Sectoral shifts and rates of profit

Summary In this paper the role of the capital market is analysed onthe base of a dynamic two-sector model of a closed economy. The way in which the allocation of investment is related to sectoral differences in the rate of profit and to diverging sectoral capital needs as well, turns out to be of great importance for the whole economy. Conclusions are drawn with regard to the long-run equality of profits after an initial disturbance. The role of the capital market is analysed too in connection with the functioning of sectoral labour markets. As far as unemployment and differing sectoral unemployment rates are concerned, the importance of the labour markets is obviously overwhelming. On that base it is possible to make some remarks on macroeconomic and sectoral investment policies with regard to employment.     

基础设施资本回报率的估算及影响因素研究

文章在合理界定并调整基础设施统计口径基础上，运用永续盘存法非传统途径和生产函数法谨慎测算了基础设施的全套资本存量和资本回报率，并构造1993-2016年省级面板数据，从三个方面分解并检验了基础设施资本回报率的影响因素。研究发现：（1）全国生产性基础设施资本存量急剧攀升，年均增速达到12.6%。其中，经济基础设施存量持续高于社会基础设施。（2）基础设施资本回报率呈现倒"U"型变动趋势，且在不同基础设施类型和区域间保持稳健。其中，社会基础设施的资本回报率整体高于经济基础设施，东部地区的基础设施资本回报率高于中部地区，西部地区则长期处于低位运行。（3）基于基础设施资本产出比不断上升是其资本回报率持续下降的主因这一判断，进一步证实基础设施投资率及其资本深化程度，以及人力资本积累、城镇化等因素整体上均显著影响基础设施资本回报率。     

Explaining sectoral discrepancies between national and provincial statistics in China

This paper examines sectoral contributions to discrepancies between China's national aggregate statistical values and the sum of provincial figures. In institutional terms, the paper then explores the sources of principally sectoral discrepancies. We find that the industrial sector has been the major contributor to discrepancies in both gross domestic product (GDP) and total energy consumption in recent years. Technical aspects such as statistical coverage, data collection method, and double-counting cannot explain the discrepancy. For the industrial sector, limited data accessibility undermines external checks and balances from the general public. As the primary bodies in collecting industrial data, the Provincial Bureaus of Statistics (PBSs) are not subject to effective internal checks and balances from other governmental divisions. To out-compete counterparts and get promoted, provincial leaders have explicit incentives to overstate provincial GDP, with industrial added value being the first statistic to be affected. This dynamic further extends to industrial energy consumption, which is over-reported as well.     

西藏经济跨越式发展的制约因素及对策研究

近10多年,西藏经济发展取得了卓越成就,但西藏要实现经济跨越式发展,仍面临许多制约因素:1)相对稀缺的人力资本、有限的资本积累能力及屈指可数的具有核心竞争力的企业制约西藏经济跨越式发展动力形成。2)特殊的高原地理环境、相对落后的交通基础设施及较小的市场容量等环境因素制约西藏经济的规模化发展和产业化集聚。3)法律法规和信用体系的不健全及市场主体有待培育制约西藏市场经济体制进一步完善。西藏经济跨越式发展制约条件的改善,往往与一些深层次的亟待解决的矛盾相关。它们是:1)经济发展对产业结构优化的要求与劳动力资源无法合理配置之间的矛盾。2)经济跨越式发展对现代化科技人才的需求与西藏人力资源供给相对不足的矛盾。3)基础设施建设快速发展的要求与运行维护成本巨大、技术人才不足之间的矛盾。4)政府强有力推动下的资源配置方式和充分发挥市场基础性作用之间的矛盾。为此,本论文从加强西藏同胞的教育和培训、发展西藏特色农牧业、加强西藏流通体系建设和深化西藏行政管理体制改革等角度提出对策建议。     

The dynamic macroeconomic effects of tax policy in an overlapping generations model

The paper studies the dynamic allocation effects of tax policywithin the context of an overlapping-generations model of theBlanchard-Yaari type. The model is extended to allow for endogenouslabour supply and three tax instruments, viz. a capital tax,labour income tax, and consumption tax. Both analytical expressionsand simple diagrams are used to analyze the impact, transition,and long-run effects of tax policy changes. It is shown thata part of the long-run incidence of capital and consumptiontaxes falls on capital when households' horizons are finitewhereas labour would fully bear the burden of these taxes inan infinite-horizon model.     

