Global accumulation and accounting for national economic identity

As accumulation has globalized, national economic indicators such as the balance of payments have been increasingly called on to provide popular measures of national economic performance. Yet at the same time the possibility of defining the national economy as a unit is becoming more ambiguous. Reliance on conventional national indicators in the context of globally integrated accumulation is leading systematically to reinforce the subordination of labor to capital on a global scale.     

THE ECONOMICS AND THE NONECONOMICS OF THE WORLD WAR INDUSTRY

The world war industry is defined as the part of human income-earning activity devoted to producing, maintaining, and sometimes utilizing means of destruction. Most of the industry consists of what is purchased with national states' military budgets, which are spent by unilateral national defense organizations. These organizations are basically noneconomical, in the sense that they do not have a balance sheet, do not show a "bottom line" or net worth, and therefore there is no way to estimate their profitability. They have economic aspects in terms of decisions that balance marginal benefits against marginal costs. The benefits, however, are mainly psychological in the minds of the decision makers. Wars of conquest, especially those resulting in empires, have not paid off very well for the conquering power. Military defeat often leads to cultural and economic development. Nuclear weapons and long-range missiles have made national defense essentially obsolete and the greatest enemy of national security. Military leaders may respond to this development as they recognize their traditional culture of courage, heroism, and fighting has been replaced by child roasting and perhaps universal destruction. There seem to be few economies of scale in the national state, and perhaps we should look forward to a world of 500 national states in stable peace with a very limited, functional world government.     

THE NATIONAL BALANCE SHEET OF THE UNITED KINGDOM

The paper discusses national balance sheets in the light of the proposals for their inclusion in the revised SNA. The author uses his own estimated national balance sheet of the United Kingdom as a basis for discussing the problems encountered in the compilation of national balance sheets, and the greater part of the paper is concerned with questions of valuation, classification and statistical source material. The concluding section deals briefly with the structure of the national balance sheet of the United Kingdom and compares its structure with that of the national balance sheet of the United States. Provisional national balance sheets of the United Kingdom for each of the five years 1957 to 1961 are presented.     

The impact of structural adjustment policies on women's and children's health in Tanzania

Since 1981, the government of Tanzania has adopted a variety of policy measures including the National Economic Survival Plan (NESP), Structural Adjustment Program (SAP), Economic Recovery Program (ERP) I, ERP II, Economic and Social Action Plan (ESAP), and Priority Social Action Plan (PSAP) to deal with the country's present social and economic crisis dating back to the late 1970s. The main objective of the these adjustment measures has been to attain macroeconomic balance by bringing national expenditure into line with national income to reduce inflation and to increase exports. Other objectives have been to maintain egalitarian income distribution and the provision of basic social services to the majority of the population. To realize these objectives, the government has been controlling credit and removed subsidies on certain food items and agricultural inputs, introduced a system of progressive devaluation, liberalized trade, and has been trying to reduce government expenditure by introducing cost sharing measures in the education and health sector. The author concludes that the erosion of real incomes and increased poverty have had a devastating effect upon women and children. Rural women have heavier workloads as males migrate to urban areas in search of work, there is increased maternal mortality, and chronic malnutrition and poverty make it difficult to implement HIV/AIDS intervention strategies.     

European TA-discourses - European TA?

Is there a balance to be achieved between national technological assessment (TA) activities and the European level? What are the potential benefits of the European-level TA infrastructure both for the Community's own R&D and for national TA activities? This article discusses these questions in light of the different ways TA has been conceptualized in Europe, particularly in the light of the current debate on social shaping of technology and constructive TA. As a member of the VALUE II Think Tank group, I have also included a presentation of the initiatives of VALUE II to strengthen European TA infrastructure.     

