Labor protection and government control: Evidence from privatized firms

In this paper, we examine whether labor protection determines the decision to retain a golden share in privatized firms. Using a sample of firms privatized in developing and industrialized countries, we find a negative relation between the likelihood of observing a golden share and labor protection. However, we find that this relation does not hold in the post-financial crisis period, suggesting that the recent crisis is associated with an increase in government control. Furthermore, we show that privatized firms in countries with strong labor protection are penalized with a higher cost of equity. Overall, our results underline the importance of labor protection for an important government control mechanism, namely golden shares, as well as for equity financing costs of privatized firms.     

Court of Public Opinion: Government Accountability and Judicial Independence

Using a simple model of policy making in a system characterizedby formal separation of powers, judicial dependence on governmentsupport, asymmetric information between voters and the government,and political accountability of the policy branch, I show conditionsunder which rational voters force the government to cede powerover legislative decisions to the courts. Specifically, thepublic uses its ability to hold the elected branches of governmentaccountable to enforce a judicial veto when judicial oppositionto legislation provides more reliable information to votersthan government support for legislation does. The model thusprovides a theoretical justification for, and suggests importantlimits to, the common assumption that disregard for judicialdecisions is politically costly for elected politicians. Themodel also demonstrates how other observed patterns in judicialpolitics—including judicial rubber-stamping of governmentdecisions and government "passing the buck" to courts—canarise as equilibria in the same simple framework.     

Newspaper Circulation and Local Government Efficiency*

In this paper, we examine the role of the newspaper market for a key aspect of political accountability: the efficient use of public funds by elected politicians. Newspapers are a major provider of the political information voters use to monitor their elected officials, especially at the local level. Thus, the incentives for politicians to reduce budgetary slack should be stronger in jurisdictions where the electorate is well informed by newspapers. Using panel data on the circulation of some 150 newspapers in Norwegian municipalities, we show that increases in local newspaper circulation are associated with higher levels of local government efficiency.     

Divided government and dominance solvability

This paper considers strategic voters who face an institutional structure in which there are two branches of the government: the executive, elected by plurality rule and the legislature, elected by proportional rule. Policy outcomes are described through a compromise between these two branches. I solve the game by relying only on purely non-cooperative behavior of individual voters. I prove the uniqueness of Nash equilibrium in the legislative subgame, where the election of the president is known. This equilibrium can be obtained by the process of iterated elimination of dominated strategies. I then solve the whole game by backward induction. The results suggest moderate behavior of voters, due to the desire to balance the plurality of a party in the presidential election by voting for the opposite party in the legislature. Similar results can be obtained in the case of reverse timing of the elections, as well as in the case where elections of the two branches of the government are simultaneous.     

POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL CHECKS ON CORRUPTION: EVIDENCE FROM AMERICAN STATE GOVERNMENTS

This paper investigates the effects of checks and balances on corruption. Within a presidential system, effective separation of powers is achieved under a divided government, with the executive and legislative branches being controlled by different political parties. When government is unified, no effective separation exists even within a presidential system, but, we argue, can be partially restored by having an accountable judiciary. Our empirical findings show that a divided government and elected, rather than appointed, state supreme court judges are associated with lower corruption and, furthermore, that the effect of an accountable judiciary is stronger under a unified government, where the government cannot control itself.     

经济发展、地区分工与地方贸易保护

本文运用新兴古典经济理论从分工演进和经济发展角度对地方贸易保护问题进行了系统的理论分析。在对经济发展的一般机制及其与地区分工相互关系进行论述的基础上,我们利用对引入交易费用的李嘉图模型的超边际分析来研究地方贸易保护行为。文章认为,中央政府打破和消除地方贸易保护目标的实现应当围绕引导地方政府特别是落后地区政府决策从短期向长期转变为中心而采取相应措施。     

Real-Time Fiscal Forecasting Using Mixed-Frequency Data*

The sovereign debt crisis has increased the importance of monitoring budgetary execution. We employ real-time data using a mixed data sampling (MiDaS) methodology to demonstrate how budgetary slippages can be detected early on. We show that in spite of using real-time data, the year-end forecast errors diminish significantly when incorporating intra-annual information. Our results show the benefits of forecasting aggregates via subcomponents, in this case total government revenue and expenditure. Our methodology could significantly improve fiscal surveillance and could therefore be an important part of the European Commission's model toolkit.     

马克思社会分工制度理论研析:一个视角和两个维度

基于分工和社会分工制度动态演进的视角,本文力图从纵、横两个维度揭示分工与技术进步、生产力发展、商品经济和迂回生产之间交互作用、循环累积的内在机制。在纵向上,探索不同社会形态下社会分工制度与商品经济和市场经济同步互动发展的历史演进规律;在横向上,从当代不同劳动分工形态共生并存和相互转化中考察社会分工制度的最新发展及其演进趋势,进而揭示和丰富马克思社会分工制度理论的科学内涵。在此基础上,回答与社会分工制度密切相关的几个问题,并引出相关结论。     

劳动分工、交易效率与产业集群演进

文章运用古典经济学与新兴古典经济学思想,考察了劳动分工、交易效率与产业集群演进的互动关系,认为产业集群的形成与发展是一个劳动分工深化、交易效率提高的过程。在此基础上,文章对杨小凯的基于专业化经济的劳动分工模型进行了拓展和深化,以便对产业集群的演进机制进行深入分析。模型分析结果支持了文章的观点。因此,产业集群的形成与发展有其自身的内在规律。当前,政府更为紧迫的是要注重产业集群软环境的建设,以此降低交易费用,促进产业集群的持续、健康发展。     

