The Impact of Environmental Regulations on Exports: Case Study Results from Cyprus,Jordan, Morocco,Syria, Tunisia,and Turkey

Concern about the effects of environmental policies on trade competitiveness continues to grow in the non-EU Mediterranean regions (e.g., North Africa, the Middle East, Turkey, Cyprus). While the impact of environmental regulations on exports is widely discussed in the region, there has been little empirical analysis of how more stringent environmental regulations might affect exports of key sectors in the future. This paper summarizes the results of six case studies that estimate the impact of potential changes in environmental regulations on exports from a key sector in each country. These case studies, which are based on a theoretically consistent yet empirically tractable modeling approach, suggest that a range of outcomes is likely and depends on a fairly small set of specific information. For some of the cases, expected regulatory changes would probably have little impact on exports, while in other cases the impacts could be substantially larger. In some countries, the range of potential outcomes is largely due to the magnitude of the policy change, the importance of various inputs in production, and the lack of information on international market conditions.     

基于企业视角的政产学研用合作

中共十七大报告指出,要加快建立以"企业为主体、市场为导向、产学研相结合"的技术创新体系。文章基于企业视角,从经费投入、技术创新链条上企业的作用等方面阐述了企业在政产学研用合作中的主体地位,分析了政产学研用合作现状,建议企业从选择适合的政产学研用合作模式、完善合作的保障机制等方面加强产学研合作。     

外部性的类型、庇古解、科斯解和非内部化

文章的目的是对外部性进行一个比较系统的分类,在此基础上,讨论外部性的科斯解与庇古解的根本分歧.我们的观点是,他们的根本分歧是,庇古愿意依靠政府去解决外部性导致的低效率,而科斯不愿意如此,根本的原因是他们具有不同的政府信念.实际上,在正交易成本的世界里,内部化一切外部性的企图是不理性的,而不内部化一些外部性是理性的.外部性的非内部化有两种类型--算计的非内部化和政治的非内部化.     

The relative efficiency of king's,ecclesiastical, and lay estates in Domesday Essex, 1086

In the Domesday survey of 1086, information on the inputs and output of most production units in the English economy was carefully collected by questionnaire survey and verified in court. In this paper, Essex estate data are used to assess whether similar production functions describe production for the three major classes of production unit in the economy – king's, ecclesiastical, and lay estates. A data envelopment analysis is undertaken to determine whether production on one class of estate was more efficient than on the others. The evidence suggests that production processes and management performance were similar on the three classes of estate.     

Saving,investment, fiscal deficits,and the external indebtedness of developing countries

This paper investigates selected aspects of the external indebtedness of the developing countries. It examines both the theoretical and empirical sides of the debt servicing capacity issue, focussing on the role of domestic savings and investment as well as the budget deficits of the public sector in the recent widening of their current account deficits. The results of the study do not support the proposition that increases in external indebtedness among developing countries reflect overconsumption. Capital inflows did not partly or wholly displace domestic saving for the sample of countries examined; rather, the increase in external deficits can in most cases be accounted for by expansion in investment (relative to total output). However, the author qualifies his basically optimistic conclusions in pointing out that countries' ability to repay debt depends not only on whether initial borrowing sustained consumption or investment. but also, if the latter, on the quality of the investment spending.     

Estimating the determinants of supply of computing, problem-solving, communication, social, and teamworking skills

We investigate the sources of supply of several core skills,using an innovative approach to skills measurement that involvesadapting a job analysis methodology and applying it in a surveycontext. We then estimate the determinants of skills supplyusing a production function model. The main findings are: (i)prior education and work experience have generally positivebut diminishing marginal impacts on skills, consistent withthe earnings function literature; (ii) off-the-job trainingis productive of most types of skill, while on-the-job trainingis effective for the generation of problem-solving and team-workingskills. Both types of training are transferable from previousemployers; (iii) more education enhances the development ofcomputing skills at work, but with respect to other core skills,less educated workers make up for their lower education throughmore work-based learning; (iv) there is a strong associationbetween the presence of some new or flexible organisation characteristicsand both the level and growth of all types of skills. We argueoverall that the contribution of work-based learning to skillsdevelopment is more important than normally allowed for in theskills policy discourse.     

Bankers on the Board,Market Competition,and Conflicts of Interest

Abstract

Bankers on the board are expected to act as a fund-raiser and to help lowering financial costs, but they can impose conflicts of interest between shareholders and creditors. We empirically analyse the impact of banker-directors on corporate leverage and investment, using Korean firm data during the period from 2000 to 2012. Bankers on the board turn out to play different roles depending on market competition and macroeconomic circumstance. In less competitive industries where banks are less concerned about financial distress as a creditor, the presence of bankers on the board has higher leverage and more active investment, which can align with the interest of shareholders. However, in more competitive environment where firms are more concerned about financial distress and external financing, bankers on the board do not always increase leverage and investment, which can be divergent from the interest of shareholders.     

