From the Nation-State to a World Society: An Institutional Reading of Globalization

This article highlights the inadequacy of classical and neoclassical theories for understanding the set of changes experienced by economic systems in their process of development. The institutional dimension concerning the issue of well-defined rules (through the introduction of economic policies) and involving all stakeholders in the regulatory process (starting from the firm), seems to better interpret micro- and macro-economic aspects of the evolving capitalist model. This means questioning the complicated economic governance and society in the transition from the nation-state to a world society (or world state).     

比较经济学对中国经济理论发展的影响(1978～2005)

文章结合1978年以来中国经济理论的演进,论述了比较经济学在中国经济理论发展进程中所发挥的作用与影响。文章认为,比较经济学对中国经济理论发展的影响主要表现在以下三个方面:对中国经济理论范式转换的影响,对中国经济理论的方法论的影响以及对中国社会主义市场经济理论发展的影响等。分析表明:中国经济理论是在中国经济改革的实践探索中得到检验和发展的。在中国经济理论发展进程中和改革开放形成的中外学术交流的背景下,比较经济学在中国的传播促进了中国经济理论的发展。     

Does income drive saving?: Exogeneity testing applied to East Asian Data

Many economic models have been developed which have had as their primary goal the elucidation and accurate prediction of economic growth patterns. In these models we frequently discover that many of the variables which determine growth are themselves determined by growth. Saving (investment) is one such variable. In the process of estimating a model, a commitment as to the casual ordering of variables must be made. The causal ordering is typically made on a priori grounds. In this paper I give the data themselves a chance to speak to the issue of whether income drives saving (investment) or vice versa within the context of a simple, but familiar bivariate saving-income model.     

Law, Property, and Marital Dissolution

This paper challenges the view that legal rights are not important in affecting whether people divorce, but it puts as much emphasis on property rights (given, for example, by the law on alimony) as on dissolution rights. The paper sets out two stylised models of marriage and examines the consequences of fuller compensation for economic sacrifices made during marriage. If the dominant economic issue in a marriage is who undertakes household tasks then a law giving fuller compensation makes divorce more likely. If the dominant issue is child custody, divorce is less likely.     

FDI与中国二元经济结构演化——一个动态实证分析的考量

FDI理论和二元经济结构理论一直以来都是国内外主流经济学者研究的热点问题。但是从理论上和实证角度把二者结合起来研究的文献并不多见。为此,本文首先从古典增长理论模型出发,论述FDI对我国二元经济结构演化的影响,理论模型研究表明,FDI在促进中国经济非农化的过程中有可能加大了农业与非农业的技术与就业差距,从而加深了二元经济程度。然后重点从实证角度、运用统计分析和因果关系检验、协整检验及修正误差模型检验等计量分析手段深入研究和检验二者的长期与短期动态均衡关系。研究结果表明,FDI在促进中国经济非农化和工业化的同时,在一定程度上却加剧了中国的二元经济程度。对此,本文在最后强调应该加大对FDI的产业调整力度、规范其投资流向,同时建立一套长效机制,实现农村生产要素的市场化与整合,充分挖掘FDI在转变农业生产方式方面的潜在作用,缩小农业与城市部门生产效率的差距。     

Initial endowments and economic reform in 27 post-socialist countries

This study explores how initial endowments at the start of transition have shaped reform outcomes and reform trajectories in 27 former communist countries in Europe and Central Asia. Countries of the former Russian Empire that had a large resources sector at the start of transition underperformed other countries in terms of the speed and the depth of economic reforms. The effect is particularly strong for privatization, enterprise restructuring and competition policy. Within country, Ottoman or Russian provinces that had a large natural resources sector in 1989 have a lower share of entrepreneurs and of small and medium sized enterprises today and also experience endemic corruption. Our results indicate that the propensity, or ability, of special interest groups to capture the reform process that would erode their rents were facilitated by the quality of institutions whose foundations go back centuries; and that the effects on the local economy are real.     

Speed and Sequencing of Transition Reforms and Income Inequality: A Panel Data Analysis

An extensive literature has analyzed the economic effects of transition patterns in Central and Eastern European and former Soviet Union countries. With few recent exceptions, analysis of the impacts of speed and sequencing of reforms has not concerned the dynamics of income inequality. In this paper we analyze the heterogeneous effects of transition reforms on inequality by explicitly considering their speed and sequencing. To this aim we identify eight transition models in which the 27 countries considered are classified. The dynamic panel‐data analysis for the period 1989–2009 reveals that balanced transition patterns, which favored a coordination of reforms especially in specific fields, were relatively less pro‐inequality.     