Sectoral Wage Rigidities and Labour and Product Market Institutions in the Euro Area

We estimate wage Phillips curve relationships between sectoral wage growth, unemployment and productivity in a country-industry panel of euro area countries. We find that institutional rigidities – such as labour and product market institutions and regulations – limit the adjustment of euro area wages to unemployment, in both upturns and downturns, particularly in manufacturing and, to a lesser extent, in the construction and service sectors. In addition, there are further limitations in the response of wages to changes in unemployment during economic downturns which suggests that euro area wages are also characterised by significant downward wage rigidities, especially in the manufacturing sector. These results are robust to specifications that account for factors that may affect structural unemployment (such as duration-dependent unemployment effects), as well as changes in the skill composition of employment that may affect the evolution of aggregate wages. The results also hold for panels including or excluding the public sector (where wages may be determined differently to the private sector also due to the effects of fiscal consolidation on public sector wages during the crisis). From a policy perspective, reforms in product and labour markets which reduce wage rigidities can facilitate employment growth and enhance the rebalancing process in the euro area.     

Global Foreign Direct Investment Flows: The Role of Governance Infrastructure

It is widely argued that a country’s economic performance over time is determined to a great extent by its political, institutional and legal environment. We refer to these institutions and policies as the governance infrastructure of a country. We utilize newly developed indices to examine the effects of governance infrastructure on both foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows and outflows for a broad sample of developed and developing countries over 1995–97. In addition, we examine the role of other forms of infrastructure including human capital and the environment. The results clearly indicate that governance infrastructure is an important determinant of both FDI inflows and outflows. Investments in governance infrastructure not only attract capital, but also create the conditions under which domestic multinational corporations emerge and invest abroad. It would appear that investments in governance infrastructure are subject to diminishing returns, so that the benefits, in terms of inflows, are most pronounced for smaller and developing economies.     

The relative contributions of location and preferential policies in China's regional development: being in the right place and having the right incentives

A large part of the literature on provincial inequality in China has found it necessary to include regional dummies in the provincial growth regressions. A smaller but vocal part of the literature has emphasised the granting of preferential policies to explain the faster growth of the coastal provinces. We replace the regional dummies with a measure of the ability to participate in international trade (Geography), and a preferential policy index (Policy). We find that geography and policy had about equal influence on coastal growth (3 percentage points each). Geography affected growth with a much longer lag than policy, however. The policy index was highest for the metropolises (Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin) and lowest for the central and northwestern provinces. The preferential policies are to a large extent “deregulation policies” that enabled marketization and internationalization of the coastal economies and allowed them to become more like their East Asian neighbours (and competitors). The weak (statistically insignificant) support for conditional convergence is in line with the existence of institutions that retard the income convergence process generated by the movement of labor and capital and by the Stolper–Samuelson mechanism. The household registration system ties the peasants to the land, the monopoly state bank system favors borrowing by state enterprises, and local protectionism reduces inter-provincial trade. Clearly, these institutions need to be deregulated. An effective strategy to develop the western provinces must therefore encompass physical capital formation, human capital formation, and institutional capital formation.     

Tax and leverage: Evidence from China

This study exploits two institutional features of China to test the causal link between tax and capital structure. First, the central government exclusively determines the corporate tax rate in China, which results in changes in corporate income tax rates across different Chinese public firms over the period of 2000–2011. Such mandatory tax shifts provide a quasi-natural experimental setting for our difference-in-differences analysis investigating the impact of tax on leverage. We find evidence supporting the dynamic trade-off theory, namely that firms are unresponsive to tax cuts but increase long-term leverage when taxes rise (particularly those in low statutory tax regimes). Second, governmental intervention in capital allocation is common in China such that political connections are usually regarded as an asset for firms in accessing bank loans. Using anti-corruption events as shocks to the value of political connections over the sample period, our research is the first study to show that political connections become a liability that enables banks to recall loans from affected firms during the anti-corruption campaign periods. This change overturns the typical tax-leverage relationship observed, as we find anti-corruption affected firms reduce long-term leverage when taxes are cut and they become insensitive to tax increases. Our results reveal the importance of political ties in explaining how firms adjust their capital structure to tax changes, which is extremely relevant to policy makers and regulators when monitoring bank loan markets.     

