The network of networks: Localized technological change in telecommunications and productivity growth

Radical innovations in the usage of telecommunication services have drastically changed the role of telecommunications in the economy. Today the usage of telecommunications services is associated with the opportunity to extract significant quasi-rents. An empirical analysis of the Italian case in the mid-eighties confirms the significant difference between telecommunications cost share and marginal productivity levels. The opportunity to reap transient quasi-rents has in turn pushed users to innovate so as to become major players in the arena of technological change in telecommunications and information technologies. In this context the notion of network of networks, implemented in the European Union, seems most appropriate to push the dynamic efficiency of the system and accommodate both centrifugal and centripetal innovations, yet also to retain network interoperability and interconnectivity.     

X-Factor updating and total factor productivity growth: the case of peruvian telecommunications, 1996–2003

This paper measures TFP growth of Telefonica del Peru, and based on this growth rate computes a telecommunications X-factor or offset. More broadly the paper analyses the problem of updating an X-factor under existing price cap regulation. A revised offset must account for the possible restructuring of service offerings resulting from improved efficiencies in response to price cap incentives. Our updating framework focuses on efficiency criteria, and based on economic principles emphasizes the continuity between prior and continuing standards. In the case of Peru, based on annual average TFP growth of 1.66%, the X-factor is computed to be 4.06% per year. An erratum to this article can be found at     

Do elected public utility commissioners behave more politically than appointed ones?

In the United States, public utility commissioners are either appointed or elected and the vast majority is either Republican or Democrat. While previous research has analyzed whether selection method and political affiliation have independent effects on the policy choices of these commissioners, this paper investigates whether these influences may be interrelated and how this question can be analyzed empirically. The context explored in this paper is telecommunications network lease prices and retail prices. While data limitations preclude causal interpretations, the political affiliation of elected commissioners may be correlated with the lease prices that they set. Further, retail prices may vary with the political affiliation of appointed regulators.      

Wages and productivity: the role of labour market institutions in OECD countries

In the context of a monetary union, to keep a territorial equilibrium in terms of economic activity and employment, the relationship between real wages and productivity is crucial. In this paper, empirical evidence about the response of wages to productivity is obtained for 20 OECD countries and the role of labour market institutions to explain differences in this response is analysed.     

Fund-raising success and a solicitor's beauty capital: Do blondes raise more funds?

This study uses a door-to-door fund-raising field experiment to explore the returns to physical appearance on fund-raising success. Interestingly, blonde females earn more on average than brunette counterparts. However, the returns to physical appearance depend critically on the race of a potential donor.     

Ownership, efficiency, and political interference

Privatisation is often explained by a desire to achieve efficiency. Some authors propose that the main reason for inferior performance under public ownership is interference from politicians who promote output and employment instead of profits to please voters. Western state-owned firms however typically operate in imperfectly competitive markets, or even in natural monopolies. Private ownership then leads to underprovision. This paper presents conditions under which political interference yields higher welfare than under commercial objectives, and vice versa. If effort affects utility, interference may be beneficial in a seemingly perfect market.     

关于公有制问题的思考

公有资产的支配和使用必然存在着委托代理关系。由于监督成本的存在以及公有制中固有的监督弱化,代理人利用手中的代理权力获取相应的代理人利益,导致公有资产配置效率低下。这是我国市场化改革中大量公有制企业陷入困境的根源。虽然一些行业的公有制企业仍然存在,但主要是排斥非公有制企业市场准入而形成垄断;少数企业能够取得快速发展主要是代理人偏好于公有制企业的利益。     

Entry costs and cross-country differences in productivity and output

This paper contributes to the literature on cross-country income differences by studying the effect of entry barriers on productivity and output. Using instrumental variable regressions I show that higher entry costs significantly reduce output per worker and that they do so by lowering total factor productivity. In particular, an increase in entry costs by 80% of income per capita, which is one half of their standard deviation in my sample, is estimated to decrease total factor productivity and output per worker by 22% and 29%, respectively.      

The role of ageing in the growth of government and social welfare spending in the OECD

Government expenditure as a share of GDP in the OECD rose at an annual growth rate of 1.02% in the period between 1970 and 1997. Government spending has increased most on functions particularly demanded by elderly population: social welfare, health and defence. Ageing is the main driving force of the growth of government spending, followed by relative prices and population. However, we also find that the other age groups react to ageing, thereby preventing increases in benefits per retired persons and that institutional reforms have been successful at reducing the impact of ageing on pensions in recent years.     

