WELFARE AND MONETARY PRECOMMITMENT IN AN ECONOMY WITH MENU COSTS AND UNIONIZED WAGE SETTING

The paper shows that monetary precommitment can be advantageous to the government in a macroeconomic policy game where (i) the government's objectives are explicitly derived from those of the citizens, (ii) inflation has a real cost and (iii) the suboptimality of the output level arises from the structure of the private sector rather than from fiscal policy. It suggests that, to this extent, welfare interpretations of game theoretic monetary policy models are coherent.     

FISCAL POLICY IN AN ENDOGENOUS GROWTH MODEL WITH PUBLIC CAPITAL AND POLLUTION

This paper studies the growth and welfare effects of fiscal policy in an endogenous growth model with public capital and environmental pollution. I assume that pollution is due to aggregate production, and that it does not have a direct effect on production but only reduces household utility. I study the growth effects of fiscal policy for the model on the balanced growth path, taking transition dynamics into account. I then analyse the welfare effects of fiscal policy along the balanced growth path. Finally, I show how the fiscal parameters must be set so that the competitive economy replicates the social optimum.     

TARIFF POLICY AND WELFARE IN AN INTERNATIONAL DUOPOLY WITH CONSUMER‐FRIENDLY INITIATIVE

The purpose of this paper is to explore how strategic tariff policy and welfare are affected by the consumer‐friendly initiative of foreign exporting firms. We define a firm that is consumer‐friendly or non‐profit‐based if it considers both its own profit and consumer surplus. This paper extends Brander and Spencer by taking the consideration of consumer‐friendly firms into an international duopoly, and within such context examining the tariff policy and welfare. The consumer‐friendly initiative that leads to trade liberalization is a ‘Win‐Win‐Win’ solution in the sense that it is not only beneficial for foreign exporting firms, but also for the government and consumers of the importing country.     

OPTIMAL TAX POLICY IN A STOCHASTICALLY GROWING ECONOMY

This paper analyses the optimal taxation of capital in a stochastically growing small open economy in which there is a perfect market for a traded bond. The analysis emphasizes the dependence of the optimal tax structure upon the policy rule guiding the growth of government expenditure, and its impact on the behaviour of private agents. In general three taxes, reflecting three required conditions, are necessary to attain the first-best optimum. The first is to correct for any externality caused by government expenditure; the second is to attain the optimal portfolio share; the third is to ensure that the government budget constraint is met.     

TOURISM,DUTCH DISEASE AND WELFARE IN AN OPEN DYNAMIC ECONOMY*

This paper examines the effects of an expansion in tourism on capital accumulation, sectoral output and resident welfare in an open economy with an externality in the traded good sector. An expansion of tourism increases the relative price of the nontraded good, improves the tertiary terms of trade and hence yields a gain in revenue. However, this increase in the relative price of nontraded goods results in a lowering of the demand for capital used in the traded sector. The subsequent de‐industrialization in the traded good sector may lower resident welfare. This result is supported by numerical simulations.     

EXPERIENCE IN MEASUREMENT OF WELFARE COMPONENTS AND THEIR REGIONAL IMPLICATIONS

The paper relates the Swedish discussion and criticism of national accounting statistics, especially GNP, as a measure of welfare. It describes some results of recent Swedish attempts to find practicable measures of welfare components, i.e. the investigations of the Low Income Commission and of the Expert Group on Regional Development Research. In both cases the regional aspects of welfare are emphasized in the paper.
The results are presented as a sign of important needs for new methods and new systems of concepts in measuring welfare. The Expert Group has for instance in different ways tried to map and compare the "service structure" of separate parts of Sweden. The Low Income Commission has principally studied the position in Swedish society of low income recipients and has not been working particularly on the illumination of regional differences, but since different types of region are included as a background variable, the investigations also give certain measures of the regional aspects of welfare.
In the last part of the paper some of the risks that seem to be difficult to avoid in trying to use welfare measurements are pointed out.     

促进绿色经济的最优政策模型

发展绿色经济,既是中国经济社会可持续发展的必然选择,也是应对未来可能日益增多的国际环境问题矛盾的迫切要求.政府促进绿色经济政策工具可分为管制性和经济引导性两类.管制性政策的弹性小,有效成本巨大,而经济引导性能够促进关联者自发行动,是主要考虑对象.目前我国绿色经济政策的参数多为主观判断,缺乏定量化手段.以stackelberg模型作为理论基础来构建博弈模型,可以分析绿色产业链条的责任者和辅助者与政府政策之间的互动,得出最优征罚率与最优补贴率,从而为制定促进绿色经济发展的最优经济引导性政策提供建议.     

