SOME REFLECTIONS ON COMPARABLE WORTH

Despite its somewhat impudent tone, this paper examines a major controversy. "Comparable worth" has its proponents and detractors, but as in most debates, neither side fully appreciates the maintained hypotheses of the other. From an economic point of view, the disagreement seems to boil down to differences of opinion about whether the "excessive supply" of women to "women's jobs" is a result of their different utility functions or of their different constraints. There also has been a serious confusion of the "normative" with the "positive," some oversight of the potentially large regulatory costs that would accompany comparable worth legislation, and a tendency to consider only the partial-equilibrium consequences of these measures. Each of these considerations is examined in detail, with the conclusion that while comparable worth measures might alleviate some inequities in the short term, the long-term consequences could seriously aggravate the very problem the policy was intended to solve.     

信贷约束与农户非正规金融选择

本文考察来自正规金融机构的信贷约束对农户选择非正规金融的影响。基于农户调研,本文首先辨别农户受到的各种信贷约束,并将其与农户融资成本相结合,构建农户融资的理论模型。实证研究采用双变量Probit模型比较各种信贷约束对选择非正规金融的影响。研究发现：供给型和需求型信贷约束都显著地促进农户选择非正规金融。需求型信贷约束中,风险约束较大程度地促进农户通过非正规金融渠道融资。研究结论对制定农村金融政策将提供重要参考。     

Determinants of technological change in the service industries

The Service Industries provide numerous examples of how technological change may be impeded. Either the economic state of the industry or the state of scientific and engineering knowledge can limit inventive activity and productivity advance. Consumer ignorance, lack of producer incentives, complex production interdependencies, and market fragmentation are only a few factors limiting the role of demand in stimulating the discovery and diffusion of new services and production techniques. On the cost side, technical uncertainty, time horizons, and discount rates affect decisions to engage in R & D. In addition, strategic market considerations, such as potential entry, reaction speeds of rivals, and numbers of competitors affect the benefits from early introduction of new technologies. These institutional and economic considerations need to be taken into account for technological forecasting related to the Service Industries.     

Education and growth with endogenous debt constraints

When future human capital cannot be alienated, households are allowed to borrow up to the point where it is in their own interest not to default. In such a framework, endogenous borrowing limits arise as the outcome of individual rationality constraint. In a model where education is the engine of growth, we show that endogenous borrowing constraints imply global indeterminacy. Comparing outcomes across the various equilibria we show that the relation between growth and yields is hump-shaped. Maximum growth can arise in an equilibrium with binding borrowing constraints, specially if the elasticity of human capital to education spending is large. Deepening financial markets promotes long-run growth in the case of a poverty trap, but not necessarily otherwise. On the methodological side, our approach stresses the importance of studying borrowing limits in general equilibrium, not only in small open economies. Philippe Michel passed away on July 22, 2004. His death is a great loss for his friends and for the overlapping generations and optimal control community.     

Tradable performance standards in a dynamic context

Many sectors of the economy that are targets of emissions reduction policy exhibit price-responsive demand, long-lived capital, capacity constraints, and foresighted decision-making. I explore how these features affect the efficiency and dynamics of tradable performance standards (TPS) using analytical and numerical equilibrium models. While I show these dynamic considerations alone do not lead to conflicts with existing theory on the overall efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the TPS relative to a first-best policy, they do affect the transition path and steady state. Most notably, under all but the smallest discount rates, the TPS can lead to a more cost-effective post-transition steady state than the equivalent emissions cap. Given the intergenerational transition that comes with decarbonization, this result suggests some classes of present and future consumers may prefer a TPS to an emissions cap.     

Inevitable Disappointment? The ERM as the framework for UK monetary policy 1990–92

The UK entered the ERM in October 1990 in search of an alternative policy framework and nominal discipline to monetary targets, but entry was dominated by short term considerations and the constraints implied by membership were not properly understood. The UK left the ERM in September 1992 after the failure of a high-risk strategy resulting from the authorities' refusal to accept the constraints imposed by the ERM in that period. Thus, the crisis of Black Wednesday should be seen as the almost inevitable result of the failure of the UK monetary authorities to understand either the full benefits and costs involved in membership of the ERM, or how their own behaviour needed to be modified for membership to be sustained.     

