Race and social organization: An economic perspective

Conclusion Improvements in the economic, political, and social status of Blacks are joint effects. Improvement in one is unlikely without concommitant improvements in the others; this is a multiedge sword.Success in any of the areas is correlated with improvement in the others—synergism. On the other hand, failure to realize the interdependencies makes success or improvement in any of the areas unlikely.     

会计国际化:发展进程与问题改进

随着世界经济向全球化发展,会计这种国际通用的商业语言,其国际化趋势日益显著.伴随着经济体制的改革,我国会计国际化经历了局部借鉴、初步协调与基本协调三个阶段.经过我国多年积极广泛地参与会计国际协调,我国的会计国际化进程取得了巨大的进展.但是,因各国会计环境的重大差异,我国的会计特色必将长期存在.因而,我国会计的国际化是一个循序渐进的过程,需要我们积极的参与.     

Public-private partnership in a natural resource region: Ecological problems,models, and prospects

The article considers the economic and ecological evaluation of a natural-resource development program. The example of Nizhnee Priangar’e in Krasnoyarsk Krai is used to illustrate the selection of an effective mechanism of public—private partnership in the development of the region’s industrial complex.     

试析会计诚信的缺失及对策

真实的会计信息是经济健康、协调发展的基础,小到一个企业,大到整个国家,会计信息真实与否,对经营决策乃至国民经济的健康运行都是至关重要的。随着我国市场经济的不断发展,会计诚信在社会主义经济建设中发挥的作用越来越明显。本文从多方面分析了现实中会计诚信缺失的原因,探讨了初步的解决方法。     

Labor market racial discrimination against black women

Conclusion The data we have reviewed describe black women as having achieved parity with white women and indicate that this conclusion is not seriously affected after controlling for the direct and indirect effects of differences in time worked. However, the economic position of black women is not uniform throughout the economy. Black women have advanced primarily in public sector jobs and these advances have been made primarily by the youngest cohorts. Progress in the private sector has been much slower. Claims that a “new labor market” exists for black women ought to be carefully qualified, for their progress is impressive primarily when they are compared to white women—another disadvantaged group. Both groups of women are falling farther behind men in terms of relative earnings.16 Furthermore, it may be quite erroneous to interpret small differences in earnings between black and white women as evidence that black women do not suffer racial discrimination, as the following example illustrates.     

From the transatlantic banking crisis to the euro crisis?

The Transatlantic Banking Crisis has strongly raised debt-GDP ratios in many OECD countries and this is undermining the economic recovery. As regards the euro zone there are special problems which are partly related to lack of fiscal discipline in Greece and to the Irish economic crisis which—largely unknown—basically reflects total failure of prudential supervision to apply EU directives and legislation, respectively. In this context the issue is raised whether or not there are structural problems with the Euro and monetary integration. Moreover, the debt dynamics of governments are analyzed and specifically the issue of whether there is a need for restructuring the debt of Greece. Taking a closer look at the figures for government assets in Greece, it seems possible to strongly reduce the debt-GDP ratio mainly by privatization. As regards Ireland, one may propose that the European Commission or the European Parliament take the country before the European Court of Justice. Finally, a new approach for determining the optimum debt-GDP ratio is presented.     

Why does the current account matter?

Summary Professor Lamfalussy discusses the nature and significance of the current account of the balance of payments. After a general analysis he applies his reasoning to the problems connected with the oil-price explosion and their effects on the pattern of current-account positions of various groups of countries. He arrives at two conclusions. The first is probably not very controversial: the international distribution of current-account imbalances deserves to remain in the centre of economic analysis because they are the vehicle for transferring real resources and because the position of its current account may have far-reaching consequences on each country's exchange rate, domestic price developments, income distribution and growth prospects. The second is that for these very reasons policy makers cannot disregard the structure of the balance of payments — even if they will have to realise that it is often not in their power to achieve what would seem to be an optimum structure.     

