On fair allocations and monetary compensations

Summary In this paper we study fair division problems with the special feature that there exists only one transferable good that everyone likes. This good will be used to compensate some individuals for their differences in other non-transferable resources (like talents or handicaps). In this context we test the traditional no-envy solution and we verify that: 1) its ethical content can be a matter of discussion, and 2) frequently it does not select a non-empty set of allocations. We propose an extension of this criterion that partially solves the existence problem while also retaining the main ethical properties of the preceding solution.Comments and criticisms on earlier drafts by Ahmet Alkan, Marc Fleurbaey, Louis Gevers, Leonid Hurwicz, Mathew Jackson and an anonymous referee are gratefully acknowledged. Financial support has been provided by Spanish DGICYT, PT 90-0654 and Protocolo Aquitania-Navarra-Pais Vasco.     

论当前我国收人分配领域的几个问题

近年来由于收入分配差距持续扩大,使我国收入分配领域中的贫富差距、生产要素按贡献参与分配、部分先富与共同富裕的关系、效率与公平的关系等问题凸现,如何认识和处理这些问题,关系到我国改革和发展的大业,需要进行认真的探讨,寻求对策.     

构建效率与公平相统一的收入分配体制研究

我国改革开放以来,国民经济快速发展,社会财富大幅增长,人民生活水平总体上得到了提高.但同时随之出现了收入分配不公平、居民之间收入差距过大以及差距不断扩大的现象.为解决这一问题,关键在于处理好效率与公平之间的关系,实现公平与效率的统一与结合;在国民收入的初次分配和再分配中都要处理好效率和公平的关系,再分配更加注重公平;深化现有收入分配制度改革,建立效率与公平相统一的收入分配体制,缩小过大收入差距,实现分配公平.     

Altruism, equity, and reciprocity in a gift-exchange experiment: an encompassing approach

Considerable experimental evidence suggests that non-pecuniary motives must be addressed when modeling behavior in economic contexts. Recent theories of non-pecuniary motives can be classified as altruism-, equity-, or reciprocity-based. We outline the qualitative differences in prediction these alternative explanations yield in a gift-exchange game. We estimate and compare leading approaches in these categories, using experimental data. We then offer a flexible approach that nests the above three approaches, thereby allowing for nested hypothesis testing and for determining the relative strength of each of the competing theories. In addition, the encompassing approach provides a functional form for utility in different settings without the restrictive nature of the approaches nested within it. Using this flexible form for nested tests, we find that intentional reciprocity, distributive concerns, and altruistic considerations all play a significant role in players' decisions.     

“公平与效率之争”的根源、分歧和总结

公平和效率都有多种含义,这是产生\"公平与效率之争\"的一个重要根源.在现阶段,公平的内涵主要是经济公平,特别是收入平等;效率的内涵主要是经济效率,特别是经济增长.经济公平与经济效率的关系以及它们的相对重要性,是\"公平与效率之争\"的核心内容,由此产生了多种观点.这些观点在特定条件下都有合理性,它们之间并不存在绝对的优劣之分.改革开放30年来,我国的经济公平与经济效率组合发生了大幅变动,改善经济公平状况已经成为当前我国经济又好又快发展的内在要求.     

“Fair marriages”: An impossibility

For marriage markets [Gale, D. and Shapley, L.S., 1962, College admissions and the stability of marriage, American Mathematical Monthly 69, 9–15.] so-called fair matchings do not always exist. We show that restoring fairness by using monetary transfers is not always possible: there are marriage markets where no amount of money can guarantee the existence of a fair allocation.     

公平与效率视域中重大科研项目管理机制探析——基于电动汽车重大科技专项管理实证研究

从“十五”国家电动汽车重大科技专项实践的实证研究出发,分析科研活动中公平与效率的实现方式,认为公平与效率可以通过信息公开机制、竞争机制、第三方监理机制实现两者的和谐统一。     

在科学发展观下坚持效率和公平的统一

在收入分配领域,效率和公平的关系从根本上看是统一的。树立全面、科学的效率观,是落实科学发展观的基础。更加注重社会公平,有利于扩大内需、缓解收入分配差距和促进经济结构的调整,为转变经济发展方式创造有利条件。当前促进社会公平的重点,是落实初次分配的公平。在理顺分配关系的基础上,采取多种措施提高低收入群体的劳动报酬,并提高劳动报酬在初次分配中的比重。     

论“三层次”税收公平观与中国税收公平机制重塑

传统税收公平观存在明显的局限性,主要表现为考察的视野不开阔和涵盖的内容不丰富.所以,对税收公平的理解和判断,必须延伸到经济的、社会的角度,应当建立起包含税收的负担公平、税收的经济公平和税收的社会公平三个层次的广义的税收公平观,这样才能真正把握税收公平的全部内涵.根据这一思路,对中国现行税制的公平性进行了全面考量,发现存在诸多有悖于税收公平的因素,并提出了重塑中国税收公平机制的具体构想.     

