Effects of political institutions on air quality

We empirically test existing theories on the provision of public goods, in particular air quality, using data on sulfur dioxide (SO₂) concentrations from the Global Environment Monitoring Projects for 107 cities in 42 countries from 1971 to 1996. The results are as follows: First, we provide additional support for the claim that the degree of democracy has an independent positive effect on air quality. Second, we find that among democracies, presidential systems are more conducive to air quality than parliamentary ones. Third, in testing competing claims about the effect of interest groups on public goods provision in democracies we establish that labor union strength contributes to lower environmental quality, whereas the strength of green parties has the opposite effect.     

马克思节约思想新探

马克思主义告诉我们,时间的节约相当于生产能力的发展,也就等于必要时间的缩短和自由时间的增长,这是马克思对未来社会中人的全面发展的深层次思考。在马克思经济学中,一个社会的发展可以体现在社会生活的各个方面,但社会发展的巨大动力将来自于时间的节约,社会发展的最终意义将体现于人的发展。因此,在社会发展的进程中最终实现每个人自由而全面的发展和整个社会的和谐统一,是马克思经济学有关节约思想的全新阐释,它对于指导我们落实科学发展观,建设新型和谐社会将具有重要指导意义。     

Effects of securities deregulation in underwriting: An Analysis of SEC Rule 415

In this paper we present evidence on the effects of Rule 415, the SEC Rule that relaxed the SEC's long-standing opposition to delayed offerings. Shelf registration allows securities to be offered on a continuous or delayed basis in certain circumstances. We provide evidence on one aspect of the controversy surrounding Rule 415's adoption: the effect of shelf registration on the distribution of underwriting revenues among broker/dealers. We find on average all broker/dealers experienced an increase in underwriting revenues following the adoption of shelf registration due to an increase in total business financing. However, we find that the largest underwriters experienced an increase in underwriting revenues relative to total business financing. The relationship for smaller broker/dealers between underwriting revenues and total business financing did not change significantly after the adoption of shelf registration. Thus, shelf registration appears not do have harmed small broker/dealers.     

The impact of restructuring and deregulation on gas rates

This article evaluates the impact of consumer choice programs, price caps, and sliding scale plans on consumer prices of gas using a custom survey of public service commissions and data from the Department of Energy. A seemingly unrelated regressions model estimates residential, commercial and industrial prices jointly, controlling for potentially endogenous demand. Consumer choice programs are estimated to lower residential and commercial prices significantly, by bringing competition to markets with smaller consumers. Prices fall even before deregulation as utilities build consumer loyalty and fight competition. Sliding scale plans are estimated to lower prices of small consumers while raising industrial prices. Price caps lead to overall higher prices, with unclear ranking across consumer classes.      

The effect of deregulation on environmental research by electric utilities

This paper analyzes the impact of deregulation and restructuring on public-interest environmental research conducted by electric utilities in the US from 1990 to 2001. I find that deregulation has had a substantial negative impact on such expenditures, which have declined by 40%. However, restructuring has had no significant impact. In addition, the 1990 Clear Air Act Amendments have adversely affected such expenditures, contrary to the positive impact these regulations had on pollution abatement R&D as shown in the literature. Results also suggest that state and firm characteristics and regulator preferences play a strong role in the conduct of such research.      

Phasing of deregulation: Normative versus positive objectives

Deregulation is traditionally endorsed by economists but meets either little reception by politicians or is substantially weakened within the political process. Many papers discuss this aspect, primarily from a rent-seeking aspect. This paper emphasizes the dynamics of deregulation when consumers have sunk costs on the basis of a past regulatory regime. The paper proves first that deregulation should be radical rather than transitory within a conventional, normative framework, even if the consumers act naively and have to bear substantial adjustment costs. As a contrast, a positive model of a vote maximizing politician is introduced that explains why and when actual deregulation proceeds gradually. However, a politician should deregulate at an excessively radical rate at the beginning, if voters have a short memory and/or if demand adjusts sufficiently fast.     

The economics of deregulation of local exchange telecommunications

This paper has two objectives. The first is to reappraise the potential competitiveness of local exchange telecommunications markets, in light of recent arguments in favor of deregulation. The second objective is to discuss regulatory reform strategies. We conclude that local telecommunications markets retain the essential characteristics of a natural monopoly, but that many of the regulatory reforms are nevertheless desirable.     

Capital markets' assessment of airline restructuring following deregulation

The Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 propelled the industry into a constant state of change, even turmoil, that prevails 14 years later. The purpose of this paper is to examine the capital markets' reactions to the dramatic restructuring of the airline industry. The results of an event study of 24 merger announcements indicates that stockholders of target firms experience positive abnormal returns of 14.5% over a three-day period around the merger announcement date. Bidding firms experience a 3.7% increase over the same time window. Clearly, the capital markets viewed this restructuring of the industry as positive.     

How accountability pressure on failing schools affects student achievement

Although an emerging body of evidence has shown that the threat of sanctions on low-performing schools can raise student test scores in the short run, the extent to which these test score improvements are due to schools' manipulation of the accountability system has remained uncertain. In this paper, I provide two new strands of evidence to evaluate the relative importance of educational reforms and gaming behavior in generating test score gains by threatened schools. First, using a regression discontinuity design that exploits Florida's system of imposing sanction threats on the basis of a cutoff level of performance, I estimate medium-run effects on student test scores from having attended a threatened elementary school. Threat-induced math improvements from elementary school largely persist at least through the first 1 to 2 years of middle school, while evidence for persistence of reading improvements is less consistent. Second, I analyze the effects of sanction threats on various features of educational production, and I find that sanction threats raise school spending on instructional technology, curricular development, and teacher training. Both strands of evidence are consistent with a predominant role for educational reforms in generating test score gains by threatened schools.     

