Corporate Social Responsibility or Payoff Asymmetry? A Study of an Endogenous Timing Game

We revisit an endogenous timing game by introducing corporate social responsibility into firms' payoffs. Previous research investigates an endogenous timing game in a mixed oligopoly, wherein one welfare‐maximizing public firm competes against profit‐maximizing private firms. It shows that the outcome is completely different from that of private oligopoly. In contrast to its result, we find that this change in payoff does not matter as long as the payoffs are symmetric. Our result indicates that asymmetry, and not welfare‐concerning objectives, yields specific results in the literature on mixed oligopoly.     

Mixed duopoly,location choice,and shadow cost of public funds

We examine the relationship between equilibrium and efficient levels of product differentiation in a mixed duopoly, where a welfare‐maximizing public enterprise competes with a profit‐maximizing private firm. We introduce shadow costs of public funding (i.e., the excess burden of taxation). The profits of public firms obtained by the government reduce these costs. We find that in a mixed duopoly, the level of product differentiation is too low for social welfare. This result is in sharp contrast to the private oligopoly, where the level of product differentiation is too high. Finally, we show that when the shadow cost is high, privatizing the public enterprise improves welfare.     

Measuring Green Productivity Growth for China's Manufacturing Sectors: 1991–2000*

Over the past two decades, China has sustained rapid economic growth of 8–10 percent, part of which is attributed to the positive total factor productivity (TFP) growth. However, this extraordinary economic performance has been accompanied by severe environmental pollution and associated health damage. The conventional TFP method is biased in interpreting the progress of technology change because it does not consider non‐marketable residues, such as environmental pollution, and, hence, efficiency improvements in terms of pollution abatement technology and environmentally friendly management are ignored. This bias might direct our attention to less efficient use of environmental friendly abatement technologies or send wrong signals to policy‐makers. To address this issue, the present paper applies a modified welfare‐based green TFP approach, treating environmental damage as non‐desirable (negative) residual output. Therefore, environmental efficiency is taken into account to accurately interpret technological progress from a social welfare point of view. Based on a national time‐series input–output table, historical capital and labor input data for China and sectoral level air pollution emission data from 1991 to 2000, the empirical results suggest that with increasingly stringent environmental regulations, many pollution intensive sectors, such as electricity, primary metal and chemical industries, improved their environmental efficiency in the late 1990s. However, because of the weak environmental regulations in construction and transportation, and in sectors primarily composed of small private or township and village industrial enterprises, firms within these industries contributed to increasing environmental degradation.     

Health insurance reform and economic growth: Simulation analysis in Japan

This paper evaluates the drastic reforms of Japanese public health insurance initiated in 2006. We employ a computable general equilibrium framework to numerically examine the reforms for an aging Japan in the dynamic context of overlapping generations. Our simulation produced the following results: first, an increase in the co-payment rate, a prominent feature of the 2006 reform, would promote economic growth and welfare by encouraging private saving. Second, the ex-post moral hazard behavior following the increase in co-payment rates, however, reduces economic growth. Third, Japan's trend of increasing the future public health insurance benefits can mainly be explained by its aging population, and increasing the co-payment rate does little to reduce future payments of public health insurance benefits. Fourth, the effect on future economic burdens of reducing medical costs through efficiencies in public health insurance, emphasis on preventive medical care, or technological progress in the medical field is small. Finally, a policy of maintaining public health insurance at a fixed percentage of GDP will require reducing public health insurance benefits, perhaps up to 45% by 2050. Such a policy also reduces economic growth until approximately 2035. Our simulation indicates that the reform does not significantly reduce future public health insurance benefits, but it can enhance economic growth and welfare by encouraging private saving.     

