Wicksell, Lindahl and the Theory of Public Goods

Wicksell's and Lindahl's ideas on public goods and decisions are reviewed in light of later developments in the theoretical economics literature. I begin by discussing their normative ideals, in particular the notion of justness, and the sources of the difficulties in reaching them. Wicksell's and Lindahl's ideal states, as well as the obstacles that they perceive, are compared to more recent views on free riding and on the behavior of elected representatives. Their views on political bargaining are then related to later concepts, in particular to the core of the economy.     

中国农村公共品供给与农村财政制度创新

近年来我国以农业发展缓慢、农民负担沉重、农村社会问题突出为主要表象的“三农”问题,虽然原因是多方面的,但是农村公共品供给不力是其中最重要的方面。这就要求我们从公共财政学的角度科学地安排农村公共品的供给,进行农村财政制度创新。     

媒介意识与农村公共产品供给

农村地区的公共产品供给与需求之间经常脱节.显性原因是财政体制不完善、农村公共产品需求表达机制缺失;隐性根源是大众媒介对农民的俯视效应,农民话语权的缺失.大众媒介的利益驱动导致农村居民媒介信息上的劣势,也使得其无法有效地影响政府的经济人动机,也无法影响政府的政策,导致农村公共产品供给出现不足.推进基层民主、加强受众的教育、增加接触媒介机会是增加农村公共产品供给的有效对策.     

公共产品供给主体及边界确定的交易费用经济学分析——兼论我国公共产品供给过程中交易费用的计量

将新制度经济学中交易费用理论引入公共产品供给分析,给出了供给公共产品的主体确定的理论模型,并在威廉姆森范式扩展的基础上得出了各个主体的边界,认为最优公共产品供给方式的选择和主体边界的确定,取决于公共产品供给过程中发生的交易费用.测算了中国公私部门供给公共产品过程中存在的交易费用,发现就我国公共产品的供给而言,在一定的条件下将公共产品供给由政府部门交给私人部门与第三部门可以节约交易费用,提高公共产品供给的效率.     

Heterogeneity and the Voluntary Provision of Public Goods

We investigate the effects of heterogeneity and incomplete information on aggregate contributions to a public good using the voluntary contribution mechanism. The non-linear laboratory environment has three-person groups as partners under varying conditions of information and communication. Bergstrom, Blum and Varian predict that increasing heterogeneity will have no effect on aggregate contributions in a no-communication environment. Ledyard conjectures a positive effect of incomplete information, a negative effect of heterogeneity, and a positive interaction of heterogeneity and incomplete information. We find that incomplete information has a small but significant negative effect. Heterogeneity has a positive effect on aggregate contributions, but its effects interact unexpectedly with communication. In a no-communication environment, heterogeneity in two dimensions (endowment and preferences) increases contributions substantially while heterogeneity in a single dimension (endowment or preferences) has little effect. In the communication environment we find the reverse. We also find a positive interaction between heterogeneity and incomplete information. Thus we reject the Bergstrom, Blume and Varian invariance result and provide mixed evidence on Ledyard's conjectures.     

效应溢出与地方公共产品供给的权限

基于地方公共产品理论,探讨了具有溢出效应的地区间地方公共产品最优供给效率,尝试性地测度了地方性公共产品不同的供给形态对帕累托效率的偏离,并在此基础上指出经济权限和政治权限的耦和是实现地方公共产品最优供给的重要途径,最后借助外部性内在化的理论分析框架探讨了实现经济权限和政治权限耦合的相应制度安排。     

论农村公共产品供给与地方财政改革的路径依赖——一个基于地方公共物品理论的分析框架

"新农村建设"已成为我国"十一五"规划的重要内容,然而当前农村公共产品的供给困境已成为实现这一战略目标的最大障碍.本文通过构建一个地方公共物品的理论框架,结合现行财政体制和农村消费主体的特点,并在一定的实证分析基础上,重新定位农村公共产品供给中地方财政的地位与职能,同时提出改革途径的政策建议.     

Conditional Cooperation and Voluntary Contributions to Public Goods

We compare a partners condition , where the same small group of subjects plays a repeated public good game, to a strangers condition , where subjects play this game in changing group formations. From the first period onward, subjects in the partners condition contribute significantly more to the public good than subjects in the strangers condition. Strangers' contributions show continual decay, while partners' contributions fluctuate on a high level prior to decreasing in the final periods. We interpret subjects' behaviour in terms of conditional cooperation which is characterized by both future-oriented and reactive behaviour.
JEL classifications: C 91; C 92; H 41     

农村强势成员与农村公共产品供给

本文以集体行动经济学为分析基础,在前人研究的基础上,利用扩展的异质性假定,分析了农村强势成员对集体行动的影响.得出的基本结论是:(1)农村强势成员为了获得个人收益会组织集体行动;(2)强势成员的个人影响力与公共产品的产出存在正相关关系;(3)强势成员能够节约集体行动过程中的交易成本并降低其它成员的搭便车倾向.     

Factor Endowments and the Private Provision of Public Goods

The paper examines the consequences of increasing the size of the community in the standard model of the private provision of public goods when costs are variable. In contrast to an economy with fixed costs, the provision of the public good can fall with a larger community, and an increased provision of the public good is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for individual utility to rise. The paper also contributes to the literature on immiserizing growth in that it shows that capital accumulation can possibly result in lower utility for all individuals.     

Education and the Public Goods Type of Social Capital: Are the Well Educated Free Riding in the Provision of Public Goods?

