Help not needed? Optimal host country regulation of expatriate NGO workers

Motivated by interventions in poor countries to increase the use of local labor in foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), we address the behavior of these organizations under host government regulation. We extend existing NGO models by distinguishing between local workers and expatriates. The model covers both NGO monopoly and competition in the market for donations. Assuming that NGOs maximize output, we show that regulations in the form of a quota on the number of expatriates or a work permit fee for foreigners reduces NGO output, but increases employment of locals. The optimal quota is more likely to bind in the market structure generating the highest total fundraising surplus. An optimal work permit fee is equivalent to an optimal quota in both the monopoly and duopoly cases. For both instruments, the optimal tightness of regulation is decreasing in the weight the government attaches to the public good relative to domestic incomes and in the importance of NGO output to the supply of the public good. Aggregate NGO output and the level of the public good produced could be higher with a monopoly NGO.     

Time vs. money — The supply of voluntary labor and charitable donations across Europe

In spite of its importance for civil society, we know relatively little about the way in which individuals spend their time and money in the charitable provision of goods and services. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive picture of the philanthropic behavior in Europe by analyzing both, the correlates of individuals' charitable cash donations and volunteer labor as well as their interdependence. Using data from the European Social Survey, we document a positive correlation between time and money contributions on the individual as well as on the country level. In addition, we find evidence that individuals substitute time donations by money donations as their time offered to the market increases. Moreover, analyzing philanthropic behavior on the disaggregated level reveals large differences in the determinants and the relationship of time and money donations in Europe – both across different types of voluntary organizations and across different welfare regimes.     

The interaction between macroprudential and monetary policies: The cases of Norway and Sweden

To shed light on the interaction between macroprudential and monetary policies, we study the inward transmission of foreign monetary policy in conjunction with domestic macroprudential and monetary policies in Norway and Sweden. Using detailed bank‐level data, we show how Norwegian and Swedish banks’ lending reacts to monetary policy surprises arising abroad, controlling for the domestic macroprudential stance and the interaction between monetary and macroprudential policies. In both countries, domestic macroprudential policy helps mitigate the effects arising from foreign monetary surprises.     

The international business cycle as intertemporal coordination failure

Where investments are irreversible and the future is uncertain, people in two countries can make investment decisions that turn out to be mutually inconsistent. I argue that this intertemporal coordination failure explains international business cycles in a two-currency-area setting with a floating foreign exchange rate. The sequence of events starts with an expansionary domestic monetary shock, which decreases the domestic real interest rate. Facing low transactions costs, people spend the new money relatively early in the foreign exchange market and in the foreign market for loanable funds. Domestic monetary expansion thereby changes the relative prices of domestic and foreign goods and also of goods of earlier and later stages of production. The relative price changes lead to intertemporal and international coordination failures once the monetary expansion ends and relative prices change. Domestic monetary policy thereby causes the comovement across different currency areas we observe of business cycles.     

Foreign Debt,Foreign Direct Investment and Volatility

We investigate how foreign debt and foreign direct investment (FDI) affect the growth and welfare of a stochastically growing small open economy. First, we find that foreign debt influences the growth of domestic wealth by lowering the cost of capital, while FDI affects the country's welfare by providing an additional source of permanent income. Second, a decline in domestic investment may improve domestic welfare as FDI replaces the gap. Even when the welfare deteriorates, its magnitude is mitigated, leaving more room for discretionary fiscal policy. Third, a fiscal policy aimed to stabilize domestic output fluctuations needs to be conducted not to crowd out the welfare benefit of FDI too much. Fourth, an economy with both types of foreign capital experiences wider welfare swings by external volatility shocks than the one with foreign debt alone, while the welfare effects from domestic volatility shocks are mitigated. The welfare effects of fiscal shocks are much smaller with both types of foreign capital. Lastly, the first-best labor income tax covers the government absorption by the labor's share of total output, and the capital income tax covers the rest. Investment is penalized or subsidized depending on the social marginal cost-gain differential.     