论社会分工、企业分工和企业网络分工——对分工的再认识

社会分工是人类在生产过程中形成的一种生产关系 ,它的产生和发展是由社会生产力的发展所决定的。服务业的产生可以称为第四次社会分工。社会分工形成的机制是市场 ,在当前条件下 ,政府也参与社会分工的调节。企业内部分工是社会分工的产物 ,产生于工场手工业阶段。在资本主义条件下 ,企业内部分工是资本所有者的一种生产安排。社会分工与企业内部分工存在替代关系 ,二者的替代取决于这两种分工的生产效率。企业网络分工是介于社会分工和企业分工之间的一种分工 ,适合于具有密切联系和相互依赖的企业。随着经济发展和科学技术的进步 ,社会分工、企业分工和企业网络分工将不断发展和深化     

The political determinants of government spending allocation and growth

I study the allocation of spending, and the impact of politics on regional growth in Greece, using a large dataset that covers the period between 1959 and 2010. I find that electoral districts that vote for the majority party and are represented by majority MPs receive more spending from the central government, and grow faster. Districts do not seem to enjoy any additional benefits when their elected representatives also occupy positions in the executive branch of the government.     

Short- and long-run behaviour of long-term sovereign bond yields

We assess the short- and long-run behaviour of long-term sovereign bond yields in OECD countries using a dynamic panel approach to reflect financial and economic integration. Given the existence of cross-country dependence regarding sovereign yields and its determinants, we resort to simulation and bootstrap methods. Results based on the Common Correlated Effect estimator of Pesaran and on Panel Error Correction Models to sort out short- and long-run fiscal developments show that in addition to common movements in sovereign yields, investors also consider country differences arising from specific factors (inflation, budgetary and current account imbalances, real effective exchange rates, and liquidity).     

Moonlighting politicians

In most modern democracies elected officials can work in the private sector while appointed in parliament. We show that when the political and market sectors are not mutually exclusive, a trade-off arises between the quality of elected officials and the time they devote to political life. If high-ability citizens can keep earning money outside of parliament, they will be more likely to run for election; for the same reason, they will also be more likely to shirk once elected. These predictions are confronted with a dataset about members of the Italian Parliament from 1996 to 2006. The empirical evidence shows that bad but dedicated politicians come along with good but not fully committed politicians. There is in fact a non-negligible fraction of citizens with remarkably high pre-election income who are appointed in parliament. These citizens are those who gain relatively more from being elected in terms of outside income. At the same time, they are less committed to the parliamentary activity in terms of voting attendance.     

外来流动人口职业的空间分选性研究——以上海浦东新区为例

在大中城市就业的外来人口存在职业分工的特性,这种劳动分工既和外来人口的来源地有关,又对外来人口在城市的居住地产生影响。从地域空间的角度,揭示浦东新区外来人口的职业分选特性、其空间演化原理,探讨了分工对外来人口市民化的作用。     

Optimal Public Debts, Sustainable Deficits, and Budgetary Consolidation

It is hardly surprising that government budgets have always been widely debated inboth the political and academic arenas as public finances in general, and the budgetin particular, reflect the political and ideological colour of the government whichruns the state. No less inevitable are academic debates on budgetary issues giventhat economics is a multi-paradigmatic science. This background makes all the moremysterious the current complete consensus on the need for budgetary consolidationand the overwhelming acceptance of the `balanced budget' principle in politics as wellas in academic economics. In the paper, this position is questioned by producing a simple model of optimal public debt, sustainable deficits and optimal budgetary consolidation. Different possible trajectories of fiscal restriction and expansion – based on a Post-Keynesian and Rational Expectations paradigm alternatively – are then being empirically tested by comparing the German and British historical accounts of public finances over the past three decades.     

日本治理大气污染的主要做法及其启示

通过分析、阐述日本治理人为大气污染源的具体做法和措施,以及介绍日本大气质量监测管理体系和信息发布睛况,可以了解到：日本政府坚持污染治理原则,严格执法,加强技术开发,推动全社会共同参与,实现了污染治理和经济增长的同步发展。日本治理大气污染的成功经验,值得借鉴和吸收。     

One crisis,two crises…the subprime crisis and the European sovereign debt problems

This article explores the link between the subprime crisis and the European sovereign debt crisis. Using a panel data approach, we estimate the impact of the different government interventions aimed at rescuing financial institutions on the significant increase of the costs of public debts as measured by the interest rate spreads with respect to Germany. We show evidence on the existence of a statistically significant link between the two crises embodied by capital injections and government guarantees. More specifically, the two types of government interventions have a negative impact on the cost of the sovereign debts under study. This empirical result can explain why the sovereign debt crisis immediately followed the subprime crisis.     

政府反哺与社会化反哺:分工与协作

反哺对于解决"三农"问题是必要的,但不是充分的.文章考察了工业反哺农业的边界问题,形成了3大类38小类的反哺需求,并据此探索政府反哺与社会化反哺分工与协作的制度安排,构建政府、市场、社会和农民相结合的反哺机制,推进工业反哺农业的实现.     

Evolution in Division of Labor and Macroeconomic Policies

The relative merits of income-tax and money financing of a constant share of government expenditure in GNP are assessed in a dynamic learning-by-doing model with endogenous specialization. It is shown that the mode of the financing policy has real effects, in particular on the speed of evolution in division of labor and the growth rate of an economy. Different government financing methods invoke different effects; as the economy develops, the effectiveness of these policies may vary with the extent of the division of labor. Some of the effects are also found to be substantially different from those in conventional models with exogenous specialization.     

Public sector retirement systems: what does the future hold?

Public pension plans will continue to search for cost-sharing retiree health care solutions and may shift to a defined contribution emphasis. Fiduciary responsibility will be highlighted in view of controversial plan changes, government budgetary constraints, scrutinized investment return assumptions, potential labor shortages and increased shareholder activism.