Gross national happiness

This article considers the concept of gross national happinesss, as it has evolved in Bhutan, against the background of literature on the pursuit of happiness as a government objective and the problems associated with different approaches to measuring well-being. It concludes that since all measures of well-being are imperfect, including the measure of gross national happiness currently being applied in Bhutan, the best approach is to use a range of different measures, including conventional national accounting indicators.     

Migrant happiness in China

In China, surveys find that migrant households’ average happiness (compared with rural households) is lower despite higher income. These findings appear to contradict the standard microeconomic utility function, which predicts that higher income will always result in higher utility. We show that an intuitively plausible modification of the utility function, relating income to status and security utility, preserves standard microeconomic maximization results, and also provides a consistent explanation for the empirical findings on happiness. These results lead to some novel but intuitively plausible implications for economic development in China and elsewhere.     

角色换位 与民同乐

身居高位的首脑们偶尔换换角色，体会一下作为普通人的快乐，并不只是为了体现亲民形象、故作姿态，这也是他们内心的需要。正如法国总统萨科奇所说：“我是一个与他人无异的法国人，热爱音乐，愿意与人交往，而不希望被封闭在一个象牙塔里。”事实上，民众也乐于见到一个充满生活情趣的国家领导人，而不希望他们仅仅是一个工具     

当“幸福”来敲门

2010年,幸福第一次出现在政府工作报告中,提升幸福感逐渐与GDP一起共同撑起大都市发展的大舞台,从某种程度而言,GDP反映的是发展的速度,而幸福反映的则是生活的质量.居民幸福指数与GDP一样重要,它是社会运行状况和民众生活状态的晴雨表,也是社会发展和民心向背的风向标.在去年年底十八大召开之后,幸福感成为最热词语之一,纵观整个《报告》,不论是从确保到2020年实现全面建成小康社会的宏伟目标提出,还是从教育公平、建成覆盖城乡居民的社会保障体系、为群众提供安全有效方便价廉的公共卫生和基本医疗服务等民生话题,都让人感受其中所折射出的对幸福感的追求.不久的将来,幸福感或可成为城市建设的软性指标.     

KwaZulu‐Natal's rural institutional environment: Its impact on local service delivery

This article examines the rural institutional framework in KwaZulu‐Natal as it pertains to local service delivery, and claims that the key component of development is getting the institutional environments right. The article assesses relevant literature and introduces a dual framework linking institutionalist and organisational perspectives. The institutional framework of KwaZulu‐Natal is discussed in terms of its historical development, and a critical analysis of its present configuration is carried out. The article highlights the mismatch between rural development needs and the institutional framework of the province and generates a number of policy proposals in an attempt to correct this problem.     

历史文化古镇旅游幸福感构建

近年来,大量学者开始研究旅游的概念性定义,在此过程中,旅游与人的幸福感之间的关系引起了人们的关注。本文分别从旅游者的审美角度,旅游目的地的环境影响角度以及社会旅游及审美公平的角度就如何提升旅游幸福感提出了建议。旨在能够分别对旅游者、旅游目的地以及社会有一定的引导作用,从而促进旅游的健康持续发展。     

晶派红双喜精准营销“四步曲”

所谓精准营销,就是企业通过定量和定性相结合的方法,对目标市场的不同消费者进行细致分析,根据他们不同的消费心理和行为特征,采用有针对性的现代技术、方法和指向明确的策略,实现对目标市场不同消费者群体的强有效、高回报的营销沟通。     

奥巴马的平民之乐

1 2009年1月10日,美国当选总统奥巴马在华盛顿的快餐店吃午饭 2 2008年11月2日,民主党总统候选人奥巴马携妻子米歇尔和女儿出席美国俄亥俄州竞选集会     

Household formation and service delivery in post-apartheid South Africa: Evidence from the Agincourt sub-district 1992–2012

ABSTRACT

South Africa has seen a rapid rate of new household formation since 1994. The same period has also seen an impressive roll-out of housing and services. These interact since new household formation delays the elimination of backlogs. Based on data from the Agincourt study site and a novel decomposition technique we examine the process by which household size has been reduced and suggest that service delivery may actually fuel new household formation.     

金融社会化和社会金融化

本文讨论金融社会化和社会金融化两个过程与中长期发展的关系,阐明金融支持社会建设、社会建设帮助金融防范风险的规律,融资促进实现人人享有融资权。国家开发银行作为政府的开发性金融机构,坚持以增强国力、改善民生为使命,根据国家发展战略和政策,在继续支持“两基一支”的同时,坚持“两个轮子”战略,积极探索建立民生金融机制,支持社会事业发展。     

非审计服务、审计服务与审计独立性

问题的提出 美国《财富》500强排名第7的安然公司破产一案，不仅在全世界引起轩然大波，作为安然公司的审计师，美国原5大会计师事务所之一的安达信会计师事务所也被指控为丧失诚信，审计失败。在安达信受到指控中，独立性问题成为焦点之一。因为安然公司在提供审计服务的同时还大量地提供了一些非审计服务。     

中国：城市竞争力与文化观念

城市竞争力与文化观念关系 1城市竞争力概念框架 城市竞争力是一个具有明确直观含义却又不易精确把握的概念,但它主要是指一个城市在竞争和发展过程中与其它城市相比较所具有的吸引、争夺、拥有、控制和转化资源,争夺、占领和控制市场,以创造价值,为其居民提供福利的能力.     

