Theorizing Ontology

Sandra Harding identifies a set of questions to which, she suggests, she and I would provide contrasting answers. In this short note I wonder if our differences are quite as sharp as Harding supposes.     

The enfranchisement of women and the welfare state

We offer a rationale for the decision to extend the franchise to women within a politico-economic model where men are richer than women, women display a higher preference for public goods, and women's disenfranchisement carries a societal cost. Men and women are matched within households which are the center of the decision process. We derive the optimal tax rate under two alternative regimes: a males-only enfranchisement regime and a universal enfranchisement regime. The latter is associated with a higher tax rate but, as industrialization raises the reward to intellectual labor relative to physical labor, women's relative wage increases, thus decreasing the difference between the tax rates. When the cost of disenfranchisement becomes higher than the cost of the higher tax rate which applies under universal enfranchisement, the male median voter is better off extending the franchise to women. A consequent expansion of the size of government is only to be expected in societies with a relatively high cost of disenfranchisement.We empirically test the implications of the model over the 1870–1930 period. We proxy the gender wage gap with the level of per capita income and the cost of disenfranchisement with the presence of catholicism, which is associated with a more traditional view of women's role and thus a lower cost. The gender gap in the preferences for public goods is proxied by the availability of divorce, which implies marital instability and a more vulnerable economic position for women. Consistently with the model's predictions, women's suffrage is correlated positively with per capita income and negatively with the presence of catholicism and the availability of divorce, while women's suffrage increases the size of government only in non-catholic countries.     

我国居民收入差距的短期变动与长期趋势

文章概述了近期我国收入差距变化的基本特点,指出相关政策措施对于我国收入差距的缓解起到了一定的积极作用,但应该看到,由于一些影响收入差距的深层次因素并未得到根本性改变,收入差距不仅改善微妙,而且其政策制度基础具有一定的脆弱性。所以扭转我国居民收入差距不断扩大的态势、改善收入分配格局,依然任重道远。     

The First World/Third Party Criterion: A Feminist Critique of Production Boundaries in Economics

This paper examines definitions of production boundaries in economics, explores the limitations of these definitions with respect to the inclusion of unpaid domestic labor, and considers the significance of such an exploration for feminist economic analysis. Margaret Reid's ''third party criterion,'' a definition of economic activity advocated by many feminists and one used to set the production boundary for most household production models, sets an implicit market standard for defining nonmarket economic activity and therefore contributes to the marginalization of such production. Similarly, production boundaries considered appropriate in third world contexts, such as those defined in the recently revised System of National Accounts, also use implicit market standards for defining nonmarket economic activity. A ''first world'' criterion implicit in such production boundaries defines nonmarket activity as work only if it would have been dealt with on the market in the first world; this results in the inclusion of some of the unpaid domestic activity of rural women on grounds which reinforce the exclusion of work such as child care and the preparation of meals in theory and policy. Feminist economists should beware the danger of recreating implicit assumptions and definitions which result in the exclusion of unpaid domestic labor.     

城市化、城市倾向的经济政策与城乡收入差距

基于 1 987— 2 0 0 1年间省级面板数据的估计结果显示 ,城市化对降低统计上的城乡收入差距有显著的作用。而地区间人口户籍转换、经济开放、非国有化和政府对经济活动的参与都是拉开城乡收入差距的因素。政府财政支出的结构也对城乡收入差距有显著的影响。研究结果表明 ,中国持续扩大的城乡收入差距与地方政府实施的带有城市倾向的经济政策有关。     

中国城镇贫困的变化趋势和模式:1988—2002

本文利用中国家庭收入项目(CHIP)调查数据,估计了1988—2002年中国城镇绝对贫困的变化趋势。根据CHIP调查数据所绘制的贫困发生曲线表明,不论把绝对贫困线确定在哪里,在该时期内中国城镇贫困都在显著减少。1988—1995年,收入分配不平等加剧,但此后基本保持稳定。分析收入和贫困决定因素的多元回归模型显示,教育、性别和中共党员等特征扩大了收入差异。来自政府反贫困措施的生活困难救助对减少城镇贫困影响很小。城镇贫困的缓解几乎完全归因于经济增长而非收入再分配。     

