Pragmatism, effectiveness and institutional judgement in the british control of major accident hazards

This paper focuses on the regulation of environmental hazards—with a particular emphasos on the British style of policy-making. Following a literature review, the case of major hazard policy and the Advisory Committee on Major Hazards in explored in some detail. The relationship of this case to the BRitish policy style is noted. The stress of the committe on pragmatism is discussed as is the linkate between this regulatory philosophy and the use of technical expertise as a source of legitimation. This claim to legitimation is made despite technical limitations in the selected criteria for hazard control. The paper concludeds with a discussion of pragmatism, effectiveness and the emergence of new demands for a change in the British environmental policy process. In particular, it is argued that whilst the proponents of the current system may place great stress on its pragmatism, critics are likely to be more sceptical of the regulatory process and its consensual assumptions.     

Entrepreneurship and institutional change

Entrepreneurs do more than just buy low and sell high; they sometimes also change our institutions, including our categories of thought. New institutional economics has been examining incentives that drive individuals to bring about market-supporting institutional arrangements. There is, however, an aspect of entrepreneurship conducive to institutional changes that has been neglected by contemporary institutionalist theories and that remains underdeveloped in entrepreneurship research. When and how does entrepreneurship bring about institutional change? I suggest that entrepreneurs are agents of institutional change when cultural categorization is ambiguous with regard to the proper and permissible applications of novel artifacts. Motherhood, for example, used to be a simple category, but surrogacy changed that radically. Examining newspaper evidence, social surveys, statutory law, and judicial cases, I show how entrepreneurs, by provoking a change in interpretation and judgment, challenged the existing institutional legal ordering of procreation turning a technically feasible method of surrogacy into current practice.     

变革型领导与领导有效性——自我构念的中介作用

利用问卷调查数据,采用层次回归方法和结构方程模型,考察了变革型领导是否通过影响自我构念来影响领导有效性以及自我构念的三个层次(自主性、领导认同、组织认同)的中介效应。结果表明:变革型领导与领导有效性之间存在正向相关关系;自我构念在变革型领导与领导有效性之间发挥中介效应,自我构念的3个层次中仅领导认同在变革型领导与领导有效性之间发挥中介效应。     

领导力理论溯源及创业领导研究方向

通过对领导学经典理论进行回顾和梳理,探索了领导学理论演进的趋势和脉络,指出传统领导理论到领导力理论的演进过程是研究者透过领导现象关注领导环境进而关注领导实质（变革和愿景）的过程。在对大量文献深入研究的基础上,建构了领导力研究框架,指出了理论研究的三个方向：基于认知和学习的领导愿景、影响变革难度的组织和社会文化环境、决定领导愿景实现程度的团队领导结构。最后提出了创业领导力的概念并指出未来的研究方向。     

Cryptodemocracy and its institutional possibilities

The Review of Austrian Economics - Democracy is an economic problem of choice constrained by transaction costs and information costs. Society must choose between competing institutional frameworks...     

Monetary and fiscal institutional designs

Two investment decisions in economic institutions are feasible; investments in monetary institutions in the form of delegation of monetary policy to a more conservative or independent central bank, and investments in fiscal capacity, in the form of combating bureaucratic corruption and its consequent fiscal revenue leakages. Within this framework, we investigate the interactions among those two institutional decisions and the obtained institutional structure. The findings provide support of strategic complementarities; investments in monetary and fiscal institutions reinforce each other. In addition, we identify a set of determinants that impact on the government’s decisions to improve economic institutions, particularly, the structure and intensity of the initial corruption level, the amount of distortions caused by taxation and the policymaker’s goals and preferences across its objectives.     

Productivity and American Leadership

A Review of W. J. Baumol, S. A. B. Blackman and E. N. Wolff, Productivity and American Leadership: The Long View     

Trade liberalization and institutional reforms1

The accession of Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries to the European Union (EU) is expected to lead to the new member countries becoming more like the older members, including in terms of trade. In this paper, we focus on two factors promoting CEE–EU trade integration: trade liberalization and institutional reforms. Measures of trade liberalization undertaken by both parties during the 1990s were very substantial, but did not always produce the expected upsurge of regional trade flows. Much less progress has been made in improving the functioning of CEE institutions (e.g., progress in the privatization process or in reducing corruption). Countries where most important changes at the institutional level occurred were also those that most increased their trade with the EU. Comparing the impact of these two factors, we find that improving institutions in CEE countries can generate as much trade as the removal of all tariff and non‐tariff barriers. The paper also addresses the issue of the presence of reversed causality between trade and institutions, and the pro‐trade effect of institutional similarity.     

Regulations,institutional quality and entrepreneurship

Journal of Regulatory Economics - This paper examines the impact of startup regulations and institutional quality on the level of new business activity in a panel of 119 countries between 2001 and...     

Violent conflict and institutional change*

Violent conflict such as civil war may influence institutional quality by changing the political equilibrium or by changing preferences and norms. This study presents empirical evidence that in some cases civil war deteriorates institutional quality. By applying the synthetic control method to 25 cases of civil war between 1960 and 2010, I construct the counterfactual path of institutional quality in the absence of civil war. The effects of civil war are heterogeneous, but for a substantial minority of cases civil war appears to deteriorate institutional quality. These findings have implications for post-civil war economic recovery as well as long run economic development.     

