All entrepreneurial productivity increases are not created equal

We examine the impact of productivity increases in a setting where wealth‐constrained entrepreneurs are privately informed about whether their project will succeed with high (p_H) or low (p_L) probability. Not surprisingly, many productivity increases (e.g., an increase in p_H) generate gains for entrepreneurs and/or venture capitalists. However, some productivity increases (e.g., an increase in p_L) can generate widespread losses. Furthermore, entrepreneurs with low‐productivity projects can benefit more from policies that increase the productivity of high‐quality projects than from policies that increase their own productivity. Therefore, the design of policy to enhance welfare in the entrepreneurial sector can entail important subtleties.     

Black land in white Natal: Administrative constraints on land reform

Very little land outside of KwaZulu is occupied by black people in Natal. This paper considers the position of black people living in freehold areas and established urban areas in Natal.

The administrative structures that purport to cater for these areas embody both horizontal and vertical constraints on efficient social provision.

Land reform accordingly appears to offer little more than a worsening of the situation if implemented before these structural constraints have been addressed.     

Capitalization of local government grants on land values: Evidence from Tokyo metropolitan area,Japan

This study investigates the capitalization effect of intergovernmental fiscal transfers from central to local governments on land prices. Using a drop in the size number of fiscal transfers following fiscal reform in the early 2000 s, this study examines the extent to which unconditional fiscal transfers to municipalities in the Tokyo metropolitan area are attributed to land prices. The result shows that the decline in the transfer has decreased the land prices in the municipalities. Furthermore, reducing one unit in the per capita grant reduced the value of housing area per capita by one or more units, even if the real discount rate was assumed to be as low as 2%. Therefore, the fiscal transfer reform more negatively affects the benefits of residing in a municipality in the area than the reduction amount in the transfer.     

The impact of targeted partnership grants on minority employment

This paper assesses the relative impact of the major design components of the Urban Development Action Grant (UDAG) targeted partnership development initiative on minority employment in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area (PMSA). Data are drawn from records obtained from the Department of Housing and Urban Development of completed UDAG projects between 1978 and 1988 for the Pittsburgh PMSA. The results suggest that targeting geographic projects by leveraging private investment in a central city does not yield a significant increase in minority employment. Moreover, the geographic emphasis of UDAG projects do not exhibit an ability to increase minority employment. These findings support the benefit capitalization and ecological fallacy arguments, which propose that the benefits of targeted partnerships (i.e., employment) is shifted away from the original beneficiaries. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of these findings and directions for future research.     

The benefits of long-term developmental planning: an estimate

This paper measures the gains in social welfare achieved by implementing a series of five-year plans within the framework of longer-term, 10- or 20-year, horizons. We employ an econometric model of Czechoslovakia and optimal control techniques to optimize plan fulfillment over various time horizons. We find that most of the gains from long-term planning can be obtained by using a 10-year horizon; that long-term planning is more useful in periods of rapid structural change; and that one of the main benefits of long-term plans is the avoidance of the cyclical behaviour engendered by five-year plans.     

The death of land reform: A polemic

The ideology of land reform is separated by the author into two types of discourse: (1) historicists who seek to understand the dynamism of a development process, who see political action as confronting not only a structure of power, institutions and inequality, but also the forces which create, preserve and transform that structure; (2) technocrats who address themselves to governments and call for interventions in terms of administrative action, i.e. they seek to formulate a plan of action upon a static structure.The author discusses the implications of the two approaches for the issue of land reform and leads up to his own interpretation of the state, social classes and agrarian structure based on the belief that the removal of ‘feudal’ remnants does not necessarily lead to greater social equality. The transformation of the class structure is discussed in light of the above-mentioned ideologies. The author concludes that the issues at stake transcend land reform and argues that instead, they should encompass the quality and morality of political and economic relationships in society as a whole.     

