我国劳动力成本状况与中美经济关系

本文主要从劳动力成本的角度对中关经济关系进行了深入探讨,结果发现:随着中国社会保障体系的逐步健全、劳动力市场的不断完善、劳动力增速的放缓、技术进步和资本深化等多种因素的出现,中国的劳动力成本将会继续上升,加之人民币升值等不利因素影响,中国出口会面临严峻挑战.短期内,中国的相对低劳动成本优势仍然会保持,所以尽管美国经济发生衰退,对中国进口和投资会减少,这会减少中美贸易逆差,但不会太多.     

Government Employment and Wages and Labour Market Performance

Government wage, benefit, and employment decisions are not taken on a profit-maximizing basis, and have a substantial impact on aggregate labour market performance and unemployment. In a two-sector labour market model with free mobility of labour, an increase in government wages or benefits reduces private sector employment, and government employment is not an effective counter-cyclical instrument. Empirical tests for Greece confirm that the expansion of the public sector in the 1980s contributed to the deterioration of labour market performance.     

Temporary Separations and Firm Size in the German Labour Market

We estimate the duration of out-of-work periods in the German labour market from 1980–90 and their relationship with employment protection legislation. We distinguish between Employment Interruptions that are legally protected and ordinary Layoffs. We investigate the question of whether the size of employer has an impact on the choice of the type of temporary separation. We find that firm size does matter, in both the type and the duration of temporary separations, and we examine the complex re-hiring process.     

Government Size,the Role of Commitments*

We explore the hypothesis that long‐term commitments affect the dynamics of government expenditure. With the aid of a simple median‐voter model we interpret the pattern of increasing‐then‐constant tax rates observed in OECD countries in the second half of the last century: persistence of public expenditure and a lower bound on new interventions will push government size upward, and preferences of the electorate put a halt to this growth at some point. In this view, the fiscal policy variable is seen to consist of only a part of the total expenditure, the rest being predetermined by its past level.     

科斯定理、沉淀成本与政府反垄断

由科斯定理可知,在完全市场条件下,没有交易成本,依靠市场价格可以实现帕累托最优。即使发生了沉淀成本或资产专用性,因没有交易成本,至少可以实现帕累托次优。一旦交易成本和沉淀成本共同作用,市场很容易失灵,不仅为私人契约奠定了理论基础,而且还为政府反垄断提供了正当理由。尤其当政府反垄断本身又遭受交易成本困扰时,就会出现“反垄断失灵”问题,所以需要理性地权衡市场竞争和政府反垄断,以及确立政府反垄断的一般性市场规则在于降低交易成本和沉淀成本,对于完善和发展中国特色社会主义市场经济体制具有重大的理论与现实意义。     

政府消费最优规模对私人消费的影响研究——基于门限面板回归模型的实证分析

本文采用门限面板回归模型对我国1978~2008年间29个省份(市)的面板数据进行实证分析,以检验政府消费性支出在促进私人消费和带动内需上是否存在Armey曲线效应.研究结果表明该命题在我国并不成立,即政府规模扩张并不会导致政府消费对私人消费挤入(促进)效应的大幅度下降或者逆转.其主要原因在于改革开放以来,政府规模高于17.74%的省份(市)主要集中在西部地区(如青海、宁夏、甘肃、陕西、新疆等地),这些地区和省份的经济发展水平以及基础设施建设相对落后,而与私人消费呈互补关系的公共物品和服务相对较为匮乏.政府消费规模扩张并不会直接导致政府消费与私人消费替代效应的进一步凸现,从而使得两者关系在某种程度上仍然保持互补关系,这同时说明改革开放以来中国的财政政策在很大程度上是有效的.     

站在十字路口:政府劳动关系治理路径选择之争鸣

全球化背景下的劳动关系日趋多元、更加灵活,国内外劳动关系现状的变化对各国政府在劳动关系治理提出了挑战.国家对于制度供给、决策方向、治理路径的选择将何去何从,直接影响劳动关系是否能够向劳资合作、利益协调的方向发展.本文通过梳理六位国内外学者对这一问题的观点与研究,试图对政府治理路径选择问题做出一些启示性的解读.     