A realist approach to equilibrium analysis

Conclusion Science seeks to explain objective facts by reference to constant relationships that link them to other facts. Yet economic science deals with human action, which is directed by individual choice, which seems by its very nature to contradict the notion of constancy. How can we reconcile the idea that there are laws of human action, that manifest themselves in market prices and the structure of production, with the idea that there is also freedom of choice? All modern discussions of the relevance of equilibrium economics revolve around this problem. We have argued that there are constant relationships in choice itself — in particular, in the dichotomy of success and failure. Recognizing this fact paves the way toward a realistic equilibrium analysis, which consists in comparing an actual choice with its counterfactual alternatives in terms of success and failure. This approach underscores Mises’s insight that equilibrium analysis deals only with a very limited range of phenomena — it is only a part of economic science. And, in distinct contrast to all previous approaches, it does not rely on fictions of the mind or unrealistic constructs. It is an integral part of a realistic science, a precious tool for the understanding of reality. Completion of this essay would not have been possible without financial support by the DAAD, the Humboldt Foundation, and the Mises Institute. Comments by Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Joseph T. Salerno, Christian Comanescu, Barry Smith, Jeff Tucker, David Gordon, Robert Murphy, Jeffrey M. Herbener, and Alexandre Padilla are gratefully acknowledged.     

Green and Brown? Globalization and the Environment

Globalization—viewed as a process of economic integrationthat embraces governance as well as markets—could leadto worldwide convergence toward higher or lower environmentalquality, or to environmental polarization in which the ‘greening’of the global North is accompanied by the ‘browning’of the global South. The outcome will not be dictated by aninexorable logic. Rather it will depend on how the opportunitiescreated by globalization alter balances of power within countriesand among them.     

De noordse economische integratie

Summary The post-war attempts to achieve a Nordic regional economic integration have not yet been successful, partly as a result of the establishment of the European Free Trade Association. These attempts were apparently shelved when two of the four Nordic countries — Denmark and Norway — applied for a membership of the European Common Market. However pending the negotiations for entry to the EEC, a draft Treaty for the establishment of the Organization for Nordic Economic Co-operation (Nordec) was drawn up on the instruction of the governments of the Nordic countries. In this paper the possible effects of this regional Nordic Common Market, when established, are briefly analyzed. The author also investigates the increase in intra-Nordic trade since EFTA was created. In view of the interprenetation of Nordic trade flows resulting from EFTA, it is highly unlikely, that Sweden could remain outside a large, integrated European market, which Denmark and Norway had joined.      

政绩压力与利益谋取 ——对农地征用中地方政府行为的理论分析

政府应该在经济发展中扮演怎样的角色是发展中国家普遍面临的问题。当前中国出现的农地征用中地方政府的积极介入行为为我们分析这个问题提供了具体的事实案例。在农地征用过程中,由于地方政府掌握着土地征用权,所以它们构成农业用地向城市用地（包括公共用地和商业用地）流转的唯一中介,从而积极地介入到土地流转的过程中。地方政府在农地征用中的权力运行有着内在的政治逻辑,这是与当前中国的政治经济体制所分不开的。地方政府积极主动介入农地征用的行为是当前压力型政治经济体制下应对自上而下的政绩压力的产物,也是地方政府谋取自身利益的必然结果。地方政府的这种行为在一定程度上为促进地方经济发展作出了贡献,但是也带来了一系列的社会问题。要促进中国经济的健康发展,就必须对这种体制进行及时主动的变革。     

Immigrant Struggles in New Orleans Post-Katrina

Race relations in New Orleans have often been narrowed to Black and white, especially pre-Katrina. According to the 2000 census, the city was about 67% African American, 27% white, 2% Asian, and 3% “Hispanic.” In a city with a deep history of racial tensions between Black and white, other people of color—and especially recent immigrants—often went unmentioned in discussions of city demographics. The city’s world famous culture—whether in the traditions of Mardi Gras Indians and secondline parades, or in music like jazz and bounce—is also famously rooted in specifically African cultures. Even in media coverage of the city post-Katrina, the story of immigrant experiences has remained mostly invisible. When these stories have been told, they have often fit into the old stereotypes of “model minorities” (as in the case of the Vietnamese recovery) or of low-wage workers stealing jobs (as in the case of news reports on the city’s new Latino population). However, the stories of these other New Orleanians offer an important lens through which to view the overall struggle over the city’s recovery. And the work of grassroots activists from these communities, who strived to not only work for justice for their friends and neighbors, but also to build broad multi-racial alliances, provides an inspiring example for people in other cities who are waging similar fights.     

Long-term development prospects of the Russian information and communications sector

This paper presents a development forecast for the Russian information and communications sector. Two scenarios-inert and innovative investment—are explored for each period. According to the results of our study, in the period from 2010 to 2030, the output of the Russian information and communications sector will increase by a factor of 3.52–4 under the investment scenario and by a factor of 2–2.5 under the inert scenario. This is due to the limited private and public resources that could be invested in the sector on a large scale, as well as to the absence of basic innovation in the area of information and communication technologies, which could have a significant economic impact and provide a basis for a new technological order. It is concluded that the information and communications sector is running out of its market expansion potential.     