社会认同、环境认知与农户绿色生产行为

基于江西省微观农户调查数据，用有序Probit模型考察社会认同对农户绿色生产行为采纳的影响，检验环境认知在二者间的中介效应及异质性分析。结果表明：社会认同对农户绿色生产行为采纳程度有显著正向影响；环境认知在社会认同对农户绿色生产行为采纳程度具有部分中介效应；异质性分析发现，环境认知对老年组和男性农户具有显著影响，而对非老年组和女性农户未起到显著影响。社会认同对老年组农户更具有显著影响。据此提出培育农户环境认知、激发农户主体意识、加强政策引导宣传等建议。     

Safeguards, China, and the Price of Steel

The economic health of the US steel industry has fluctuated enormously over the last ten years. The implementation of steel safeguard tariffs in 2002 brought intense scrutiny by academics and industry observers, but little empirical work has focused on the factors that led to the industry’s dramatic reversal of fortune in the period that followed. We use a panel data set of product-level monthly price observations between 1997 and March 2005 to test the importance of the safeguards compared to other possible determinants. We find little evidence that the safeguards affected steel prices in the United States. Instead, results indicate that declining production capacity, improved macroeconomic conditions, and a falling dollar helped return prices to healthier levels. Finally, China’s demand for imported steel, which has not been included in previous empirical studies on the US steel industry, also appears to impact prices, but only after a lag of more than six months. JEL no. F13     

Prostitutes,Pimps, and Brothels: Intermediaries,Information, and Market Structure in Prostitution Markets

Prostitution is a multi‐billion dollar, globally distributed, low‐concentration service industry that is receiving increasing attention in the economics literature. This article focuses on a widespread, but little studied, feature of this environment—the role of intermediaries (pimps or brothel owners) on market outcomes. Prostitution laws and markets are perhaps unique in that transactions between principals (prostitutes and johns) are legal in many countries, while intermediary activity (pimping) is illegal. After surveying the varying cross‐country legality of agents we develop a simple theoretical model to analyze how the presence or absence of intermediaries shifts the distribution of market surplus. We show that eliminating pimps and brothels may shift surplus in non‐obvious ways, depending on the precise function they perform and on whether equilibrium is pooling or separating across “high quality” and “low quality” market segments. The implications of alternative policy regimes (intermediaries legal or illegal) are considered.     

Patterns of China's industrialization: Concentration,specialization, and clustering

This paper presents a few stylized facts on the patterns of China's industrialization by computing a set of multi-dimensional measures on industrial concentration, regional specialization, and clustering based on census data at the firm level in 1995 and 2004. Our results show that China's rapid industrialization is characterized by the following patterns: industries have become more spatially concentrated; regions have become increasingly specialized; and firms have become more interconnected, both within industries and within regions. In addition, the number of firms is growing faster in clustered areas than non-clustered ones. Together these patterns suggest that China's industrialization process is largely cluster-based—a phenomenon in which a large number of highly interconnected firms are located within a well-defined geographic region.     

Human capital,innovation, and growth

This paper explores the interaction between human capital and innovation in the process of economic growth. Using a model of endogenous growth, we focus on how taxes and other policy instruments affect the incentives to invest in human capital. In contrast to many other growth models we find that the taxation of human capital has a substantial negative effect on its accumulation. This in turn reduces innovation and, consequently, the income growth rate. More surprisingly, other policies that are intended to stimulate growth may have opposing effects on innovation and the accumulation of human capital. For example, while subsidies to research and to intermediate inputs do have positive effects on innovation and growth, they lead to a lower stock of human capital, in the empirically relevant case when the elasticity of intertemporal substitution in consumption is low.     

Race,class, and politics in the black community of Boston

Conclusion We found that there are indeed some slight differences in the electoral behavior of black voters when we separate them into high and low socio-economic areal categories based on the level of median income. These slight differences include turnout rates for primary and general elections and voter registration rates. The higher the socioeconomic status of the black electorate in Boston, the higher the turnout and registration rates for that area tended to be; however, this relationship was not found to be consistent among all the areas selected for study. Despite these differences in electoral behavior or “practices,” our areal model does not suggest any significant political schisms based on the sicioeconomic indicators used. Black voters tended to vote the same way on a number of city and state ballot questions, support the same candidates at both the city and state level, and vote the liberal preference on both issues and candidates regardless of socioeconomic background. In addition, there is some evidence that the higher a black voter is on the socioeconomic scale, the greater his or her tendency will be to vote the liberal position on various issues and candidates. Our model also suggests that black voters will tend to support black candidates regardless of some socioeconomic factors. If this model can be used as an indication of class differences in the black community, then our data show that socioeconomic criteria are not as salient as race in determining the political behavior and preferences of black voters.     

