Trust and corruption: The influence of positive and negative social capital on the economic development in the European Union

Why are the Scandinavian countries in the European Union significantly richer than Southern/Eastern European countries? We try to answer this question from an empirical social capital perspective. In particular, we are interested in the interplay of social trust as a positive and corruption as a negative manifestation of social capital. The opportunities to provide answers by multivariate modelling are, however, limited by several problems related to small sample size and low degrees of freedom. Regarding these problems, we test the interrelating influences between positive and negative social capital by applying a path model that accounts for Granger-like causal effects. Our empirical results, referring to a sample of up to 25 EU countries, show that corruption might harm poor European countries but is not able to affect social trust. However, corruption in itself means that resources end up in the wrong places and not in socioeconomically optimal investments. There is, therefore, a direct damaging effect of corruption on wealth. This implies that economic actors have to invest higher transaction and control costs which will bind resources to non-productive purposes and thus destroy economic wealth. Most remarkable is that the augmentation of positive social capital could work as an effective counterforce to corruption, even if it does not compensate for the economic loss caused by corruption. Thus, adding the social capital perspective may contribute to understanding present day variation in the wealth of European nations by the damaging effect of corrupt activities and/or the positive force of social trust.     

家族企业社会情感财富对品牌传承的影响 ——基于坦洋工夫红茶的多案例研究

传承和发展是传统品牌面临的主要问题,目前多数百年品牌是以家族企业的组织形式存在,然而家族企业对品牌传承的影响机理却尚未明晰。本文通过对福建坦洋工夫红茶行业的多案例研究,揭示家族企业影响品牌传承的原因和过程。研究发现,家族企业品牌顺利传承的关键在于技艺的顺利流传,而影响技艺流传的根源来自社会情感财富的存在,即社会情感财富通过技艺中介影响品牌传承。进一步地,将泛家族企业组织形式纳入研究范围后,结论依旧稳健。最后,本文总结出（泛）家族企业品牌传承的路径——从社会情感财富到技艺流传。本文的研究丰富并发展了家族企业品牌传承的理论研究,并对保护和传承传统品牌提供了理论指导和借鉴。     

家族企业社会情感财富的传承路径与路障——基于多案例的研究

在家族企业研究领域,社会情感财富自2007年提出后便获得越来越多学者们的认同和追随。目前中国家族企业如何进行代际交接以实现企业可持续发展是时代要求下的重要课题。本文回顾以往文献,通过对8家案例企业的深度访谈,进行多案例对比分析,并利用扎根理论研究方法论的数据编码技术,建立了社会情感财富5个维度的传承路径与路障理论模型。研究发现:通过家族培养、公司治理、家族鞭策、家族决策,家族成员拥有对企业的控制权和影响力;家族通过培养家族归属感和自我效能感来培养家族成员对企业的认同;家族通过创设实践共同体、拓展重构在代际传承过程中传递并保持紧密的社会关系;家族通过关系管理以及权威治理凝聚家族情感,维系家族成员间情感依恋;家族通过构筑共同愿景、设计传承模式以及家庭教育实现跨代传承意愿。此外,权威路障、情感路障、制度路障、市场路障等4类路障会影响社会情感财富在家族企业中的传承。     

Socio-institutional determinants of educational resource efficiency according to the capability approach: An endogenous stochastic frontier analysis

We investigate the role of private and public resources in educational attainments and the socio-institutional determinants of educational resource efficiency in Italy. Following the Sen's capability approach, we consider social capital and the quality of government part of the social conversion factors through which resources can be converted into human capabilities, such as education. We analyze the case of Italy by constructing a new longitudinal dataset from 1993 to 2012, using repeated cross sections from the main social survey of the Italian Statistical Institute and a panel stochastic frontier model that takes into account endogeneity. The results show the relative importance of private resources (measured by an ad hoc constructed wealth index), the complementarity between private wealth and public expenditures on education, and the positive impact of social capital and the quality of government on educational resource efficiency.     

Replica core equivalence theorem: An extension of the Debreu–Scarf limit theorem to double infinity monetary economies

An overlapping generations model with the double infinity of commodities and agents is the most fundamental framework to introduce outside money into a static economic model. In this model, competitive equilibria may not necessarily be Pareto-optimal. Although Samuelson (1958) emphasized the role of fiat money as a certain kind of social contract, we cannot characterize it as a cooperative game-theoretic solution like the core. In this paper, we obtained a finite replica core characterization of Walrasian equilibrium allocations under non-negative wealth transfer and a core-limit characterization of Samuelson’s social contrivance of money. Preferences are not necessarily assumed to be ordered.     