FINANCIAL OPERATIONS AND MONETARY STATISTICS: IMPROVED CONCORDANCE IN THE FRENCH NATIONAL ACCOUNTS

National accounts are a powerful means of coordinating different statistical systems. The better their classifications are adapted to the basic statistics or the information blocks one wishes to use, the better the national accounts play their part. This statement explains why, taking the opportunity of revising the whole system, French national accountants tried to improve the concordance between financial operation tables and monetary statistics. Other reasons leading to this attempt can be found in the dissatisfaction of users having to face different and inconsistent financial information such as the monetary statistics on one hand and the financial aggregates of the national accounts on the other; and even more reasons appear in the organizational field since those two statistical systems are issued by two neighbour services of the Banque de France, often depending on the same sources. Further, many propitious factors are converging at the same time: the French financial system is undergoing profound transformations originating as much in the behaviour of economic agents as in the law, and the statistical operations have to adapt to these changes. The national accounts will in the near future include balance sheets in which financial asset holdings are directly comparable to the money supply aggregates. In its first part our paper sets forth the detailed reasons for our attempts, the conditions in which it took place and the present results. We have reached a much better degree of consistency between the two systems, even if the final scheme has not yet been adopted in either the monetary field or in the field of national accounts. But an important question remains open about the durability of the harmonization: we think that it could be relatively uncertain because of the differences in the goals pursued by the two systems and the constraints which they face. That is why in the second part of the paper we tried to review the way such a pragmatic undertaking as ours could call into question the way in which financial operations are described in the system of national accounts. If one agrees with the present boundary between the real and the financial sphere, the articulation must remain somewhat elementary. But if one wants to revise the usual so-called dichotomy between financial and non financial phenomena, we think that a complete rebuilding of the conceptual framework of the accounts has to be done; this would necessitate a considerable amount of theoretical and practical work.     

论海南岛国家公园生态认证管理

随着海南国际旅游岛建设上升为国家战略,海南岛国家公园的筹划建设,近年来海南旅游迅猛发展,为在经济、社会、环境效应方面寻找平衡点,生态旅游认证成为积极有效的手段和工具。目前我国非政府组织还很不发达,特别是在海南省。因此,海南省政府在生态旅游认证体系的初期构建中起主导作用。通过对政府部门、生态旅游供给者和生态旅游者的问卷调查,对海南岛国家公园构建生态旅游认证过程中面临的关键问题进行了分析,并在调查基础上提出了海南岛国家公园进行生态认证管理的对策。     

NATIONAL AND SECTOR BALANCE SHEETS IN CONCEPT AND IN PRACTICE

National and Sector Balance Sheets are playing an increasingly important role in economic analysis. This article reviews the actual and potential applications and considers whether there is a case for modifying SNA practice and recommendations to increase the value of the contribution that balance sheets can make to analytical work.
The major sections of the article relate respectively to financial and non-financial items in national and sector balance sheets. In the context of financial items, there is discussion of the perception of what constitutes an individual's total financial portfolio and therefore which items should be included or excluded when assessing the financial assets of the household sector (e.g. various forms of pension entitlement and life assurance). The relevance of marketability is considered as is the possibility of attempting to identify a separate domestic households sub-sector. The other main topic considered in relation to financial balance sheets is the relevance of adopting a single approach to valuation; alternatives are considered in relation to the stock of public sector debt.
So far as non-financial assets are concerned, difficulties arise with the national accounting practice of treating the acquisition of consumer durables and military assets as current expenditure. While it is considered, on balance, best to continue to treat the purchase of consumer durables as current expenditure, though recording the value of the stock of durables outside the main body of balance sheets, it is recommended that "non-fighting" assets such as transport ships and aircraft and hospitals should be treated as capital assets. The treatment of sub-soil assets and the valuation of fixed assets is also discussed.
Reconciling balance sheets with flows data is an essential step if balance sheets are to be fully exploited; some comments are offered on the UN guidelines on this topic.     

