Elected Versus Appointed County Commission Executives: Race, Political Favors and Support Facilities

In this paper we explore how blacks influence expenditure and employment decisions of county commission executives. We also explore whether or not this influence varies when county commission executives are elected verses appointed to their positions. The desire to earn votes could mean that elected officials treat voting populations, including blacks, in a manner that is distinctly different from their appointed counterparts. We find that in areas where there is more discretion, elected officials tend to have higher per capita expenditures. However, there does not appear to be any difference in employment practices. We find that having a larger black population is positively related with discretionary spending and employment.     

The Effect of High School JROTC on Student Achievement,Educational Attainment,and Enlistment

The Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) is a high school initiative that serves many at‐risk students. Its goals range from reducing dropout rates and improving academic achievement to preparing students for military careers. Using data from High School and Beyond (HSB) and the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS), we estimate average treatment effects on students attending schools that typically host JROTC. Applying a two‐stage matching technique, we find that JROTC participants have poorer academic outcomes than other students; although, a large portion of these differences is explained by their at‐risk status. In addition, program effects appear to differ by demographic group, with black participants having lower dropout rates than white participants. The program also appears to improve self‐esteem scores of females. Although the majority of JROTC participants do not join the military, we find large marginal enlistment effects.     

Religion and Educational Attainment in East Asia: First Evidence from the East Asian Social Survey

Abstract

In this research note, I analyse the effects of religion on educational attainment in four East Asian countries (China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan) using the East Asian Social Survey. Controlling for a host of background variables, ordinary least squares (OLS) estimates of educational attainment show that Catholics and Orthodox Christians have on average more education than those with no religious affiliation, while the followers of other Eastern religions (including, among others, Taoism and syncretistic beliefs) have on average less education. The effects for Protestantism and Buddhism differ across the four different countries, probably because they both include various denominations and schools.     

Racial Differences in Civic Participation and Charitable Giving: The Confounding Effects of Educational Attainment and Unmeasured Ability

In this paper we use human capital theory to follow the links from educational attainment to civic engagement, and to other pro-social behaviors such as charitable giving and volunteering, and in so doing we offer a cautionary explanation for observed racial differences in civic participation, giving, and volunteering. Our argument is that when, in a racialized society such as the U.S., the costs and benefits of education differ by race, and when innate ability is an unmeasured source of heterogeneity across individuals, controlling for educational attainment and not for ability will create spurious race effects in empirical studies of behaviors that depend on both education and ability. Because (1) blacks at any level of educational attainment are predicted to be of higher average ability than equally educated whites and (2) higher ability is associated with higher levels of civic participation, a regression of civic participation on educational attainment and race will produce a positive coefficient on the dummy variable that takes on a value of one if the subject is African American. Using data from the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey, we find strong support for the interpretation of race effects as spurious artifacts of having included data on educational attainment without measures of innate ability.     

国家高新区要起到先锋、领头、创新作用

设立国家高新区，是为了使我国的高新技术产业形成集聚，发挥规模效应。在我国，这种集聚往往是通过政策、税收、土地、投资等方面的优惠实现的。我国许多国家级高新区经过15年的发展在这方面已经积累了一定的经验，并形成了自己的特色。但在“二次创业”阶段，各高新区的发展不能完全依赖政策、土地等优惠条件，面对日益激烈的国际竞争，我们要思考如何提高竞争力的问题。     

Government Bias in Education,Schooling Attainment,and Long‐Run Growth

A surprising cross‐country stylized fact is that higher public spending on education tends to lower the long‐run growth rate of per capita GDP and the returns to schooling. This is contrary to the conventional wisdom that education is a major driver of growth. In this article, we revisit this issue and try to understand these puzzling facts in terms of an endogenous growth model. Our cross‐country calibration of the growth model predicts that countries with a greater government involvement in education experience lower schooling efforts and lower growth.     

Compositional Effects,Segregation and Test Scores: Evidence From the National Assessment of Educational Progress

A model of the effects of economic level and ethnicity on grade 8 mathematics scores both within and between schools found that both the economic composition and the ethnic composition of a school were directly related to the effectiveness of that school. Projection of the data suggests that if the nation's schools were completely desegregated economically (but not at all ethnically), the test-score gap between free lunch students and students paying full price for lunch would decline by 25 %. Ethnic compositional effects for black, Asian/Pacific Islander (API), and Hispanic students were reversed from their within-school effects, with positive effects for students in schools with larger proportions of black and Hispanic students and a strong negative effect for students in schools with larger proportions of Asian/Pacific Islander students.     

African Americans and U.S. Politics: The Gradual Progress of Black Women in Political Representation

This paper argues that since the 1960s, African Americans have substantially increased their political participation in the U.S. political system. It claims that Blacks in the U.S. have built a strong political foundation and that their influence in the country’s political system has grown within the past four decades. The paper highlights, however, that more Black women tend to be active participants in the electoral process than Black men and that there is the potential for Black women to equal or surpass Black men in the number of elected officials within their race in the years and decades to come.

