Economics,Ethics and Thanatology: Lessons from the Ancients

The normative presuppositions motivating rational choice decision-making based on optimizing objectives amount to a thin account of ethical economic behavior. Ancient thought offers insights that can provide a firmer basis both for personal, individual choice as well as for public policy. After a brief review of Epicurean and Stoic ethical principles, a comparison is made of modern economic and Hellenistic conceptions of rationality and rational behavior. These competing conceptions are then applied to an examination of a contemporary public policy problem, namely health care, particularly as this applies to “end-of-life” issues. The argument concludes that decision-making based on a eudaimonic conception of the good has the potential to provide us with a more efficient health care system as well as one that more satisfactorily addresses the needs of the chronically ill and dying patients who account for a highly disproportionate share of health care expenditures.     

福利经济学视角下的效率与公平

效率与公平问题是当前社会讨论的热点话题,关于效率与公平的内涵、关系以及组合模式,国内理论界众说纷纭.笔者试从一个新的视角--福利经济学的角度--来重新阐释效率与公平问题.笔者认为:第一,既要重视收入分配公平,又要重视社会公平;第二,实现效率与公平的最优组合需要市场和政府双管齐下;第三,我国当前应实行效率与公平并重的原则.     

珠三角西岸城市群经济发展战略研究

本文主要从比较珠三角东西岸经济发展的角度，论述了珠三角东西岸经济发展的状况，“东强西弱”经济格局的成因以及影响，最后论述了加快珠三角西岸发展的对策。     

西方国家宏观调控体系及借鉴

市场经济体制发源和成熟于西方,因此,研究市场经济体制首先应大量研究西方发达国家成熟的市场经济体制,同理,探讨市场经济体制下如何建立起有效的宏观调控机制,对市场运行实行导向的监控弥补市场经济本身的弱点和缺陷,也应借鉴西方发达国家较为成熟的经验,为建立社会主义市场经济下新型的宏观调控体系服务,我们不能以“中国特色”为借口,来排斥人类社会共同的精神财富和物质财富,从而堵塞我们步入世界共同发展的大道。     

西方国家再就业工程及其借鉴意义

近年来,随着高科技在经济领域的广泛应用,西方一些国家的就业岗位几近饱和,失业现象日益严重。为此许多国家一些新的再就业举措。我国随着经济体制和企业制度改革,下岗人员与日俱增,使我国面临巨大的再就业压力,我们必须从基本国情出发,借鉴外国的先进经验,促进再就业工程早日建设起来。     

资本形成、投资效率与经济增长之间的动态相关性--来自中国1978～2004年数据的实证研究

文章根据1978~2004年样本利用向量自回归模型研究了改革开放以来中国资本形成、投资效率与经济增长之间的动态相关性,在此基础上使用脉冲响应函数、方差分解模型以及动态相关系数等方法对公共资本、私人资本与产出增长之间的作用机理进行了系统分析。研究结论表明:实际产出增长率、公共资本增长率和私人资本增长率之间体现出较强的当期相关性,具有影响关系上的近似对称性;改革开放以来,三者具有类似的波动模式,它们之间存在稳定的影响关系和影响方向;为了增强公共投资率的产出效应,应该适度改善目前的投资结构,积极诱导和鼓励私人部门在具有产出生长点的项目上进行投资,宏观调控政策在刺激国内有效需求的同时,应加强供给管理并提高供给质量。     

效率测度方法的发展及在我国银行业的应用

本文介绍了国外银行效率测度方法的发展历程及其最新进展,分析、评价、比较了效率测度的数据包络分析法、随机前沿法、自由分布法、厚前沿法及递归厚前沿法等。同时,本文还介绍了上述方法在中国的研究与应用情况,指出了我国学者在研究与应用过程中存在的问题及改进方向。     

西方税收公平原则的演进与借鉴

公平原则是几百年来税收理论探讨的最重要问题之一。西方学者围绕公平赋税的两大传统－－利益赋税原则和能力赋税原则进行了激烈的争论。回顾税收公平原则的演进过程，梳理相关理论的发展线索，理清理论的发展脉络，无疑对我们构建适应市场经济的税收理论具有借鉴意义。     

The Efficiency of the Market for Bank Accepted Bills*

The speculative efficiency of the Sydney Futures Exchange's market in bank accepted bills is examined by considering if the futures price is an unbiased predictor of the subsequent spot price and if other publicly available information can improve on this predictor. Data spanning the period 1980(1) to 1986(5) are employed The results are adverse to the efficiency hypothesis in that the futures price in some cases is not an unbiased predictor and neither is it an optimal predictor.     