城市规划在遏制贫富分区中的作用

认为我国城市的贫富分化、贫富分区已经成为严重的社会问题;贫富分区是贫富分化在空间上的投影,它凸显了社会的不公,导致了城市空间的排斥,加剧了社会各阶层之间的对立,不利于社会主义和谐社会的建设。鉴于此,分析了贫富分区形成的机制及其影响,并从城市规划的角度,针对如何控制城市贫富分区,提出了相关意见和建议。     

An agent-based model of the observed distribution of wealth in the United States

Pareto cautiously asserted that the wealth and income distributions which bear his name are universal, basing his argument on observations of this distribution in many different types of economies. In this paper, we present an agent based model (and a scalable approximation of it) in a closely related spirit. The central feature of this model is that wealth enables an individual to secure more wealth. Specifically, the important and novel feature of this model is its ability to simultaneously produce both the Pareto distribution observed in empirical data for the top 10% of the population and the exponential distribution observed for the lower 90%. We show that the model produces these distributions of wealth when initialized with an equitable distribution. Then, using historical data, we initialize the model with US wealth shares in 1988 and show that the model tracks wealth share changes from 1988 to 2012. Simulations to 2088 project that the top 0.01% of the population will possess more than 70% of the total wealth in the economy.     

中国股市财富效应静态和动态实证分析

本文利用2002—2008年的月度数据,利用协整分析、误差修正模型等现代计量经济方法和状态空间模型研究了中国股市财富效应问题。研究结果认为:从长期均衡关系看,我国股市财富效应是显著存在;从短期动态关系看,我国股市财富波动对全社会消费支出波动具有负影响但不显著;从股市财富的边际消费倾向的动态过程看,我国股市财富效应始终存在,但挤出效应同样显著。     

运用4V营销模式打造城市品牌

城市正成为创造社会财富的重要载体和经济增长的重要主体,城市的未来对中国社会经济的发展产生着深刻而全面的影响。中国政府要实现城市的最优发展,必须扬长补短,文章认为应运用4V营销模式的差异化(Variation)、功能弹性化(Versatility)、高附加价值化(High-addedvalue)及共鸣化(Vibration)等策略来对城市进行定位,从而打造出中国的城市品牌。     

Uncertain inflation and social security indexation

This paper provides a theoretical analysis of the effects of the insurance feature of social security indexation on portfolio allocation and the stability of income and consumption of the retiree within the framework of a life-cycle model of allocation under uncertainty. The paper shows that the magnitudes of such effects depend on the importance of social security in total wealth, the covariance of real portfolio returns with the inflation rate and, more importantly, whether there exists market failure in providing for inflation insurance.     

Drivers of entrepreneurial aspirations at the country level: the role of start-up motivations and social security

This paper investigates whether various start-up motivations and a country’s level of social security can explain the prevalence of entrepreneurial aspirations. For entrepreneurial aspirations and motivations we use country-level data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) for the year 2005. We distinguish between the necessity motive, independence motive and increase wealth motive and between aspirations in terms of innovativeness, job growth and export orientation. Our findings indicate that social security negatively affects a country’s supply of ambitious entrepreneurship. Our results also suggest that entrepreneurial aspirations in terms of job growth and export relate positively to the increase wealth motive.     

From The Wealth of Nations to Populorum Progressio (On the Development of Peoples): Wealth and Development from the Perspective of the Catholic Social Thought Tradition

Catholic social thought (CST) looks at economic development from the broader framework of authentic human development. It is only by viewing both man's dignity and his social nature that we include the full nature of the human being. In CST wealth is understood based on its role in promoting authentic human development. Wealth is a gift from God, with humans participating in its creation, and its creation, distribution, and its use must be carried out in a manner that respects God's law (justice and charity). Furthermore, man should never place wealth above God or above humans. Those who control wealth have special responsibilities with regards to their use of it; thus the right of private property is always restricted by the social responsibility to use it towards the common good. The goal must be the development of the whole person and all people. Wealth is socially created and thus must be distributed, at least partially, among the entire community. Economic development needs to be grounded in social justice and its two co‐principles, charity and justice. Grounding economic development in the authentic development of the person means placing the people of the poor countries at the center of their development drama, both as the leading actors and as the directors.     

基于VAR模型的中国股市财富效应实证研究

文章运用基于VAR模型的协整检验、Granger因果关系检验、ECM方法研究有关财富效应的一些问题,形成以下结论:我国股票市场总体上存在财富效应,但在某些时段表现为股市投资对消费的替代效应;通过股票市场刺激消费的做法短期可行,长期并不有效。文章最后提出了有利于发挥股市财富效应的相关措施。     

The Kuznets curve of the rich

A long-standing interest in the relationship between inequality and sustainable growth continues to fascinate economists among other social scientists. It must be noted, however, that most empirical efforts have focussed on the income inequality–growth nexus, while studies on wealth inequality are much scarcer. This study attempts to fill such a gap in the literature by assessing the correspondence between the top 1 percent's wealth share and economic growth. Employing time series cointegration techniques, we study the experience of France and the United States from 1950 to 2014. Our estimates suggest that the output growth rate is an inverted-U-shaped function of the wealth share of the top 1 percent. The estimated relationship is robust to variations in control variables and estimation methods. We compute the local optimal wealth share, understood as the share of wealth compatible with the maximum growth rate, and show that France is growing close to its long-run potential, while the United States is significantly below its.     