In the previous literature, education has been found to promote the individual’s investment in social capital. However, little is known about its effect on the public goods type of social capital as many of the studies have used generalized measures of social capital. Using survey data from Japan with information on participation in neighborhood associations and community activities, we find that individuals with higher education are no more likely than those with compulsory minimum education to invest in the public goods type of social capital. Nor do we find evidence that the more educated free ride on the less educated in the provision of public goods.     

公共物品的价格形成与优化分析

运用广义价格理论 ,论文首先分析公共物品价格形成机理及其交易均衡的特殊性 ,接着分析公共物品价格的成分构成 ,然后在此基础上分析公共物品价格形成优化的主要措施和途径。     

基于农户视角的农村公共品供需均衡研究

基于3省245个农户的调查表明,农民当前最急需的公共品是卫生医疗、农田基础设施;农民的公共品需求有如下特点：硬品优先于软品;物质需求优先于精神需求;现实优于长远;切身利益重于宏观环境。合意的公共品供给有新型农村合作医疗、粮食直补政策和义务教育,农民对公共品供给最不满意的是农村社会养老、农业科技信息服务和农村金融。农民对公共品供给的满意度主要取决于公共品的规模、质量、价格和农户的人口社会学背景。最后,对农村公共品供需均衡矩阵进行了分析,并建议根据公共品供需衔接状况、农民对公共品供给的满意程度,实行不同的公共品供给策略。     

Rewards and Sanctions and the Provision of Public Goods in One-Shot Settings

A burgeoning literature in experimental studies of the Voluntary Contribution Mechanism focuses on the ability of institutions that allow the monitoring, sanctioning, and/or rewarding of others to facilitate cooperation. In this paper rewards and sanctions are examined in a one-shot VCM setting that so far has been unexplored in the literature. The study finds that while some subjects are willing to reward and sanction others at a personal cost, the opportunity to reward or sanction is ineffective in facilitating cooperation relative to previous experiments in which a repeated game environment is employed. The study also compares behavior in an environment in which the imposition of rewards and sanctions is certain to an environment in which imposition is uncertain. The expected value of the reward or sanction is kept constant across environments to focus simply on the effect of uncertainty about imposition. Uncertainty does not change behavior in a significant way, either in the level of cooperation or the willingness of individuals to impose rewards or sanctions.     

村民投资村级公共物品的实践与理性思考

村民投资村级公共物品的前提是具有共同的利益,但共同利益的实现依赖于集体行动困境的有效破解.即克服搭便车问题。良好的村庄社会资本为投资行为提供了社会环境和基础,尤其是村庄精英及以其为中心形成的网络为村民投资的形成有积极的组织和动员作用;内部激励机制是村民投资的社会基础,能有效克服集体行动中的搭便车行为。     

公共产品的私人供应与气象服务的商业化

气象服务是一种典型的由政府无偿提供的社会公益性公共产品 ,由于其垄断经营的固有缺陷 ,造成气象服务供给的高成本和低效率。随着人类社会的不断发展 ,许多发达市场经济国家或地区已经尝试与推广气象服务商业化 ,并取得了显著的效果。本文从公共产品供应理论出发 ,在介绍国外气象服务商业化运行机制和经验的基础上 ,分析与提出了我国气象服务商业化的可能性、必要性及其相关政策建议等     

国际合作、外部性与全球性公共品融资

全球性公共品存在供给不足,而融资是其中的一个重要环节。从全球性公共品融资的特点与存在的问题、国际合作的视角、外部性观点出发,分析了全球性公共品融资的相关机制,对目前的融资状况作了简要评论。     

双维度下的公共产品概念及其现实意义

萨缪尔森等人从经济角度所定义的公共产品概念,忽视了对"公共"的详察,其现实意义受到了质疑.为切实反映公共产品的本质和研究的现实意义,对公共产品概念的界定至少应该从主体维度和客体维度两个方向进行.毕竟,公共产品是一个综合性的概念,并且针对目前歧义产生和争论的焦点,对概念的本质解读应重点落脚于"公共"而不是"产品".应该说,公共产品本身就是一个综合概念,至少可以体现在主体(政治)和客体(经济)维度上.历史地、具体地认识公共产品的本质,界定其概念,有助于我们透过现象看本质,正确地区分与公共产品相联系的一些社会经济甚至政治现象.     

Local Residential Sorting and Public Goods Provision: A Classroom Demonstration

This classroom exercise illustrates the Tiebout (1956) hypothesis that residential sorting across multiple jurisdictions leads to a more efficient allocation of local public goods. The exercise places students with heterogeneous preferences over a public good into a single classroom community. A simple voting mechanism determines the level of public good provision in the community. Next, the classroom is divided in two, and students may choose to move between the two smaller communities, sorting themselves according to their preferences for public goods. The exercise places cost on movement at first, then allows for costless sorting. Students have the opportunity to observe how social welfare rises through successive rounds of the exercise, as sorting becomes more complete. They may also observe how immobile individuals can become worse off because of incomplete sorting when the Tiebout assumptions do not hold perfectly.     

公共品二元结构对农民素质的消极影响及建议

农民是建设社会主义新农村的主体力量,农民素质的高低最终决定着社会主义新农村建设的成败。目前农民素质相对较低的社会根源是城乡公共品二元结构。我国长期存在的城乡公共品二元结构使农民丧失了提高自身素质的经济能力、积极的社会环境条件和教育条件。改革公共品二元结构,实现城乡公共品供给平等化,是提高农民素质的体制保证。