Macroprudential policy and the inward transmission of monetary policy: The case of Chile,Mexico, and Russia

This paper studies whether domestic macroprudential policy may attenuate the inward transmission of monetary policy shocks from the United States to domestic bank lending growth in three emerging market economies—Chile, Mexico, and Russia. Identification relies on banks’ heterogeneous exposure to prudential policies and the fact that foreign monetary policy shocks are exogenous from the perspective of these economies. After analyzing the effects of the aggregate domestic prudential policy stance, we focus on specific prudential policies targeting mortgage and consumer loans, as well as foreign‐currency deposits. Although our overall results are mixed, we find evidence that the strength of international monetary policy spillovers varies depending on the stance of domestic macroprudential policy. In particular, a tighter reserve requirement stance over foreign‐currency deposits in Chile dampens the effect of an international monetary policy shock on domestic local‐currency lending, but reinforces that on foreign‐currency lending, whereas in Russia, it dampens the effect on both local‐currency and foreign‐currency lending, although to different degrees. Prudential policies targeting the asset side of banks’ balance sheets, such as mortgage loans or consumer credit, are found to amplify international monetary policy spillovers in some cases and attenuate it in others, depending on the country context.     

The Effects of Consumer Bliss on Welfare Economics

Some developed countries have sought to counteract what they see as unfair competition faced by their domestic industries arising from the employment of child labor in the production of consumer goods in developing countries by including a "social clause" in the World Trade Organization (WTO) charter. Many people and civil society organizations in developed countries are also genuinely concerned with child labor employment purely on humanitarian grounds. In this paper we have argued that a more appropriate approach to tackle the child labor problem would be to facilitate acceleration of growth in developing countries through greater, not less, integration of these countries into the world trading system. We have also argued that directing development assistance for improving institutions and social infrastructure would be more effective than trade sanctions.     

Transmission of monetary policy and exchange rate shocks under foreign currency lending

This paper analyses the differences in reaction of domestic and foreign currency lending to monetary and exchange rate shocks, using a panel VAR model estimated for the three biggest Central and Eastern European countries (Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary). Our results point toward a drop in domestic currency loans and an increase of foreign currency credit in reaction to monetary policy tightening in Poland and Hungary, suggesting that the presence of foreign currency debt weakens the transmission of monetary policy. A currency depreciation shock leads to an initial decline in foreign currency lending, but also in loans denominated in domestic currency as central banks react to a weaker exchange rate by increasing the interest rates. However, after several quarters, credit in foreign currency accelerates, indicating that borrowers start using it to substitute for depressed domestic currency lending.     

Foreign Exchange Intervention and Monetary Policy: A Tale of Two Agencies with Conflicting Objectives

In several industrial countries, the government is responsible for foreign exchange intervention while the central bank is given operational independence in conducting domestic monetary policy. We model the interaction between the two agencies when their views differ and generate empirical implications using lattice‐theoretic techniques. Japanese data from 2001–2004 support the model's predictions with respect to central bank behavior. The evidence is less conclusive as to whether the massive intervention of 2001–2004 by the Ministry of Finance caused the Bank of Japan to raise the monetary target.     

货币替代理论研究述评

货币替代是开放经济中所特有的一种货币性扰动,它会对一国的经济金融形势产生严重影响,如货币政策的独立性和有效性受到影响、政府的财政税基遭到削弱、汇率波动频繁、国际收支失衡、减缓甚至阻碍该国货币的自由兑换进程等。随着中国经济高速增长以及人民币的强烈升值预期,我国出现了人民币正在逐步替代外币美元的反向货币替代现象,同样对我国经济造成了一系列的冲击。本文首先从货币替代的定义、形成机制、经济影响、防范风险的对策等方面对国外文献进行了理论综述;然后,分析了国内学者对货币替代理论的研究,特别研究了我国在目前背景下出现的反向货币替代现象;最后在对国内外货币替代理论文献综述的基础上,对将来的研究方向进行了展望。     

THE IMPACT OF GOVERNMENT FUNDING ON PRIVATE CONTRIBUTIONS TO NONPROFIT PERFORMING ARTS ORGANIZATIONS

ABSTRACT ** :  This paper tests the crowding-out hypothesis for a balanced panel of nonprofit performing arts organizations between 1998 and 2003. This research uses a number of model specifications and estimating techniques to appropriately capture the relationship between government grants and private donations. Under alternative specifications, the relationship between government grants and private donations suggests crowding-in between $0.14 and $1.15. The crowd-in relationship does change according to art type: symphony orchestras and music companies experience a modest crowd-in while dance and ballet companies experience a small crowd-out. Although the crowd-in falls to zero under the strictest condition, there is a lack of evidence of crowd-out for nonprofit performing arts organizations as a group.     

国外非营利社会组织与我国事业单位改革

我国事业单位在整个国民经济和社会发展中具有相当重要的作用.由于历史和现实的原因,当前事业单位改革遇到了许多困难,相比政府机构改革和国有企业改革更复杂、也更困难一些.通过对国外非营利社会组织的属性、功能定位、行业分布和经费来源的研究,提出我国事业单位改革可借鉴的经验和做法.     

