Commentary on "The Quest for Meaning in Public Choice" by Elinor Ostrom and Vincent Ostrom

ABSTRACT . The Ostroms have created a paper that goes to the very heart of the public choice enterprise. They suggest that we should conceive of the evolution of constitutional procedures and laws in analogy with biological evolution. One of the paper's central goals is to establish the logical foundations of political order. I take this goal seriously and compare explicitly the task of explaining order in biology and politics. In the case of biology, the task of evolutionary theory has been to give an account of why there are complex arrangements of genetic material called “organisms” (including humans, giraffes, and whales) rather than just a nutrient‐rich primordial ooze with no apparent structure. For the social scientist, the task is to explain why there are rules, structure, and stability in societies.     

Public Choice Issues in Social Regulation

The regulatory activity of government is now pervasive, acting like a tax and pushing up costs. Public choice analysis shows that producer and other groups try to capture regulatory control to minimise its impact. Deregulatory trends in the US have been accompanied by the growth of environmental and health and safety regulation both in the US and in the UK and Europe.     

No Public Choice in State Education

Gordon Tullock, Professor at the Center for Study of Public Choice, George Mason University, USA, and one of the founding fathers of 'public choice' economics, applies it to the state provision of education to reveal how the public is denied choice. He exposes the logicai weaknesses of the arguments agoinst education vouchers from the Department of Education and Science.     

公共选择与会计政策选择博弈论

简要分析公共选择理念的界定,会计政策选择的本质特征以及公共选择与会计政策选择的关系。     

城市公共交通规划项目案例的评选与处理

近年来,高等学校工科专业课程的教学模式改革受到了广泛重视。以案例为中心的项目化教学,有助于激发学生的兴趣与动机、整合学科知识、强化实际技能,尤其适合工科专业课程的教学,以交通规划课程中公共交通规划的教学为例,介绍和分析了公交规划项目案例的评选与处理方法。     

Public Choice and Land Tax Fairness

Land value taxation (LVT) as desirable U.S. tax policy was brilliantly set forth by the American publicist and economist, Henry George, in the book Progress and Poverty, published 100 years ago. Economists concerned with state and local taxation have generally accepted the basic elements of George's analysis. The absence of substantial LVT legislation despite the economic efficiency and ethical strengths of land as a tax base arises from two sources. First, the public perception of land has not separated land's attributes from those possessed by other property. Second, land ownership data have not been gathered and publicized. Groups favoring taxes that promote economic justice and efficiency should support efforts to develop land ownership data. It would be an important first step toward fully utilizing the potential of LVT.     

Security: The Virtual Quest

ABSTRACT

Security and related contingency recovery plans ensure a business' survival when it is faced with potential information systems breakdowns. Its primary objective is to prevent a calamity from occurring and to limit the impact of destructive events related to computer-based information systems. Most disaster recovery plans, when put into effect, fail to serve the intended purpose. The value of a properly implemented security is to prevent external intrusions before they start, and have an internal recovery plan to restore service so that assets are not adversely affected.

This paper provides some insight regarding security as well as identifying some of the pitfalls or weakness in this part of an organization's communication network. Emerging technologies such as the use of biometrics, authentications, steganography, and data encryption used for security will be the focus of the paper.     

Quest for appropriate overcapacity in the fisheries industry

The effective management of natural resources is a critical issue that concerns many people with differing interests. This paper examines aspects of overcapacity and optimal capacity within fisheries by accounting for multiple objectives. Overcapacity arises when a fishing fleet is capable of producing more than what is demanded at the industry level, or allowed by a regulatory framework. The presence of multiple objectives within fisheries management is most often an unavoidable reality, where the objectives determine what level of overcapacity is considered optimal. A two-stage model is suggested that can produce information for management in terms of tradeoffs, policy frontiers, objective values and optimal fleet structure. In the first stage, an output-based Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model is applied. Efficiency is evaluated and production units transformed such that they use technologically efficient inputs and produce at their full potential. In the second stage, these transformed units are included in an aggregate industry model formulated as a multi-objective optimization program. The model provides information for managers in terms of tradeoffs, policy frontiers, objective values, and optimal fleet structure (by generating Pareto optimal solutions). The proposed model has then been applied to the Danish commercial fishing fleet.     

Instrument Choice: The Demand for Mortgages in Canada

This paper is directed at understanding the factors which caused mortgage demand to fluctuate to the degree witnessed in the 1980s. We model the mortgage choice decision as involving simultaneous options on both the term and the amortization choice, by cost minimizing risk averse borrowers. The model is estimated using a bivariate ordered probit methodology. An extensive database containing details on the financial and demographic characteristics of households is used. We find that, contrary to the dominant model of mortgage demand, borrowers react to market conditions in a risk averse and cost minimizing manner.     

A Public Choice Analysis of the Evolution of Tort Law

Abstract . In contrast to the article by W. Harris, it is contended that in the area of product liability a rule of strict liability is not necessarily less efficient than a negligence rule and an analogy between product liability cases and lotteries is not appropriate.     

服从的意义

1976年6月27日,巴勒斯坦游击队劫持了一架法闰航空公司的大型飞机,并将机上105名以色列人扣押存乌干达的恩德培机场的候机大厅。为了解救人质,以色列特种兵展开“雷电行动”,长途奔袭吗下达。     

高覆盖率保障房建设的融资方式

高覆盖率保障房制度,是彻底解决住房问题的唯一途径.要建立这一体系,关键就是要解决大规模融资的问题.否则,覆盖率就无法提高,分配就不可能公平,保障房制度就无法持续,甚至引发社会问题.“先租后售”保障房模式,为大规模利用市场资本建设保障房提供了基础.通过发行资产担保债券(Covered Bonds),结合公积金制度,就可以为绝大多数新增城市居民建设保障房提供融资.为此需要对现有的制度进行相应的改造.     

对最优资本结构衡量标准的探讨

本文通过对资本结构研究文献的回顾和评析,试图探寻最优资本结构的衡量标准及其与企业价值间的关系。然后从企业价值最大化的衡量标准入手,分析得出在“利益相关者共同治理”的理念下,息税前收益代表了企业的价值,而其最优资本结构的衡量标准应是各种投入资本的加权平均资本成本最小。最后笔者对投入资本成本与企业价值间的关系给予了新的理解。