Public Versus Private Provision of Public Goods

It is well known that public goods are underprovided in a static setting with voluntary contributions. Public provision—in a median voter framework with proportional taxation—generally exceeds private provision. This paper compares private and public provision of public goods in a dynamic setting. In a dynamic setting, voluntary donations can result in efficient provision. Also, majority‐rule solutions exist even when taxes are not proportional to income. At low discount factors, public provision tends to exceed private provision. As patience increases, however, private provision may exceed public provision. This occurs because many outcomes with a low level of public good provision—and potentially large targeted transfer payments to particular individuals—become sustainable under public provision. Under private provision, however, large targeted transfers are unsustainable. To finance the public good, private provision tends to result in benefit taxation, and public provision tends to result in progressive taxation.     

公共投资对私人投资的挤出挤进效应分析

本文运用经济增长理论与新古典分析方法从短期与长期、宏观与微观两个层面分析了公共投资对私人投资替代与互补的影响机制.一方面,公共资本对私人资本具有替代性,增加公共投资会"挤出"等量的私人投资;另一方面,公共资本对私人投资具有正外部性,可提高私人投资的边际产出从而"挤进"私人投资.公共投资对私人投资的影响方向由这两种对立效应的相对强弱决定.实证检验表明,政府公共投资对私人部门投资在挤进的同时又有挤出,最终起主导作用的是挤进效应.政府在公共投资政策的制定和把握上应加强对私人投资的引导和规范,使私人投资者产生正确的理性预期,将项目投向更有效率、更有作用的领域.     

公德私德研究——兼评张华夏和盛庆琜的道德理论

本文首先给出关于“公德”和“私德”的定义,公德的定义是:可以借助于理性推理加以评价或辩护的道德行为或道德规范,其标准是增进最多数人的最大利益。私德的定义是:必须惜助于情感直觉加以评价或辨护的道德行为或道德规范,其标准是增进他人的利益。然后简要介绍张华夏和盛庆(?)教授的道德理论,并进行比较和改进,把二者结合为一个新的道德模型,从而把公德和私德统一起来。一个好的道德系统应当是:以公德为主而以私德为辅。     

On the Private Provision of Intertemporal Public Goods with Stock Effects

The provision of public goods is often hindered by a lack of powerful institutions that can sanction free riders or otherwise enforce private contributions to the public good. The simple deposit based solution introduced by Gerber and Wichardt (J Public Econ 93:429–439, 2009) solves this problem, but may require prohibitively large deposits, in particular in the context of intertemporal public goods. In this paper, we propose a modification of the deposit solution that relies only on comparably small deposits. The proposed modification improves the applicability of the procedure, most notably as it also allows to reduce deposits in static public goods problem by transforming them into dynamic ones with small per period contributions.     

Effects of Public Infrastructure on Cost Structure and Productivity in the Private Sector

This paper examines the effects of public infrastructure on the cost structure and productivity in the private sector in Australia. Translog cost functions incorporating public capital infrastructure are estimated for the aggregate private sector as well as for seven broad industry groups using annual time series data for 1968/69–1995/96. The effects of public infrastructure on productivity are measured in terms of both cost-saving and output-augmenting measures. The empirical results suggest that public infrastructure has a positive and significant impact on productivity in private sector industries. Public capital serves as a substitute for both private capital and labour. The rates of return to public capital are significant and vary over the sample period.     

Effects of Eastern European and Western technologies on LDCs: a macroeconometric analysis

Questions involving technology transfer to less developed countries (LDCs) command an increasing interest in the world today. In this paper, two macroeconometric models are developed to compare the impacts of Eastern European medium-advanced and Western most-advanced technologies on the economic growth of LDCs. The models are then used to analyse data from the Egyptian industrial sector for the period 1952–1980.     

Unit Versus Ad Valorem Taxes: The Private Ownership of Monopoly in General Equilibrium

Employing a general equilibrium framework, Blackorby and Murty prove that, with a monopoly and under 100% profit taxation and uniform lump‐sum transfers, the utility possibility sets of economies with unit and ad valorem taxes are identical. This welfare equivalence is in contrast to most previous studies, which demonstrate the superiority of the ad valorem tax in a partial equilibrium framework. In this paper, we relax the assumption of 100% profit taxation and allow the consumers to receive profit incomes from ownership of shares in the monopoly firm. We find that, under certain regularity conditions, for any fixed vector of profit shares, the utility possibility sets of economies with unit and ad valorem taxes are not generally identical. But it does not imply that one completely dominates the other. Rather, the two utility possibility frontiers cross each other. Additionally, employing a standard partial equilibrium welfare analysis, we show that the Marshallian social surpluses resulting from the two tax structures are identical when the government can implement unrestricted transfers.     

Rates and Biases of Technical Progress and Returns to Scale in the Multi-output, Multi-input Production: Primal Versus Dual, Output-augmenting Versus Input-saving and Long-run Versus Short-Run

I examine the relationships among various dual concepts of output-augmenting and input-saving rates of technical progress as well as various dual concepts of returns-to-scale measures in the long run and short run. Output-augmenting rates of technical progress are all equal, and so are input-saving ones. Returns to scale plays an important role in the relationship between output-augmenting and input-saving rates of technical progress. Capacity utilization plays an important role in the relationship between the long run and short run. The bias of technical progress is also briefly referred to.
L Classification Numbers: D24, O030, O047.     

