Broadband infrastructure and digital financial inclusion in rural China

This paper examines the relationship between the large-scale construction of broadband infrastructure and digital financial inclusion in rural China. To make causal inferences, we exploit a quasi-natural experiment and use a difference-in-differences identification strategy with a panel dataset of Chinese counties from 2014 to 2018. The results show that broadband infrastructure significantly contributes to digital financial inclusion. Furthermore, we distinguish between two dimensions of digital inclusion, namely, coverage and usage. We find that while broadband infrastructure promotes the coverage dimension, its effect on the usage dimension is limited. In addition, the effect of broadband infrastructure on digital financial inclusion in the usage dimension is larger in areas with higher levels of human capital, higher levels of social capital, and higher penetrations of bank branches. Accounting for these moderators is important to fully harness the potential of broadband infrastructure for financial inclusion.     

The contribution of infrastructure investment to Britain's urban mortality decline, 1861–1900

It is well‐recognized that both improved nutrition and sanitation infrastructure are important contributors to mortality decline. However, the relative importance of the two factors is difficult to quantify since most studies are limited to testing the effects of specific sanitary improvements. This article uses new historical data regarding total investment in urban infrastructure, measured using the outstanding loan stock, to estimate the extent to which the mortality decline in England and Wales between 1861 and 1900 can be attributed to government expenditure. Fixed effects regressions indicate that infrastructure investment explains approximately 30 per cent of the decline in mortality between 1861 and 1900. Since these specifications may not fully account for the endogeneity between investment and mortality, additional specifications are estimated using lagged investment as an instrument for current investment. These estimates suggest that government investment was the major contributor to mortality decline, explaining up to 60 per cent of the reduction in total urban mortality between 1861 and 1900. Additional results indicate that investment in urban infrastructure led to declines in mortality from both waterborne and airborne diseases.     

The impact of public investment on private investment spending in Latin America: 1980–95

This paper investigates the theoretical and empirical links between key economic variables and private spending in Latin America during 1980 to 1995. The empirical findings of this paper directly address the complementarity hypothesis which suggests that increases in public investment spending raise the marginal productivity of private capital, thereby inducing higher rates of private investment spending. This paper also addresses the issue of whether changes in the real exchange rate (expenditure-switching policies) have a deflationary effect on the economics of Latin America. The findings in this paper make an important contribution to the ongoing debate about which policies need to be promoted to raise and sustain the rate of private capital formation in Latin America—the region's future source of employment and income creation.     

江苏省财政科技投入绩效研究

江苏省作为科技大省,一直把科技创新作为全省经济发展的一个重要战略,对于财政科技的投入也是呈逐年上升的趋势。2008年财政科技支出为91.52亿元,经过10年,至2017年财政科技支出已经达到436.14亿元,增长幅度为376.55%,由此可以看出,江苏省政府作为公共部门对于全省的科技支出是非常重视的。文章将通过构建DEA技术效率以及超效率模型的角度出发展开具体分析;最后,基于实证分析提出的不足之处,提出完善的政策建议。     

The saving–investment correlation and origins of productivity shocks

This paper shows how savings and investment can be positively correlated despite capital being perfectly mobile across countries. The saving-investment (SI) correlation depends on the origin and the volatility of macroeconomic (productivity) shocks, the persistence of these shocks and country-size. Simulating a two-country Real Business Cycle (RBC) model we show that as the variance of common shocks increases (relative to country-specific shocks), as the persistence of these shocks decreases and as country-size increases, the SI correlation increases. Using annual data from 1960 to 2002, productivity changes in 11 OECD countries are decomposed into common and country-specific shocks (from which foreign shocks are also constructed). The empirical findings show that the 11 countries share a statistically significant common component in productivity changes and common shocks generally account for at least half of the variations in the countries’ productivity changes. We then use the estimated variances of the shocks, in addition to each country's size, in the RBC model to compute the predicted SI correlation for each country, under the assumption that capital is perfectly mobile. The predicted SI correlation is then compared to the actual correlation to assess the relative degree of capital mobility in the 11 countries. The findings indicate that Norway, the Netherlands and the US have the highest degree of capital mobility whereas in Canada, Sweden, Belgium and Japan capital mobility has been the lowest.     

The impact of basic and social infrastructure investment on South African economic growth and development

Basic and social infrastructure investment can assist in addressing widespread inequality and divided societies by promoting economic growth and social development. The aim of this study is to determine whether basic and social infrastructure investment differently affect economic growth and social development indicators of urban and rural municipalities. We used a balanced panel dataset containing infrastructure, economic, demographic and social indicators for rural and urban municipalities for the period from 1996 to 2012. Principal component analysis was used to construct synthetic indices of basic and social infrastructure. Restricted within least squares dummy variable estimation techniques are used to evaluate the differences between urban and rural municipalities. The elasticities of basic and social infrastructure investment generally are more pronounced for economic growth and social development indicators in rural municipalities. These findings could potentially influence policy decisions in terms of infrastructure investment in favour of rural municipalities to increase economic growth and social development.     

