Notes and Communications, A Requiem for the European Coal and Steel Community (1952-2002)

In July 2002 the Treaty on the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) expired. The ECSC is now being dissolved, its assets are transferred into special research funds, and European coal and steel policy is integrated into mainstream EU industrial policy. The ECSC's main task was to integrate the post-war European coal and steel industry, but the ECSC can also be looked upon as an experiment in supranational government and economic policy coordination, among other things. The paper first discusses these different aspects of the ECSC. Attention is then paid to the economic policy and budgetary heritage the community leaves behind. In the light of the coming EU enlargement particularly the ECSC's experiences in fostering innovation and regional restructuring might provide useful lessons. Therefore, we conclude that in spite of its expiration, the basic ideas of the ECSC have lost nothing of their relevance yet.     

日本入世后采取的产业、贸易和资本自由化政策研究

1955年9月,日本加入了关贸总协定（GATT）,当时日本经济刚刚恢复到战前水平,国际竞争能力尚处在稚弱阶段。日本政府在世界经济自由化的压力下,制定了有步骤、分阶段地推进贸易自由化和资本自由化的产业政策,大力调整产业结构和产业规模,创造了市场经济与政府干预相结合的“亚太模式”的典型,实现了由封闭型经济体制向开放型经济体制的转变,进而推进了日本经济的高速增长和国际地位的提高。     

全球流动性、投资和"种树经济"

郭树清先生这本探索中国经济发展和改革道路的专著,涉及宏观经济学、发展经济学、转轨经济学,而且还有政策研究.文章虽然作于15年前,但今日读来仍然令人深思.     

Institutions, wages, and inequality: The case of Europe and its periphery (1500–1899)

This paper explores the long-run relationship between institutions and wage outcomes in Europe and its periphery. I find that cities that exercised stronger institutional protection of private property experienced: (i) higher levels of both skilled and unskilled real wages, as well as (ii) lower levels of inequality as measured by the skilled–unskilled wage ratio. While the first result corroborates existing work on the positive growth effects of better institutions, the second finding is more novel to the literature. Some explanations are proposed for how stronger institutions can cause an increase in the relative supply of skilled workers, thus lowering wage inequality.     

外国直接投资的趋势、政策及投资促进战略定位

外国直接投资（FDI）作为联系各国经济的最重要机制，主要通过与贸易相关的FDI、技术和技能的转移来实现。跨国公司以各种方式在国际上获取资源和市场，也将各国经济紧密联系在一起。在经济全球化的进程中，这又导致了作为世界经济生产核心的国际生产体系的出现。因此，FDI对一国国民经济的发展发挥着重要作用。与发达国家相比，FDI对发展中国家国民经济的影响尤其如此。     

Budgetary Consolidation in Europe: Quality, Economic Conditions, and Persistence

In this article we study the importance of the quality of fiscal adjustments and macroeconomic conditions for the persistence of budgetary consolidations. In contrast to previous work in this area, we do not arbitrarily predefine a measure of persistence to evaluate consolidation “success.” By employing duration analysis techniques, the length of a consolidation spell is rather determined endogenously. Our results based on a sample of industrialised OECD countries show that “consolidation fatigue” and the quality of fiscal consolidations are indeed important determinants of their longevity. Moreover, high debt–GDP ratio and fiscal tightening in other OECD countries raise the likelihood of consolidations to persist. Applying our results to European countries in the 1990s provides only weak evidence suggesting that the Maastricht process contributed much to the fiscal consolidations observed in Europe during the 1990s. J. Japan. Int. Econ., December 2002, 16(4), pp. 512–535. ZEI, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana; and CEPR; Strathclyde University, Glasgow, Scotland; and CEPR; and ECB, Kaiserstrasse 29, D-60311 Frankfurt a.M., Germany; and ZEI. © 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: E61, E62, E65.     

Labour Shortage in Hong Kong: Causes,Consequences and Policies*

This paper addresses the issue of labour shortage in Hong Kong. Labour shortage is a secular phenomenon caused mainly by a stagnation in the growth of the labour force. The major long-term factors that explain this stagnation are a decline in fertility, a fall in the labour participation rate, a reduced intake of immigrants and a rising outflow of emigrants. Labour imposes a capacity constraint on the growth of the economy. This paper considers policies which may alleviate the supply constraint on the economy, including reducing emigration, importing labour and increasing immigration intake. These policies, which would lead to a faster expansion of the labour force, are evaluated and compared.