中国特色社会主义市场经济货币政策体系的形成及演变*

伴随中国特色社会主义基本经济制度的发展，与之相适应的宏观调控机制不断完善。货币政策体系作为其中重要组成部分，在持续深化改革的进程中逐渐演进，成为构建更加系统完备、更加成熟定型的高水平社会主义市场经济体制的重要内容。在货币政策最终目标及中间目标、货币政策工具、货币政策传导机制等方面正在形成与中国特色社会主义基本经济制度相适应的政策体系，并且具有鲜明的中国特色。本文讨论改革开放以来中国货币政策体系的形成、演变过程及特点。     

THE WELFARE EFFECTS OF FOREIGN CAPITAL INFLOW WITH TARIFF-RIDDEN AND QUOTA-RESTRICTED IMPORTS*

The welfare effects of foreign capital inflow and changes in the foreign price and tariff rate of a tariff-ridden imported good are considered for a small country for both 3 times 2 and 3 times 3 trade models with a quota-restricted imported good (whose special case is a nontraded good). For the 3 times 2 model, foreign capital inflow does not affect home welfare when there is no tariff on imports, but it harms the home country if a tariff is imposed on the imports to the extent that the tariff-ridden imported good is more capital intensive than the exported good. On the other hand, for the 3 times 3 model the foreign-capital inflow benefits the home country if the tariff rate is below a certain level under the analogous capital-intensity assumptions. The welfare effects of changes in the foreign price of the tariff-ridden good and its tariff rate remain the same for both models.     

中国特色社会主义市场经济货币政策体系的形成及演变

伴随中国特色社会主义基本经济制度的发展,与之相适应的宏观调控机制不断完善。货币政策体系作为其中重要组成部分,在持续深化改革的进程中逐渐演进,成为构建更加系统完备、更加成熟定型的高水平社会主义市场经济体制的重要内容。在货币政策最终目标及中间目标、货币政策工具、货币政策传导机制等方面正在形成与中国特色社会主义基本经济制度相适应的政策体系,并且具有鲜明的中国特色。本文讨论改革开放以来中国货币政策体系的形成、演变过程及特点。     

CHINA'S CORPORATIZATION DRIVE: AN EVALUATION AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS

This paper evaluates China's corporatization drive based on an assessment of the state sector's current problems. It shows that the worsening agency problem and excessive welfare burdens, as well as increasing competition, have contributed to the increasing losses experienced by Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs). While socialization of welfare burdens may improve SOEs' financial health, the mass corporatization drive by itself without institutional underpinnings, is unlikely to solve the more fundamental agency problem. The paper then argues that the key to a successful restructuring of the state sector lies in the fundamental transformation of state ownership and the creation of effective governance mechanisms, which, in turn, requires the development of the country's market-oriented institutions, in particular, financial markets and the rule of law. ( JEL P20, P31)     

ADAPTIVE LEARNING AND MONETARY POLICY IN AN OPEN ECONOMY: LESSONS FROM JAPAN

Abstract. Motivated by Japan's economic experiences in recent decades, we incorporate adaptive learning into an open economy dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model to examine the volatility and welfare impact of alternative monetary policies. Comparing four Taylor‐styled policy rules that reflect Japan's monetary policy debates, we first show that imperfect knowledge and the associated learning process induce higher volatility in the economy and that explicit exchange rate stabilization is unwarranted. Moreover, contrary to results under the rational expectation paradigm, we find that while tight inflation controls raise output volatility, they can improve overall welfare under learning by smoothing inflation fluctuations.     

POSITIONAL CONCERNS IN AN OLG MODEL: OPTIMAL LABOR AND CAPITAL INCOME TAXATION*

This article concerns optimal income taxation under asymmetric information in a two‐type OLG model when individuals’ relative consumption matters. Positional concerns affect the policy choices via two channels: (i) the average degree of positionality and (ii) positionality differences between the low‐ability type and the mimicker. Under plausible empirical estimates, the marginal labor income tax rates become substantially larger, and the absolute value of the marginal capital income tax rate of the low‐ability type becomes substantially smaller, than in the conventional model. In addition to measures of reference consumption based on average consumption, we also address within‐generation and upward comparisons.