Adjusting an institutional framework to a globalising world: the creation of new institutions in the EEC, 1957-1992

ABSTRACT

This article explores the development of all new EEC institutions between 1957 and 1992 within policy areas relevant to the possible development of a European single currency. It argues that if most institutions created pre-1992 were not crisis management institutions as would be the case post-2008, some important institutions were created in response to the perception of a structural international banking/political/economic crisis, particularly in the 1970s. This comparison in time underlines the continuity of reflections about the missing elements of a functioning single currency area, the obstacles to reform, and sheds light on the radical institutional changes that occurred post-2008.     

Germany,the problem of leadership,and institution-building in EMU reform

ABSTRACT

This article examines the extent to which Germany has provided leadership in creating institutions to overcome the euro area crisis. Under which conditions does Germany act as a driver of institutional change, and what are the implications for the Economic and Monetary Union? Germany’s leadership record is mixed: while it took the lead in enhancing austerity, it refrained from fostering burden-sharing. As a result, EMU faces a persistent imbalance between enhanced institutions of supervision and insufficient institutions of financial assistance. Moreover, the article points out that current conditions for the emergence of German leadership in the euro area are unfavourable.     

区域经济一体化的理性选择--建立自由贸易区及其相关理论问题

经济全球化和区域经济一体化是当今世界经济发展的两个并存的重要趋势.区域经济一体化是指地域相邻近的两个以上国家,在国际分工不断深化和经济联系愈紧密的基础上,通过政府间谈判并以签署协定形式,相互采取比区域外国家更为开放、更为自由的贸易投资政策,并在体制框架和调节机制上结合成为经济合作组织或国家经济集团.其组织形态有南南型、北北型及北南型区域经济一体化.亚洲与其他地区相比,区域经济一体化的实际进展不大,真正称得上区域经济一体化的组织只有东南亚国家联盟.     

机关、事业和企业联动的“新养老策论”

文章针对2008年《事业单位工作人员养老保险制度改革试点方案》的若干不足之处,提出了机关、事业和企业三单位联动的养老保险制度改革方案。在明确新养老策论基本含义和内涵的基础上,分析了新养老策论提出的动因和背景,重点探讨了新养老策论提出的理论与现实依据,以及如何完善和实施等问题。新养老策论可以为我国特别是城镇养老保险制度改革提供重要思路和解决路径。     

Integration, Fragmentation and the Geography of Welfare

The welfare effects of trade integration with endogenous production technology are examined in a monopolistic competition framework. In addition to explaining industry location, trade patterns and accompanying effects on local welfare, the analysis highlights the endogenous change in the costs of supervising fragmented production when economies open up to trade. By regarding fragmentation as a skill‐intensive activity, factor proportions (rather than size) strongly affect the international distribution of gains from trade. Nevertheless, albeit not generally, for a wide range of parameter values, even a skill‐poor country can participate in the gains—despite loss of industry.     

论粤港澳经济一体化模式的新发展--深圳前海、珠海横琴与广州南沙的创新平台差异化分工合作

深圳前海、珠海横琴、广州南沙作为粤港澳深度融合的先行发展平台及制度创新试验区,在明确分工后开展了制度创新方面的探索。三个创新试验区一体化发展尚面临诸多亟待研究解决的问题,特别是区内外分工、合作与协调优化问题。从经济运行机制、政府职能转变和发展环境三个维度重新探讨了三地的跨区域差别分工合作和优化组合,并提出了政策建议。     

Natural gas,trade and sustainable growth: empirical evidence from the top gas consumers of the developing world

Natural gas is the key non-renewable source of energy for a low-carbon economy. The research applies heterogeneous panel techniques to investigate the impact of natural gas consumption on economic growth across a panel of top 15 natural gas consumers of the developing world. We establish long-run dynamics with cross-sectional dependence and heterogeneity across the sample countries. The long-run output elasticities suggest that the natural gas consumption and trade variables have significant positive effect on the output in a panel of developing economies. Further, we establish feedback relationship among gas consumption, output and trade in the short-run. Given the significance of natural gas as the low-emission source of energy, we suggest governments and policy advisers of these major natural gas consumers to focus on developing pipeline infrastructure for adequate supply, reforming natural gas sector with a competitive price structure to combat excess demand in individual natural gas market. With trade integration, majority of these countries need to incorporate these initiatives to improve the technologies such as combined cycle power plant technology and value-added chemical production technology to achieve sustainable economic growth.     

