Creating a Space where Gender Matters: Elinor Ostrom (1933-2012) talks with Ann Mari May and Gale Summerfield

Abstract

In 2009, Elinor Ostrom received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for her work, especially on governance of the commons. Trained as a political scientist, Ostrom embraced interdisciplinary research and transdisciplinary collaboration. Ann Mari May and Gale Summerfield's interview with Ostrom, conducted in fall 2011, illustrates the relevance of her work to feminist economics as well as her impressive accomplishments as the first woman recipient of the Nobel prize in economics and as a pioneering woman in academia. Ostrom died on June 12, 2012.     

Rationality, political economy, and fiscal responsibility: wrestling with tragedy on the fiscal commons

The continuing budget deficits and accumulating public debt that commonly plagues western democracies reflects a clash between two rationalities regarding human governance: one of private property and its conventions and one of common property and its procedural framework. Democratic budgeting creates a form of fiscal commons whose governance is subject to the tragic outcomes depicted by Garret Hardin (in Science 162:1243?C1248, 1968). To be sure, tragedy can be avoided as Elinor Ostrom (1990) explains, but only to the extent that the fiscal commons is governed in a manner consonant with Antonio De Viti de Marco??s (1936) model of the cooperative state. While the tragedy of the commons that results from this tectonic clash is an inherent feature of democratic political economy, that tragedy can nonetheless be limited through reasserting the conventions and institutions of a constitution of liberty.     

The Uncommon Insight of Elinor Ostrom

Standard economic approaches to the problem of overuse of common property resources have emphasized two competing remedies: the Pigovian approach of corrective taxation, and the property rights approach of internalizing externalities by means of assigning marketable property rights to individual owners with exclusive claim on the entire commons. Elinor Ostrom pursues a third approach, which is based on case studies of existing communities that have established successful and durable systems of managing common property resources. This paper discusses her work and suggests that economists with an interest in public policy have much to gain from becoming familiar with the work of Ostrom and her co‐authors.     

The role of the private sector under insecure property rights

It is well known that the so-called voracity effect can be observed in an economy with a weak property rights system. Voracious behavior is regarded as one of the excess uses of the common assets. In this paper, we seek to examine voracious behavior from a different perspective by introducing a new direction of capital flow: from the private sector to the common sector. A government mandates that all competing interest groups invest their private capital in the common sector to mitigate the effects of excess use of the commons. In this situation, we study how this capital flow affects the voracious behavior of the groups and the growth rate of the economy. The main findings are that, while there is no standard voracity effect, an increase in the contribution of the private sector into the common sector causes more voracious behavior and thus reduces economic growth. This suggests that policies designed to preserve the commons can lead to a harmful effect on the economy.     

政府补助、产权性质与定向增发

政府补助效果是学者高度重视的焦点话题。本文以政府补助为切入点，从一级市场、二级市场分别考察定向增发新股的定价效率以及定向增发收益背后的经济逻辑，并采用随机前沿分析法对2007—2017年间获得政府补助且实施定向增发新股的沪深A 股上市公司进行实证分析。结果发现：定向增发新股发行存在溢价现象，新股上市后也存在溢价现象，政府补助加剧了溢价程度，进而导致定价效率降低，且在国有企业中更严重；发行定价泡沫越严重，定向增发收益越高，同时政府补助对定向增发收益能产生积极影响，且在国有企业中更显著。路径检验结果发现：政府补助作用于定向增发收益可能依赖盈余管理、自主创新以及个股成长这三条路径。上述结果表明，政府补助可能被异化为操纵股价的隐形工具，导致政府补助效果“事与愿违”。     

Governing the commons: future directions for the Ostrom Project

Now, when longitudinal data are available or soon will be, it is important to carefully consider research strategies for the second phase of the Ostrom Project. I recommend a problem oriented approach aimed at answering questions and solving puzzles that have emerged in the last 25–30 years and a focus on the political dimensions of the commons. Reading Lin’s paper in this issue, I found her proposal valuable but too narrow. I suggest that the longitudinal phase of the Project should deal explicitly with institutions and mechanisms for solving conflicts among local participants over how to divide the costs and benefits of using common resources. I offer, as an illustration, a number of research questions that emphasize institutions in the policy and constitutional spheres rather than in the operational one.     