基尼系数组群分解新方法研究:从城乡二亚组到多亚组

本文尝试在程永宏(2006)的基尼系数城乡分解方法基础上,论证一种适合多亚组的基尼系数组群分解新方法。主要内容是:第一,分析了现有分解方法不完善的原因;第二,推导出不含交叠项的多亚组情形下的分解方法,摆脱了交叠项的困扰;第三,提出一个组间不平等新指标并论证其理论依据;第四,明确解释了分解式和组间不平等新指标的社会福利含义。     

INTRA-HOUSEHOLD INEQUALITY: A CHALLENGE FOR THE CAPABILITY APPROACH?

In this paper, the author examines the capability approach and how it applies in the context of individuals and families living together on unequal terms. The interpretations of agency, freedom, and choice in Sen's framework are analyzed from a feminist perspective, and the author suggests that these important concepts invite special attention in the presence of domestic power imbalances. Problems with the interpretations embedded in the capability approach are pinpointed and adjustments proposed. Drawing on the vast literature on household behavior in developing countries, the author argues that capabilities have a distinctly interdependent dimension. While the discussion of agency in the capability approach has been either normative or policy-oriented, exercises that seek to evaluate individual well-being should pay more attention to the existence of alternative types of power within the realm of the household.     

Household-level analysis of the impacts of electricity consumption on welfare and the environment in Cambodia: Empirical evidence and policy implications

Cambodia’s biomass consumption is the most dominant energy source at residential sector, and its use is mainly for cooking and heating which could affect health due to indoor air pollution. The biomass is mainly sourced from wood cutting and forest-encroachment that could impact the environment due to reduction of forest at considerable scale. By using the data 2015 of Cambodia Socio-Economic Survey, the study investigates the impacts of electricity consumption on household welfare, such as earnings and the school performance of children in the households, and further to investigate its impacts on the environment. The study found that household’s access to electricity with ability to spend on electricity consumption contributes to the positive household welfare effects and environment via a reduction of biomass consumption, and the more household spends on biomass, the more they are prone to sickness of lung problem. The study also confirmed the important role of human capital formation for the positive impact on the welfare and the environment. These findings lead to policy implications that would improve affordable access to electricity to ensure that all households can use electricity for their basic needs and productivity, and also to reduce the negative effects on environment.     

Multidimensional inequality with variable population size

Summary. We study inequality in a context of more than one variable by extending a celebrated result of Hardy, Littlewood and Pölya (1934) to the case of distributions with variable population sizes, whose individuals differ in many characteristics besides income. A new ordering between rectangular matrices, representing such distributions, is provided and characterized by convexity theory.Received: 19 October 2003, Revised: 7 September 2004, JEL Classification Numbers: D31, D63, I31.I am indebted to C. d’Aspremont, V. Dardanoni, G. Koshevoy, K. Mosler and especially J. Weymark and an anonymous referee for many useful comments.     

The Other Economy: A Suggestion for a Distinctively Feminist Economics

This paper briefly introduces the idea of the "other" economy. The other economy is concerned with the direct production and maintenance of human beings as an end in itself. An important characteristic of work in the other economy is that few productivity gains are possible. It is argued that the study of the other economy and its relationship to the market economy could form the basis of a distinctively feminist economics.     

Welfare-improving government behavior and inequality in a heterogeneous agents model

Government’s behavior is expected to be non-neutral in terms of impacts on both welfare and inequality. It is acknowledged in most literature that fiscal policy often involves trade-offs between economic growth and inequality.By applying an equilibrium model with heterogeneous agents, capable of exploring the relationship between fiscal policy variables and the endogenous cross-section distribution of income, wealth, consumption and leisure, this paper aims at assessing (i) the optimal menu of government expenditures as well as of (ii) their inter-temporal financing. These are key issues in times of fiscal imbalances and their correction is dominating the current (European) policy agenda.     