从市场细分开始寻找民营企业经济与社会效益双赢之路——以职达连锁求职旅社为例

本文提出民营企业可以通过市场细分寻找企业经济与社会效益共有的新途径,即民营企业通过挖掘和发现公益事业特别是社会问题所指对象的差异化"需求",将企业的命运与社会的效益联系在一起,并在社会营销观念指导下,通过整合营销方式实现企业经济效益与社会效益双赢。本文以职达求职连锁旅社的双赢之路证明民营企业采用这一方式实现民营企业经济效益与社会效益双赢的可行性。     

民营孵化器运营模式与发展环境:文献综述及研究展望

民营孵化器已成为我国科技服务业的重要组成。民营孵化器的发展成为近年来中国孵化器行业关注焦点问题,学术界围绕民营孵化器已展开广泛的研究。本文基于民营孵化器的内涵特征、运营模式、发展环境和发展困境的框架,梳理和总结国内外民营孵化器相关文献。文献分析结果发现,我国民营孵化器具有效率高和营利性特征;民营孵化器基于经济效益和效率选择运营模式;与国有孵化器相比,民营孵化器发展环境约束主要体现在政府环境和政策环境上,民营孵化器面临着不少体制性障碍和行政性壁垒;营利性特征扭曲了民营孵化器的功能,发展环境约束造成了民营孵化器的发展困境。对于民营孵化器的研究,在“竞争性”和“公益性”二重约束、发展环境、“竞争中性”原则等方面仍需进一步深入研究。     

SOCIAL SECURITY AND WELL‐BEING IN A LOW‐INCOME ECONOMY: AN APPRAISAL OF THE KERALA EXPERIENCE

The State of Kerala, which is considered to have attained a level of social well‐being comparable to that of advanced countries despite its relatively low income standard, is widely known as an example of “welfare by public intervention” in developing economies. This paper, focusing on the four areas of food provision, health services, elementary education, and pension schemes, and paying attention to the participation of the private sector as well as the activities of political parties and labor unions, points out that in Kerala, the private sector and organized activities have played a vital role, in addition to “public intervention,” in the betterment of public welfare.     

电力普遍服务社会福利漏损研究

电力普遍服务具有公共政策属性,由经济学原理可知,这一公共政策执行过程中存在实施主体的撇脂现象,从而降低了这一公共政策的社会福利效应。运用哈伯格模型和Friedman模型,文章分析了电力普遍服务实施主体的撇脂行为产生的福利效应,建立了社会福利漏损函数,研究电力普遍服务社会福利漏损机理;针对不同地区用电情况,构造了分段的社会福利漏损模型,为分析公共政策效率奠定理论基础。     

How do private transfers respond to public transfers? Evolutionary evidence from Thailand

Private inter‐household transfers and public transfers can change along with changes in social and economic conditions. However, most previous studies have examined their relationship from static perspectives. This study contributes new evidence by investigating the dynamic relationship between public transfers and private inter‐household transfers over the past three decades using a Thailand data set. The results from econometric analysis show that there is no crowding‐out effect of public transfers on private inter‐household transfers for the country as a whole as well as for urban and rural households separately; instead, inter‐household private transfers increase along with public transfers.     

Competition and collaboration between public and private sectors: the historical construction of the Spanish hospital system, 1942–86

Throughout history, healthcare, along with diet, has been an essential component of life and a country's welfare. In particular, a country's hospital system is a key indicator for analysing the level of welfare achieved by health coverage. From an economic history perspective, the study of hospital systems is relevant since they stem from public and private investment and produce positive externalities by creating employment and stimulating other economic sectors such as construction and health. Spain provides a significant case study for determining the factors of backwardness in the construction of a modern hospital system in a country on the European periphery. Moreover, it also helps us understand how, despite initial obstacles, this system had attained a significant degree of quality by the end of the twentieth century, as confirmed by its current international hospital rankings and even by the phenomenon of health tourism. The study analyses the creation of the Spanish hospital system during Franco's dictatorship and the transition to democracy. It reveals how the maintenance of a regressive tax system, the use of health policy as political propaganda, and disputes within the political elite of the dictatorship led to an inadequate and fragmented public hospital system, which had to collaborate with the private hospital system, was full of financial holes and tainted by corruption, and remained at the service of privileged groups.     