复杂适应系统视角下国家能源安全的概念内涵及研究范式

社会经济系统中的一大类问题都是属于结构复杂、影响因素众多、变量之间关联性强的问题,具有高度复杂性。国家能源安全问题作为社会经济系统的一部分,显然与其具有相似甚至相同的特质。复杂适应系统理论的提出为人们研究分析此类问题提供了一个新的思路,指出了一个新的方向。首先介绍复杂适应系统理论,进而重新阐释国家能源安全的概念内涵,在对现有相关研究评述的基础上提出国家能源安全问题的一种研究范式,最后从复杂适应系统角度来分析国家能源系统,并指出进一步的研究重点。     

Borders of Peace in Policy and Practice: National and Local Perspectives of Israel-Jordan Border Management

Border-management policies are designed to balance national interests of border control with the costs of monitored cross-border interaction. These policies, formulated by national authorities, are often based on constructed definitions and interests of national security rather than wider understandings of the components of human security. This is especially evident in post-conflict borders where local initiatives of economic, social and environmental cross-border interaction are posed to contribute to regional stability and security. This article analyzes civilian cross-border cooperation in the southern section of the Israel-Jordan border region, distinguishing between local and national perspectives regarding border management. Focusing mainly on Israel's policies the article demonstrates how despite the vision of good neighbourly relations and their potential contribution towards regional prosperity and stability, local cross-border initiatives have been inhibited in the name of national security. The case study demonstrates the mechanisms and ramifications of exclusive securitisation policies of post-conflict border management.     

Wage restraint and monetary union

Existing work on wage bargaining predicts more aggressive wage setting under monetary union. This is exemplified by Cukierman and Lippi (2001) who postulate that wages are set having area-wide prices in mind. The insight of aggressive wage behaviour has not been confirmed by the EMU experience, which has been characterised by wage moderation. The present paper investigates the possibility of wage restraint using a monetary union model which, realistically, assumes that trade unions set wages with national prices in mind. Drawing on plausible ranges for all parameter values (and macroeconomic shocks), our simulations show that a monetary union elicits real wages that are broadly comparable to those obtained under monetary autonomy. The confidence bounds around these results are rather wide, in particular including scenarios of wage restraint.     

Lost in translation – a revival of Wolfgang Stützel's Balances Mechanics

Wolfgang Stützel was a prominent German economist who coined a very special terminology in national accounting and in international economics. Therefore, it can be said that his contributions to economics got lost in translation. Especially, the Balances Mechanics approach and the paradox of competition are his biggest achievements in economic theory, but he never received international recognition. The objective of this paper is to pay tribute to his work by applying his analytical frameworks to the balance of payments crisis in the Eurozone and to the distributional impacts of austerity policy.     

Opening a stock exchange

A large body of theoretical and empirical literature has established a positive relationship between levels of stock market development and economic growth. However, previous empirical work has been based on samples of approximately 40 countries with the most highly developed financial systems. Since 1950, over 70 countries have opened their first national stock exchanges. Can such exchanges increase economic growth? I present a data set of my construction that describes the exchange openings that occurred between 1960 and 1998, and find that these exchanges have generated increases in growth during their first 5 years of existence, although the longer-term results are ambiguous.     

我国经济发展方式转变的人口与所有制条件分析

］本文根据第二次全国经济普查主要数据公报和国民经济统计公报,用结构分析方法,从人口结构、所有制结构、企业结构所形成的经济基本面,首先分析了我国转变经济发展方式面临的主要问题,接着分析了问题形成的原因,认为我国经济发展方式失衡的主要原因是政府主导的“非均衡的局部优先发展战略”所形成的扶优扶强扶大扶外资的发展道路。最后,笔者提出了发展理念和发展政策转向扶弱扶贫扶小扶新扶科教、寻求国家和市场的相互补充与平衡、寻求政府、企业和居民之间的平衡发展的政策转变思路。     

