Enterprise Transformation and Foreign Investment in Eastern Europe

Summary

This paper takes a closer look at enterprise transformation in Eastern Europe. It argues that the transformation from a state-owned firm into a capitalist enterprise involves more than reacting to economic incentives. Enterprises need access to capital markets to finance investment and they have to acquire new capabilities to be able to compete successfully in a capitalist economy. Furthermore, the ownership structures that emerged following mass-privatization are not necessarily favorable to radical restructuring. In these three crucial areas-investment capital, capability building and corporate governance-foreign investors can make a key contribution to economic transition.     

Welfare State and Taxation in Russia: the Contradictions of the Unified Social Tax

The Unified Social Tax (UST) was introduced in Russia in 2001 as part of a comprehensive reform of the tax and social security system. Five years on, this article offers a preliminary assessment of the positive effects of UST so far and the problems that remain.     

Why Europe Needs a Public Investment Plan

In the continuing stagnation of European economies, the persistence of inadequate demand plays a crucial role that deserves greater attention. First and foremost, we are in a context of slower international growth, in which global world trade is growing more slowly than global GDP. This implies that exports are not in the position to be the driver of renewed growth for Europe.     

Corporate Social Responsibility as a Signalling Device for Foreign Direct Investment

A rise in CSR (corporate social responsibility) has accompanied rise in foreign direct investment (FDI) to developing countries in the 1990s. CSR may be serving a signalling function when the entering firm is of an unknown type. Although countries are now competing keenly to attract foreign firms, even so, excessive tax or excess transfers by firms can still cause a Prisoner’s Dilemma structure to the payoffs resulting in an inefficient Nash equilibrium. CSR allows the accommodating firm to reveal its type, making cooperation the equilibrium outcome. The game differs from standard models since signalling changes the payoffs. A unique separating equilibrium exists where only the accommodating firms signal. But, under certain parameter values, a pooling equilibrium where all firms signal, becomes possible. A number of results are derived including the size of CSR expenditure required as a fraction of profits. An example demonstrates their relevance in practical situations.     

Weak Investment Poses a Threat to Industry in Europe

The global industrial structure has been in a constant state of change for some time now. While China’s share has steadily grown, Western industrialised countries have mostly experienced losses in industrial market share. Within Europe, the fates of the established industrialised nations have all played out very differently. For example, France and the UK have suffered massive losses, while Germany was able to noticeably re-expand production following the 2009 crisis. Industry in Europe is likely to fall further behind in the coming years — not only to catching-up countries like China, but also to other industrialised nations. The US, for example, exhibits far more dynamic industrial investment, outpacing not only France and the UK but also Germany.     

西方社会福利的三种分析框架

阐述了三种用于分析西方社会福利的架构,并结合实例进行了分析.在现代社会福利发展日趋复杂的情况下,可灵活使用此三种分析框架,有助于较深入了解各国社会福利的本质,使得各类福利服务之间的区别更加明晰.     

投资收益视角下社会保障基金运营问题研究

由于我国社保基金规模不断扩大,而我国社保基金投资运营监管法律不健全、金融环境不稳定、投资结构不合理以及监督不力等缺陷的存在,使我国社保基金投资收益水平非常低,很难实现社保基金保值增值的目的。健全我国社保基金投资运营监管的法律法规,完善投资运营模式,选择市场化运营方式是我国社保基金投资实现稳定、长期、高水平收益的必然选择。     

社会影响力投资在中国

2011年,国内慈善界试图与商业界结合来,更高效地解决这些社会问题,但是“郭美美”引出的中红博爱资产管理公司与红十字会间的复杂关系以及之后的15亿中非希望工程项目等等事件,让国人对于公益慈善与商业的结合变得敏感、质疑甚至排斥。在同一时期,欧美许多国家正在兴起一种新的结合商业和公益的投资模式,即近年来逐渐受到关注的——社会影响力投资（ImpactInvesing）,正试图以金融投资与公益慈善紧密联合的方式来高效解决社会问题。     

Corporate Social Responsibility Education in Europe

In the context of some criticism about social responsibility education in business schools, the paper reports findings from a survey of CSR education (teaching and research) in Europe. It analyses the extent of CSR education, the different ways in which it is defined and the levels at which it is taught. The paper provides an account of the efforts that are being made to ‘‘mainstream’’ CSR teaching and of the teaching methods deployed. It considers drivers of CSR courses, particularly the historical role of motivated individuals and the anticipation of future success being dependent on more institutional drivers. Finally it considers main developments in CSR research both by business school faculty and PhD students, tomorrow’s researchers and the resources devoted to CSR research. The conclusion includes questions that arise and further research directions.     

论海外投资国家风险的防范

针对海外投资国家风险的特殊性,必须从微观层次和宏观层次两方面做好风险防范工作。在微观层次上,应着重抓好区位选择、项目构造选择、保险选择、风险预警管理、发展既得利益集团、风险补救以及有计划撤资等风险管理环节;在宏观层次上,应建立和完善海外投资保障法律体系,设立国家风险评估机构,积极参与国际多边、双边投资合作并主动签订国家契约等。     

转型背景中人力资源管理的新视角

在经济转型的时代背景下,中国企业的人力资源管理模式面临许多新的挑战,必须进行创新和变革。根据复杂多变的环境和时代要求,企业应在选人、育人、用人和留人四大系统为人力资源管理提供新的管理内容。在选人上,应呈现人才选拔过程的多元化;育人的关键是要转变员工的培训观念并促进培训效果的良好转化;在用人上,要运用心理契约,同时重视岗位轮换与工作设计;留人的重点是管理者应多关注员工心理健康并运用情感管理。     

Corporate Social Responsibility as Subsidiary Co-Responsibility: A Macroeconomic Perspective

Recent discussion on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) mainly focuses on two aspects of CSR: from a technical perspective, CSR aims to improve ethical standards in the organizational decision-making process, and should guarantee that management practices are in accordance with commonly accepted standards of behavior. From a political perspective, CSR describes corporate engagement with ecological and social issues that extend beyond the firm’s economic activities. The latter perspective in particular leaves unclear whether such corporate contributions to solve environmental and societal problems should be seen as voluntary additional services or whether corporations bear specific duties in this field. Based on the tenet of subsidiarity derived from Catholic thought, this article emphasizes that the common interpretation of CSR should be extended by a third perspective that addresses corporations as intermediate actors bearing specific subsidiary co-responsibilities in society.     

China as a Developmental State

The paper examines the notion of a ‘developmental state’ and shows that China possesses the relevant characteristics. It explains the political economy which generated such a state in China. It analyses the institutions and methods that were introduced to create a developmental state, in particular the incentive structures that the leadership used to solve the principal‐agent problem implicit in having centralised political control but decentralised economic management. These include personnel policies, fiscal decentralisation and patronage relationships. That leads to a review of its successes, limitations and adverse consequences and to the question: can China's developmental state be sustained? Among these issues are the great socioeconomic changes that rapid economic growth has entailed – which have strengthened the case for broadening government policy objectives beyond the previous narrow focus on growth. Conclusions are drawn for both China and other developing countries.     

A Social Dimension for a New Industrial Strategy for Europe

Intereconomics - The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has not been equal across economic sectors, age groups, education levels and employment status.     

The new challenge in Eastern Europe: Investment and restructuring

The reform programmes of most Eastern European countries have liberalized prices and taken on the task of macroeconomic stabilization, but the formation and implementation of structural policies has largely been neglected so far. What steps should the governments of Eastern Europe take to encourage the necessary restructuring of their economies and to attract the urgently needed foreign investment?