Family model of contributions to non-profit organizations and labour supply

In this article a model is presented in which the family decides the labour supply of both spouses and their time donations to non-profit organizations. For the estimation, Spanish data was used which showed that family size and pre-school children influence decisions made about time distribution of husband and wife. Women with fewer family responsibilities work longer hours and donate more time, whilst the effect on men is the contrary. Also, monetary donations by the family are directly related to time donations by the spouses.     

中美两国基础研究社会捐赠比较及对我国的启示

鼓励多元化投入基础研究的国家政策频繁出台，使社会捐赠作为基础研究投入来源引起学者普遍关注。美国运用社会资本进行科研捐赠具有多年发展经验，在支持生命科学、数学、物理学等前沿基础研究领域取得较好成效。为考察我国基础研究社会捐赠现状，对中美两国社会捐赠框架、科研投入多元化格局、捐赠激励政策、非营利机构布局及社会捐赠瓶颈等内容进行对比，从增设基础研究捐赠类目、成立基础研究专项基金会、完善基础研究捐赠税收优惠政策和积极吸收社会小额捐款4个方面提出适合我国国情的基础研究社会捐赠政策措施。     

Precautionary savings and the governance of nonprofit organizations

We present a model of nonprofit governance built on two assumptions: (1) organizations wish to hold precautionary savings in order to smooth expenditures; and (2) it is relatively easy for managers to divert these funds for personal use. Hence, donors face a trade off between expenditure smoothing and donation dissipation. We examine the model's predictions using panel data on U.S. nonprofits. We show that organizations in states with poor government oversight have managerial compensation that is more highly correlated with inflows of donations and allocate a smaller percentage of donations to the endowment for future expenditures relative to organizations in strong oversight states.     

国外非营利机构筹资模式及启示

从总体上看,国外非营利机构的资金主要来源于民间捐赠、政府支持或公共部门支付、私人付费。其中,文化机构、教育科研机构的资金来源以私人付费为主,而医疗卫生机构和社会服务机构则以政府部门支持为主。     

Monetary Expansion in an Open Economy of Intermediate Size*

This paper introduces a monetary asset, perceived as an addition to wealth, into a two-country neoclassical model of accumulation. As domestic monetary expansion changes, demand for the investment good is shifted. This alters the terms and level of trade as well as production and shifts the balanced growth paths of both economies. For a non-specialized world it is found that an increase in domestic monetary expansion will increase the domestic overall capital intensity, decrease the foreign overall capital intensity, and worsen the terms of trade for the country importing the investment good.     

The macroeconomic impact of foreign labour influx into the industrialized nation state and the complementary policies

This paper makes a numerical assessment on the macroeconomic impact of foreign labor influx into the industrialized nation state allowing free trade in goods but imposing an immigration quota on labor, and then explores the complementary policies for the impact of foreign labor influx. One of the main findings is that immigration itself brings welfare gains only if prices are flexible, but a skill-biased intake policy can bring a much larger welfare gain. The complementary policy options to boost welfare gains by immigration increase are monetary expansion, adopting foreign components more, and influencing foreign demand for intermediate goods indirectly by inviting foreign direct investment. For these policies to cope, the destination country should try to correct the market structure so that prices can be flexible.     

The domestic content of imports and the foreign content of exports

When a country imports goods that have been assembled abroad, some amount of the labor and capital services embodied in those goods may originally be from the country that is now importing them. Similarly, some of the value added of a country's exports may be foreign in origin. For the median country in my sample of 14, I calculate that 21.5% of imported labor services are domestic labor, 17.7% of imported capital services are domestic capital, 12.3% of exported labor services are foreign labor, and 23.3% of exported capital services are foreign capital.     

Brotherhood of competition: Foreign Direct Investment and domestic mergers

We examine the effects of mergers on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), and on shaping national policies regarding FDI. In this work we develop a partial equilibrium model of an oligopolistic industry in which a number of domestic and foreign firms compete in the market for a homogeneous good in a host country. It is assumed that the number of foreign firms is endogenous and can be affected by the government policy in the host country. The government sets the policy (subsidies) to maximise social welfare. We allow domestic mergers. Our main results suggest that when the host country government imposes discriminatory lump-sum subsidy in favor of foreign firms, a merger of domestic firms will increase the number of FDI if the subsidy level is exogenous. With an endogenous level of subsidy, a merger of domestic firms will decrease (increase) the welfare if the domestic firms are more (less) efficient.