垄断行业工资改革的可行性研究——基于国际垄断行业视角

在垄断行业中,员工的工资一般高于其他行业,表现出收入分配的不平等.引起垄断行业工资问题的原因很多,垄断行业工资问题也对社会经济各方面产生着重要影响,导致公共福利受损,减少了劳动者的流动及其对人力资本的投入,加剧了社会收入的不公平.对于垄断行业工资所引发的种种问题已经受到社会各界的重视,各国政府已开始采取措施解决这些问题,把竞争机制等改革引入垄断行业.     

硅谷园区转型升级中的社会技术创新研究

基于“社会技术”分层思想,从产业模式、政策法规和社会气质3个层面研究“社会技术”在硅谷科技园由“追赶”向“引领”转型发展中的作用。硅谷园区转型发展中形成了以“风险投资”与“裂变式”企业生成模式为代表的产业模式层面的社会技术创新;以“移民制度改革”与“中小企业促进法”为代表的政策法规层面的社会技术创新;以校园民主运动为典型的自由化社会气质塑造。硅谷是世界第一个也是最成功的科技园区,硅谷转型发展的机制路径对我国具有重要参考价值。     

J. S. Mill on Wages and Women: A Feminist Critique

"J. S. Mill on Wages and Women" questions the common belief that Mill, despite his feminism, never suggested an end to the sexual division of labor because of his devotion to the concept of efficiency and other tenets of classical economics. A review of Mill's analysis of a competitive labor market indicates that he believed it to be fully consistent with women's equality in the workforce. In fact, in his works on women, it becomes clear that Mill was concerned that the logical extension of classical economic principles might lead to the commodification of domestic duties, including child rearing, a notion he evidently feared. Therefore, it was Mill's fear of, rather than dedication to, extreme allegiance to efficiency and unimpeded capitalism that limited his feminism.     

From Foster Mothers to Child Care Centers: A History of Working Mothers and Child Care in Sweden

The Swedish welfare state is usually considered "woman friendly." It treats mothers, including single mothers, as workers and offers them high quality public child care. Feminist typologies often use paid work as the lens through which to look at welfare states. Jane Jenson, however, proposes that we think seriously about care in typologies of welfare states. The aim of this article is to take the child care arrangements of working mothers seriously and the empirical concern is historical. While most people believe that the expansion of public child care in Sweden enabled mothers to become workers, it could also be argued- looking through the lens of care- that new public policies enabled women workers to become caregivers.     

家族信托设立影响家族企业创新投资吗

以家族企业创新投资决策为研究对象,考察家族信托设立如何影响家族企业创新投资,以及两者关系是否在不同成长经历的企业主之间存在差异。结果发现：家族信托设立有助于促进家族企业创新投资;在有过贫困生活经历的企业主中,家族信托与家族企业创新投资间的正向关系更显著。同时,相对于具有体制内工作经历的企业主,在没有体制内工作经历的企业主中,家族信托与家族企业创新投资间的正向关系更显著。研究结论可为理解如何激励家族企业创新投资提供新的研究视角和理论解释。     

供给管理与我国现阶段的宏观调控

本文针对中国现阶段宏观经济失衡的新特点,分析了宏观需求管理政策的局限性,在讨论供给管理政策特点的基础上,提出了在长期和短期经济波动调节中引入供给管理的客观性,同时针对中国实际,分析了需求管理政策与供给管理政策相互结合的基本原则。     

Will Deregulating the Labor Market in Australia Improve the Employment COnditions of Women?

This article traces the development of policies designed to reduce gender workforce inequality in Australia. In contrast to earlier centralized and collective approaches, current strategy is founded on individualism and direct workplace bargaining. The location of reform is now the enterprise, with direct bargaining replacing collective standards. Current policy developments have seen gender subsumed under market imperfections and family responsibilities. These policies will remove many of the safeguards of minimum pay and conditions for women workers, especially those who are most vulnerable. When combined with the growth of "nonstandard" jobs the picture is bleak for many workers, especially the low paid. The onus for corrective action now rests with individual employees and workplace managers, with trade unions being marginalized. The authors suggest that a continuation of the current policy will wind back the clock on the employment conditions of women workers in Australia.