Economic determinants of deregulation in the gas distribution market

Many state public commissions have deregulated their utility markets. However, evidence of welfare or efficiency improvements under deregulation is ambiguous. It is also unclear why different states adopt consumer choice, price caps, sliding-scale plans, or retain rate-of-return regulation. This study evaluates several economic factors behind deregulation in gas distribution markets using a survey of state commissions. Logistic and hazard models show that utilities’ prices and capacity, and states’ stock of own gas wells, prices of competing fuels and the regulatory climate, help explain the pattern of deregulation. Demonstration effects from surrounding markets also contribute. These factors make the propensity to use price caps versus restructuring vary regionally.     

Social trust,institutional and political constraints on the executive and deregulation of markets

Social trust is frequently claimed to be conducive for economic reforms. Likewise, the scope of policy liberalization is influenced by the political power structure as manifested in institutional and political constraints on the executive (IPCE). However, social trust and IPCE are possibly intertwined in their effects on economic liberalization. This paper empirically explores the relationship between social trust, IPCE and the scope of economic deregulation as measured by the first difference in the regulation subindex of the Economic Freedom of the World index. The results provide evidence in favor of a positive association of social trust with deregulation and of a negative association between institutional or partisan veto-points and deregulation. Yet, according to our analysis IPCE are an obstacle for economic deregulation only in relatively low trusting environments and social trust unfolds a particular strength as driver of deregulation with increasing levels of IPCE.     

The effects of United States railroad deregulation on shippers,labor, and capital

This paper presents an overview of the economic effects of railroad deregulation. The United States experience with railroad deregulation has been very favorable. Shippers generally have gotten better service without higher rates. Labor productivity has gone up substantially. Railroads have not been able to use their greater rate-making freedom to earn excess profits.     

Why shops close again: An evolutionary perspective on the deregulation of shopping hours

This paper introduces a new perspective on the deregulation of shopping hours based on ideas from evolutionary game theory. We study a retail economy where shopping hours have been deregulated recently. It is argued that first, the deregulation leads to a coordination problem between store owners and customers, and second, the ‘solution’ to this problem depends on the specific cost structure of stores and the preferences of customers. In particular, it may happen that, even if extended shopping hours are Pareto efficient, stores and customers do not succeed in coordinating on this equilibrium. The analysis explains the observation in Germany, where shopping hours have been deregulated recently, that store owners tend to go back to the former shopping hours again. Moreover, it emphasizes the important role of advertisement campaigns as a signalling device.     

关于金融机构改革的思考与前瞻

本文在讨论了改革与危机关系的基础上,阐述了中国金融业进一步改革的目标及主要设想.第三部分讨论了三个金融机构改革基础性问题:(1)认为前30年的金融改革是以略滞后于经济改革为目标的,这为农村改革和企业改革的成功争取了时间,并减轻了压力.今后的改革应略微超前于经济改革.使金融发挥引导作用.(2)认为金融业在过去30年的贡献主要有两个:一是承担了经济改革的巨大成本;二是过去30年的大规模建设,大多由金融业提供.为中国经济起飞打下了基础.(3)讨论了金融市场与金融机构的数量和质量对经济增长的影响,认为金融市场的规模与金融机构的数量与一个经济体的规模有关.     

Rationality and institutions: reflections on Douglass North

Douglass North questions the assumptions of ergodicity and economic rationality which came to dominate economics; this paper places the emergence of these notions in historical context. North stresses the role of institutions in dealing with a shift from uncertainties in the physical environment to uncertainties in the complex human environment of impersonal exchange. The paper explores the difficulties and weaknesses of his account of this change, focussing in particular on the case of Britain, and the themes of property rights, state structures and warfare.     

Quantity,quality and the welfare effects of US airline deregulation

In this paper we employ a method for estimationg quality-adjusted demand to calculate measures of the change in consumer suruplus due to US airline deregulation. The quality-adjusted estimates of the price elasticity of demand indicate that consumers are from 25% to 50% more sensitive to changes in air fares than unadjusted estimates would suggest. Changes in unadjusted consumer surplus overstate the net welfare gains from deregulation by roughly a factor of two, strongly suggesting that adjustments for quallity of service are essential to welfare analysis of regulatory changes in this industry     

The political economy of deregulation: The case of intrastate long distance

Observed variation in the decisions of state regulators to deregulate AT&T in the provision of intrastate interLATA telecommunications services provides useful data with which to test the economic theory of regulation against its principal alternative—the public interest theory. An empirical model of the decision to deregulate is specified and estimated. Our results lend empirical support to the economic theory of regulation and fail to support the public interest theory. The results also help to explain the lethargic pace of deregulation of this industry.     

The effects of stringent capital requirements on large financial institutions

Journal of Regulatory Economics - With the growing size of the interbank financial market, it is often argued that capital regulations for large wholesale banks should be more stringent than for...