The emerging aversion to inequality

This paper provides evidence of the changing attitudes to inequality during transition to the market in Poland. Using repeated cross-sections of the population, it identifies a structural break in the relationship between income inequality and satisfaction. Whereas in the first stage of the transition process, an increase in income inequality was interpreted by the population as a positive signal of wider opportunities, later in the transition period increased inequality became a factor in dissatisfaction with the country's economic situation. This was accompanied by increasing public sentiment that the process of income distribution is flawed and corrupt.     

On and off China's turnpike

A reorientation towards emphasis on consumption has become a major issue in China, raising the question of the relationship between economic growth and the composition of output. The issue is addressed here, using insights from economic growth theories. These theories indicate that concentration on capital goods production generates the most rapid overall growth. With short‐term deviations and without explicit reference to any theory, Chinese practice in the past seems to have conformed. A shift to emphasizing output of consumption goods while resulting in an overall growth slowdown, will improve consumer welfare, suggesting the benefits of shifting to this criterion of economic success.     

资本积累与最优银行规模

本文回顾了近半个多世纪以来有关收入和财富分配持续性不平等的原因及其动态演化方面的理论,包括收入和财富分布的随机过程模型、新古典框架下不平等的动态演化理论、人力资本投资对持续性不平等的影响、不完全资本市场下持续性不平等的动态演化、经济增长中持续性不平等的动态演化以及其他各种机制对不平等动态演化的影响等。论文还对有关持续性不平等理论的发展脉络和内在演化逻辑进行了梳理,并在此基础上对现有文献进行了总体评述,并对今后研究的发展方向作了简单讨论。     

Can religion insure against aggregate shocks to happiness? The case of transition countries

This paper examines the effects of reforms and religion on happiness in transition economies. Earlier literature suggests that religiosity insures happiness against various individual stressful life events. This phenomenon is well-explored in developed countries but rarely studied in post-communist countries, where religion was officially suppressed for a long period. These countries have undergone considerable economic transformations over the past two decades. Using cross-sectional Life in Transition Survey data and historical data on religions, I examine if religion insures against economic reforms. The endogeneity of religion is taken into account. The findings suggest that economic reforms may have both positive and negative effects on happiness. Religiosity indeed insures happiness and perceptions of economic and political situations against economic reforms.     

Understanding the Transaction Costs of Transition: it's the Culture,Stupid

The process of transition in Central and Eastern Europe from socialism to capitalism is a cultural issue rather than a mere technical one. To support this proposition, economic analysis must explain why and how informal rules affect the results of transition.     

The problem of bad loans and enterprise indebtedness in Bulgaria

Conclusions The problem of bad enterprise and bank debts has developed into one of the most acute economic problems in PETs. The general delay in implementing comprehensive policy measures to combat this issue as well as mismanagement contributed to the snow-balling of bad loans. In the case of Bulgaria this led to a major financial crisis and the authorities had to undertake a large-scale rescue operation.The experience of the past three years or so indicates that there are no ideal definitive solutions to the bad-loan problem. All bad-loan management options discussed in the literature and experimented with in PETs have serious drawbacks and their inherent cost is usually quite high. So the bad-loan problem has turned into one of the many dilemmas that economic policy makers of the PETs have to face up to.The Bulgarian approach to the bad loans issue builds on ideas that have been debated in the literature and adds some new and original aspects. It is an attempt to link the process of cleaning up the bad loans to the recapitalization of commercial banks and to the process of privatizing SOEs. In this respect it can be regarded as an element of a broader policy aimed at speeding-up the process of economic transformation of the country. At the same time, the Bulgarian approach has a number of weak features that may have undesirable consequences.     

Kicking the Habit: Moving from Pegged Rates to Greater Exchange Rate Flexibility

Why do governments find it so difficult to move from pegged exchange rates to greater exchange rate flexibility? I first establish that there is a problem to be solved: that there are powerful incentives for greater flexibility deriving from changes in the international economic and financial environment but that policymakers find it difficult to engineer a smooth transition. I offer practical suggestions and a framework under which the probability of a smooth transition can be maximised. Drawing examples from recent economic history, I then attempt to understand the experience of selected countries which have undertaken this transition.     

