BANK CAPITAL FORBEARANCE AND PUBLIC POLICY

Recently, the bank regulatory agencies have adopted capital forbearance programs to permit some troubled agriculture and energy banks to operate temporarily with capital levels below the regulatory minimum requirement. In a world with federal deposit insurance and a lender of last resort, bank capital is no longer viewed by all depositors as the primary protector of their funds. Thus, they reduce their market discipline. Bank owners/ managers are likely to respond by increasing their risk exposure in an attempt to regain profitability. If they win, they keep all the gains; if they lose, the losses are passed on to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). A preferred policy is to require these banks to raise additional capital at this time or to be sold. Capital forbearance is forbearance of incumbent bank management/owners, not of bank customers.     

YOUTH ALCOHOL USE AND PUBLIC POLICY

This paper examines the frequencies of youth drinking and heavy drinking in 1982 and 1989 and separately examines the effects of minimum legal drinking ages and beer excise taxes for each year. In both years, drinking is responsive to price changes resulting from higher excise taxes. However, the price sensitivity of youth alcohol use fell after states changed to a uniform minimum legal drinking age of 21 .     

CRIME, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, AND LABOR FORCE WITHDRAWAL

This article explores the links between self-admitted drug dealing and labor force behavior to determine if and/or how returns to employment influence the decisions by both blacks and whites to enter drug dealing. Using data collected on inmates in prisons and jails in California, Michigan, and Texas, this analysis concludes that black and white offenders vastly differ in their perceptions of criminal opportunities. But the dominant factor contributing to entry into drug selling, especially among black males, is unattractive market opportunities. One cannot determine unambiguously whether this results from the lure of drug dealing for its entrepreneurial attractiveness or simply results from crime versus employment choices. In any case, evidence presented clearly shows that racial differences in returns to employment explain most of the gap between black and white drug dealing.     

GROWTH, R&D AND WELFARE: THE ROLE OF PUBLIC POLICY

This paper analyzes the normative side of an R&D growth model in which market structure and growth are jointly determined in the equilibrium of a one‐sector economy under monopolistic competition. We find that a distortion in the allocation of R&D, namely the presence of technological spillovers between firms, generates two market failures: insufficient growth and excessive entry of firms. We show that this result is driven by the interplay between market structure and growth. A simple tax/subsidy scheme to support the efficient solution is proposed.     

FISCAL POLICY IN AN ENDOGENOUS GROWTH MODEL WITH PUBLIC CAPITAL AND POLLUTION

This paper studies the growth and welfare effects of fiscal policy in an endogenous growth model with public capital and environmental pollution. I assume that pollution is due to aggregate production, and that it does not have a direct effect on production but only reduces household utility. I study the growth effects of fiscal policy for the model on the balanced growth path, taking transition dynamics into account. I then analyse the welfare effects of fiscal policy along the balanced growth path. Finally, I show how the fiscal parameters must be set so that the competitive economy replicates the social optimum.     

西方国家区域规划公共政策属性演变及其启示

二战以后,西方国家的区域规划经历了由技术性控制向公共政策导引转变的显著过程,这是与其经济、社会发展条件及制度环境的总体变迁密切相关的。2000年以来,随着中国经济与制度环境的变化,区域规划的公共政策转向也已经成为一个现实的趋势。系统回顾了西方国家区域规划发展历程及其公共政策属性的演变过程,对不同治理理念下的区域规划组织方式进行了归纳;并以此为借鉴,对中国区域规划的未来发展完善提出相关的建议。     

中国城乡一体化评析及公共政策探讨

对城乡一体化理论、概念及其形成背景作了讨论,对我国一些地方实施城乡一体化的结果作了实地考察,在此基础上根据若干文献资料对我国一些地方实施城乡一体化的实践作了评价。并得出结论：从制度、机制角度提出的城乡一体化,在实践中发生了概念性误偏,畸变成了物质环境布局的一体化,结果未能收到预定成效,反而影响了地方的可持续发展。最后,提出了实施我国城乡一体化的若干公共政策建议。     

POLLUTION PREVENTION AS PUBLIC POLICY: AN ASSESSMENT

In recent years, both the public and private sectors have become increasingly interested in pollution prevention—avoiding creation of pollution—as an alternative to treatment or disposal. Observers cite a number of advantages for this approach, such as eliminating the problem of switching pollution from one medium to another and reducing environmental problems by avoiding pollutants in the first place. This paper assesses the advantages of pollution prevention and contrasts them with a performance standard that restricts pollution but gives businesses maximum discretion in how to meet the restriction. In most situations, a performance standard can be less costly and equally effective. However, pollution prevention may be more desirable in the case of nonpoint source pollution or when a pollutant affects a number of media .     

空间稀缺性--公共政策地理研究的一个视角

空间稀缺性是人类经济活动空间需求的数量与质量的提高与空间供给的有限性的矛盾。产生空间稀缺性的原因有自然原因和经济原因。人类在经济活动中发展了应对空间稀缺性的各种措施，如以技术进步应对空间稀缺性、通过空间扩展应对空间稀缺性、优化空间组合应对空间稀缺性、通过政府管制应对空间稀缺性等。经济地理学应该致力于空间稀缺性研究，并从空间稀缺性的视角发展公共政策地理学。     

BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL METHOD PATENTS, INNOVATION, AND POLICY

Court decisions in the 1990s are widely viewed as having opened the door to a flood of business method and financial patents at the US Patent and Trademark Office, and to have also impacted other patent offices around the world. A number of scholars, both legal and economic, have critiqued both the quality of these patents and the decisions themselves. This paper reviews the history of business method and financial patents briefly and then explores what economists know about the relationship between the patent system and innovation, in order to draw some tentative conclusions about their likely impact. It concludes by finding some consensus in the literature about the problems associated with this particular expansion of patentable subject matter, highlighting the remaining areas of disagreement, and reviewing the various policy recommendations.     

JOINT VENTURES, POLLUTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

We examine the impact of emission taxes on the pollution level in a duopoly framework with endogenous market structure. We demonstrate that an increase in emission taxes could trigger a regime switch from joint ventures to Cournot competition, causing the pollution level to increase. Such a phenomenon is likely to happen when the concerned industry is reasonably profitable, and the synergistic gain between joint venture partners is not too strong. Moreover, emission taxes can implement the first best outcome if and only if the industry is not too polluting. In case it is, the second best level of taxes may or may not equal the optimal tax under either joint venture or Cournot competition.