Some empirics of the bivariate relationship between average subjective well-being and the sustainable wealth of nations

The World Bank's Millennium Capital Assessment (MCA) has provided per capita estimates of total wealth and its major subcategories for a large number of countries. In this article, these macro-level estimates are used to explore bivariate cross-country ‘wealth–happiness’ relationships, focussing on issues of appropriate functional form, parameter stability and outliers. For comparative purposes, ‘income–happiness’ relationships are also explored. Total wealth turns out to be strongly related to Gross National Income (GNI) per capita, due to the importance of produced and intangible capital, but not to natural capital. In contrast, when the most natural capital intensive countries are excluded as outliers, a strong relationship emerges between Subjective Well-Being (SWB) and natural capital, especially amongst high income countries. In these countries, natural capital seems to be an important wealth correlate of SWB, despite accounting for only a very small proportion of total wealth.     

On measuring the wealth of nations: the US economy, 1964-2001

This paper examines the methodology of Shaikh and Tonak (Measuringthe Wealth of Nations, 1994) underlying their calculation ofestimates of productive labour in the US economy from 1964 to2001. The focus is not on the results but on the methods thatgenerate them. The paper finds that the compromises made byShaikh and Tonak because of data unavailability are unreliable,and that better approximations are possible. On this latterbasis, the Shaikh and Tonak methodology can be used to providethe labour and wage estimates needed for empirical investigationsin the surplus-based tradition.     

小议我国股市“财富效应”及其传导机制

本文阐明了财富效应对经济增长的作用机制，并针对财富效应传导机制，从股市规模、投资者结构及收益分配结构、股市持续变动趋势、“挤出效应”等方面分析我国股市财富效应尚很微弱的原因，由此对我国股市的健康发展给出了政策建议。     

论当代全球劳动力的分化对中国的含义

当代全球劳动力日益分化为核心与边缘两个群体,劳动力市场的双元结构特征由于跨国资本的弹性生产措施而深化。中国在融入生产全球化的过程中也形成了劳动力双元结构。虽然中国通过承接劳动力密集型产业的转移,实现了农村劳动力的有效配置,全球劳动力分化的逻辑在中国被复制具有一定的合理性,但是边缘劳动力群体的不断膨胀将给中国的长期稳定发展带来诸多隐患。由于劳动力的分化只不过是全球生产体系重组的面向之一,因此只有在更广泛的全球资本主义生产体系变迁的背景下去寻求一种涵盖宏观制度层面、中观产业层面和微观企业层面的综合应对之道,才能扭转中国劳动力进一步分化的趋势。     

The trajectory of wealth in retirement

In this paper, we develop a measure of household resources that converts total financial and non-financial assets, plus annuity-like assets (mainly, Social Security and defined-benefit pensions) into an expected annual amount of wealth per person in retirement. We use this measure, which we call “annualized comprehensive wealth,” to investigate spend-down behavior among a panel of older households in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) from 1998 to 2006. Our analysis indicates that for most retired households, comprehensive wealth balances decline much more slowly than their remaining life expectancies, so that the predominate trend is for real annualized wealth to rise significantly with age over the course of retirement. Comparing the estimated age profiles for annualized wealth with profiles simulated from several different life-cycle models, we find that a model that takes into account uncertain longevity, random medical expenses, and intended bequests lines up best with the broad patterns of rising annualized wealth in the HRS.     

The growth of relative wealth and the Kelly criterion

We propose an evolutionary framework for optimal portfolio growth theory in which investors subject to environmental pressures allocate their wealth between two assets. By considering both absolute wealth and relative wealth between investors, we show that different investor behaviors survive in different environments. When investors maximize their relative wealth, the Kelly criterion is optimal only under certain conditions, which are identified. The initial relative wealth plays a critical role in determining the deviation of optimal behavior from the Kelly criterion regardless of whether the investor is myopic across a single time period or maximizing wealth over an infinite horizon. We relate these results to population genetics, and discuss testable consequences of these findings using experimental evolution.     

The regionalization of indian politics and its implications for economic reform

Is political decentralization an impetus for economic liberalism, or are state and local governments impediments to a rigorous reform process? This article describes India's federal system, the growth of regional parties and governments, the changing balance of power between India's state and central governments, and the deterioration of state administrations, then assesses the economic reform and human resource policies of the states. The factors which slow the pace of reforms (politically unstable governments, fiscal populism, organized local interests, patronage and rents for party and government officials) and those that push for reforms (fiscal deficits, the need for investments in infrastructures, and inter-state competition for private investment) are analyzed.     

