Electoral accountability and tax mimicking: the effects of electoral margins, coalition government, and ideology

This paper investigates the relation between tax mimicking and electoral accountability against the background of data on Spain. The results confirm the presence of tax-mimicking behaviour and indicate a relation between tax mimicking and electoral accountability. Tax rates are found to be higher and the reaction to neighbours' tax rates lower when the electoral margin is high and when left-wing parties control government. Coalition governments do not tax heavily and mimic more than single party majority governments.     

Competition,benchmarking, and electoral success: Evidence from 69 years of the German Bundestag

The German electoral system ensures that there is always at least one federal legislator per constituency. This legislator can face competition from additionally elected competitors to the Bundestag from precisely the same constituency. The existence of several legislators per constituency allows voters to benchmark their quality against each other. We analyze the causal impact of having more elected competitors from the same constituency on legislators’ personal success versus the success of their parties. Our data cover the legislative terms in the German Bundestag and federal elections in the period 1953–2021. In our analysis, we rely on exogenous variation in elected competitors by investigating changes induced by legislators who leave the Bundestag during the legislative period and their respective replacement candidates as instrumental variables. We find that legislators are less successful in elections when they are exposed to elected competitors from the same constituency. The results suggest that benchmarking possibilities are relevant for voters to evaluate their representatives.     

Bank behavior, incomplete interest rate pass-through, and the cost channel of monetary policy transmission

This paper employs a New Keynesian DSGE model to explore the role of banks within the cost channel of monetary policy transmission for shaping the interest rate pass-through from money market rates to loan rates. Banks extend loans to firms in an environment of monopolistic competition by setting their loan rates in a staggered way, which means that the adjustment of the aggregate loan rate to a monetary policy shock is sticky. We estimate the model for the euro area by adopting a minimum distance approach. Our findings exhibit that (i) financial costs are an important factor for price changes, (ii) frictions in the loan market have an effect on the propagation of monetary policy shocks as the pass-through from a change in money market rates to loan rates is incomplete, and (iii) the strength of the cost channel is mitigated as banks shelter firms from monetary policy shocks by smoothing loan rates.     

Modelling insurgent-incumbent dynamics: Vector autoregressions,multivariate Markov chains,and the nature of technological competition

The struggle between sail and steam is a long-standing theme in economic history. But this technological competition story has only partly tackled, since most studies have appreciated the rivalry between the two alternative modes of commercial sea carriage in the late 19th century while the early period has remained relatively under-analysed. This paper models the early dynamics between the two capital goods using a vector autoregression approach (VAR) and a Multivariate Markov Chain approach (MMC). We find evidence that the relationship was non-linear, with a strong indication of complementarities and cross-technology learning effects.     

Impact of interest rates on Islamic and conventional banks: the case of Turkey

Identifying the impact of the interest rates upon Islamic banks is a key to understand the contribution of such institutions to the financial stability, designing monetary policies and devising a proper risk management applicable to these institutions. This article analyses and investigates the impact of interest rate shock upon the deposits and loans held by the conventional and Islamic banks with particular reference to the period between December 2005 and July 2009 based on Vector Error Correction (VEC) methodology. It is theoretically expected that the Islamic banks, relying on interest-free banking, shall not be affected by the interest rates; however, in concurrence with the previous studies, the article finds that the Islamic banks in Turkey are visibly influenced by interest rates.     

Control, Incentives and Competition: The Impact of Reform on Chinese State-owned Enterprises

Through the lens of the theory of the firm, I examine how a series of reforms affected the performance of Chinese state-owned enterprises with a panel dataset of more than 500 firms. The study finds that performance improved with various reforms such as increasing competition, appointing new managers, using firm-level pay sensitivity, raising marginal profit retention rates and allowing managers to determine wages and to make production decisions. Adopting performance contracts did not improve performance significantly. These results confirm the importance of competition, control rights, managerial and internal incentives, as emphasized by the theory of the firm.     

国有股权重、政策性负担与绩效——国有银行战略引资方案探析

We present a mixed oligopoly model for private banks and a public bank with mixed ownership and policy burden to research the program of strategic investor importing for state-owned banks. We find that close relationships exist among the equilibrium equity structure following strategic investor importing, the policy burden of state-owned banks and the number of private banks; that the policy burden of state-owned banks has positive relationships with the performance of private banks, with overall negative effect on social welfare; that the policy burden would not affect the maximum market capacity number of private banks but would affect the equity structure of state-owned banks with such a number.     