转换成本、网络规模与信用卡产业竞争策略比较

近年来,我国信用卡产业呈现出市场集中度逐年下降的趋势。信用卡市场的竞争融合了网络效应、兼容性及转换成本等因素,而在兼容性一定的环境下,不同银行的竞争策略往往不同。本文通过防降价均衡模型估计出2010—2012年我国九家上市银行的信用卡转换成本,并对网络规模扩张、转换成本定位以及竞争成效等进行分组比较。结果表明,股份制商业银行利用较低的转换成本吸引新客户,实现了更高的业务规模增长率;四大国有商业银行则利用高转换成本锁定其已有客户,并以高速扩张网络规模来竞争新客户,使其同股份制商业银行的业务规模增长率差异逐年下降。这说明网络产业中不同市场地位的厂商可将转换成本定位与网络规模扩张作为差异化策略,以此实现竞争优势。     

政府规模、政府支出增长与经济增长关系的非线性研究

本文运用面板平滑转换回归模型(PSTR),在非线性的框架下对政府规模与经济增长关系的渐进演变展开深入研究,并对可能引发两者关系结构性转变的警戒政府规模进行有效估算。研究结果表明,政府规模与经济增长之间存在着非线性关系,即随着政府规模的逐步增大,由于税负增加等因素的影响,使得政府支出增加所产生的负效应影响逐步凸显,而政府规模进一步扩大并超过警戒水平时,过度拥挤的政府支出对经济增长将由促进作用转变为阻碍作用。研究还发现,尽管我国政府支出增长与经济增长的关系参数值有所下降,但由于基础设施落后,公共物品与公共服务供给仍然相对不足,政府支出的增加仍有助于促进经济的进一步发展。     

An Empirical Analysis of the Impact of Government Tax and Auditing Policies on the Size of the Underground Economy:

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This study empirically examines the impact of federal income tax rates, IRS penalties on unpaid tax liabilities, and audit rates of the Internal Revenue Service on the size of the underground economy in the United States, Recent data generated by Edgar Feige are used to measure the size of the underground economy. Based on ordinary least squares estimates, it is found that the maximum marginal personal income tax rate raises the size of the underground economy. In addition, the size of the underground economy is found to be a decreasing function of both the percentage of tax returns audited and the penalties imposed by the IRS on unpaid taxes.     

Total Labour Requirements and Value Added Productivity of Labour in the Process of Economic Development

When the inverse of the value added productivity of labour is regressed on total labour requirements (which is equivalent to labour values), a significant relationship is obtained. This indicates that the value added productivity of labour can be explained by total labour requirements (labour values). The mean value of the regression coefficients is about 1.7. The regression coefficients have a tendency to increase during the process of rapid economic development and to decrease afterwards. Such movements are explained by value added linkages. This study is based on input–output analysis, where total labour requirements per monetary unit of output and the value added productivity of labour are calculated for each of 24 industries in Japan, Korea and USA, every 5 years between 1960 to 1985.     

Planning Feature The Forecast in Detail: [4] Focus: Unit Labour Costs in Manufacturing Industry and the Outlook for Price Inflation

The latest figures show that unit labour costs in manufacturing rose 8.9 per cent in the year to March, the highest rate of increase since 1981 (when costs were decelerating) and a sharp contrast with 1983 when, for a brief period, COSD were stable. In this Focus we examine how this development has occurred and consider its implications. We conclude that the recent figures represent a temporary deterioration in the costs of manufacturing industry and that, once output picks up again and as long as wages respond to the current low rate of inflation, there should be no severe adverse consequences on either inflation or output. If, however, costs are not controlled then the outlook for either inflation or output and unemployment is worse than our central forecast suggests.     

Discursive Rationality and the Division of Labour

A bstract One of the great achievements of economic science is the explanation of the benefits of the division of labour in market economies. However, despite its merits this utilitarian explanation is insufficient as an account for the widespread division of labour. This insufficiency stems from the normative shortcomings of the harmony-of-interests doctrine, which cannot justify the respect of private-property titles and. therefore, cannot explain on purely utilitarian grounds the fact that the division of labour is as widespread as it in fact is. Mariam Thalos has recently provided a partial solution to this problem by arguing that religious relief in God performs a public function that facilitates human co-operation. In critical elaboration of her thesis, the division of labour is explained by taking into account a different aspect of human reason, namely, discursive rationality.     

Labour and the theory of the multinational corporation

Here the author claims that despite the evergrowing volume of literature on multinational corporations little progress appears to have been made in understanding their effects on labour markets. This is reflected in the inconsistent and largely unsuccessful response of organised labour to multinational penetration.     

Firms' Stakeholders and the Costs of Transparency

We develop a model of a firm whose production process requires it to initiate and nurture a relationship with its stakeholders. Because there are spillover benefits of being associated with a "winner," the perceptions of stakeholders and potential stakeholders can affect firm value. Our analysis indicates that while transparency (i.e., generating information about a firm's quality) may improve the allocation of resources, a firm may have a higher ex ante value if information about its quality is not prematurely generated. Transparency costs arise because of asymmetric information regarding the extent to which stakeholders benefit from having a relationship with a high-quality firm. These costs are higher when firms can undertake noncontractible innovative investments that enhance the value of their stakeholder relationships. Stakeholder effects of transparency are especially important for younger firms with less established track records.