开拓幸福江阴可持续发展的新局面

在江苏全省率先实现小康社会全面达标后,江阴市先后获得了全国环保模范城市、全国首批生态市、国家园林城市、全国绿化模范市、全国生态农业示范市等多项荣誉。1999年11月被科技部批准为国家级可持续发展试验区,2008年10月又被批准为国家可持续发展先进示范区。     

Experience,Tenure, and the Perceptions of Employers

This paper examines how group-based assessments concerning employee ability impact employee compensation. The employer learns about worker ability through Bayesian updating, creating an additional channel for wage growth that is not available to those workers with only general labor market experience. Consistent with the model's predictions, results from National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) indicate that black workers fare much better relative to white workers in returns to tenure than in returns to experience. Finally, parameter estimates in the structural model suggest that employers initially undervalue black males but that their wages rise with learning by employers over time.     

Dutch Households’ Perceptions of Economic Growth and Inflation

Summary This paper analysis the results of a survey on qualitative and quantitative perceptions and expectations of past, current and future macroeconomic developments among a representative household panel (DNB Household Survey). Perceptions of economic growth and inflation show a large dispersion. For the median respondents, however, the quantitative perceptions were found to be quite accurate. There is some evidence that the concept of economic growth is a more abstract notion for the general public than inflation. Those who have declared themselves more knowledgeable are also more actively involved in dealing with financial issues. The empirical evidence seems to corroborate that individuals with higher self-assessed knowledge levels are better informed indeed and have more accurate quantitative perceptions of economic growth and inflation. At the individual level there is a strong and robust correlation between expected growth and inflation for the next year and the perceptions of the current situation (rule of thumb behavior). But short-term expectations are also influenced by the views individuals hold on longer-term developments.The authors are grateful to seminar participants at DNB, and to Maria Demertzis, Martin Fase and Stefan Hochguertel for valuable comments. Views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect official positions of De Nederlandsche Bank.     

生产性服务业发展与北京服务业升级研究

首先,文章探讨了生产性服务业在北京服务业升级中的作用机制;其次,总结了生产性服务业推动北京服务业升级的现状;最后,提出了生产性服务业推动北京服务业升级的思路和对策建议。     

Perceptions of economic and financial conditions of households in 2000

'The economy grew by 3,0 per cent in 2000. This was the fastest growth since 1996, buoyed by a strong recovery in household consumption spending and an increase in exports of over 7 per cent in real terms' (Trevor Manuel, Minister of Finance, Budget speech, 21 February 2001). 'Growth won't solve our problems. The faster the economy grows, the faster will be the creation of jobs for the highly skilled. So there will be more, not fewer, problems with income disparity' (Iraj Abedian, Standard Bank Group Economist, cited in Financial Mail , 2001a). The aim of this article is to examine the extent to which economic growth, experienced in 2000, improved the financial and economic conditions of South African households, by analysing a national representative survey of 2 700 adult South Africans conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council in September 2000. The survey results were analysed by disaggregating data by race, gender, area type, province and Living Standard Measure (LSM). The theme emerging from this article is that although the majority of households were negatively affected financially and economically, proportionally more Africans, women, rural residents and poor households were hardest hit. Although South Africa achieved a 3 per cent economic growth rate in 2000, there is limited evidence to suggest that this growth trickled down to the majority of households.     

What we have learnt from post-1994 innovations in pro-poor service delivery in South Africa: a case study-based analysis

Service delivery is vital for alleviating poverty in South Africa. This paper contributes to the dialogue on how to maximise the impact of pro-poor service delivery by considering evidence from a wide selection of case studies to distinguish the successes and failures of post-1994 pro-poor service delivery. Case evidence brings to light four important points: that decentralisation and participation can reinforce historical distributions of privilege; that community ownership is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for effective service delivery to individuals in rural communities; that when managed well private outsourcing can benefit the poor; and that the abolition of user fees is often not the best way to ensure access to basic services. The paper cautions against overly ambitious and idealistic policy making. When a policy fails because of its lack of flexibility or its disregard for the constraints of the implementation context, this failure should be attributed to short-sighted policy making and not to implementation failure.     

Measurement of relative welfare poverty and its impact on happiness in China: Evidence from CGSS

Individual or household income has been the conventional yardstick of poverty. Presently, non-income factors are universally accepted as measures of poverty. Attention on the multiple dimensions of poverty and their policy implications has been growing in the past 20 years. However, few studies have analyzed relative multidimensional poverty, especially in China. Moreover, the relationship between relative welfare poverty and happiness has been rarely studied, particularly given that the decline of poverty seemed not bringing a significant increase in happiness in China. This research gap is noteworthy because enhancing the subjective well-being of the people is crucial to a nation's sustainable economic development. On the basis of the micro-level data from China General Social Survey, this study puts forward a welfare approach to analyzing the relative multidimensional poverty and then determines the link between relative welfare poverty and individual happiness. Our results show that 1) relative welfare poverty has not declined significantly and 2) there is a significantly happiness-reducing effect of relative welfare poverty.