Financing Health Insurance in Asia Pacific Countries

The paper discusses models of health insurance, including compulsory (social) health insurance, voluntary insurance, and community-based financing schemes. It illustrates the features of these models in terms of coverage, funding, sustainability, payment mechanisms, public–private mix, risk protection, and cost-containment properties, and outlines some emerging challenges to health financing arrangements. Health financing systems used in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, ASEAN and China are discussed, and implications are drawn for the developing countries in the Asia Pacific contemplating health insurance reform.     

Microcredit games with noisy signals: Contagion and free-riding

The advent of microcredit financing has remarkably improved access to credit for the poor in many developing countries. Although several microcredit programs have adopted the joint liability scheme, economic theory suggests that joint liability could increase strategic default through contagion and free-riding. This paper aims at studying the extent of free-riding and contagion in joint liability lending. By using data from experimental repayment games conducted in Vietnam, with noisy signals that resemble actual microcredit programs, we found that subjects were motivated to free-ride under the joint liability scheme. While most empirical research in this area has focused on the problem of contagion, our findings point to the significance of investigating free-riding behavior under joint liability schemes. Analyses reveal that the free-riding tendency may be led by the irresponsiveness of repayment and shouldering behavior to the partner’s seemingly strategic default in the previous round.     

波兰农村合作金融的经验及启示

"三农"弱势性决定了发展中国家普遍存在农业及农村经济发展的金融支持难题。本文基于农村合作金融发展理论和发达国家成功经验,分析转型经济国家波兰的农村合作金融实践,对深化我国农村金融改革有一定启示和借鉴意义。     

关于加快我国科技型中小企业上市融资的思考

企业是自主创新的主体,只有建立起一大批优质的科技型企业才能推动我国产业结构调整和升级的顺利实施。本文首先分析了国内科技型中小企业的发展状况,并着重指出融资难问题已成为制约科技企业做大做强的瓶颈因素,之后运用SWOT分析模型详细研究了科技型中小企业在国内上市融资的优势、劣势,以及面临的机遇和威胁,论文最后提出了改革我国新股发行审核制度、完善上市公司监管体系和拓宽融资渠道三条针对性的建议。     

日本征地补偿制度及其启示

土地征收在我国引发了一系列的纠纷,其中一个重要原因是我国土地征收补偿制度的不完善。借鉴国外先进经验不失为完善我国征地补偿制度的一个途径,在这方面,日本的征地补偿制度为我国提供了启示。     

韩国土地征收补偿制度及其启示

我国土地征收补偿制度不完善是引发我国土地征收纠纷的一个重要原因。文章认为,借鉴韩国的先进经验是完善我国土地征收补偿制度的途径之一。我国的土地征收补偿制度,应完善土地征收补偿方面的立法;明确土地征收补偿原则;扩大补偿范围,改革补偿标准;构建多种补偿方式;完善补偿、安置方案确定程序,设立土地征收委员会;完善救济程序。     

Relief and reform in third world debt

This paper reviews the debt problem and argues that there is a need for wider financial reforms as well as debt relief. North-South dispute is best resolved through the development of agreed rules governing both debt relief and balance-of-payments financing for exogenously created shocks. The poorest countries require both debt relief and increased finance. Improved compensatory finance, more liberal supplementary finance and conditional repayment arrangements are recommended for all. The terms of new arrangements should be applied retroactively as debt relief. A new issue of special drawing rights is advocated for the financing of these relief and reform proposals.     

North-South multipliers

This paper describes multiplier (magnifier) effects in the impact of growthof industrial countries on growth, exports and terms of trade of developing countries. The data are mainly derived from World Bank projections for the 1980s. This is supplemented by historical data on the effects of the slow-down in 1973–1980 compared with previous years, provided by the IMF. The overall multiplier effect on LDC growth has been prevented by compensatory action (mainly rapid expansion of commercial bank lending) but only at the cost of rapidly increasing debt burdens - a postponement rather than a solution of the problem.     

