Can regional policy in a federation improve economic efficiency?

In the European Union and in many federal and non-federal countries, the central government pays subsidies to poor regions. These subsidies are often seen as a redistributive measure which comes at the cost of an efficiency loss. This paper develops an economic rationale for regional policy based on economic efficiency. We consider a model of a federation consisting of a rich and a poor region. The economy is characterized by imperfect competition in goods markets and unemployment. Firms initially produce in the rich region but may relocate their production to the poor region. We show that a subsidy on investment in the poor region unambiguously increases welfare if labour markets are competitive. If there is unemployment in both regions, the case for regional subsidies is weaker.     

Improving Work Incentives and Incomes for Parents: The National and Geographic Impact of Liberalising the Family Tax Benefit Income Test*

The effective tax rates and possible work disincentives created by Australia’s tax and welfare systems have been receiving extensive policy attention in recent years. Family Tax Benefit‐Part A (FTB‐A) is one of the key causes of high effective marginal tax rates for many families. This study uses national and spatial microsimulation models to evaluate the national and local impacts of a possible FTB‐A reform option, which involves reducing the income test withdrawal rate associated with the FTB‐A income test. The modelling suggests that the option would be an effective way to reduce high effective marginal tax rates for around 415,000 parents of FTB‐A children, would benefit around 850,000 families, and would deliver additional assistance to middle income families living on the outskirts of our cities.     

Modeling national flood insurance policy holding at the county scale in Florida, 1999-2005

We analyze household flood insurance purchases in Florida from 1999 to 2005, and the extent to which household insurance purchases correspond with flood mitigation activities by local governments involved in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Community Rating System (CRS). Regression results indicate that household flood insurance purchases correlate strongly with local government mitigation activities, adjusting for hazard experience, hazard proximity, and community demography. Policy implications of this observed relationship are discussed, assuming four temporal order and floodplain development scenarios, with particular attention to the congruence of outcomes relative to policy objectives.     

非均衡经济中区域中央银行金融调控与监管研究

本文从我国区域经济、金融发展不平衡和地域特殊性较强的现实出发,分析了区域中央银行宏观金融调控和金融监管的尴尬境地,提出了应加强中央银行各级分支行,尤其是大区分行的相对独立性,充分调动其调控与监管的积极主动性,以适应我国的现实国情,在“掌握精神,灵活处理”的原则指导下积极监管、适当调控,全面提高金融调控与监管的效率。     

A theory of participatory democracy based on the real case of Porto Alegre

Participatory democracy is a process of collective decision making that combines elements from both direct and representative democracy: Citizens have the power to decide on policy proposals and politicians assume the role of policy implementation. The aim of this paper is to understand how participatory democracy operates, and to study its implications over the behavior of citizens and politicians and over the final policy outcomes. To this end, we explore a formal model inspired by the experience of Participatory Budgeting implemented in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, that builds on the model of meetings with costly participation by Osborne et al. [2000. Meetings with costly participation. American Economic Review 90, 927-943].     

促进区域协调发展的战略抉择与政策重构

促进区域协调发展是实现全体人民共同富裕的重要途径。近年来,中国区域协调发展取得了显著成效,区域协调发展水平和质量明显提升,但比较而言,目前中国区域发展差距仍然较大,区域发展不协调呈现新的特征和表现形式。从空间角度看,全体人民共同富裕就是城乡区域都要富裕,也即全域共富。在新形势下,应面向中国式现代化和全体人民共同富裕,将区域高质量协调发展作为主基调,加大区域协调发展的战略统筹力度,寻求面向全域共富的战略新举措。要按照政策精细化、措施精准化的要求,重构国家区域政策的基本框架,研究制定欠发达地区发展政策,构建全国统一规范、分类管理的区域政策体系。     

湖南省区域经济不平衡发展趋势研究

从理论上分析了湖南省区域经济差异的发散和收敛特征。文章以湖南省14个市(州)为研究的区划单元,从产出、产业结构、财政收入、居民收入等方面定量研究了1990年代以来湖南省区域差异的变化趋势。结果表明1990年代湖南省区域差异并不是绝对的扩大,居民收入、地方财政收入的差异变化为“缩小-扩大”的波动。居民收入的差异远远小于人均GDP的差异。湖南省区域差异远远小于广东、福建、江苏、山东等沿海发达省份。     

正视地区差距,促进协调发展

本文讨论了在全国经济持续高速增长的大背景下．如何正确看待东部与中西部地区经济发展差距不断扩大的问题。对如何缩小地区差距．促进区域经济协调发展提出了一些建议。最后结合对中国跨世纪发展的国际国内环境分析、提出了中国跨世纪发展的区域政策框架。     

