Surviving Unstable Property Rights in Early Modern China: A Case Study of Young Brother Bank

China’s banking industry experienced rapid growth during the free access era from 1911 to 1927. However, the reasons private banks were so successful then remain unclear, particularly when property rights were not well protected due to government intervention. Using archived Young Brother Bank documents, we describe the bank’s development from its founding as a family firm through its reinvention from a partnership into a corporation. We focus on organizational form choice and bank performance in this case study. We find that bankers in early modern China gain political connections by placing influential nonfamily members (often, acquisitive local warlords) on boards of directors because this protects them from the depredations of those warlords. This is a precondition for operating family businesses in unstable political circumstances.     

Comparative Analysis of Thresholds of Non-Revolutionary Institutional Change: China and the United States in the 1980s

Ireland has experienced a series of interlocking banking, fiscal, unemployment, and political crises since 2007. We detail the challenges involved in modeling individual moments of the crisis through the lens of balance sheets and transactions matrices among sectors of the Irish society. We conclude with a series of recommendations for models of small open economies.     

New European Banking Governance and Crisis of Democracy: Bank Restructuring and Privatization in Slovenia

ABSTRACT

The paper makes three contributions to the understanding of the post-crisis European banking governance. First, it offers a more comprehensive approach to banking governance, beyond the Banking Union, through its concept of ‘New European Banking Governance’ (NEBG) that incorporates EU state aid rules and fiscal regulations. Second, it considers the impact of NEBG on democratic institutions and processes in EU member states, an under-researched topic in the literature on European banking governance. Finally, through its in-depth case study of Slovenia it considers the NEBG in relation to peripheral Eurozone states. It argues that the post-crisis banking governance framework of the EU not only severely constrained the Slovenian state in its policy choices but rearranged its policy-making institutions in a way that restricted and continues to restrict democratic banking policy formation.     

Privatization, Land Reform, and Property Rights: the Mexican Experience

This paper is concernedwith rural property rights in Mexico. Consideration of this issuewas occasioned by the liberal program of reform adopted in 1992by the government of Carlos Salinas de Gortari, which providesfor a gradual privatization of the Mexican ejidos, a form ofcommunally administered property. The present contribution examinesto what extent this reform project is theoretically founded andwhich practical problems it encounters in implementation. Thegenesis and structure of rural property rights in Mexico is outlined.The problems associated with implementing the reform projectare discussed for an empirical case example in the Soconuscoregion (Chiapas) in Mexico. Finally, a number of consequencesare drawn.     

Contract-Intensive Money: Contract Enforcement, Property Rights, and Economic Performance

We introduce a new, easily accessed and objective measure of the enforceability of contracts and the security of property rights. This measure, called contract-intensive money or CIM, is based on citizens decisions regarding the form in which they choose to hold their financial assets. Country case studies show that CIM varies over time in response to political events in ways predicted by our arguments. We also show that CIM is positively related to investment and growth rates, and to the relative size of contract-dependent sectors of the economy.     

The Legitimation of Post-crisis Capitalism in the United Kingdom: Real Wage Decline,Finance-led Growth and the State

Since the 2008 financial crisis, capitalist development in the UK has been marked by both continuity and change. Whilst the Coalition government effectively re-established the UK's ‘finance-led’ growth model, it simultaneously broke with the legitimation strategy which New Labour had advanced in the pre-crisis conjuncture. The Coalition advanced a distinctive ‘two nations’ strategy which sought to secure a limited but durable base of support in a context of fiscal consolidation. This strategy was conditional upon the deep and unprecedented period of real wage decline which took hold in the post-crisis conjuncture. However, the Coalition successfully transformed this potential liability into a political asset, constructing a series of ‘moralised antagonisms’ between wage earners and welfare recipients, on the one hand, and private and public sector workers, on the other. Whilst this strategy secured a limited base of popular support, it also re-embedded a series of structural weaknesses within post-crisis UK capitalism. These imbalances are likely to undermine the stability of the UK’s finance-led growth model in the future and will condition British politics as the country embarks upon the process of leaving of the EU.     

