-induced price changes affect the incentives of farmers in developing countries to adopt soil conservation measures. The model shows that there is no simple relationship between price distortions created by government policies and farmers' incentives to adopt conservation measures. Policy-induced price changes could lead to either more or less conservation, depending on site-specific conditions. Data from a semi-arid region in Kenya are used to illustrate the magnitude and direction of changes in price policy on returns to terracing and to show how results are affected by the nature of the conservation technology. In the study area, higher commodity prices increase incentives to adopt conservation measures on steep slopes, but lower them on shallower slopes. If terraces were to require more land to be taken out of production than assumed in the calculations, higher commodity prices would tend to discourage farmers from adopting them.     

Scientific Numerology,Preference Anomalies,and Environmental Policymaking

Recently an abundance of experimental evidence has been gathered that is consonant with the notion that individual preferences are inconsistent and unstable. These empirical results potentially undermine the theoretical foundation of welfare economics, as the degree of preference lability claimed suggests that perhaps no optimization principles underlie even the most straightforward of choices. Yet policymakers in the environmental arena continue to prescribe policies based on economics-based methods that are constructed on the very principles that have been directly refuted. Are policymakers creatures of habit that move at glacial speed or is there something deeper behind their inertness? In this study, I explore this issue within the U.S. context and argue that there is some rationality behind current public policy decisionmaking. I then explore whether the empirical evidence supports the view that policymakers should take preference anomalies seriously. As a case study, I focus on some of my recent findings on preference inconsistencies in the marketplace.     

国外关于信任研究的多学科视野

自20世纪50年代以来,对信任的研究引起了西方社会科学研究者的广泛关注,但是国外的学者基于不同学科背景,对信任的理解存在差异性。社会心理学把信任理解为个体特质和对情景的反应;社会学把信任看作是社会关系的一个重要维度,使社会信任和制度信任的研究变得异常重要;经济学认为信任是人们有限理性选择的结果,但是,后来的经济学融合了社会文化因素,开创了信任的经济—文化研究的新路径。多学科视野的交融与不断突破将成为信任研究的一个必然趋势。     

政府采购支持自主创新的经济学分析

自主创新是中国政府的国家战略,政府采购被视为落实这一战略的重要手段.从经济学上分析,由于外部效应的存在,自主创新需要政府扶持;而政府采购以其独特的内在效应,成为支持自主创新的有效手段.     

The Affluent Society after Twenty-five Years

This paper places Commons and his friend, Edward Alsworth Ross, in the context of the attack by Richard T. Ely and Lester Frank Ward on a conception of history that attributed all progress in human welfare to natural processes — Darwinian natural selection and market mechanisms. According to this conception, interference with these natural processes would be counterproductive. Ward, a confirmed Darwinian, coined the term "artificial selection" when he proposed an alternate conception that attributed most progress to the disciplined application of human intelligence. Ross adapted Ward's artificial-natural distinction to the problem of social order, arguing that random variation and survival of the fittest can generate social controls that preserve order in small communities, but that only artificial social controls can keep order in complex societies. Ross's distinction made its way into the Legal Foundations of Capitalism and Institutional Economics where Commons focused on the evolution of what Ross labeled artificial social controls — laws governing the wage bargain and the behavior of corporations. In the process Commons confronted the problem of deliberation, the problem of obtaining intelligent actions and decisions from passionate, biased humans organized in democratic societies.     

促进经济和谐与建设“和谐社会”探析

经济和谐是“和谐社会”的主要内容和重要支撑，由于特定时期中国存在经济结构不匀衡的各种矛盾。应从税收、公共支出和公共行政等方面采取相关措施。促进经济与社会的共同发展与繁荣。     

新自由主义经济学中的政府观及其启示

新自由主义经济学各流派是现代经济学丛林中的奇葩。在充分肯定市场作用的前提下,具有各不相同的政府观。了解和认识新自由主义经济学各流派的政府观,并进行系统比较和总结,对中国在全球化背景下形成和构建政府观具有极其重要的意义。     

心理学对经济学的影响

心理学和经济学之间存在天然的联系。仅就心理学对经济学的影响分析来看,包括有西方心理学对经济学的一般性影响和西方心理学对经济学的流派性影响两方面。其中,前者集中表现为心理—行为在经济研究中的应用传统,后者具体表现为不同心理学流派对经济研究的差异性影响效应。