经济发展中的地方官员行为研究——基于政治晋升、财政分权与腐败的视角

本文同时考虑财政分权、政治晋升和腐败三个因素对地方官员行为的影响,进而构建了理论模型。从中得到的主要结论是,在基本模型中,地方官员对政治晋升的偏好程度越高,则其努力程度越高、腐败程度越低。而财政分权程度越高,官员的努力也越高,但对腐败水平影响却是不确定的。在进一步假设腐败会被惩罚的拓展模型中,基本模型的大部分结论都没有发生太大变化,只是分权程度的对努力的影响也变得不确定了。除此之外,我们进一步研究了,对官员腐败惩罚的力度和对官员腐败的惩罚准确程度的影响,相关命题表明,如果对官员腐败惩罚的越严厉,并且对官员腐败的惩罚越准确,官员努力水平和官员腐败程度都会变低。通过对研究结论的分析,我们还对以往文献的结果进行了重新解释。     

Markets, bureaucracies and groups in the information society : An institutional appraisal of the impacts of information technology

The issue regarding the impact of information technology on organizations is here reconsidered by applying a new analytical framework. Information technology affects the cost of transactions which take place under alternative institutional arrangements, such as markets, bureaucracies and groups; technology can affect the efficiency of the organizations which apply it and the organizational behaviour of their members. Empirical data show how computerization changes organizational patterns according to efficiency considerations. An enlargement of the framework to take into account alternative mechanisms for organizational participation, such as exit, voice and loyalty, allows to examine the impacts of information technology on participation possibilities within organizations.     

贸易开放、不完全竞争与成本加成——基于中国制造业数据的实证分析

文章利用中国制造行业的面板数据,分析贸易开放对我国国内行业成本加成的影响。回归结果表明,市场竞争与国际贸易是影响我国制造行业成本加成的重要因素。进口贸易在高竞争性行业对成本加成具有正向的促进效应,而在低竞争性行业具有相反的效应;出口贸易对国内行业的成本加成具有显著的正向促进效应。     

Lawyers and politicians: the impact of organized legal professions on institutional reforms

Organized legal professions often play a central role in successful institutional development. The paper’s model examines how legal professions affect institutional reform. Professional review of reform proposals solves a politician’s informational problem in a way that makes democracy, political stability, and professional power substitutes. The model’s applicability is examined by showing that its predictions track the fortunes of lawyers in the USSR and early transition and are consistent with events in 1688 in England and 1789 in France, indicating why these two revolutions had different consequences. The model suggests why and when civil law and common law systems differ.

Active ageing beyond the labour market: evidence on the role of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards at work

‘Active Ageing’ strategies aim to foster the participation of seniors in the society. Although economic literature has extensively studied the incentives for seniors to increase their labour supply, little is known about the motivations for older people to complement labour with other forms of social participation. This article provides empirical evidence of the role of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards received at work in the supply of formal and informal productive activities of 50- to 65-year-old workers. The results show that workers with higher levels of intrinsic rewards received at work, such as skill development opportunities and decision latitude, are more likely to participate in social activities outside the labour market. Extrinsic rewards on the other hand, like advancement perspectives, job security and pay, appear independent from both formal and informal social participation.     

潜在变量、宏观变量与动态利率期限结构——基于DRA模型的实证分析

本文从金融-宏观经济学视角出发,运用DRA模型研究了潜在变量、宏观变量与利率期限结构之间的动态关系。通过脉冲响应函数分析了潜在变量与宏观变量之间的相互冲击效应的大小,以及潜在变量、宏观变量对收益率曲线冲击的影响,借助于方差分解量化了潜在变量、宏观变量冲击对收益率曲线预测误差的贡献率,并利用似然比检验,发现中国的收益率曲线与宏观变量之间存在双向的互动关系,但收益率曲线对未来宏观变量的影响更强。     

促进、加速与溢出：数字经济发展对区域创新绩效的影响

在系统揭示数字经济对区域创新绩效的促进作用、边际递增的非线性影响和空间溢出机制的基础上,基于2013—2018年我国省级面板数据,构建区域数字经济发展评价指标体系,运用面板固定效应模型、门槛回归和空间杜宾回归分析方法,实证检验数字经济对区域创新绩效的影响。研究结果表明：数字经济发展显著促进区域创新绩效提升;数字经济发展对区域创新绩效、发明创新绩效均有边际效应递增的非线性影响;数字经济发展对邻近地区的创新绩效和非发明创新绩效有显著负向影响,但对发明创新绩效影响不显著。据此,提出相应政策建议。     

Influence of policy,operational and market conditions on seaport efficiency in newly emerging economies: the case of Vietnam