ARE PRIVATE TRANSFERS CROWDED OUT BY PUBLIC TRANSFERS? THE CASE OF NEPAL

Using household data from Nepal for 1995/96, this paper investigates the motives underlying private transfers and examines whether or not public transfers crowded out private transfers and the resultant effects on income inequality. The estimation results of Probit and Tobit models show that the private transfers received were altruistically motivated while public transfers exerted no crowding‐out effect. Although the probability of receiving private transfers decreases with household size, having more children or more elderly members of the family increases the probability as well as the amount of transfers. By contrast, the age of the household head does not appear to be a significant factor. Furthermore, the study shows that public transfers did not contribute to a lowering of income inequalities among households. These findings suggest that the Government of Nepal should design its public transfer schemes in order to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of its social safety net programs.     

The Sarbanes‐Oxley Act and Exit Strategies of Private Firms

The costs and benefits of the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) have been oft‐debated since the inception of the Act. Much of the extant literature has assessed the costs and benefits of SOX to publicly traded companies. We focus on the costs of SOX compliance for private firms wanting to exit the private market via either an acquisition by a public firm or an IPO. Consistent with our predictions we establish two principal findings. First, SOX appears to have shifted the preferences of private firms from going public to exiting the private market via acquisition by a public acquirer. Second, private target deal multiples are increasing in variables that proxy for a private target's level of pre‐acquisition SOX compliance. These findings suggest that SOX‐related costs have both restricted the action space of possible exit strategies for private firms and led to lower deal multiples for those private acquisition targets that are less likely to be SOX compliant prior to acquisition.     

Community economic development: Some critical issues

Community development is an issue of continuing interest not only because of the need for more successful economic development within our cities, but because the survival of a significant portion of African-American poor is at stake. Community development planning seeks to improve all aspects of community life, including health, education, crime prevention, employment and training, business development, family stability, and housing. Community economic development must arise from our black churches, historically black colleges and universities, African-American officials, business leaders, teachers, and health and welfare professionals. In the real world, where group welfare functions are interdependent, only two possible long-term outcomes are both just and stable: win-win or lose-lose. Consequently, there is a need for significant Pareto improvements in all social programs. There are roles for both race-specific and race-neutral policies because long-term Pareto improvements can result both from programs such as targeted minority employment and training as well as color-blind policies that encourage legislators to forgo the coffers of the gun lobby and control the sale and use of guns. The paper will focus on the historical logic of public policy as reflected in housing policy, financing mechanisms under community development corporations, and the issue of an urban underclass. By reestablishing its commitment to the inner cities, the government can redress the onerous impact of two and a half decades of social and economic neglect and private investment re-trenchment.     

Competitiveness and Efficiency of the Banking Sector and Economic Growth in Egypt

Abstract: This paper investigates the impact of financial reforms on competitiveness and production efficiency of the banking sector, as well as the short‐term and long‐term impact on economic growth, in Egypt during 1992–2007. The results suggest that the reforms have a positive and significant effect on competitiveness and production efficiency. Also, the evidence shows that state‐owned banks are generally less competitive than private banks and foreign banks are less competitive than domestic banks. The average x‐inefficiency of Egyptian banks is around 30 per cent, which is comparable to those reported for other African countries. Finally, there is evidence to suggest a significant relationship between financial bank productive efficiency and economic growth in the short run but not in the long run. Overall, the results support the argument for continuing the financial sector reform programme in Egypt.     