Evaluation of investment projects based on a complex of interindustry and interregional models

This paper presents a methodical approach and complex of economic and mathematical models to evaluate the efficiency of large investment projects implemented on the basis of public private partnership mechanisms permitting to forecast public results of projects simultaneously implemented at the macro-, meso-, and microeconomic levels.     

河北省财政科技投入现状分析

地方财政科技拨款作为国家财政拨款体系的重要组成部分,对提升地方科技创新能力、推动地方经济和社会发展有重要作用。文章从全省地方财政科技支出及全国排名情况,对河北省本级、各市及各区县财政科技支出情况进行分析,并提出提高和优化河北省财政科技投入的相关建议。     

China and the world financial markets 1870–1939: Modern lessons from historical globalization1

In this article we review the development of Chinese capital markets over a crucial period in the history of markets worldwide, and place that development in context. Despite fundamental differences between China today and China 100 years ago, it is still important to consider the effects of an imbalance between domestic and international investor markets, and the mismatch between domestic and foreign expectations about investor protection. The lessons of the last century suggest that China today should consider opening Chinese investor access to foreign capital markets in order to equilibrate the level of diversification between foreign and domestic investors. In addition, our analysis suggests that protecting of domestic corporate investor rights is at least as important as protecting foreign investor rights.     

广西R&D经费投入及其对经济增长促进作用研究

人类进入21世纪以来,R&D活动在经济增长中的作用日益凸现。本文在分析广西R&D经费投入规模、强度和结构的基础上,对广西R&D经费投入对经济增长的促进作用进行实证分析,最后提出了增强广西R&D经费投入及其对经济增长促进作用的对策建议。     

民办教育机构教育科研现状、问题及推进策略

通过对民办教育机构近五年公开发表的科研成果的统计分析,了解了民办教育机构的科研状况令人担忧,主要存在成果数量少、整体质量不高、研究领域单一、各机构间科研发展极不均衡等问题,并从宏观、中观、微观三个层面分析其成因:政策及制度支持不力、缺乏教育中介组织引领、民教机构教师科研意识淡薄、科研能力缺失。最后提出做好顶层设计,促进民教机构科研发展;加强组织引领,充分发挥教育中介组织作用;引智助力,提升教师科研能力;积极探索,突显民教特色等建议,以期助推民办教育培训机构科研活动开展,提升民办教育质量。     

Infrastructure and poverty reduction: Assessing the dynamic impact of Chinese infrastructure investment in sub-Saharan Africa

Infrastructure investment is essential for African countries to enhance economic activities and reduce poverty; however, the conclusions from national-level studies remain ambiguous. Combining geo-coded Chinese infrastructure project data from 2000 to 2014 and Demographic and Health Surveys information, we employ a spatiotemporal estimation strategy and explore the dynamic effectiveness of Chinese infrastructure investment on local multidimensional poverty in sub-Saharan Africa and its mechanisms. Our findings demonstrate that infrastructure projects can continuously alleviate local multidimensional poverty following project completion, primarily by improving living standards through local industrialization and increasing individual employment stability. Further investigating heterogeneities, we determine that Chinese infrastructure projects are more effective for self-dependent recipients, in rural areas, and when overseen by state-owned enterprises. Our findings provide insights into the long-term effectiveness for underdeveloped countries to reduce local poverty with Chinese infrastructure investment.     

电子商务税收问题研究

本文通过对当前金融监管中的分业监管、金融信息失真、监管人员素质不高等的现状分析 ,提出了加强法制建设、完善监管方式、建立信息公告制度、加强金融监管队伍建设等对策。     

Bank dependence and financial constraints on investment: Evidence from the corporate bond market paralysis in Japan

This paper investigates whether firms are able to substitute bank loans for public debt when the latter become less available to firms. To do so, this paper utilizes the 2008 financial crisis and its impact on Japanese markets as a natural experiment. Because the Japanese banking sector remained functional while the corporate bond markets were paralyzed, the data from Japan during this period provide us with an ideal environment to examine this hypothesis. I specifically examined whether firms with large holdings of corporate bonds maturing in FY2008 were financially constrained, by comparing the changes in their capital investment expenditures and borrowing conditions with those of bank-dependent firms. The main empirical results indicate that (1) firms with large holdings of corporate bonds maturing in FY2008 did not reduce investment expenditures; (2) instead, they exhibited higher increments in bank loans; and (3) firms that maintained relatively close bank-firm relationships had greater access to bank loans with low borrowing costs. These findings demonstrate that Japanese firms were able to substitute bank loans for public debt during the crisis and imply that the Japanese banking sector worked efficiently to replace public debt markets during the crisis.     

Foreign investment, trade and growth in the United Kingdom, 1870–1913

England will not be able to hold her own against the other nations by the mere sedulous practice of familiar process…. Her chief remaining advantage lies in that unapproached freedom of movement, that viability that gives her much of the strength without the cumbrousness and want of elasticity of a single huge firm extending over the entire land.