Growth,Convergence, and Social Cohesion in the European Union

The aim of this paper is to analyze the economic and social cohesion in the European Union. There are different factors to explain the convergence process and besides, empirical findings are not conclusive. To the European Union, GDP per head interregional differences have decreased for certain periods but it has remained unchanged or even increased for others periods. The second report on the economic and social cohesion indicates that some decades are necessary to eliminate regional differences. These differences in regional GDP are mainly explained by differences in their productive structures, degree of innovate activity, communications structures, which depend on the relative level of transport infrastructures, and manpower qualifications. This analysis allows us to obtain some conclusions to the economic policies and the social cohesion. A preliminary version of this paper was presented in the 57th International Atlantic Conference, held in Lisbon, Portugal, March 10–14, 2004.     

“东北振兴”以来东北地区区域政策评价研究

回顾了2003年东北振兴战略实施以来国家针对东北地区出台的主要区域政策。财税和金融支持是东北振兴的重要外力,产业发展和企业改革是东北振兴的主体和关键。时间上政策出台年际波动性较大,空间上以面向全区政策为主。区域政策在经济发展、结构调整、社会效益和体制创新等方面取得明显成效。但也存在两类问题:政策执行过程中,政策力度不够、政策难以落实等;政策制定和执行后,包括政策的项目和国企指向等。未来东北地区区域政策的重点应强调四个方面内容:产业结构优化升级与国企改革,省际区增长极与产业空间布局,社会和谐发展与基础设施建设,改革开放与区域合作机制建设。     

区域持续发展的因素分析与主要对策

持续发展是解决当今全球性PRED问题的基本原则和社会经济发展的最终目标．已得到各国政府、社会工作者的普遍关注。区域持续发展是区域发展的最理想境界,其主要目标是区域的社会、经济和生态可持续发展。它受到多种因素的制约．如资源短缺、环境压力、区域不平等、增长的质量、人口压力、科技水平和管理、决策水平等。针对我国国情．提出区域持续发展的主要对策：加强基础设施的建设：建立资源节约型国民经济体系;加快科技进步：控制人口数量,提高人口素质;加强区域协调．实行对外开放;加强环境保护和整治：加强法制及组织管理。     

Periodicals Received

This paper reports the results of an empirical test of the hypothesis that three mechanisms of poverty reduction-improved market opportunities, government cash transfer payments, and government in-kind transfer payments have differential impacts on the relative return to legal and illegal activity and, in turn, on the rate of property crime. In addition, the paper reports empirical tests of the hypothesis that these differential impacts of market and government policy mechanisms vary by type of property crime.

Employing measures of each of these mechanisms, time series models for Burglary, Auto Theft, and Robbery are estimated from yearly, national, Uniform Crime Report (UCR) data for the period 1959 through 1995. The results indicate that poverty reductions due to improved market conditions have similar impacts on each type of property crime. However, the direction and magnitude of the impact of different government policy mechanisms varies between and within particular types of crimes. The paper concludes with an application of these findings to recent legislation, The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Act (TANF), which overhauled the federal public assistance program.     

Social spatial changes： Booster for a new regional policy——The event of Silao and Romita counties in Guanajuato Mexico

Today, one of the most important phenomenons is the movement of Capital and the expansion of its investments, as well as the use of resources worldwide. The movement of Capital, is changing the local space and the territories, because is not a homogeneous process; they are not in the same way and rhythm, this is because they don＇t get in the same way to global dynamics. The reorganization of the world, because the movements in Capital is a challenge, that is why, the analysis of regions demand new and different views, to boost regional development. We can tell that since a long time ago, had been developing theories and proposals not good enough, for this reason we must think to generate new proposals. The goal of this paper, is to expose the social and territorial changes in Silao and Romita Counties in the state of Guanajuato Mexico, as a result of the relocation of economic activities that lead us to start a new regional policy, that gives more satisfactory results and think about a regional policy that could reflex about territorial development focuses, specially for a public policy.     

Explaining the variation in household recycling rates across the UK

Household waste recycling rates vary significantly both across and within regions of the UK. This paper attempts to explain the variation by using a new data set of waste recycling rates and policy determinants for all of the UK's 434 local authorities over the period 2006Q2 to 2008Q4. Our results suggest that the method of recycling collection chosen by policy makers is an important factor influencing the recycling rate. We also find an inverse relationship between the frequency of the residual waste collection and the recycling rate.     

西部地区金融发展的政策取向

在市场经济下,金融对于经济发展的作用至关重要,中国协调区域发展离不开金融的支持,实施区域金融政策是中国协调区域发展的现实选择。应尽快建立适应西部特点的新型金融组织体系,通过培育区域金融中心、健全区域金融协调机制,并在货币市场和资本市场实行有针对性的金融政策。