基于多任务委托代理的公交补贴激励机制研究

合理的政府补贴是解决公交亏损问题的关键。由于公交公司与政府间存在委托代理关系,同时公交经营必须兼顾经济效益与社会福利,所以本文从定量角度建立了最优政府补贴的委托代理模型。通过求解及对解的分析,讨论了最优补贴合约的影响因素,以及激励机制对公交企业努力程度的影响。研究还表明在政府无法衡量公交公司在增加社会福利上的努力时,则对该项任务不应进行激励,同时弱化对增加经济效益的激励。研究结果为制定合理的政府激励补贴提供了参考依据。     

ARE PRIVATE TRANSFERS ALTRUISTICALLY MOTIVATED? THE CASE OF THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA BEFORE AND DURING THE FINANCIAL CRISIS

Using household panel data from Korea for 1995–98, this paper shows that private transfers of Korean households were altruistically motivated. Although the altruistic motive of households seemed to be reinforced during the financial crisis, the amount of private transfers was still not sufficient to support households living in urban areas. Also, there had been a strong crowding‐out relation between private and public transfers. This suggests that the Korean government should have designed its public transfer scheme carefully in order to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of its social safety net programs.     

State‐Owned Enterprises,Competition, and Disclosure

We develop a mixed‐duopoly model in which a private firm competes against a state‐owned enterprise (SOE) who cares about social welfare and is privately informed about market demand. When the SOE's social concerns are sufficiently important and when the market competitiveness is sufficiently low, the SOE commits to fully disclose its private information. Otherwise, the SOE commits to withhold its private information. When the disclosure equilibrium prevails, the private firm can be more profitable competing against an SOE than against another private firm. In this mixed‐duopoly setting, the equilibrium social welfare is maximized when the SOE puts a positive weight on both social welfare and its own profit. Our analysis has further implications for both mandatory disclosure and market entry.     

国际援助再分类及其对受援国经济增长的异质性影响

国际援助对受援国的经济影响在学界并没有一致的答案，文章从不同类型国际援助的影响具有异质性的角度再次探讨这一问题。文章的主要工作有两点：一是对援助类型的重新分类；二是根据新分类的援助，实证分析不同类型援助的异质性影响。首先，基于中观经济学对生成性资源的分类方式，文章提出资源配对援助法，将国际援助分为了商业性援助、开发性援助和公益性援助三类，并与经合组织债权人申报系统相衔接，建立了分类后的国际援助数据集。然后，在实证分析部分，分别研究了援助总规模和不同类型国际援助对受援国经济发展的影响。结果发现，援助总规模对受援国的经济正向影响显著。同时，开发性援助和公益性援助存在门槛效应和滞后性，两者都有显著的正向影响，而且开发性援助对受援国经济发展促进作用要强于公益性援助。     

Public and private Investment in Mexico and Chile: An empirical test of the complementarity hypothesis

This paper addresses the important question of whether government investment spending, rather than overall public expenditures, exerts a positive effect on economic growth and productivity. Using time-series data for Chile and Mexico, it estimates a linear growth model that incorporates a number of relevant quantitative and qualitative variables for each country. The empirical results suggest that for both Chile and Mexico, increases in public and private investment spending have a positive and significant effect on the rate of growth in productivity. Moreover, the results for Mexico show that increases in government consumption expenditures have a negative effect on the rate of productivity growth, thus suggesting that the composition of government spending is at least as important as the growth rate of these expenditures in affecting economic growth. From a policy standpoint, these findings call into question the current trend among Latin American countries of indiscriminately reducing public spending because they fall disproportionally on capital expenditures—the type of spending needed to secure the long-term efficiency gains from market-oriented programs.     

GOVERNANCE INSTITUTIONS AND PRIVATE INVESTMENT: AN APPLICATION TO THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA

This paper addresses the issue of the low level of private investment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with special emphasis on the role of governance. Based on the existing published reports, we categorize what types of governance institutions are more detrimental to entrepreneurial investments. We then estimate a simultaneous model of private investment and governance quality where economic policies concurrently explain both variables. Our empirical results show that governance plays a significant role in private investment decisions. This result is particularly true in the case of “administrative quality” in the form of control of corruption, bureaucratic quality, investment‐friendly profile of administration, law and order, as well as for “political stability.” Evidence in favor of “public accountability” is also found. Our estimations also stress that structural reforms like financial development, trade openness, and human development affect private‐investment decisions directly, and/or through their positive effect on governance.