Peak-load pricing with continuous and interdependent demand

Issues concerning time-of-use (TOU) pricing with continuous and interdependent demand are examined in a context where increasing marginal costs of production, as opposed to capacity constraints, provide the major incentive for flattening the load curve. The analysis develops the underlying consumer preferences sufficient to insure a continuously varying load curve and generalizes previous considerations of the peak load pricing problem by simultaneously considering continuous and interdependent demand in determining optimal prices and pricing period lengths. A profit incentive for TOU pricing as a form of price discrimination is revealed, which is tempered as substitution across pricing periods allows limited intertemporal arbitrage. The profit incentive leads a price-regulated firm, ceteris paribus, to choose a peak pricing period longer than the social optimum.     

Soft budget constraint theories: From centralization to the market

This paper surveys the theoretical literature on the effect of soft budget constraints on economies in transition from centralization to capitalism; it also reviews our understanding of soft budget constraints in general. It focuses on the conception of the soft budget constraint syndrome as a commitment problem. We show that the two features of soft budget constraints in centralized economies – ex post renegotiation of firms' financial plans and a close administrative relationship between firms and the centre – are intrinsically related. We examine a series of theories (based on the commitment-problem approach) that explain shortage, lack of innovation in centralized economies, devolution, and banking reform in transition economies. Moreover, we argue that soft budget constraints also have an influence on major issues in economics, such as the determination of the boundaries and capital structure of a firm. Finally, we show that soft budget constraints theory sheds light on financial crises and economic growth.     

Redistribution and Small Coalitions of Friends

When side marketing trade is perfect, linear taxation of retradeable commodities is the only scheme that survives attempts to arbitrage. In this paper, I discuss tax schemes when side trading is imperfect in the sense that commodities can only be re-exchanged within coalitions no larger than two people. In the framework of a two-class economy, I identify coalitions which might have an incentive to form and provide a characterisation for the Pareto-efficient tax scheme. The tax formula has a very simple form and strongly resembles the formula for the no-side-trade case. In a numerical exercise, the constraints imposed on policy by an imperfect side trading process are found to be almost as tough as those imposed by perfect side trading.     

Supply oriented macroeconomics: The MACE model of Canada

This paper describes MACE, a two sector annual nacroeconometric model of the Canadian economy. The sectoral breakdown highlights the role of energy in a small open economy. In addition, the model emphasizes the supply side, which includes both the evolution of normal output and the determination of the level of current output as the consequence of an explicit operating rate decision by firms. The bulk of the paper outlines the approach used to model supply side considerations, since this is where most of the model's innovative features lie.     

债转股的流程机理与运行风险

:债转股的范围是企业欠银行债中的边缘性不良资产。债转股的第一阶段为封闭性流程 ,但要真正使银行退出债权风险 ,由社会分摊 ,最终要与其他投资者或者资本市场连接 ,进入第二阶段开放式债转股流程。债转股过程中 ,银行、金融资产管理公司和国家有关部门一方 ,面临着与以各类企业及其地方和部门为另一方的分别博弈 ,其中由谁操作、利益差别和信息不充分及失真给债转股造成的不确定性和风险很大。对于债转股企业 ,选择一元债转股 ,还是选择多元债转股 ,以及金融资产管理公司是否有真正的实质性的股东权利 ,也将影响到债转股后产权约束的软硬及企业运营的效果。另外 ,债转股还面临着宏观经济运行是不是宽松和能不能由社会投资者购买分摊风险的不确定性。针对债转股的这些风险 ,本文最后提出了一些避免风险关键性的政策建议。     

Privatization Policies and Public Enterprise: A Survey*

This paper surveys and analyzes the economic literature on ‘privatization’ policies, restricting coverage to policies designed to improve the operating efficiency of public sector enterprises through increased exposure to competitive market forces. These include asset sales, liberalization (or deregulation) and franchising. The objectives, incentives and constraints of public and private enterprises are examined, and evidence on their comparative performance is analyzed. Public sector revenue effects from asset sale are also explored. On the basis of these considerations, the paper concludes that liberalization is an important ingredient in any policy package designed to improve the operating efficiency of public sector enterprises. Asset sale may enhance the beneficial impact of deregulation but asset sale in the absence of deregulation is unlikely to improve efficiency, and may introduce additional market distortions. Franchising is seen as an appropriate mechanism for privatization when the market is inherently monopolistic and when the government desires to retain control over output and/or price.     