资本结构影响因素之跨国研究

根据Fan、Twist和Titman对39个国家(包括发达国家和发展中国家)资本结构和债务期限选择的研究,他们指出企业融资决策的决定因素是远远不像以前的调查文献中所讨论的那样。在这些文献基础上,本文选择对四个最重要的因素进行讨论。作者运用了相关原理对税收制度,信息不对称,法律制度,消费者偏好这四个因素进行了详细分析。     

嵌入、脱嵌与再嵌入:社会资本视角下中国企业“学习型FDI”的演化路径分析

现有研究中关于发展中国家向发达国家进行逆向直接投资的理论忽略了组织与组织间层面的研究以及对企业生存和发展的战略资产———社会资本的探讨。本文在现有研究基础上,从社会资本的视角出发,在克服现有研究存在单一层面的局限性的基础上,综合运用个体、组织和产业三个层面,采用典型案例剖析的分析方法,在对中国彩电行业的代表性企业海信集团进行案例分析的基础上,对中国跨国公司学习型FDI演化路径进行归纳和分析,试图为发展中国家向发达国家进行的学习型FDI活动提供一个新的理论解释。通过研究,本文发现:跨国公司进行学习型FDI活动过程中,在个体层面的"嵌入"与单一组织层面的"脱嵌"后,作为产业层面的多组织系统则出现"再嵌入"到世界网络体系的行为,并且在这个演化过程中,社会资本所产生的效应具有明显的差异性。最后,本文的创新之处和理论贡献在于进一步补充和丰富了发展中国家的逆向直接投资理论,对当前中国企业进行的海外投资实践具有一定的理论和实践指导意义。     

Commercial bank lending to developing countries: Supply constraints

Middle-income developing countries rely heavily on commercial bank borrowing for the bulk of their financing requirements, but borrowing from this source cannot be projected with confidence. Privately owned financial institutions are subject to a number of capital and regulatory constraints which can adversely affect (will heavily influence) the level and direction of future lending to developing countries. Moreover, the volatility and short-term character of commercial bank lending suggests an urgent need to reduce the role of commercial banks in recycling the OECD and OPEC surplus, and to create new mechanisms designed to ensure more stable and longer term sources of capital to developing countries.     

Toward a global effort to protect the earth's biological diversity

The preservation of biological diversity is discussed from a global perspective, with a focus on tropical deforestation. Economic issues in tropical deforestation, market failure, and the costs and benefits of preserving biological diversity are surveyed. It is found using a straightforward economic model based on the cost-benefit criterion that industrialized countries can realize “gains-from-trade” by financing preservation of biological diversity in tropical developing countries. This provides a strictly economic rationale for the introduction of an international system to transfer funds for the protection of biological diversity in developing countries.     

Investing in development: Lessons of World Bank experience∗

This article comes from a book entitled Investing in Development: Lessons of World Bank Experience. The book was written by Warren C Baum and Stokes M Tolbert with the participation of a number of other World Bank staff members and several consultants. It is intended primarily as a guide for officials and others in developing countries concerned with managing the use of investment resources. It seeks to synthesize and make accessible in one place some of the principal lessons learned by the Bank in financing development in its member countries. The book is not focused on the Bank's own procedures. Instead, it has the much broader purpose of providing guidance to developing countries in the areas of national investment planning and budgeting, sector analysis and management, and the selection, preparation, and implementation of their whole portfolio of investment projects, regardless of the source of financing. Over the years, the Bank has published a wide selection of materials on various aspects of its work. But this is the first time it has sought to portray in one volume the full scope of the investment process. We present here the book's final chapter, which briefly summarizes the highlights of the Bank's experience.     

Stock Market Development, Liquidity Constraint and Investment: A Case of Korean Jaebol and Non-Jaebol Manufacturing Firms in the 1980s

The Korean stock market experienced sudden growth in mid-1986. Since then, Korean firms have begun to rely on the stock market as a reliable source of funds. This paper analyses the change in financing behaviour after the 1986 Korean stock market development. Many researchers argue that in developed countries, the liquidity constraint binds a firm's investment decisions. What then is the effect of liquidity on firms in developing countries? These issues will be examined by using a Tobin’s Q model of investment. A total of 171 Korean manufacturing firms, both Jaebol and Non-Jaebol, are investigated for the 1980s. Most empirical studies have not shown an economically large and significant Q effect when cash flow is used in the model. However, empirical results here show that with a strong liquidity effect, Q is large and statistically significant, implying a moderate adjustment cost.     

