Office-seeking politicians, interest groups and split contributions in a campaign finance model

The present paper investigates an extended version of Prat's campaign finance models. In this model, interest groups make contributions to politicians to influence policy decisions. Voters are assumed to judge candidates on two aspects: policy promises and nonpolicy personal qualities referred to as valence. There are two types of voters. Among these, uninformed voters only observe campaign contributions that take the role of a signaling medium. We solve the equilibrium of the game between politicians and interest groups. We then specify conditions under which a separating equilibrium exists and study the effect of split contributions on the welfare of the median voter.     

Union membership,union coverage and wage dispersion of rural migrants: Evidence from Suzhou industrial sector

Using the data from an original survey on rural migrant workers from Suzhou industrial sector in 2013, we estimate the wage effect of both union membership and union coverage across the wage distributions using decomposition approach based on unconditional quantile regression. The results show that union membership has a significant effect on the wage level of rural migrant workers across the wage distribution. The effect of coefficient differences which results from the different rewarding systems explains the majority wage differentials between union members and non-members in non-unionized firms. There is also significant union coverage effect at the lower part of the distribution when comparing the union-covered non-member to the nonunion-covered non-member, which is also mainly caused by the coefficient effect. By contrast, wage differentials between union members and non-members in unionized firms are attributed to significant composition effect, which reveals that union members are positively selected within unionized firms. As a result, the positive wage effect of union is limited to the more advantaged group among migrant workers.     

论企业战略联盟与动态联盟

竞争和联盟是现代企业谋求生存与发展的两大策略 ,如何寻求并充分利用企业之间的联盟关系 ,取人之长 ,补己之短 ,共同完成市场价值的创造 ,在当今复杂多变的市场环境中显得尤为重要。本文按联盟存续时间长短将其分为战略联盟和动态联盟 ,并从二者的联盟动机 ,组织结构要求 ,联     

Determinants of services trade agreement membership

Review of World Economics - Existing literature has examined factors underlying the formation of goods trade agreements (GTA) and bilateral investment treaties but not the determinants of services...     

“新土改”激荡经济变革

美国金融海啸让全球股市急速下跌,国际大宗商品价格全部回软,全球经济前景飘忽不定,对整个世界及中国经济的影响不可低估.在这样的经济环境下,中国经济如何才能独善其身,较快走出美国金融海啸影响的阴影,将成为中央政府最为关注的大问题.     

Economic Integration and Union Power

The standard utility-maximizing model of the trade union in a closed economy is reformulated for an environment where economic integration is under way or expected to occur soon. In the (European) realistic setting of union-dominated labor markets, domestic wages are shown to be affected by labor market developments abroad. This article provides an explanation of the international transmission of inflation and disinflation     

欧盟蔬菜市场与中国欧盟蔬菜贸易分析

中国是世界上最大的蔬菜生产国,欧盟是最大的蔬菜贸易区域.两者间蔬菜贸易发展迅速.本文运用显示性比较优势指数、贸易强度指数、产业内贸易指数和出口产品相似度指数等分析了中国与欧盟蔬菜贸易的互补性和竞争性.研究结果表明中国与欧盟在主要蔬菜出口市场上的竞争性不强,双边蔬菜贸易存在单向的互补性.中国应加强与欧盟在农业领域的合作以获得更多贸易以外的利益.     

Trade Union and Global Economic Growth

Abstract

This paper develops a simple framework for examining the role of unions in a global economy. It builds on the model of different institutions by comparing America with a flexible wage and Europe with a rigid wage (the existence of union), where the two areas are integrated via perfect capital mobility. We find the necessary condition that the degree of wage orientation of the union is larger than the firm's bargaining power and determines the positive direction on global economic growth. In addition, the effect of union's bargaining power on global economic growth is ambiguous. If the sum of the elasticity of substitution between capital and labour and the output elasticity of labour is smaller than one, or the firms are characterized by a Leontief production function (Harrod–Domar growth model) or an extremely low substituting elasticity (much empirical literature is supported), the union's bargaining power will lead to an increase in the growth of the global economy. In the general Cobb–Douglas production function (Solow–Swan neoclassical growth model), the union's bargaining power will result in a decline in the growth of the global economy.     