我国地方政府债务管理制度实证研究

随着我国地方政府债务规模的不断扩大,很多地方政府相继出台了地方政府债务管理规定,这些规定出自不同层级的地方政府,在内容上、形式上都存在诸多差异.文章搜集了28个样本的地方政府管理制度进行分析,以制度变迁理论为依据,根据我国地方政府财政资金管理的现实要求,提出在省级政府制定地方政府债务管理制度和省以下政府制定债务资金使用和监督的执行细则的债务管理制度体系,并构建了省级政府的债务管理制度的内容框架,旨在为地方政府有效地管理债务行为和提高债务资金的使用效果提供制度指引.     

Poverty in Ghana from an Assets‐based Perspective: An Application of Probit Technique*

Abstract: This paper extends the existing literature on poverty in developing economies by examining the effects of human capital, financial capital and physical assets on the incidence of poverty in both urban and rural Ghana. The following is found: low stocks of assets appear to be a more prevalent problem associated with poverty; the returns to human capital are positive and rise with higher educational attainment, irrespective of gender; the correlation between income distribution and incidence of poverty is positive; and ownership of human, physical and financial assets reduces the probability of being poor. Against the backdrop of growth‐oriented policies, the paper calls for investments in schooling, provision of institutional credit and an enabling environment for labour market activities as strategies for the reduction of poverty.     

交通基础设施结构对城乡收入差距的空间溢出效应研究

为探究交通基础设施作为一项公共品对缩小城乡收入差距的贡献程度,以二元经济发展理论,新古典经济学理论为基础,运用空间自相关,空间误差模型,在我国2005—2017年30个省级行政区（除西藏）的面板数据基础上,引入交通基础设施密度作为核心解释变量,从空间的视角探讨,交通基础设施对于改善城乡收入差距的贡献程度。实证结果显示：公路交通基础设施的建设有助于缩小城乡收入差距,其中,一级公路,三级公路对于收入差距存在正向溢出,二级公路存在负向溢出,高速公路影响并不明显;铁路基础设施则与之相反。结果表明：优化交通基础设施的投建结构对于缩小城乡收入差距存在重要的现实意义,随着资本边际收益不断递减以及人口红利优势的逐渐消失,合理分配交通基础设施投资支出对于推动经济增长向效率方向转型变得日益迫切。     

微型金融资金配置绩效研究进展

微型金融作为一种金融发展服务形式有效创新,其追求实现社会扶贫和自身可持续发展双赢目标的特殊性,使得对微型金融资金配置绩效最新研究进行梳理具有一定现实意义。本文通过对MFIs绩效测量指标、资金结构、配置绩效状况、影响因素和有效途径进行梳理后认为：要提高微型金融资金配置绩效,就必须不断拓展MFIs融资渠道,推进金融服务基础设施建设,破除现有政策方面机制隐形障碍,在内外部共同努力下实现双赢目标。     

Human capital estimates in China: New panel data 1985–2010

We introduce new provincial level panel data on human capital in China from 1985 to 2010. Our estimation of human capital is based on the Jorgenson–Fraumeni lifetime income approach modified to fit the Chinese data, thereby allowing a more comprehensive measurement of human capital than traditional partial measurements, such as education. Our provincial data are adjusted for purchasing power parity via a living-cost index as well as for real values so that all values are comparable across the provinces and time. We discuss various characteristics of the data, including total human capital, per capita human capital, and labor force human capital, which in turn are disaggregated based on gender and urban or rural location. Our human capital estimates are compared with the provincial physical capital estimates and provincial GDP. As an illustration, we also use the data to estimate a production function and to decompose China's economic growth from physical capital, human capital, and TFP. Our results, compared with those that use traditional specifications, reassure us as to the reliability of our new China human capital data.     