Changes in the stock of on-the-job training,race, and wage growth

This article analyzes the rate of return to on-the-job-training (OJT) investment and in particular, the different rates of return faced by whites and nonwhites. Using data from thePanel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) on tenure on a particular job and on the amount of time necessary for the average person to become fully trained on that job, I estimate the amount of training (in months) acquired by each individual on each job held. Log wage growth is then regressed on changes in the stock of training the individual held with the current firm. In one specification, changes in the stock of training are interacted with race dummies. The results suggest that the rate of return to an additional month of training is actually higher for nonwhites than for whites.     

Idiosyncratic Information,Moral Hazard,and the Cost of Capital

This paper examines the effects of idiosyncratic accounting information on a firm's cost of capital. By embedding a moral hazard problem into a multifirm asset‐pricing model, I show that moral hazard distorts the sharing of idiosyncratic risk but does not affect the sharing of systematic risk in the economy. A firm‐level improvement in idiosyncratic information reduces the firm's cost of capital even though it does not affect the implied cost of capital inferred from publicly traded shares. Moreover, an economy‐level improvement in idiosyncratic information reduces the risk premium for idiosyncratic risk but increases the risk premium for systematic risk, resulting in an ambiguous net effect on the firm's cost of capital. These results provide alternative explanations for the mixed empirical evidence on the relation between information quality and the cost of capital.     

Quality Expectations,Reputation, and Price

Although the theoretical literature on firm reputation is well developed, few empirical studies exist that quantify the importance of reputation effects. This paper estimates the impact on price of current product quality and reputation using data from the market for Bordeaux wine. A model is proposed in which price is a function of current quality and expected quality, where the latter depends on reputation. Equations determining price and expected quality are estimated jointly. The empirical findings show that the price premium associated with a better reputation far exceeds that associated with improvements in current quality. The impact of reputation on price is disaggregated into individual firm and collective (or group) reputation effects, and the significance and magnitude of these effects are compared. The results indicate that both types of reputation are important, and that in general, the market values collective reputation indicators only to the extent that they are useful predictors of product quality.     

科技保险试点三年来的现状、问题和对策——基于北京、上海、天津、重庆四个直辖市的调查分析

在综合分析国内外科技保险相关文献资料的基础上,通过对北京、上海、天津、重庆四个科技保险试点城市政府及高新技术企业调研和实地访谈,总结、概括了近三年以来科技保险试点政策的实施现状。随后从政府部门、保险公司、科技企业、服务机构四个维度分析了科技保险推广中存在的突出问题,并对这些问题产生的原因进行了深入分析,包括多部门联动和会商机制不成熟、科技创新评估体系欠缺、财政补贴引导效果不明显、税收优惠政策落实不到位、产品的市场适应性差、保险公司赔付率偏高、科技企业风险防范意识淡薄等。最后,基于问题的归纳与分析,从政府、保险公司、科技企业、服务机构四个维度分别提出了推动科技保险深化发展的对策建议。     

The myths,facts, and theories of ethnic,small-scale enterprise financing

This article combines the results of three financial studies that examine capital issues affecting minority business development. The results are presented so as to explain or refute conventional wisdom regarding capital availability, cost of capital, credit market discrimination, sources of capital and differences in firm capital composition. Generally, Asian and Hispanic businesses more approximate nonminority businesses in the sources of capital, the cost of capital, total capital investment, and access to capital. Black firms, on the other hand, face credit discrimination from all sources of capital, which limits their access to capital, increases its cost, and affects firm profitability. Consequently, black firms have a smaller capital composition at startup and during operations. The only deviation from this pattern occurs where minority and nonminority financial institutions vie for black business patronage by reducing the cost of borrowing and increasing the availability of funds.     

Big BRICs,weak foundations: The beginning of public elementary education in Brazil,Russia, India,and China

Our paper provides a comparative perspective on the development of public primary education in four of the largest developing economies circa 1910: Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC). These four countries encompassed more than 50% of the world's population in 1910, but remarkably few of their citizens attended any school by the early 20th century. We present new, comparable data on school inputs and outputs for BRIC drawn from contemporary surveys and government documents. Recent studies emphasize the importance of political decentralization, and relatively broad political voice for the early spread of public primary education in developed economies. We identify the former and the lack of the latter to be important in the context of BRIC, but we also outline how other factors such as factor endowments, colonialism, serfdom, and, especially, the characteristics of the political and economic elite help explain the low achievement levels of these four countries and the incredible amount of heterogeneity within each of them.