Cross-cultural equity evaluations: A questionnaire-experimental approach

The theoretical background of the empirical investigations to be reported in this paper are positionalist aggregation functions which are numerically representable. The broad Borda rule is proposed as an aggregation mechanism for the case of a complete profile of the so-called individual extended orderings. We modify this rule to reflect considerations of equity. Students from Germany, Israel, the Baltic States, Austria and Slovenia were confronted with questionnaires that describe ‘situations’, most of which reflect different aspects of needs. All situations start from the preference structure which underlies an equity axiom. We are focussing on the following three points: (a) What is the percentage of respondents satisfying the equity axiom? (b) How often do the students revise their initial decision when more and more people join the side of the more advantaged? (c) Are there major differences across countries and cultures?     

Separating the Wheat from the Chaff: FMS, Flexibility and Socio-organizational Constraints

In contrast to arguments that flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) are highly versatile configurations that are only prevented from machining a wide range of parts by extrinsic constraints, this article contends that FMS are a genre of configurations that combine flexibility and intrinsic constraints in a variety of permutations, depending on a user's intended objectives. Empirical evidence is used to identify the factors that shape the levels of constraint in particular FMS and to identify instances where intrinsic constraints impede performance. Suggestions are made for initiatives to facilitate the continued use of FMS with the highest levels of intrinsic constraints that have hitherto hindered performance when the FMS users' manufacturing needs changed. Occupational structures that promote a polarization between staff with engineering knowledge and those responsible for defining general strategic objectives are suggested as a potential obstacle to such initiatives.     

公司领办的合作社中公司与农户的关系研究

对于以龙头企业为代表的公司与农户的关系,学术界存在着争议,一种观点认为,龙头企业与农户之间本质上是一种对立的买卖关系;另一种观点认为,公司与农户可以通过紧密的利益纽带联结起来.这些观点都是从静态的角度来讨论公司与农户的关系,实际上,公司与农户的关系是不断变化的,在合作社内自始至终存在着两种力量:合作与竞争.哪一种力量占据主导地位取决于合作社内公司与农户的谈判力量.     

Unconstrained maximum likelihood estimation of contemporaneous covariances

A reparameterization is suggested which guarantees positive semidefinite estimates of the contemporaneous covariance matrix in a single equation, linear random coefficient model without introducing side constraints into the optimization problem. Monte Carlo simulation results are reported and compared.     

The demand and supply for investment goods: does the market clear?

Standard theoretical considerations suggest that the quantity and price of a good are jointly determined by supply and demand. In the literature on physical investment, however, attention has been focused almost exclusively on the demand side. This paper considers the theoretical and statistical problems that arise when the demand and supply sides of the market for investment goods are estimated simultaneously. One of the important problems is dealing with the possibility that the price may not adjust instantaneously to clear the market.The model is estimated using data from post-war Japan. The two most important results that emerge are: 1) The long-run supply curve of investment goods is virtually horizontal; and 2) The market appears to be characterized by equilibrium.     

Portfolio Choice and Liquidity Constraints*

We study the infinite‐horizon model of household portfolio choice under liquidity constraints and revisit the portfolio specialization puzzle. We show why the puzzle is robust to several model variations, and argue that positive correlation between earnings shocks and stock returns is unlikely to provide an empirically plausible resolution. We find that relatively small fixed costs for stock market entry are sufficient to deter stockholding because, for a plausible range of parameter values, households can achieve desired consumption smoothing with small or zero holdings of stocks. Such costs could arise from informational considerations, sign‐up fees, and investor inertia.     

Second-best pricing for incomplete market segments: Application to electricity pricing

Due to technological, political, or practical considerations, most price mechanisms are not fully differentiated by time, location, and contingency of delivery. Rate or tax designers then face a trade-off between the costs and benefits of using more complex price schedules. This paper studies the second-best problem of designing, for a given market segment, a linear pricing schedule with a limited number of distinct prices while facing exogenous constraints within a large and practically relevant family. Interestingly, we find that second-best prices may be computed using simple machine learning techniques. As an illustration, we apply our framework to retail electricity pricing in California.     

Beyond Brenner's investment overhang hypothesis: the case of the steel industry

This article challenges the way liberal economic governance has come to be theorised as a passive and depoliticised form of governance. Using the classic case of the gold standard, it shows how state intervention came to be shaped by considerations of state power and diverged considerably from the traditional emphasis on free markets and stable conditions of investments. As I argue, the gold standard was constructed through political struggles over monetary governance which involved significant constraints for capitalist investors. Its institutions helped establish a new structure for exerting control over finance. By resituating the gold standard in a broader historical perspective, I show how nineteenth-century monetary governance, far from leading to a retreat of the state, established in fact the foundations of a new form of state intervention: modern central banking.