The Janus face of race: Rhonda M. Williams on orthodox economic schizophrenia

The American Negro has the great advantage of having never believed that collection of myths to which white Americans cling. … The tendency has really been, insofar as this was possible, to dismiss white people as the slightly mad victims of their own brainwashing. [The problem of the color line is] a fearful and delicate problem, which comprises, when it does not corrupt, all the American efforts to build a better world—here, there, or anywhere. It is for this reason that everything white Americans think they believe in must now be reexamined.—James Baldwin (The Price of the Ticket, 377–378).     

Projecting the U.S. gender wage gap 2000–40

This paper projects the gender wage gap for 25–64 year old Americans for the period 2000–40. The analysis uses data from the Panel Survey of Income Dynamics (PSID) for 1995 and 1996 together with the U.S. Census Bureau demographic projections. The method combines the population projections with assumptions regarding the evolution of educational attainment in order to first project the future distribution of skills and, based on these projections, the future size of the gender wage gap. The main set of projections suggests that changing skill characteristics—specifically educational attainment—will continue to close the gender wage gap. However, even in 2040, a substantial pay gap of at least 75 percent of the size of that in 1995 will remain.     

Oil shocks and endogenous markups: results from an estimated euro area DSGE model

This paper estimates a linearised DSGE model for the euro area. The model is New Keynesian and allows for a role for oil usage and endogenous price markups. The importance of shocks to monetary policy and oil prices is estimated to have declined in the post-1990 period, in line with the higher predictability of policy and the fall in the persistence and—to a lesser extent—variability of oil disturbances. Counterfactual exercises show that oil efficiency gains would alleviate the inflationary and contractionary consequences of oil shocks, while higher wage flexibility would help ease the impact on real output at the expense of larger inflationary pressures. While we report evidence of “countercyclical” price markups, the rise in markups induced by an oil disturbance is not found to considerably amplify the inflationary and contractionary effects of the shock. The paper discusses the policy implications of our empirical results for the euro area economy.     

关于中小私营企业会计控制的思考

在市场经济体制下,中小私营企业大量出现并不断地发展壮大,为我国的国民经济发展和社会主义建设事业做出了重要的贡献。但是由于计划经济的束缚和传统管理思想和管理方式的影响,中小私营企业会计控制极为薄弱,提供的会计信息严重失真。本文阐述了我国中小私营企业会计控制的基础工作比较薄弱和会计控制制度不健全及形同虚设的现状及其原因,在此基础上分析了构建中小私营企业会计控制体系应遵循的原则,并指出中小私营企业应充分结合其企业经营管理的特点来加强自身的会计控制。     

Public capital formation and labor productivity growth in Mexico

This paper addresses the important question whether public investment spending on economic infrastructure enhances economic growth and labor productivity in Mexico. Following the lead of the endogenous growth literature, it presents a modified production function which explicitly includes the positive or negative externality effects generated by additions to the public capital stock. Using cointegration analysis, the paper proceeds to estimate a dynamic labor productivity function for the 1955–94 period that incorporates the impact of the growth rate in the stocks of both private and public capital (as opposed to the flows) and the economically active population (EAP) (rather than the rate of population growth). The results suggest that (lagged) increases in public investment spending on economic infrastructure—as opposed to overall public investment spending—have a positive and highly significant effect on the rate of labor productivity growth. In addition, the estimates suggest that increases in government consumption expenditures may have a negative effect on the rate of labor productivity growth, thus suggesting that the composition of government spending may also play an important role in determining the rate of labor productivity growth. Finally, the findings call into question the politically expedient policy in many Latin American countries of disproportionately reducing public capital expenditures on economic and social infrastructure to meet targeted reductions in the fiscal deficit as a proportion of GDP.     

Discussion of 'Financial innovation and European housing and mortgage markets', by David Miles and Vladimir Pillonca

Although their paper stresses the potential merits of a particularfinancial innovation—a form of shared-ownership indexedcontract—Miles and Pillonca surprisingly neglect the roleof differential surges of financial innovation in explainingcross-country differences in house-price inflation. The risk-reducingpotential of their favoured instrument deserves further analysis,not least because of the sizeable political risk involved: theexperience of several other countries that have used indexedmortgage contracts shows their limited robustness to macroeconomicshocks.