内需扩大、消费习惯与贸易顺差

通过在消费习惯的基础上,建立最优消费的跨时贸易理论模型,然后运用GMM、2S-2SLS对中国在1978-2009年间的消费习惯和对外贸易进行实证分析,结论表明:消费者的消费习惯在国际贸易中起重要的作用,习惯降低了持久性收入对跨时贸易的影响,延长了对外贸易顺差持续时间。消费习惯的影响,东部最低、中部次之,西部最大。消费习惯在降低净产出与贸易顺差负相关关系的同时,又扩大了前期贸易余额与贸易顺差的正相关关系。影响贸易顺差的因素很多,在不考虑其它因素影响下,消费习惯也是中国贸易顺差快速增加的重要原因。     

On structural change,the social stress of a farming population,and the political economy of farm support

A rationale for providing support to the farm sector in the course of economic development and structural change is a growing gap between the incomes of non‐agricultural workers and the incomes of farmers. Drawing on a model that enables us to analyze the level of social stress experienced by farmers as employment shifts from the farm sector to other sectors, we find that even without an increasing gap between the incomes of non‐agricultural workers and the incomes of farmers, support to farmers might be needed/can be justified. This result arises because under well‐specified conditions, when the size of the farm population decreases, those who remain in farming experience increasing aggregate social stress. The increase is nonlinear: it is modest when the outflow from the farm sector is relatively small or when it is large, and it becomes more significant when the outflow is moderate. This finding can inform policymakers who seek to alleviate the social stress of the farming population as to the timing and intensity of that intervention.     

Where they go,what they do and why it matters: the importance of geographic accessibility and social class for decisions relating to higher education institution type,degree level and field of study

This article considers the impact of geographic accessibility and social class on school leavers when making decisions relating to higher education institution (HEI) type, degree level and field of study. Using a novel and comprehensive Irish data set, we consider a number of joint decisions facing school leavers in relation to where and what to study and employ a range of bivariate choice models which allows us to control for correlations in these decisions. We find that geographic accessibility and social class play an important role in determining outcomes relating to HEI type, degree level and field of study. We argue that these decisions are important in terms of future labour market and other outcomes for school leavers and that current policy in Ireland does not go far enough in mitigating the impact of distance and socio-economic barriers on these outcomes.     

On the importance of institutions and forms of organisation in Piero Sraffa's economics: the case of business cycles,money, and economic policy

Abstract

This paper is based on an investigation of the Sraffa Archives and tries to characterise Piero Sraffa's approach to business cycles and economic policy. It includes two parts. The first part of the paper shows the importance of economic institutions and social conventions in Sraffa's contribution to economics and their relation with social conflicts. The second part of the paper shows how this importance permits to understand better business cycles and economic policy but also indirectly contributes to a re-interpretation of Sraffa's contribution to economics.     

人本绿色发展论——人类文明与大国崛起的绿色化指向、经验及任务

本文基于作者多年来关于人本发展经济学理论基点[1],以及最近完成的中国人本发展战略研究报告提供的实证研究线索[2],从大历史视界来看,结合当今绿色化发展的时代背景和未来走势,提出人本绿色发展观点,即认为人类文明进步,是以自由为轴心、不断提升人的全面自由发展的人本发展过程,是不断摆脱物质外在束缚、逐渐回归精神自由家园的绿色化发展过程。     

Comparison of deep integration in the Melitz,Krugman and Armington models: The case of The Philippines in RCEP

We estimate the welfare effects of a modern mega-preferential trade agreement--the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership--with three versions of market structure: (i) perfect competition, Armington style; (ii) monopolistic competition based on Krugman (1980); and (iii) monopolistic competition in the style of Melitz (2003). We develop a new numerical model of foreign direct investment (FDI) with heterogeneous firms and extension of the Krugman model that allows small countries to impact the number of varieties. We hold both the trade and FDI responses constant across the three market structures. We find that in all three market structures, there are substantial gains from deep integration, but virtually no gains from preferential tariff reduction. Both our Krugman and Melitz style models produce significantly larger welfare gains than the Armington structure, especially if third countries benefit at least partially from the deep integration reforms via either spillovers or wider liberalization.     

土地垄断供给、纵向市场关系与房地产价格——兼论基于价值链分析的房地产市场竞争促进政策

地价与房价之间并不仅仅是一种成本联系.土地市场与房地产产品市场之间还存在着纵向市场关系,在两个市场均为寡头垄断的情况下,则会存在着双重垄断加成的现象.与上下游产业之间的市场交易关系相比,垂直一体化和垂直约束同样是组织住房生产的有效方式,并有助于增加消费者剩余.此外,促进房地产开发价值链上各环节的竞争,消除其垄断行为,将是降低房价和增进居民福利的重要选择.     

Minimum wage,on-the-job search and employment: On the sectoral and aggregate equilibrium effect of the mandatory minimum wage

We study the impact of a minimum wage in a segmented labor market in which workers are at different stages of their careers. At the end of a learning-by-doing period, workers paid the minimum wage quit “bad jobs” for better-paying “good jobs”, following an on-the-job search process with endogenous search intensity. A rise in the minimum wage reduces “bad jobs” creation and prompts workers to keep their “bad jobs” by reducing on-the-job search intensity. The ambiguous impact on unqualified employment replicates and explains the findings of several empirical studies. However, a minimum wage rise reduces overall employment and output.