Bottoms up: Delivering sustainable value in the base of the pyramid

Despite a wealth of expertise involving leading institutions over at least 15 years, a base of the pyramid (BoP) model resulting in scalability has yet to emerge. We posit that institutional gaps between BoP goals of developing human and social capital on one hand and a short‐term profit focus of business on the other contribute to the lack of scalability. We address this gap by proposing a social intermediary to link the BoP with firms involved in the BoP. The social intermediary will coordinate and interpret the informal market requirements of the BoP to the firm in a “bottoms up” approach. We illustrate the bottoms up approach through a case involving Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit, a German government agency, with the garment manufacturing industry in Pakistan. The case study involves implementation of labor standards and productivity in the Pakistan garment industry, resulting in improved productivity and labor standards enabling garment manufacturers to access global supply chains.     

Modelling optimal strategies for the allocation of wealth in multicurrency investments

This paper analyzes rates of return on financial assets denominated in five major currencies and provides a framework for the determination of optimal strategies for the allocation of wealth in multicurrency investments. Three models are estimated: a univariate autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (ARCH) model, an extended ARCH model using the random coefficient (RC) procedure, and a pure RC model. A comparison of the forecasts of these models with those generated by a random walk model demonstrates that forecasts based on the RC/extended ARCH procedure are superior to those based on the random walk model and those based on direct ARCH estimation. These results could be useful for both international investors for the allocation of their wealth among fixed-income investment securities and central banks for the management of their external reserve assets.     

Financial characteristics of acquiring firms and their relation to the wealth effects of acquisition announcements

This paper examines the sources of value to acquiring firms to expand the understanding of mergers and acquisitions. The firmspecific rationale that motivate firms to acquire other firms are examined, along with how these rationale impact the shareholder wealth of acquiring firms when the acquisitions are announced. A logit regression model is utilized to compare financial characteristics of acquiring firms to those of non-acquiring firms. The relation of these characteristics to the shareholder wealth effects experienced by acquiring firms when they announce acquisitions is also examined. The results support hypotheses that firm size and cash-flow payout impact the decision to acquire. Capital structure, management performance, and cash-flow payout are related to the wealth effects of acquisition announcements. Better fitting models result when industry effects are controlled by measuring firm characteristics as relative deviations from industry values.     

Re-evaluating the association between housing wealth and aggregate consumption: New evidence from Sweden

This paper extends the VECM cointegration model and PT (permanent-transitory) variance decomposition framework proposed by Lettau and Ludvigson [Lettau, M., Ludvigson, S.C., 2004. Understanding trend and cycle in asset values: reevaluating the wealth effect on consumption. American Economic Review 94 (1), 276–299.] and applies them to Swedish data from 1980q1 to 2004q4. There is strong statistical evidence that the long run movements of aggregate consumption, disposable income, housing wealth, and financial wealth are tied together. However, the evidence also suggests that short run variations in the Swedish housing market are largely dissociated with consumer spending. Meanwhile, it is shown that the strength of the linkage between consumption and housing wealth is not sensitive to different model specifications and various measures of key variables.     

The Effect of the Probability of Marriage on Housing Demand for Single Women

This paper uses a simultaneous system of three equations to model housing choices for female-headed households (FHH). The system includes housing demand, the probability of owning, and the probability of marriage. Also, a wealth gap variable related to the downpayment constraint is measured and included in the tenure choice estimation. The probability of owning is lower for female householders anticipating marriage. The wealth gap significantly affects the home-ownership decision for all households, and wealth constrained FHHs are significantly more responsive to changes in the relative price of owning.     

The relation between wealth and labour market transitions: an empirical study for the Netherlands

We study the relationship between wealth and labour market transitions. A lifecycle model, in which individuals are faced by uncertainty about the availability of jobs, serves as a basis for a reduced‐form specification for the probabilities of labour market transitions, which depend on wealth according to the model. Theory implies a negative effect of wealth on the probability of becoming or staying employed. This implication is tested for in a reduced‐from model of labour market transitions, in which we allow for random effects, initial conditions, and measurement error in wealth. Elasticities of transitions probabilities with respect to wealth are presented. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.