Compensation payments for habitat heterogeneity: Existence, efficiency, and fairness considerations

Compensation payments for voluntary conservation measures have become an important tool for biodiversity conservation worldwide. Each year substantial financial resources are spent on such measures, particularly in the context of agri-environmental schemes. In Europe, a debate has started on whether this money is spent effectively. In response to this debate it has been suggested that a portfolio of measures leading to habitat heterogeneity be implemented. Although payments for heterogeneous conservation measures have been analysed in the literature, it has never been questioned that payments can be designed in a way that encourages enough land users to carry out each conservation measure within a portfolio of measures. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that such payments do not always exist. Moreover, in cases where payments for habitat heterogeneity exist the payment scheme may require overcompensation of the land users, posing a limit to both efficiency and fairness considerations.     

On the efficiency of fair trade

The first part of this paper reviews five major theoretical approaches that describe the fundamental causes of poverty, with particular attention to what these theories imply about government policy towards markets and the need for immediate poverty alleviation. Different causal theories have very different policy implications; it is difficult to recommend specific anti-poverty policies with making assumptions about the nature of economic markets and of individual behavior. The paper ends with comments about how to make these choices, arguing that the greater moral onus one associates with poverty, the more willing one should be to adopt less efficient strategies that do more to raise incomes among the poor. The interconnections between markets and social and political systems—which often disadvantage poor populations—suggests that some market regulations and targeted programs may be necessary to reduce poverty, especially if these can be implemented with minimal corruption and monitored for effectiveness.     

略论开发性金融与商业性金融之关系

开发性金融与商业性金融是一个经济体的完整金融系统中不可或缺的两吴,二者相互对称,彼此平行,是相互补充而非相互替代的,是协调合作的伙伴而非对立竞争的对手.这两种金融形态性质上的诸多异构性决定了二者在经济社会发展中扮演着不同的角色.为此,应在融资特征、资产匹配和经营目标等方面进行分析,探讨开发性金融如何能够弥补商业性金融的不足,并以微观和宏观双重视角研究二者互补与合作的实践意义.     

分配承诺、产权与经济效率

在政府分配的承诺可置信时,地方政府分权竞争的结果是资方获得了最大利益,而劳方的利益被忽视了。而当政府分配的承诺不可置信时,资方的投资生产激励会受到较大的削弱,社会福利会受到较大损害。关于中国经济增长奇迹的经济解释,文章认为:在改革开放初期,中性政府对经济增长起到了很重要的作用;而随着改革开放的深入,地方政府分权的竞争激励机制可能起到了更为重要的作用。产业结构与产权保护有着密切的关系,要使产业结构完成升级,拥有良好的产权保护制度是一个重要条件。针对地方政府分权竞争带来的问题以及承诺可置信性缺失,文章引入第三方规制和以权力配置作为一种可信承诺等两种解决途径,并指出了其不足之处。     

On Intersectoral allocations,factors substitutability and multiple long-run growth paths

Summary. This article considers a two-sector model of economic growth with “labour-augmenting” intersectoral external effects stemming from the aggregate capital stock. It is shown that equilibrium balanced growth paths with a non-trivial labour allocation scheme become available. A set of sufficient conditions for the existence of multiple equilibrium growth rays is provided and their determinacy properties are then characterised. Finally, examination of a parameterised C.E.S. economy illustrates the central role of non-unitary values for the elasticity of substitution in the multiplicity issue. Received: October 31, 2000; revised version: September 25, 2001     

Efficient allocations under ambiguity

Important implications of the expected utility hypothesis and risk aversion are that if agents have the same probability belief, then consumption plans in every efficient allocation of resources under uncertainty are comonotone with the aggregate endowment, and if their beliefs are concordant, then the consumption plans are measurable with respect to the aggregate endowment. We study these two properties of efficient allocations for models of preferences that exhibit ambiguity aversion using the concept of conditional beliefs, which we introduce in this paper. We provide characterizations of such conditional beliefs for the standard models of preferences used in applications.     

作为内生偏好的利他行为及其经济学意义

现代经济学与现代生物学对人性的看法相当一致,都把自利看作人类行为的基本前提。但来自桑塔费学派的最新研究证明,在人类进化的早期阶段,利他行为作为社会规范内部化的产物,在维持个人之间的合作劳动、有效提高族群生存竞争能力方面,具有不可替代的重要作用。我们在ESS(即“进化稳定策略”)基础上提出一个演化均衡模型,进一步解释了利他行为的进化优势以及合作剩余导致利他偏好内生的机制。     

On the set of Pareto efficient allocations in economies with public goods

Summary We examine the set of Pareto-efficient allocations in economies with public goods. We show that even if preferences are continuous and strongly monotonic, it need not coincide with the set of weakly efficient allocations. We then study topological properties of the Pareto set. We show that it is neither connected nor closed in allocation space. Furthermore, if the public goods are local, the image of the Pareto set in utility space need not be closed or connected. We provide two independent sufficient conditions for the closedness of the Pareto set. The results are directly applicable to private goods economies with joint production. Our results should be of interest for general equilibrium and mechanism design theory; where for example, the properties of the efficient set are important for proving the existence of an equilibrium and for the study of the properties of monotone-path social choice correspondences.We thank Hideo Konishi, Tomoichi Shinotsuka, Nicholas Yannelis and an anonymous referee for valuable comments on previous drafts of this paper.