Vox Populi,Vox Dei? Tacit collusion in politics

We study competition between political parties in repeated elections with probabilistic voting. This model entails multiple equilibria, and we focus on cases where political collusion occurs. When parties hold different opinions on some policy, they may take different policy positions that do not coincide with the median voter's preferred policy platform. In contrast, when parties have a mutual understanding on a particular policy, their policy positions may converge (on some dimension) but not to the median voter's preferred policy. That is to say, parties can tacitly collude with one another, despite political competition. Collusion may collapse, for instance, after the entry of a new political party. This model rationalizes patterns in survey data from Sweden, where politicians on different sides of the political spectrum take different positions on economic policy but similar positions on refugee intake—diverging from the average voter's position, but only until the entry of a populist party.     

有效扩大进口与实现贸易平衡

当前我国进口贸易的主要问题是，进口速度长期低于出口速度，累积了大量贸易顺差。同时，进口结构不合理，具体表现为消化吸收性进口少、技术等软性进口少、储备性进口少，生产消耗性进口多。当前情况下，积极有效扩大进口具备有利条件，应遵循市场规律和WTO规则，通过立政策、优结构、重协调和强保障四个方面措施有效扩大进口。     

Do Federal Reserve Bank presidents’ interest rate votes in the FOMC follow an electoral cycle?

We find that Federal Reserve Bank presidents’ regional bias in their dissenting interest rate votes in the Federal Open Market Committee follows an electoral cycle. Presidents put more weight on their district’s economic environment during the year prior to their (re-)election relative to nonelection years.     

Economic Theory as a Guideline for Government Intervention and Control: Comment

This paper provides an institutionalist analysis of the impasse over labor issues that has stalled much needed reform of U.S. immigration policy. While it is unlikely that institutional economics can dislodge a century of conventional wisdom regarding the impact of immigrants on the labor market, a more modest goal is to refute the mainstream economic assertion that what the United States needs to do is to reduce the supply of immigrants, a conclusion that fuels the disgraceful "war on immigrants" that has long plagued reasonable debate over immigration policy.     

Integration, Fragmentation and the Geography of Welfare

The welfare effects of trade integration with endogenous production technology are examined in a monopolistic competition framework. In addition to explaining industry location, trade patterns and accompanying effects on local welfare, the analysis highlights the endogenous change in the costs of supervising fragmented production when economies open up to trade. By regarding fragmentation as a skill‐intensive activity, factor proportions (rather than size) strongly affect the international distribution of gains from trade. Nevertheless, albeit not generally, for a wide range of parameter values, even a skill‐poor country can participate in the gains—despite loss of industry.     

促进中国进口贸易发展的思考

改革开放以来,中国进口贸易发展迅速,带动了经济的持续增长。但进口贸易在高速发展过程中也面临一些问题,如进口商品结构不合理,对战略资源和外资的进口依存度过高,对引进技术设备的消化、创新能力不足,货物进口与服务进口发展不协调,环境监管不力造成对生态环境的严重污染等。应实施多元化战略,优化进口贸易结构,提高自主创新能力,扩大服务贸易进口,加大环境监管力度,推动进口贸易实现良性增长与可持续发展。     

我国农民工进城务工区域差异的实证分析

工业化对于一个国家经济腾飞的必然性,已经被西方发达国家的经验和道路所证实。在实现工业化的过程中,农村劳动力转移是世界各国都曾经或必将面对的课题。现阶段,我国农村劳动力转移突出地表现为农民工进城问题。文章采用第一手调查资料,从农户行为的微观角度研究了农民工进城的区域差异及其影响因素。分析显示:“沿海”和“内陆”农民工在进城动因和障碍、进城途径、进城费用和收入等方面既表现出一些共同的趋势和规律,也显示出一定的差异性。结合区域特点,制定相宜的政策,将加快我国劳动力转移的步伐。     

Annual Index

The author of this article expands the background theory of voting to incorporate the undergraduate majors of members of Congress. Examining nine votes on trade across the 109th and 110th Congresses reveals that economics majors are the only category of college major to vote in favor of free trade in a predictable way. Controls for a variety of factors including ideology, race, campaign contributions, and the inclusion of votes specifically on Cuba fail to diminish the effect. While economics majors are more likely to take a free trade position, not every vote that presupposes a free trade outcome is supported by economics majors. On the issue of sugar subsidies, being an economics major does not influence the direction of a congressional member's vote.     

中国企业贸易类型与国际贸易集中度的关系——基于中国制造业企业微观数据的实证研究

运用2005—2006年中国制造业企业的微观层面数据,将参与贸易的企业划分为4类,采用Gini系数和Theil系数研究企业贸易类型与国际贸易集中度的关系。研究结果表明:在制造业内,中国制造业企业的贸易活动相对集中于少数制造业细分子行业;在制造业细分子行业内,少数企业的进出口贸易额占总贸易额的大部分,只有少数企业有较多的出口目的地和进口来源地,并且企业的进口来源地更为集中。