The Dahrendorf hypothesis and its implications for (the theory of) economic policy-making

The sociologist R. Dahrendorf has recently suggested that thereis no and there ought to be no convergence of economic policiestowards some common ideal model. On the contrary, he statesthat ‘diversity is [...] at the very heart of a worldthat has abandoned the need for closed, encompassing systems’.It is shown in this paper that the Dahrendorf hypothesis isdifficult to reconcile with orthodox economic approaches toeconomic policy-making. A perspective on policy-making thatintroduces either fundamental uncertainty or endogenous policypreferences or both is, however, shown to be consistent withthe Dahrendorf hypothesis.     

The quest for status and endogenous labor supply: the relative wealth framework

We analyze the implications of relative wealth preferences in a Ramsey model with endogenous labor supply. In contrast to relative consumption preferences, they allow for the possibility that agents work too little in the long run, while under both specifications the steady-state levels of consumption and the stock of physical capital exceed their socially optimal counterparts. Even in the case of excessive leisure agents are worse off in terms of intertemporal utility because initial transitional dynamics are characterized by under-consumption and excessive work effort. “Too much” long-run consumption of goods and leisure is possible due to the excessive capital-labor ratio.      

The role of the United States in the global economy and its evolution over time

This article aims at assessing the role of the United States in the global economy and its evolution over time. Based on a Global VAR modeling approach, this article shows first that countries with a large trade exposure with the U.S. economy have a relatively larger sensitivity to U.S. developments. However, even for countries that do not trade so much with the U.S., they are largely influenced by its dominance through other partners’ trade. Moreover, while no clear trend seems to emerge, it seems that the role of the U.S. in the global economy has changed over time. Overall, for most countries—the latest recession excluded—a change in U.S. GDP had weaker impacts—though more persistent—for most recent periods. The latest recession, however, led to some renewed increase in the sensitivity of the economies to U.S. developments.     

The dynamic implications of foreign aid and its variability

The paper examines the effects of aid and its volatility on consumption, investment, and the structure of production in the context of an intertemporal two-sector general equilibrium model, calibrated using data for aid-dependent countries in Africa. A permanent flow of aid mainly finances consumption rather than investment—consistent with the historical failure of aid inflows to translate into sustained growth. Large aid flows are associated with higher real exchange rates and smaller tradable sectors because aid is a substitute for tradable consumption. Aid volatility results in substantial welfare losses, providing a motivation for recent discussions of aid architecture stressing the need for greater predictability of aid. These results are also consistent with evidence from cross-country regressions of manufactured exports, presented later in the paper.     

The quantity theory of money and its long-run implications

This paper examines three propositions implied by the quantity theory of money, namely, the neutrality hypothesis, the Fisher hypothesis and the monetary approach to exchange rate determination for six developed countries within a dynamic framework, which incorporates the long-run proposition as its steady-state solution while allowing for short-run deviation from the hypothesized long-run relationships to take place. The joint hypothesis that all three propositions are satisfied simultaneously is supported only for two countries.     

Restructuring for shareholder value and its implications for labour

This paper provides an accounting analysis of the implicationsfor labour of restructuring for shareholder value. It presentsargument and evidence from the UK which suggests that activity-specificlimits on cost recovery constrain returns on capital. Theseconstraints encourage restructuring which aims to improve returnson capital through the reduction of labour costs. If labourloses directly, longer-term outcomes are more complex, as someworkers who retain jobs may gain, and much depends on the macrocontext. Overall, in the context of present-day capitalism,serial restructuring is likely to be a negative process forlabour that generates transitory benefits for capital.     

Trading imbalances and the law of one price

We study trading and prices of Chinese (mainland)/Hong Kong dual-listed shares. Relative prices can diverge by a factor of two and exhibit significant variation over time. Order imbalances explain contemporaneous changes in relative prices at daily and weekly frequencies.     

Corruption and the public display of wealth

We study an agent–client model of corruption, in which potential corruptors are uncertain about the probability with which officials are subjected to an audit, either high or low. We characterize a signaling equilibrium, in which officials who are less likely to be audited engage in public conspicuous consumption, whereas those who are more likely to be audited do not. In this equilibrium, officials are better off than in the equilibria without conspicuous consumption. The signaling equilibrium exists if the officials' bargaining power vis‐à‐vis potential corruptors is sufficiently high, which implies that corruption can be curbed by creating competition among officials.