Technological diffusion and the Union blockade

This paper answers the following question. If returns from smuggling cotton and contraband through the blockade of Confederate ports during the American Civil War were significantly lower than earnings from alternative investments, why did private firms so quickly adopt costly purpose-built steam ships in the face of the strengthening Northern blockade? First, we note that the rate of diffusion of steam ships, specially designed to run the blockade significantly exceeded any reported for innovations from the late 19th or early 20th century. Second, we correct an error in Stanley Lebergott's (1981) seminal work and conclude that that returns to infamous steamer, the Banshee (I) of 700% to be quite plausible. This finding of high returns is confirmed by two other historical sources, which have not been previously used. Additionally, we calculate that investors in the one of the leading blockade running firms, known as the Bee Company, earned in excess of 86% return on their investment, over double the profits previously reported. Finally, we demonstrate that adoption of purpose-built ships, significantly decreased the arrival rate of capture, thus increasing expected profits.     

A nash equilibrium model of campaign spending

Conclusion This paper has presented a Nash equilibrium model of campaign spending. The equilibrium is always stable and it possesses sensible comparative static properties. Spending in equilibrium depends on the scale parameter of the vote-share production function and on the intensities of preference for marginal vote share by the two candidates. Thus, campaigns which turn into spending wars are characterized by large values of both candidates' intensities of preference for vote share.     

乡镇工会在辖区企业工会建设中的作用研究

我国乡镇工会随着乡镇企业的出现而建立，随着乡镇经济的壮大而发展。乡镇工会与辖区企业工会存在着紧密关系，研究乡镇工会在辖区企业工会建设中的作用，改善乡镇工会的工作环境，是我国工会现实而紧迫的重大课题。     

Explaining rising regionalism and failing multilateralism: consensus decision-making and expanding WTO membership

The beleaguered progress of the Doha Development Agenda of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) presents something of a puzzle for economic theory: if multilateralism is an effective forum for liberalisation (as it has been in the past), then why have the current round of talks faltered amid the proliferation of preferential trade agreements (PTAs)? This paper builds a ‘hub and spoke’ version of the Maggi (Am Econ Rev 89(1):190–213, 1999) model of trade negotiations to shows that the combination of the WTO single-undertaking and consensus decision-making principles with an expanded and more diverse membership can render multilateralism less desirable for hub countries than bilateralism. It is argued that these principles give spoke countries de facto veto power meaning that their threat point during WTO negotiations is a reversion to PTA negotiations between all parties. Accordingly, spoke countries with relatively less to gain from the WTO can use their veto power to extract gains from those that would benefit substantially. If an expanding WTO membership has increased the number of such countries, then the benefits of multilateralism versus regionalism from the perspective of hub counties may have been diminished to such an extent that they are no longer willing to wait for the conclusion of the Doha round before engaging in PTA negotiations.     

Macroeconomic impacts of European union membership of central and eastern European economies

This paper examines the impact of an eastern enlargement of the European Union. This is modeled as an increase in total factor productivity and a decrease in the risk premium for the central and eastern European countries (CEECs). In particular, a multicountry model of the world economy is used to assess the direct effects and spillovers of these changes. Inflation targeting for the euro zone by the European Central Bank and alternative scenarios with respect to fiscal policy behavior in the CEECs are considered. According to these simulations, productivity effects are stronger than risk premium effects, and spillovers are small.     

瑞风,错位营销决战全国

如何有效进行精准定位,采取与竞争对手定位截然不同的错位营销决胜市场,这是企业面对强大竞争对手实施营销创新最终得以取胜的法宝。