我国农村金融机构的基本事实、发展模式及政策取向

近些年来，在我国农村的正规金融机构采取了以商业化、市场化为导向的改革，由此造成了正规金融供给不足，而非正规金融机构的地位和作用得到强化？如何处理两者的关系？本文认为：应该允许两者同时存在，并且通过政策引导使它们建立一种合理的垂直分工体系，从而充分发挥各自的优势。     

Budgetary institutions and fiscal discipline: Edmund Burke's insightful contribution

Recent developments in the political economy of public finance literature have focused on the features of budgetary institutions that facilitate budgetary discipline — a sub-discipline of constitutional economics. In this literature, there has been no attempt to trace the development of economic thought on the relationship between budgetary institutions and fiscal discipline. This may be because debt accumulation in peacetime is seen as a late twentieth-century phenomenon. As a result, Edmund Burke's contribution, in his speech ‘On Economical Reform’, seems to have been forgotten. This paper highlights Burke's contribution and identifies the extent to which it captures those features of budgetary institutions that are currently recognized as facilitating budgetary discipline.     

中国公共部门劳动生产效率实证研究

借鉴Karras(2007)的实证模型,本文利用中国1988-2007年30个省、市、自治区的面板数据,对公共部门的劳动生产效率进行实证分析,结果显示:(1)中国公共部门的劳动产出弹性为0.008;(2)中国公共部门的劳动边际产出高于非公共部门;(3)中国公共部门劳动人员的显性工资存在低估。虽然中国公共部门的劳动边际产出相对于非公共部门高,但其产出弹性仍处于较低水平。本文的政策含义是:加大劳动密集型公共品供给力度,有利于提高中国整个经济的产出水平;中国非公共部门需要改变劳动力粗放投入模式,地方政府应鼓励私人部门为员工提供多元化的职业培训与技能教育,以提高其边际产出。同时,优化公务员薪酬结构,将隐性收入逐步纳入正规货币工资范围之中。     

市场与政府双重失灵:农产品质量安全问题的成因分析

针对我国农产品质量安全事件频发的现实,从市场失灵与政府失灵两个方面对农产品质量安全问题的成因进行了分析,指出在小农经济模式下,农业生产信息得不到有效公开以及政府监管难以发挥效率是导致农产品安全事件的重要原因;提高农业生产的组织化程度,是解决农产品质量安全问题的有效手段。     

Public spending and growth: The role of government accountability

This paper examines the role of institutions in the nexus between public spending and economic growth. Empirical results based on a newly assembled dataset of 80 countries over the 1970–2010 period suggest that particularly when institutions prompt governments to be accountable to the general citizen does public capital spending promote growth. Taking account of the type of financing for this spending, we show that the growth-promoting effect under an accountable government appears to prevail for various financing sources, including a reallocation from current spending, an increase in revenue, and a rise in the budget deficit. However, government accountability does not seem to play a key role in the growth effects of current spending.     

The changing structure of cost and demand for the U.S. telecommunications industry

This paper formulates a multiproduct structural model to examine the evolution of the structures of production and demand and their dynamic interaction, over an extended period, 1935–1987, in the U.S. telecommunications industry. We estimate the degree of scale economies, cost elasticities, input price elasticities and the determinants of demand for outputs and for various factors of production. The contributions of the quasi-fixed inputs, such as R&D and physical capital, in the evolution of this industry are evaluated. A number of important issues like the changing characteristics of demand for and cost of local and toll services and the variation of price–cost margin over time are examined under different economic conditions, market structures and regulatory environments. We also analyze the effects of the 1984 divestiture of the Bell System on the cost structure, employment and capital formation of the U.S. telecommunications industry.     

Constitutional moments in Eastern Europe and subjectivist political economy

This article provides epistemic foundations for traditional rational-choice political science, to explain when and how ideas matter. Operational codes, epistemic communities and the structural patterns of ideas demonstrates the constitutional moments that occur during crises, and how ideas can underpin and direct the formation of interest groups. The implications for policy reform are discussed, along with an application to the Constitutional Moments during the transition of Central and Eastern Europe.

制度环境、所有权性质与负债的治理效应

已有证据发现制度环境对企业债务融资具有重要的影响,但就制度环境对不同所有制之间负债治理效应差异的影响尚不明了。本文以我国上市公司2003—2007年的数据为样本,初步检验了国有上市公司和民营上市公司在负债治理效应方面是否存在显著差异以及制度环境对两者关系的影响。结果发现,整体上国有上市公司在负债治理效应上显著弱于民营上市公司,但是随着政府干预的减少、市场化进程的加快和法制水平的提高,国有上市公司相比民营上市公司在负债治理效应方面的差异将会逐渐缩小。这一研究成果不仅丰富了国内外学者对负债治理效应的相关经验研究,而且有助于我们更加深入地理解导致负债治理效应差异的制度根源。     

县域公共服务均等化视域下政府公共服务能力探讨

县级政府公共服务能力是实现县域公共服务均等化的关键。县域公共服务均等化一方面对县级政府公共服务能力有更多更高的要求,另一方面现实的县级政府公共服务能力供给严重不足。为此,从县级政府公共服务能力的供给与需求出发,探析两者能力的差距及其影响因素,寻求提升县级政府公共服务能力提升的策略,最终实现县域公共服务均等化。