社会地位会影响企业融资约束吗?——来自A股民营上市公司的经验证据

本文从企业的社会性对经济性行为影响的视角研究社会地位对民营企业融资约束的影响。以2009—2018年沪深A股民营上市公司为研究样本,研究发现社会地位越高的企业面临的融资约束程度越小。将企业所在地区的市场化程度以及企业高管的金融背景纳入考虑之后,研究发现相比于市场化程度较高的地区,在市场化程度较低地区,社会地位缓解企业融资约束的效果更为显著;相较于拥有金融关联的企业,没有金融关联的企业提升社会地位更有利于缓解融资约束。且进一步研究发现,在市场化程度较低地区,没有金融关联的企业社会地位缓解融资约束的效果最为显著。这些结论不仅拓展了企业“社会属性”对其“经济性”行为的影响研究,而且能够为民营企业缓解融资约束提供有益借鉴,尤其是处在市场化程度不高地区,且不存在金融关联的民营企业。     

经济政策有效性的理论分析* ——以货币政策为例

本文在更一般的不完全信息情形下，以货币政策为例，分析了经济政策的时间不一致问题。结果表明，当私人部门与政府部门存在不对称信息，政府部门具有信息优势时，最优经济政策与私人部门所持有的关于经济状态的信念有关。从福利的角度看，当现实经济状态对经济政策灵敏时，政府部门有公开经济状态信息的激励；反之，政府部门则有隐瞒经济状态信息的激励。因此，在市场经济的顶层设计中，除政府部门需要建立相关经济决策咨询机构外，还要推动独立的民间智库发展，使公众逐步摆脱信息劣势。     

国有股权能够为民营企业带来好处吗?——基于中国上市公司的实证研究

民营企业家参政所产生的政治关联效应已受到广泛关注,但民营企业中的国有股权是否也具有政治关联效应还有待进一步证实.文章以中国民营控股上市公司为样本,研究了国有股权在民营企业中的政治关联效应和作用机制.研究发现:民营企业中的部分国有股权能够为其发展获取更多的经济资源与发展机会,因为国有股权可以依靠其与政府的体制关联为民营企业的发展提供声誉担保;与此同时,这些融资便利与经济资源能够进一步提升民营企业的经营业绩.文章拓展了公司政治关联领域的研究文献,为进一步全面理解中国经济转型时期政治关联对企业的影响提供了一个新的视角.     

Wage Differentials between the State and Private Sectors in Moscow

In this study the 1997 Russian Labor Force Survey is used to investigate wage differentials between the state and the private sector in the city of Moscow. Our analysis demonstrates that substantial differences exist between private and state sector wages. We estimate the gap between private and state sector wages to be 14.3 percent for men and 18.3 percent for women. We also find gender differences in wages. Men in the private sector earn on average 23.7 percent more than women. The gender wage gap in the state sector is even higher at 32.5 percent. In the state sector, wages for both men and women increase as years of tenure increase. But in the private sector this is only true for men; women earn no return to tenure. The probability of employment in the private sector decreases with age and tenure.     

所有权类型的激励效果与国有资产布局的关系

从不同所有权类型的激励效果出发,在社会福利最大化的约束下,研究了私有产权与国有产权在产业间的配置问题。基本结论如下:私有制下企业经理工作努力水平、创新投资、成本降低投资高于国有制下的水平,但私有制下的公共投资低于国有制下的水平:就某一产业来说,从社会整体效益来看,存在国有产权与私有产权的权衡问题;具体而言,当产业外部收益较大且产业重要程度较高时,应采取国有所有权形式,否则应采取私有所有权形式。     

基于循环经济、技术创新关系的理论研究

循环经济作为一种可持续发展的有效途径,强调在生态环境承受能力下的资源有效配置。技术创新则在突破传统经济学静态分析的基础上,研究经济增长问题。二者的联系不仅仅体现在生态化的倾向上,更重要的在于它们的理论基础、分析角度和解决问题的相通性。技术创新是发展循环经济的基本手段。     

“创新”抑或“关系”？ 儒家文化视角下社会资本与企业战略研究

在经济社会转型期复杂的外部环境下,中国民营企业如何在激烈的市场竞争中调整战略、获取竞争优势并谋求长期发展？基于儒家文化视角考察了社会资本对民营企业战略导向的影响。以中国私营企业为研究样本,发现社会资本降低了企业的资源约束,但也“绑架”企业持续进行关系投入,促进了民营企业的创新战略和关系战略。儒家文化则规制了这种作用,在一定程度增强了企业的创新战略并削弱了关系战略。进一步研究发现,竞争激烈的环境更容易激发企业的战略变革,但外来文化冲击导致的文化冲突削弱了儒家文化的影响。机制检验发现,社会资本通过缓解融资约束,从而支持了民营企业的战略投入。以上结果经过工具变量回归及一系列稳健性检验后依然成立。上述发现拓展了非正式制度下企业行为的研究,为解释中国情境下民营企业的战略行为提供了经验证据。     

Effect of Risk Aversion on the Incentive to Share Information

To the current state of knowledge the explanation of stock market behavior raises difficult theoretical problems. In this paper a critical review of the theoretical research on the issue is made. The traditional adaptive characterization of rationality is criticized, and it is proposed that a new theoretical framework, namely the projectual characterization of rationality, might be the right perspective from which to look at the thing. The empirical implications of this new approach, and its implications in terms of testable propositions are at the moment poorly understood, however; some suggestions for future research, both theoretical and empirical, are provided. [G14]     