ABSTRACT

Located in Southeast Asia as one of the most dynamic economic regions in the world and close to north-south shipping routes, Vietnam’s seaports play a vital role in promoting its international trade and economic growth. And yet, most ports are small and owned by the public sector. Their performance is subject to various factors relating to government policy, operational and market conditions. Although the Government has been trying to improve the sector’s performance through corporatization, its corporatization model is unique in many ways compared with reform models in other countries. This study seeks to analyse the effects of government policy, operational and market conditions among other factors, on Vietnamese seaports’ efficiency. Double-bootstrap data envelopment analysis (DEA) and univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted using the data sample of 41 ports for years 2015 and 2016. The analysis results show that the factors of production, regional location and reform policy had a significant impact on port performance.     

The Impact of Power Equality,Income, and the Environment on Human Health: Some Inter‐Country Comparisons

Economic studies on environmental degradation generally have a narrow focus on per capita income as an explanatory variable, and often fail to distinguish among the various types of environmental quality or damage. This paper addresses both problems by examining the effect of relative equality in the distribution of power on environmental outcomes, and making a clear distinction between health‐related environmental outcomes and so‐called ‘environmental amenities,’ only the latter of which should correlate strongly with income. This paper introduces a national index of power equality that is derived from related socioeconomic variables, and studies its effects on individual country achievement in addressing environmental quality and population health. This model is applied to a data set of 180 countries, as well as to subgroups of the entire country set. Employing disability‐adjusted life expectancy and the population child mortality rate as two health proxies, this paper finds that power equality in most cases positively influences population health, and that power equality is in every case no worse and in some cases better than per capita income at explaining population health.     

“驻点”游人日时空分布对旅游舒适度的影响——以网师园为例

中国景区旅游舒适度指标主要依据《景区最大承载量核定导则》推算,但此法无法呈现景区内部的游人舒适度差异。以网师园为例,运用驻点研究法,得到研究日各驻点停驻5s的总人次为128~1 851,根据《导则》及网师园公布的舒适度指数,计算出其最大日承载量为5 685人,人均空间承载指标为1.38m2/人。研究日游人入园总数为4 376人,承载指标均未达上限,但各驻点实际停驻的总人次比按照《导则》计算出的承载量高出约10倍。计算各驻点游人分布密度与全园游人分布密度的比较系数K值,发现停驻时间为5、12、20s时,全天各驻点游人分布密度分别为全园平均游人密度的3.4~108.5、1.7~42.9和0.5~33倍(3个驻点K值<1),说明驻点处游人会重复停驻,扩增效应明显,按《导则》推算旅游舒适度指数与实际情况差距较大。探索运用驻点研究法优化旅游舒适度指标的途径,为微景区旅游舒适度研究提供了新的视角。     

Impact of oil price shocks on output,inflation and the real exchange rate: evidence from selected ASEAN countries

This article analyses the impact of oil price shocks on real output, inflation and the real exchange rate in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia (ASEAN-5) using a Structural VAR model. The cointegration tests indicate that the macroeconomic variables of these countries are cointegrated and share common trends in the long run. The impulse response functions reveal that oil price fluctuations do not impact the ASEAN-5 economies in the long run and much of its effect is absorbed within five to six quarters. The variance decomposition results further assert that with a few exceptions oil price shocks do not explain a significant variation in any of the variables under consideration. We also identify a very unique pattern of response to oil price fluctuations between Malaysia and Singapore and between the Philippines and Thailand. The pairs exhibit a high degree of similarity in their responses; they do not share any commonalities across the group.     

权力资源、生活机会和财政体制--论我国"三农"问题及农村税费改革思路

本文通过建立“财政社会学”理论框架和运用财政社会学分析方法，对我国历史上长期以来的“三农”问题进行研究。作者认为，“三农”问题，包括农民负担过重的问题，其根源在于我国国家集权型财政体制和农村、城市之间不当的权力资源配置格局，解决问题的根本出路在于彻底改变我国传统的财政体制，建立农村城市协调发展的工商基础型公共财政体制，实行民主财政。     

流动性补偿、信息不对称与市场预期:央票发行对央票交易成本的影响分析

基于对经济正常波动时期与金融危机时期央票发行对央票交易成本的影响分析,结论表明央票交易成本中流动性成本显著高于信息不对称成本。在经济正常波动时期,央票发行顺应市场预期,央票发行并未引起流动性成本和信息不对称成本的显著变化;在金融危机时期,央票发行出乎市场预期,央票发行引起信息不对称成本显著增加,指令流自相关系数显著降低。而央票市场的信息不对称成本,主要来源于机构投资者对公开信息的解读不同。