THE USES OF NATIONAL BALANCE SHEETS

The now urgent problem in the field is to translate into practice the theoretical agreement, slowly reached over the past two decades, on the need for and feasibility of sectorized national balance sheets.
The paper discusses the five main uses of national balance sheets, viz. (1) the study of the relations among assets and liabilities at one point of time in one country, particularly the position of financial institutions; (2) the analysis of changes in one country's financial structure between several balance sheet dates; (3) the comparison of balance sheet structure at one date among two or more countries; (4) the comparison of the financial development of several countries for at least two but usually more numerous balance sheet dates; and (5) the use of selected balance sheet items, e.g., reproducible tangible assets or liquid financial assets, in econometric models.
Examples are presented of the first three uses, viz. for (1) an eleven sector balance sheet matrix for the U.S. as of the end of 1962; for (2) an unsectored national balance sheet of the U.S. in 1900, 1912, 1929, 1939, 1945 and 1958; and for (3) a comparison of condensed unsectored national balance sheets for a dozen countries (USA, UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Norway, Italy, Japan, Israel, Mexico, India and the USSR) for a date in the neighborhood of 1960.     

零工经济如何改变性别工资差距*——基于家庭与市场的双重视角

中国企业生产与性别收入分配的格局正在发生深刻变化。零工就业意味着雇佣的非正式化与收入的不稳定化，女性被大量吸纳进入零工经济的同时，参与劳动力市场和家庭的方式也发生转变，性别工资差距可能随之变化。理论分析表明，在市场领域，非正式雇佣加深了劳动后备军对工资的挤压效应，女性作为劳动力“蓄水池”，收入下降效应更为明显；在家庭领域，不稳定收入加深了劳动者的自我规训，家务劳动时间分配不均使收入差距进一步扩张。在上述两种效应下，零工经济中的性别工资差距将大于非零工经济。基于微观调查数据的经验研究结果验证了上述理论推演。劳动者“灵活性”和“安全性”的综合指标表明，只有建立灵活安全的劳动力市场机制，重视弱势群体的就业保护，才能真正推动零工经济成为“稳就业、保增长”的中坚力量。     

中国情境下多层面体面劳动测量指标体系研究

体面劳动不仅是社会文明与进步的发展目标,也是企业的社会责任和劳动者的基本权益,构建合理的体面劳动测量指标体系具有重要的意义。体面劳动的实现是一项复杂的系统工程,需要国家、企业和劳动者的共同努力。因此,需要结合我国具体国情,在国家政府、企业、劳动者个人三个层面上分别从就业、权利、社会保护和社会对话四个维度构建更为科学的测量指标体系。     

拉萨市已婚育龄妇女的孩子价值观念分析——兼论妇女地位和生育文化对孩子价值的影响

拉萨市妇女的地位与孩子价值的关系正处于过渡期,一方面收入高于家庭平均收入的妇女减少了对孩子的需求,另一方面传统观念使妇女增加了对孩子工具性价值和精神性价值的需求。藏族和汉族,以及不同民族的婚配只在养儿防老方面有显著区别。相对于传宗接代,养儿防老才更有可能是出生性别比失调的原因之一。生育文化是可以转变的,出生性别比失调和妇女地位的关系更大。出生性别比失调的治理应该以提高妇女地位、转变择偶观念为突破口。     

Analysis and Forecast of the State of Environmental Protection in Russia

The main purpose of the present study is to analyse the emission dynamics of atmospheric and water pollutants in Russia and cost of their removal in the 1980s and early 1990s, and to forecast them by means of a Dynamic Input–Output Model according to different scenarios of future economic development till 1998. Main results of the work are:– methodological principles have been elaborated for singling out the environmental protection sector within the national economy;– a method has been offered for including the ecological block into a Dynamic Input–Output Model of the Russian economy;– a method of data preparation has been elaborated for the ecological block of the above-named model, the data base which characterizes the ecological situation in Russia has been formed and analysed;– calculations for 1994–1998 have been executed for forecasting the economic and ecological development of Russia using the above-mentioned model and the results obtained have been analysed. The results showed that if the existing tendencies towards low environmental protection capital costs remain the same, then the negative environmental impact will increase. In order to implement ecological programs and international agreements, to increase the proportion of removed pollutants, it is necessary to increase substantially expenditures on purifying water and air resources. The proportion of environmental protection investments in the total amount of the national economy capital costs should increase by up to 12–40% according to different scenarios of the economic development and different purposes of the environmental protection policy.