Innovation, Imitation and Intellectual Property Rights: A Note on Helpman's Model

This note analyses the effect of the policy of tightening Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) on the rate of innovation in the North and on the welfare in both North and South in a model which is otherwise identical to Helpman (1993) except in the concept of knowledge capital. We assume that the South based imitated products do not contribute to the knowledge capital in the North. It is shown that the tightening of IPR raises the rate of innovation in the North and may improve the welfare of both North and South. These results are significantly different from those in Helpman (1993).     

所有权、财产权与经济绩效:美国及其他国家的理论和实践

所有权和财产权是当今世界讨论最激烈的主题之一。很多美国、欧洲甚至中国的经济学家都断言,只有实现企业的私有权才能促进更有绩效的经济发展。然而,很多已经实行了私有化的国家并没有收到预期的效果。有些学者开始怀疑私有权的作用,有些学者则更进一步为私有权作辩护。本文将以美国以及其他国家的经验为例,来证明对私有化的批判是正确的,而对私有权权威必要性的诉求则是不正确的。     

The Nature of Property Rights in Haiti: Mode of Land Acquisition,Gender, and Investment

In Haiti, two primary pathways to land ownership are through the purchase of land and through inheritance. In terms of inheritance, intestate law treats daughters and sons equally with respect to real property. Despite the formal law, we find that women are relatively less tenure secure on their inherited land than men. In contrast, men and women share similar perceptions of tenure security on purchased land. These differences become manifest in conservation investment activities: tree planting, fallowing, and terracing. We find evidence that these activities are less likely to occur by female respondents on their inherited land.     

企业产权、财务重述与审计师变更——来自我国上市公司的经验证据

文章运用我国上市公司的数据,实证检验了上市公司的财务重述行为对审计师变更的影响。研究结果表明,对于国有企业来说,重述公司的审计师发生变更的概率要低于非重述公司,但如果重述公司上期被出具了标准无保留意见,审计师变更的概率会上升;在非国有企业中,未发现重述与审计师变更之间存在显著相关关系。对国有企业来说,财务重述与审计师变更类型之间无显著关系;在非国有企业,有微弱的证据表明,财务重述公司更容易将事务所变更为小所,如果上期被出具了标准无保留意见,这种倾向更明显。研究结果表明,上市公司和审计师之间存在"审计合谋",这一问题在国有企业中更为严重。     

知识产权保护、技术差距与发展中国家的技术进步

本文基于南北技术扩散的分析框架探讨了发展中国家的知识产权保护、技术差距对发展中国家技术进步的影响.不同于以往研究,本文假定发展中国家同时进行自主创新和国外先进技术模仿,其知识产权保护在鼓励自主创新和国外技术模仿的两难中权衡取舍.理论分析结果显示发展中国家的知识产权保护、技术差距都对其技术进步都有重要影响.实证检验结果表明,我国当前的技术进步主要依赖于对国外先进技术的模仿,自主创新的技术进步效应不显著.因此现阶段鼓励国外技术模仿的宽松的知识产权保护政策有利于促进我国的技术进步,但随着我国与发达国家的技术差距不断缩小,自主创新能力不断提升,实行严格的知识产权保护将会有利于促进我国的技术进步.     

网络时代思想政治工作面临的机遇、挑战及对策

网络的普及是信息化发展的必然结果，一方面，它以其丰富的信息资源、迅捷的传播方式、广泛的参与性。深刻地改变着人们的工作、学习、生活、思想和思维方式，使传统的意识形态体系受到了冲击；另一方面，由于网络本身所具有的虚拟性、开放性、无序性等特征，也给社会生活中的人们带来了不容忽视的诸多负面影响，这无疑使思想政治工作面临新的机遇和挑战。只有把握机遇，主动应对挑战，积极创新思想政治工作方式方法，才能开辟思想政治工作的新阵地。     