定向增发与公开增发新股融资股东财富效应的实证研究

公开增发新股和定向增发新股是上市公司增发新股融资的两种方式。研究发现,我国上市公司公开增发新股后1～3年股东获得的长期超额收益率均为负,而定向增发新股后两年股东获得的长期超额收益率均为正,表明我国上市公司宣告公开增发新股股东获得负的股东财富效应,而宣告定向增发新股股东能获得正的股东财富效应。从保护投资者长期利益的视角看,本文的研究结果表明在股权分置改革之后证券管理部门推出的定向增发新股融资方式和上市公司青睐定向增发新股融资方式具备其适时性和合理性。     

Estimating the Private Economic Benefits of Sons Versus Daughters in India

In order to understand the economic incentives behind gender discrimination in India, this paper provides the first estimates of the magnitude of the economic benefits of having a son instead of a daughter. The study estimates large gains from a first-born son to per capita income and expenditure, household assets, and a reduction in the probability the household is below the poverty line. Estimates show that a first-born son may provide economic advantages through a reduction in total children born and also from an adult son’s labor supply contribution to his parents’ household. The observed pattern of incentives is also compared with observed patterns in sex selection as a test of whether the relative economic value of first-born sons and daughters can explain the prevalence of sex-selective abortion.     

Public Open Access and Private Timber Harvests: Theory and Application to the Effects of Trade Liberalization in Mexico

A common popular assertion is that trade liberalization encourages deforestation. But whether this is true depends on how trade policies affect the allocation of land among competing uses and how they influence illegal cutting of public forests. A model is presented that allows for forests to be either public or private, and public forests are divided into protected (or managed) and threatened categories. Effects of price changes are shown on each part of the forest. An empirical version of the model is applied to the case of Mexico with NAFTA. Most scenarios considered show that NAFTA will have positive long-run effects on forest cover in Mexico but that this is net of losses on private lands.     

On Endogenous Efficiency in Public and Private Firms

This paper reconsiders a model proposed by De Fraja (1993) to compare public and private production under complete and incomplete information. It is argued, in contrast to previous results, that such a model provides no convincing grounds to sustain the productive superiority of public ownership. It is also suggested that meaningful comparisons of efficiency require settings where differences in ownership imply different implementation constraints.     

Private and Public Information in Self-fulfilling Currency Crises

Received November 9, 2000; revised version received July 24, 2001     

上市公司股权融资选择：私募还是公募?

本文对A股定向增发和公开增发分析后认为:就财务型股权融资而言,在老股东财富最大化原则下,在未来新项目净现值为正的情况下,股价高估的公司选择公开增发,股价低估的公司选择定向增发。定向增发方式可以缓解信息不对称带来的投资不足问题,可以解释公告后正的超额收益。     

Signaling Public Private Partnership Activities: Reporting Behavior Within Annual Reports

This empirical study examines whether, and if so, to what extent, firms report on Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects to signal PPP engagement even beyond legal obligations. The annual reports of the sample’s firms listed on the VSE in 2005 have been investigated in a qualitative and quantitative way to reveal information policy. Annual reports confirming PPP activities are examined qualitatively by an in-depth content analysis to answer the question in which way information about the revealed PPP projects is published. Further, predetermined keywords that at least indicate a PPP participation are statistically evaluated. The results outline that annual reports only give little and predominantly unspecific information on PPP which emphasizes the absence of corresponding reporting obligations and of a standardized PPP definition.     

The German Unemployment Compensation System: Effects On Aggregate Savings And Wealth Distribution

The effects of the German unemployment compensation system on aggregate savings and the distribution of wealth are studied in a general equilibrium 60–period OLG model. The distribution of wealth is derived as an endogenous function of the parameters characterizing the unemployment compensation system, which comprises unemployment insurance (Arbeitslosengeld), unemployment assistance (Arbeitslosenhilfe), and welfare payments (Sozialhilfe), the latter two being subject to a means test. As our main results: (i) both aggregate savings and wealth equality are a monotone decreasing function of unemployment benefits; (ii) optimal unemployment compensation declines over the spell of unemployment; (iii) asset–based means tests are shown to reduce welfare if the allowable wealth level is below the average wealth in the economy.     

民间投资接力公共投资:后危机时期的重要选择

在应对全球金融危机的过程中,政府公共投资对我国经济在世界范围内率先企稳回升功不可没。在后危机时期,让民间投资接力公共投资是保持经济可持续增长最重要的战略选择。相对公共投资而言,民间投资具有机制活、效率高、潜力大、可持续性强、有利于创业创新、就业效应强的特点。当前政府需要以城镇化发展推动民间投资、以创业激活民间投资、以消费带动民间投资,并在投资领域、投资方式、融资渠道、财税扶持、创新引导、服务环境等方面采取措施积极扩大民间投资。     

Take My Course,Please: The Effects of the Principles Experience on Student Curriculum Choice

Using a large multi-school sample, the authors examined how the characteristics and attitudes of students interact with the pedagogy and attributes of the instructor to influence students' decisions to study economics beyond the first semester. They found that students who have a predisposition to major in economics, who find economics relevant, who believe they understand economics as well as their classmates, and who expect higher grades in economics relative to their other classes are more likely to continue. They found evidence that teaching techniques and evaluation methods influence all of these factors except for the predisposition to major in economics. Some, but not all, of these techniques are particularly successful in influencing the decisions of female students.