战略投资者选择与银行效率——来自城商行的经验证据

本文研究了商业银行战略投资者对银行效率的影响,探讨了不同类型战略投资者对银行效率影响的差异,并对战略投资者影响银行效率的渠道进行分析。基于城市商业银行的战略投资者更为多元化,本文选取2008—2016年102家城市商业银行为样本,运用双重差分模型与中介效应模型进行了检验。实证结果表明:第一,引入战略投资者能显著提高我国商业银行的效率。第二,境内金融机构战略投资者是商业银行战略引资时的最佳选择,其次是境内非金融机构战略投资者,最后是境外战略投资者。第三,战略投资者尤其是境内金融机构战略投资者可以通过"引制"与"引智"渠道促进银行效率的提高。     

新自由主义思潮的经济哲学批判

新自由主义经济学重要代表人物哈耶克与弗里德曼等人都以其经济学认识论与方法论而著称。在哈耶克的自发秩序原理和弗里德曼的货币主义理论中,个体人的自由行动构成为最基本的概念范畴,进而在自由竞争的市场体制下促成了资本主义的繁荣发展。随着二十世纪七十年代新自由主义的兴起及其全球化资本主义的盛行,其反思与批判成为了现代政治经济学的核心议题,并对马克思主义的时代发展具有重要比较意义。     

中央银行独立性对若干经济指标的影响分析

随着我国市场经济体制的不断完善,中央银行独立性水平（CBI）受到广泛关注,选取消费者价格指数、基尼系数、失业率和利率四个经济指标,用最小二乘估计法分别研究中央银行独立性对各指标造成的影响,用Eviews8.0对其进行量化分析。结果表明,CBI与CPI和利率呈现反向变动关系,与基尼系数和失业率呈现同向变动关系,并以统计意义检验和经济意义检验证明了模型的合理性。提出提高央行独立性水平的政策措施。     

Growth outside the stable path: Lessons from the European reconstruction

This paper exploits a natural experiment, the large destruction of capital in continental Europe during World War II, to characterize the transitional dynamics of an economy that begins with a capital stock below its steady state level. We use these regularities as a benchmark to discriminate among competing growth specifications. A model that combines non-separabilities in preferences with a technology that restricts the degree of substitutability between inputs outperforms the widely used AK and Cobb–Douglas specifications with time-separable preferences. Our results suggest that policy evaluations based in growth models that overlook non-separabilities in preferences or impose strong restrictions on the technological structure might be grossly misleading.     

Bank Ownership and Efficiency in the Aftermath of Financial Crises: Evidence from Indonesia

This paper examines the relationship between types of ownership of banks and their efficiency in the aftermath of a financial crisis using Greene's “true” panel data stochastic frontier model, which takes into account unobserved heterogeneity among banks. The Indonesian banking sector is analyzed using financial data of 144 banks operating in Indonesia over the period of 2000Q4–2005Q2. In the aftermath of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the cost efficiency of all banks improves over time on average. However, there is some evidence that, as these banks improve their efficiency, state‐owned banks are the least efficient banks while joint‐venture and foreign‐owned banks are the most efficient.     

Financial Disruptions and Bank Productivity Growth: Evidence from the Malaysian Experience

This paper examines, for the first time, the productivity of the Malaysian banking sector around the Asian financial crisis 1997. The non-parametric Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) is used to compute individual banks’ productivity levels. We find that the Malaysian banking sector has exhibited productivity regress due to the decline in efficiency. The results seem to suggest that the domestic banks have exhibited productivity progress attributed to technological change, while the foreign banks have exhibited productivity regress due to efficiency decline. We find that the large banks tend to experience productivity growth attributed to technological progress, while the small banks tend to experience productivity decline due to technological regress. The empirical results suggest that the small banks with its limited capabilities are at a disadvantage compared with their larger counterparts in terms of technological advancements, thus, rejecting the divisibility theory.     

With a Wink and a Nod: Settlement Growth Through Construction as Commemoration in the Occupied West Bank

Construction as commemoration refers to the construction of new settlement outposts and the expansion of existing settlements to commemorate the loss of Israeli life in the occupied West Bank. Popular discourse surrounding this commemorative construction maintains that these acts are aimed at “sending a message” to Palestinian terrorists, asserting that Israeli settlers will stand fast in the face of violence. Settlements, however, grow regardless of what Palestinians do or do not do. In this paper, I argue that when viewed through the lens of settler colonial theory, construction as commemoration is revealed to not be aimed at sending a message to Palestinians, but rather at appealing to the hearts and minds of the Israeli public, and at providing cover for the Israeli government to openly support settlement growth regardless of international pressure. In contrast to commemorative acts like monuments and memorials which are aimed at symbolically controlling space, construction as commemoration results in the material, physical control of contested territory. The discursive framing of construction as commemoration maintains the fiction of a conflictual relationship between settlers and the Israeli government, which allows for settlement growth to continue, in the words of one informant, “with a wink and a nod” – with the tacit support of the Israeli government at the same time that it claims to try to rein the settlers in.