The end of economic transition

The transition from plan to market was the largest natural experiment in economics ever. Now, 20 years from the start of transition, all former socialist countries are market economies at the middle stage of economic development, and convergence with neighbours, if not with the developed world, is largely achieved. With hindsight, it is clear that economists have spent too much time debating proper sequencing of reforms and the fine‐tuning of reform packages. At the same time, the magnitude of the output and consumption fall in some countries was vastly underestimated, while the benefits of reforms have taken longer to materialize than expected. Successful practitioners of reform praise perseverance during and after the initial setbacks and willingness to make political compromises. At the conclusion of the natural experiment, transition economics has all but vanished as an academic discipline, although it played a crucial role in the formation of modern political economics.     

Sustainability and externalities: Is the internalization of externalities a sufficient condition for sustainability?

In an important contribution in Ecological Economics, van de Bergh (2010) correctly concludes that sustainability does not imply zero externalities. However, he continues with the Delphic statement "(Delphic statements were uttered by the renowned oracle of ancient Greece at Delphi. They were phrased in such a way as to be self-fulfilling because alternative interpretations covered every possibility.)" "Without externalities the problem of sustainability vanishes". If this statement refers to an impossible economic process that produces no externalities then he is right. However, it might be interpreted as stating that whenever environmental policy internalizes environmental externalities then sustainability will be ensured. In this note, I assert that in the real world where externalities prevail, their internalization or neutralization in the traditional way cannot lead to sustainability. Only if internalization takes a very specific form that results in the inviolable preservation of environmental rights of future generations in pure biological terms can sustainability be ensured. After revised the original commentary I resubmit it. The issues raised by the editor have been carefully considered.     

技术进步研究评析

作为人类改造自然的一切知识的总和,技术进步象一条涓涓溪流始终贯穿于整个经济增长与发展史,技术的进步是推动经济增长与发展的基础,经济学家们就技术进步对一国经济发展的影响进行研究是在对经济增长影响因素的理论探索中逐步展开的,许多经济学流派都曾关注过技术进步并试图将技术进步溶入其理论框架,从不同角度不同程度地用技术进步来解释经济增长的源泉和增长过程。本文从亚当.斯密体现在积累及劳动分工上的技术进步因素开始,循经济增长理论的发展时序,分别进一步评析了熊彼特的技术创新理论、以索洛经济增长模型为代表的新古典增长模型以及色彩斑斓的内生经济增长理论,各大理论流派均认同技术进步一定会推动经济增长和发展,但人类显然还没有找到一把普适的经济发展的"魔杖",关于技术进步与经济增长的理论研究在不断延续展开着。     

中国经济增长模型的设定:1952—1998

现代经济增长理论能够刻画我国的经济增长吗 ?如果能 ,那么哪类经济增长理论能比较好地刻画我国的经济增长呢 ?围绕这些问题 ,本文从实证和理论两个方面展开讨论。在实证上 ,本文采用Jones( 1 995)实证检验新增长理论的方法 ,针对各类经济增长理论的核心特征 ,实证分析了 1 952— 1 998年间我国经济增长的典型事实 ,结果发现这些典型事实明显地拒绝了新古典增长理论和R&D类型增长理论 ,相对而言 ,比较支持AK类型增长理论。另外 ,我们还发现以综合要素生产率测量的技术进步 ,不是我国1 952—1 998年间经济增长的引擎。在理论上 ,本文从“边干边学”的角度 ,把“探索适合我国国情的经济建设道路”纳入经济增长模型 ,证明了其本身可以作为我国经济增长的引擎 ;同时回答了为什么AK类型增长理论能够刻画我国的经济增长。     

Non‐linear geographics and the economics of transition and democratization1

The purpose of this study is to analyse the effects of geography on the transition process in authoritarian political regimes, and to investigate the nature of the links between political change, economic reforms and geographical location. A simple model of transition and democratization is presented wherein we show that the effectiveness of repression by the incumbent elite is a negative function of the distance to the ‘free world’. In consequence, geography has conflicting effects on shifts in political power. This article provides a rationale for the counterintuitive fact that the first authoritarian country to start a transition process towards democratization is not necessarily the one nearest to the free world.