2008年11月全国工业生产与消费状况监测

11月份，全国规模以上工业企业增加值同比增长5．4％，比上年同期回落11．9个百分点，创下1994年以来的最低点（1、2月份除外），增幅低于10月的8．2%和9月的11．4％，工业增加值增速在7月份后出现了加速下滑的趋势。工业企业产品销售率从10月的97．4%和9月的97．6％下滑至97％，同比也下降0．95个百分点。11月份中国出口出现负增长，同时工业企业共实现出口交货值6448．5亿元，同比下降5．2％，创下2002年以来的最低点，外需下降是工业增加值增速明显下降的重要原因。1～11月份，全国规模以上工业企业增加值同比增长13．7％。     

2009年全国工业生产与消费状况监测

初步测算2009年,全年国内生产总值335353亿元,按可比价格计算,比上年增长8.7%,增速比上年回落0.9个百分点。分季度看,一季度增长6.2%,二季度增长7.9%,三季度增长9.1%,     

2010年上半年全国工业生产与消费状况监测

初步测算,上半年国内生产总值172840亿元,按可比价格计算,同比增长11.1%,比上年同期加快3.7个百分点.其中,第一产业增加值13367亿元,增长3.6%;第二产业增加值85830亿元,增长13.2%;第三产业增加值73643亿元,增长9.6%.     

2010年7～8月份全国工业生产与消费状况监测

8月份,规模以上工业增加值同比增长13.9%,比7月份加快0.5个百分点;1～8月份,规模以上工业增加值同比增长16.6%.比1～7月份同落0.4个百分点.8月份工业增加值增速大幅回升,不过这种同比增速的回升是否具有可持续性还有待观察. 2010年8月,中国制造业采购经理指数(PMI)为51.7%,高于上月0.5个百分点.该指数连续三个月同落后,本月有所回升,并持续位于临界点以上,表明中国制造业经济总体仍呈现增长态势.构成制造业PMI的5个分类指数中,生产指数、新订单指数和供应商配送时间指数环比提升,原材料库存指数和从业人员指数微幅回落.     

2008年10月份全国工业生产与消费状况监测

由于全球经济面临严重困难，国内外需求全面下降，10月份全国规模以上工业企业增加值同比增长8．2%，环比回落3．2个百分点，比上年同期回落9．7个百分点，增速首次跌入个位数，为2001年12月以来最低单月增速。供大于求的局面在经济下行的背景下愈发显得突出，产销率大幅回落，10月份，工业企业产品销售率为97．4％，同比下降0．78个百分点。工业企业产品销售率为97．4％，同比下降0．78个百分点。工业企业共实现出口交货值7089亿元，同比增长6．8％，较去年同期下降11．7个百分点。1～10月份，全国规模以上工业企业增加值同比增长14．4％。     

2010年3～4月份全国工业生产与消费状况监测

4月份,规模以上工业增加值同比增长17.8%,增速比3月份小幅回落0.3个百分点;1～4月份累计,工业增加值同比增长19.1%,增速比一季度回落0.5个百分点。但整体增长依然强劲,消费增长的强劲以及出口复苏的加快带动工业生产继续扩张。但由于基数的因     

国际金融危机与美国的单极地位——当前美国的国家实力、国内制度和国际战略调整

国内政治经济制度和国家从国际秩序中获益性将决定一定时期内该大国的兴衰趋势。在分析国际金融危机与美国的单极地位时,作者在考察国际金融危机对主要大国和地区所造成的冲击时发现,美国所受到的冲击相对较轻,而它的综合国力、失业率和国际竞争力指标都仍然领先,即便从短期效应来说,国际金融危机致使美国实力衰落的观点值得质疑。从应对金融危机的经验和美国社会的人口结构等因素来看,美国的优势仍然存在。在短期内,整个美国社会并没有因为金融危机而出现大的动荡。从长期来说,国际金融危机可能会促进美国国内政治和经济制度的改良,也有利于奥巴马政府调整国际战略,避免承担过多的国际责任和过度扩张,进而重振美国在国际秩序中的领导地位。在这些调整过程中,如果奥巴马政府采取了一种稳健的方式,坚持自由市场的基本原则和分权制衡的政治传统,经历了国际金融危机的美国霸权及其单极地位相反有可能会进一步得到加强。     

日美半导体产业竞争中的国家干预——以战略性贸易政策为视角的分析

半导体产业作为高技术产业,具有明显的学习效应、外部经济和规模报酬递增效应,其良好的发展对一国的经济增长有着不可估量的潜在贡献。半导体产业的战略特征决定了其市场结构是寡头垄断的,并且仅靠市场机制来解决半导体产业发展过程中的问题是远远不够的,因此一国政府应用战略性贸易政策进行干预的动机大大加强了。作为经济大国,美日政府在半导体产业的发展中扮演着重要的角色,通过公共采购、进口关税、R＆D补贴、专利保护等方式扶持本国半导体产业,从而在一定程度上替代了企业,成为国际竞争的主体。