Sectoral adjustment in government expenditure in the 1970s: The educational sector in Latin America

As a consequence of economic stagnation and the increasing difficulties faced by developing country governments in financing their budgets, it might be expected that the education sector in these countries would suffer cutbacks. On the other hand, in most countries the education sector has high political, social and economic priority and is therefore one of the more difficult sectors within which to make adjustments. This paper examines the experience of 18 Latin American countries in terms of how educational spending has evolved at each educational level during the period 1965–1978. A comparison is made of the periods before and after the adjustment of the 1970s. The authors evaluate the form that expenditure adjustments have taken and conclude with some remarks on the patterns which emerged.     

IMF-Supported Stabilization Programs and their Critics: Evidence from the Recent Experience of Egypt

The IMF-supported stabilization and structural adjustment programs implemented by Egypt in the 1990s were successful in meeting their objectives, and when compared with earlier attempts and the experience of other developing countries. The authorities undertook a sharp reduction in the government's overall deficit and its central bank financing allowing for increased credit availability to the private sector within a framework of a rapidly decelerating monetary expansion. Despite initiating comprehensive market reforms that significantly improved the environment for private investment, the response of the private sector has been disappointing. It is argued that until institutional, regulatory and political constraints are removed, Egypt will not join the group of high-investing and fast-growing economies.     

中外高铁建设的投融资模式比较研究

随着交通强国战略的逐步实施,有关高铁投融资的重要性日益凸显。对中外高铁建设的主要投融资模式进行归类分析,并从融资特征、适用范围、优劣势等方面,就政府融资、市场化融资和PPP融资三种模式展开对比研究。结果表明,国外在高铁项目的市场化融资和PPP融资方面积累了较为丰富的经验,相比之下,中国大部分高铁项目是以政府融资为主;尽管日本、法国和瑞典等国在高铁投融资体制方面具有一定的差异,但合理的公共政策规划保证了项目的正常运营,其成功经验包括鼓励地方政府参与、积极引进民间资本、注重盘活存量资产和改进风险承担方式;为推动我国高铁项目投融资体制创新,应拓宽高铁项目筹资渠道,完善高铁融资支持政策,建立高铁融资保障体系。     

The international environment for adjustment in developing countries

The international disequilibrium of the 1970s imposed on developing countries a burden of adjustment out of all proportion to their degree of responsibility for the imbalances incurred. The application of traditional stabilization programmes resulted, in a number of cases, in severe disruption of development. There was, moreover, a perverse distribution of the burden of adjustment, the poorest countries suffering most. A number of changes in international policy and practice are required to avoid a repetition of this experience. In particular, special provision is needed for cases in which deficits are largely of external origin, involving more adequate IMF financing at low conditionality so as to permit a stretching out of the period of adjustment.     

Seasonal Migration and Microcredit During Agricultural Lean Seasons: Evidence from Northwest Bangladesh

This paper investigates the interlinkage between microcredit and temporary seasonal migration, an issue which has been given little attention in the standard rural–urban migration literature. Seasonal migration due to agricultural downturns is a common phenomenon in developing countries. Using primary data from a cross‐sectional household survey of the northwest part of Bangladesh, this paper quantifies the factors that influence such migration decisions. Our results suggest that people with prior access to microcredit are more likely to migrate during an agricultural lean season. Furthermore, we find evidence of a negative selection effect between microcredit and seasonal migration, conditional on an individual's village of residence and observed characteristics. Our results have numerous potential policy implications, including the design of typical microcredit schemes for developing countries.     

Was the Asian crisis a wake-up call?: Foreign reserves as self-protection

Digging deeper into the self-protection rationale for holding reserves, this paper examines the empirical link between reserve holding patterns and crisis vulnerability, comparing the pre- and post-Asian crisis periods, and across different groups of developing countries. Analyzing data for 51 developing countries during the period 1982–2004, this paper finds evidence that the elasticity of developing country reserves with respect to certain crisis vulnerability indicators like foreign debt service and total external liabilities seems to be higher in the post-Asian crisis period, suggesting that policymakers’ precautionary responsiveness by holding more reserves has increased. Grouping countries according to their type of vulnerability (commodity, debt or sudden stop related), countries prone to sudden stops in capital inflows also seem to have adjusted their policies the most towards higher precautionary reserve holding. Furthermore, from the point of view of self-protection, China's reserve holding patterns appear consistent with what developing countries more generally seem to be undertaking.