Crossing the Great Divide: Ostrom’s Coproduction and the Economics of Aged Care

As the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in economics, Elinor Ostrom has attracted the interest of many feminist economists. Best known for her work on common pool resources, Ostrom made numerous theoretical and methodological contributions to economics, many of which are useful for feminist economists. This paper explores Ostrom’s work on coproduction: the active participation of individuals who receive a good or service in the production process. A particular focus is on how Ostrom’s model of coproduction might be applied and extended to capture the characteristics and circumstances of aged care. Data from interviews with women employed in Australia’s aged-care sector are used to inform a discussion of coproduction in aged care and the institutional supports necessary for successful outcomes. Key issues include the skills and resourcing of aged-care workers, and their authority to negotiate care practice with care recipients under current governance arrangements.     

On the Need for Gender in Dynamic Models

In this paper we emphasize the need for more theoretical research using dynamic models that include gender as a variable of analysis. We begin by summarizing some of the main observations characterizing fertility, gender, and economic growth. We then explore three types of theoretical models: one-sex dynamic, two-sex static, and two-sex dynamic. We conclude that more models of the last type – dynamic models that include gender in the analysis – are needed to analyze issues that involve both an intertemporal and a gender dimension.     

Do subsidies have positive impacts on R&D and innovation activities at the firm level?

In this paper we analyze whether and how “research” and “development” subsidies influence private R&D activity. Our empirical results show that “research” subsidies stimulate R&D spending within firms while “development” subsidies substitute such spending. At the theoretical level we find empirical support for the market failure argument that private R&D expenditure is best stimulated in areas where the gap between the social and the private rate of return to R&D is high. A policy implication is that technology programs should support research projects in the private sector in order to stimulate to more R&D.     

Marketising the commons in Africa: the case of Ghana

The recent surge in the marketisation of the commons in Africa – especially of water bodies – warrants careful political economic analysis. Three questions remain intractable: (1) Were there markets in the beginning? If so, how have they transformed and if not, how did markets arise and transform over the years? (2) what are the outcomes of such markets for people, their livelihoods, and their environment? And (3) how to interpret the outcomes of water markets and whether water should be commodified at all. For new institutional economists, water markets have arisen because of the inferior nature of Indigenous or customary systems which are incapable of offering precisely what water markets offer Africa: economic and ecological fortunes. Using an institutional political economy approach and drawing on experiences in Ghana, the paper investigates the social history of marketisation of the commons and probes the effects of marketisation in terms of absolute, relative, and differential/congruent outcomes as well as the opportunity cost of the current water property rights regime. The empirical evidence shows that markets have been socially created through imposed and directed policies. Some jobs have been created through investment, but such employment is not unique to marketisation and private investment. Indeed, the private model of property rights has worsened the distribution of water resources not only within different property relations in Africa but also between diverse property relations. Water markets have been responsible for much displacement and trouble not only for communities but also nature. Overall, there is no necessary congruence between the promises made by new institutional economists and how communities experience water markets. Tighter regulations for the use of inland and transboundary water sources might temporarily halt the displacement of communities sparked by marketisation of the commons, but only one fundamental change can guarantee community well-being: to regard the access to and community control of water as constitutionally sanctioned human rights and as res communis.     

Elements of the institutionalization process of the forest and pasture commons in Romania as particular forms of social economy

In Romania, the study of jointly owned property (dev?lm??ie) has been of great interest for social scientists during the different political regimes of the country. After the fall of the communist regime and after over 50 years of state ownership, the forests and pasture commons (ob?ti and composeorate) returned to be private property of newly established associative forms. This paper aims to identify and define the contemporary Romanian commons by reference to the general characteristics of social economy organizations. In order to achieve this and obtain a clearer view of the place of the commons in Romania's organizational environment, presentation of some elements of the commons’ institutionalization process after the fall of the communist regime is included. The data used for answering these two objectives comes from the analysis of a database comprising 328 questionnaires applied to board members of commons in Romania and various legal documents. The main argument of the paper is that the restitution process that led to the re‐establishment of the Romanian commons from public property to common private property—marked by hardships, conflicts, misunderstandings or faults—deepened the scarce knowledge of the political actors, general public and other stakeholders in regard to these organizations and perpetuated their unclear position in the organizational field.     

个体异质性与公共物品治理的关系研究

公共物品治理如何摆脱囚徒困境?研究者试图通过建立数理模型讨论个体异质性对公共物品治理成功的作用。梳理了个体异质性与公共物品治理的关系研究思路,基于前人的相关理论模型和实证工作,给出了公共物品治理中如何将个体间异质性纳入形式化讨论、并用经验现实予以检验的一个展望。