知识产权保护与发展中国家创新能力提升——来自中国的实证分析

分析知识产权保护对发展中国家的影响,需要考虑知识产权保护对发展中国家自主研发能力的作用,需要以发展中国家创新能力的提升为研究归宿。文章在考虑了发展中国家培育自主创新能力必要性的基础上,分析了发展中国家在开放条件下实施知识产权保护战略时面临的多重困境。对中国的实证研究表明:知识产权保护是影响FDI规模和质量的重要因素;知识产权保护促进了内资企业的创新能力,并通过研发投入的加强提高了国际技术溢出的吸收效果;加强知识产权保护带来更多更高技术含量FDI的正面效应,可以弥补其对技术溢出的抑制效应。     

The Climate Policy Hold‐Up: Green Technologies,Intellectual Property Rights,and the Abatement Incentives of International Agreements

The success of global climate policies over the coming decades depends on the diffusion of “green” technologies. Using a simple model, we highlight a conflict between international environmental agreements (IEAs) on emissions reductions and international systems of intellectual property rights (IPRs) on abatement technologies. When IPRs are strong and global, IEA signatories anticipate rent extraction by innovators. This hold‐up effect reduces abatement, potentially to levels below those of non‐signatories, and it reduces the number of signatories to self‐enforcing IEAs. We explore policy options that respect existing property rights, but avoid the strategic interaction between signatories to an IEA and innovators.     

产权界定、市场禁入与农村非正规金融——由我国第一家私人钱庄兴衰引发的思考

通过对改革开放后第一家私人钱庄兴衰的史实进行重新考察和审视,本文经研究发现,尽管权力当局把资金自由交易权界定给了监管部门,但因监管成本和信息成本过高而无法保障该产权,个人会通过参与各类非正规金融活动来攫取一部分置于公共领域的权利。本文还基于交易费用理论解释了我国金融市场禁人政策出现松动的原因,也即维持扭曲型二元金融制度的成本以及严禁农村非正规金融活动的费用都越来越高,而且国内的经济形势也提出了放松监管的要求,在这些因素的作用下监管部门执行原有金融抑制政策的力度终于降低了。     

Determinants of bank cost efficiency in transition economies: evidence for Latin America,Central and Eastern Europe and South-East Asia

In this study, we adopt Wang’s (2002) heteroscedastic stochastic frontier model, which allows us to investigate bank cost efficiency and to measure the marginal effects of some variables on both the level and the variability of inefficiency. In recent years, the financial crisis has significantly affected the banking systems of the transition countries. Hence, the efficiency is of major importance for the stability of the banks. Regarding the determinants of efficiency, we find evidence that banks that follow a more cautious strategy, characterized by lower risk appetite and average expectations on profitability, have higher cost efficiency. We also find that traditional deposit-taking and loan-making still remain the most efficient activity of the banks. Additionally, the results showed that a higher Gross Domestic Product growth rate implies an increase in the inefficiency level, indicating an unsustainable bank management behaviour, which in periods of economic growth adopts policies that can generate inefficiency in order to gain market share and to obtain higher bonuses. Country cost efficiency results show significant differences. The banking systems in transition countries in South Eastern Asia appear to have a higher cost efficiency level. Also, the effects of the financial crisis were less significant in this region.     

Ownership structure,size, and interest income substitution by banks: An exploratory study in the Indian context

This study explored how emerging economy banks are rebalancing their interest income and non-interest income to ensure stability. We set our study in India during the period 2005–2017. Interestingly, we observe that time–series correlation of interest income growth and non-interest income growth for public sector banks as well as for private banks is on the negative side. We applied panel vector auto regression and generalised method of moments methodology. This study found that when bank interest income falls, they try to increase their non-interest income to offset their losses to a certain extent, and the trend is increasing. Public sector banks are overall substituting non-interest income for a reduction in the margin, and there is an increasing trend for this substitution. Based on the size of banks, it has been found that change in non-interest income in the subsequent year due to change in interest income in the previous year is there for large banks, whereas no such significant change has been found in case of small banks.     

Economics,Ethics, and the Long Arc of Public Utilities: A Paper in Honor of Harry M. Trebing

Harry M. Trebing has made substantial contributions to the understanding of social control of economic enterprise, particularly in the regulation of public utilities. Imbued with institutional economic ways of knowing, he sustained the construct of progressive-era public interest regulation during a period of neoclassical economic assault on regulatory institutions.