The historical roots of India’s service-led development: A sectoral analysis of Anglo-Indian productivity differences, 1870-2000

India fell further behind the UK in terms of GDP per capita and overall labour productivity between the 1870s and the 1970s, but has been catching-up since. This paper offers a sectoral analysis of these trends. Comparative India/UK labour productivity in agriculture has declined continuously, and agriculture still accounts for around two-thirds of employment in India. Agriculture thus played a key role in India’s falling behind and has subsequently slowed down the process of catching up. Although there have been substantial fluctuations in comparative India/UK labour productivity in industry, this sector has exhibited no long run trend. The only sector to exhibit an upward trend in comparative India/UK labour productivity is services. India’s recent emergence as a dynamic service-led economy thus appears to have long historical roots. Although India has been characterised by relatively low levels of physical and human capital formation overall, its education provision has historically been unusually skewed towards secondary and tertiary levels. This has provided a limited supply of high productivity workers who have been employed predominantly in services.     

How to Model a Child in School? A Dynamic Macrosimulation Study for Tanzania

Universal primary education is regarded as one of the key pillars of sustainable development. The positive influence of education on growth is supported by many empirical studies. However, the effects of education on labour supply, poverty reduction and welfare as well as subsistence agriculture are hardly traceable in an econometric set‐up, given the complex interactions and the long‐term nature of education. An economy‐wide dynamic simulation model provides a well‐suited toolkit to analyse the effects of increased school provision in these aspects and provides insights into the intertemporal aspects of the schooling decision of children. We develop a macroeconomic model that explicitly includes education and human capital allocation, and takes into account that the possibility of child labour increases the opportunity costs of human capital formation. In an application for Tanzania, we find that a large‐scale investment programme in education might have a negative effect on both gross domestic product (GDP) growth and high‐skilled labour supply in the short term but leads to higher GDP and welfare as well as significantly reduced child labour supply in the medium to long term.     

Educational mismatches versus skill mismatches: effects on wages, job satisfaction, and on-the-job search

Education-job mismatches are reported to have serious effectson wages and other labour market outcomes. Such results areoften cited in support of assignment theory, but can also beexplained by institutional and human capital models. To testthe assignment explanation, we examine the relation betweeneducational mismatches and skill mismatches. In line with earlierresearch, educational mismatches affect wages strongly. Contraryto the assumptions of assignment theory, this effect is notexplained by skill mismatches. Conversely, skill mismatchesare much better predictors of job satisfaction and on-the-jobsearch than are educational mismatches.     

地区专业化能否提高我国的出口贸易技术复杂度?

本文运用2002～2008年分省分行业4位HS分类贸易数据,采用Hausmann et al.(2005)的方法测算了各省份的出口贸易技术复杂度,研究地区专业化对出口贸易技术复杂度的影响。分位数回归显示,地区专业化对中端出口贸易技术复杂度比低端和高端影响大。而普通最小二乘和广义矩估计进一步显示,地区专业化和出口贸易技术复杂度之间成倒"U"型曲线关系。本文控制了地区研发强度、人力资本禀赋、基础设施建设、地区开放度、外资进入程度和金融发展变量后,计量结果依然稳健。本文结论具较强政策意涵,即各地区应因地制宜地制定和实施差别化的产业和贸易政策。     

The direct impact of the relocation of farm labour on Chinese grain production

The shift from collective to household-based farming and the move towards a market economy have increased the opportunity cost of grain production and caused a withdrawal of labour from grain farming in China. Since Chinese grain production is important to both China and the world, there are concerns about whether such a farm labour relocation will have a destructive impact on China's grain production. The previous production function studies ignored the effects of changes in labour quantity and quality on grain production. Using recently available sample survey data on Chinese farm households, this paper incorporates production function analysis with human capital analysis to examine the direct impact of the relocation of farm labour on China's grain production. It has found that the relocation of farm labour has not harmed the Chinese grain production in general, but its impact varies across regions with different factor endowments that affect the choice of farming technology.     

Opening up,Market Reform,and Convergence Clubs in China*

This paper evaluates the relationship between initial government policies and the emergence of convergence clubs in post‐reform China. We test the structural stability of a global convergence equation using China's provincial data over the period 1985–2000. We find that the provinces cluster around two basins of attraction defined by initial opening‐up. Domestic market reform exerts a positive and significant influence on provincial economic growth but has no threshold effect. The two convergence clubs exhibit strikingly different growth behaviors, suggesting that the roles of some growth‐promoting factors, such as human capital and infrastructure, depend on whether an openness threshold is passed.