真实型领导与团队创造力

领导力如何影响团队创造力一直是学术界讨论的焦点,也是实践中需要解决的问题。基于团队动机性信息加工理论,从团队认知过程视角探究真实型领导对团队创造力的影响机制。通过95个有效团队的数据分析发现,真实型领导通过两个团队认知过程即“团队建设性争辩”和“团队观点采择”的完全链式中介路径对团队创造力产生正向作用。从团队认知过程视角扩展了真实型领导与团队创造力之间的作用路径及机制研究,同时,对企业领导从何种路径激发团队创造力提供了一定的启示。     

新制度经济学的新发展:历史比较制度分析

新制度经济学在完全理性与有限理性之间左右摇摆,限制了制度理论的发展。以格雷夫为代表的历史比较制度分析,在有限理性前提下,通过大量案例研究,提出了自己关于制度及其变迁的真知灼见:(1)克服两个“两分法”,发展了统一的制度概念;(2)将制度理解为博弈均衡,重点解释古典博弈论成为制度分析有用工具的条件;(2)研究制度在变化的环境中如何存续、内生的制度变迁以及过去制度影响后续制度的原因和作用机制;(3)提出了独具特色的互动的特定历史情景分析,将重复博弈理论与特定历史情景结合起来去识别制度,解释其出现、存续和变迁。     

International flows of people and institutional change

International travel clearly increases human interaction over space and exposes societies to foreign influences, foreign ideas, and foreign institutions. Does international travel promote institutional change in a traveler's home country? This paper uses panel data from 149 countries to test the hypothesis of institutional change stemming from international travel. We generally find that foreign travel does not affect political institutions. In one sub-sample, we find limited evidence that international travel can be a determinant of institutional quality in the home country depending upon whether the home country is an autocracy or democracy.     

The nexus of economic and institutional evolution

The current state of the development economics literature ascribes an indisputable central role to institutions. This paper presents a formal model of institutional evolution that is based on the dynamic interactions between formal and informal institutions and economic development; the main features of the model is consistent with the fundamental theories that shed light to institutional evolution, namely the collective action and transaction cost theories, as well as dialectics. As informal institutional quality accumulates like technological know-how, while the level of formal institutional quality is chosen by the government to maximize welfare, subject to the economic and political costs. The solution of the model yields a punctuated trajectory of formal institutional evolution. Simulations reveal that the extent of diversity in informal institutional quality across a country delays formal institutional reforms. We also observe that, both the optimal quality of formal institutions and welfare are higher the more homogeneous is the country with respect to its informal institutions or the cultural attributes.     

Research instrumentation and institutional innovation in canada

Science policy is being challenged. Conceptions of innovation and the nature of research are rapidly being forced beyond traditional views which see innovation as a linear process and science policy in terms of funding issues. Indeed, the policy challenge is being defined by the tension between trying to conduct or encourage research that is at or near an expanding research frontier, while simultaneously functioning within 'steady state' fiscal environments. One key manifestation of this challenge—which is underpinned by a new social contract between the scientific and government communities—is being expressed in terms of the changing role that research instrumentation is playing with regard to research management, research policy and research planning. This paper examines several Candian example f the changing nature of research, with particular reference to the role of instrumentation; it also outlines the particular challenges that small open econmies must face with respect to instrument-intensive research and offers a possible taxonomy for analyzing innovation and policy options.     

领导力的双要素与沟通

本文分析了以往学者们提出的领导力的概念和内涵．提出了“领导力的双要素内涵”的主张,即领导力具备着由对“事”的决策力和对“人”的凝聚力这两个要素的内涵。进而建立领导力的双要素模型,通过模型分析双要素决策力与凝聚力之间的关系。本文指出．提高领导力的一个重要因素为沟通．通过加强信息沟通可提高领导对“事”的决策力、通过加强情感沟通可提高领导者对被领导者的凝聚力．进而提高领导力。     

Asset pricing and institutional investors with disagreements

We develop a dynamic asset pricing model with two institutional investors who have benchmark incentives and who disagree about the underlying economy. We derive semi-closed form expressions for all equilibrium quantities. We find that the benchmark stock price increases and the non-benchmark stock price decreases with the benchmark incentives. Furthermore, each stock price decreases with its own disagreement and increases with the other stock disagreement. We also show that there is a positive relationship between the co-movement of the stocks and the benchmark incentives, but that this co-movement is negative with the disagreements, owing to the endogenous risk-sharing mechanisms. Moreover, we find that, when one stock disagreement increases, the optimistic institutional investor always takes positions on this stock by shorting the other stock and the bond in order to hedge against the risk of market changes, in line with the pessimistic investor's beliefs.     

农业制度变迁路径依赖及创新

所谓路径依赖,是指在制度变迁中存在着报酬递增和自我强化的机制。这种机制使制度变迁一旦走上了某一条路径,它的既定方向会在以后的发展中得到自我强化。路径依赖意味着历史的重要性,人们对过去作出的选择决定了他们现在可能的选择。沿着既定的路径,经济和政治制度的变迁可能进入良性循环,也可能顺着原来的错误路径往下滑,甚至被锁定在低效的状态,陷入恶性循环而不能自拔。同时,路径依赖还常常将制度创新牵引到旧的轨道上来,使新制度中搀杂大量旧的因素,甚至成为旧制度的变种。