The costs and benefits of inward investment: The case of Plymouth

Inward investment has long been regarded in the UK as the major method of restructuring the economies of depressed regions. The value of such investment has long been contentious. Those in favour argue that inward investment provides a number of benefits including the provision of good employment opportunities, diversification of local economies, demand for local raw materials, components and services, improved R & D and productivity and support of local communities. Those against tend to argue that inward investment provides the wrong sort of jobs in the wrong sort of production units and question whether many of the above alleged benefits are realised. This article examines these issues through a detailed analysis of the impact of inward investment in one city, Plymouth. The evidence suggests that the benefits of inward investment have been considerable though there have been some disadvantageous aspects. In any event, it is argued that there are no credible policy alternatives. What must be done is to increase the benefits by, for example, stipulating the local content of production.     

The military in politics: Who benefits and how

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the complexity of evaluating the political role of Third-World militaries and to underline the necessity of including many different kinds of information into analyses of that role.Four broad societal groups are identified which might be expected to benefit the most by some degree of military involvement in the economic and political life of a country: domestic civilian groups, the military as an institution, individuals within the military, and foreign groups. Some of the major reasons why each of these groups may favour a political and economic role for the military are outlined and examples are provided throughout of how these elements have operated in practice. The way in which the interests of the four broad groups may coincide is also discussed.     

温州鞋业集群的形成:进入壁垒是如何突破的

温州曾是中国东南部最为贫穷的地区之一。由于人多地少、耕地缺乏,远离大城市而且交通条件很差,同时很少能得到上级政府的财力支持,对于温州来说,经济发展所必需的条件似乎都不具备。然而,过去20多年来,温州却成为了中国经济增长最快、私营经济最具活力的地区。特别是温州制鞋业,从默默无闻发展成为了中国乃至世界范围内都有巨大影响力的产业集群之一。因此,温州制鞋业为我们深入理解经济快速发展背后的推动力量提供了一个很好的案例。本研究中,我们在温州调查了140家不同规模的鞋业企业。通过该项调查研究,我们得以深入了解温州鞋业集群形成过程中的创始资金、技术壁垒、制度壁垒等进入壁垒是如何突破的,同时也从中获得了许多有益的启示。     

The death of white sociology

The Review of Black Political Economy -     

中国经济——难心

既要保增长,又要调结构;既要调控房地产,政策又左右摇摆;既不希望经济下滑,又不希望发生通胀。说中国经济“两难”不如说是“难心”。     

Nature-based tourism on communal land: The Mavhulani experience

South Africa is experiencing a boom in nature-based tourism in which underdeveloped and previously marginalised homeland areas are not sharing. The aim of this article is to determine some of the crucial constraints which inhibit tourism in these areas, by exploring various tourism development issues based on insights gained from research undertaken at Mavhulani bush camp, a seemingly successful nature-based tourism development project. This venture is run on communal trust land in the former Venda homeland area.     

The question of land access and the Spanish land reform of 1932

Spanish land reform, involving the breakup of the large southern estates, was a central issue during the first decades of the twentieth century, and was justified on economic and political grounds. This article employs new provincial data on landless workers, land prices, and agrarian wages to consider whether government intervention was needed because of the failure of the free action of markets to redistribute land. Our evidence shows that the relative number of landless workers decreased significantly from 1860 to 1930, before the approval of the 1932 Land reform during the Second Republic (1931–6). This was due to two interrelated market forces: the falling ratio between land prices and rural wages, which made plots of land cheaper for landless workers to rent and buy; and structural change that drained the rural population from the countryside Given that shifts in factor prices were already helping workers gain access to land by the 1930s, the economic arguments for introducing reform at that time remain unclear.     

Perceived land tenure security in rural Xinjiang,China: The role of official land documents and trust

The role of formal tenure institutions in reducing land tenure insecurity has been long debated in the development economics literature. This study examines and compares the key determinants of perceptions of security of tenure over contract land and wasteland, two types of land that are characterized by tenure being formally and informally ascribed. The material is drawn from the Chinese region of Xinjiang, an ethnically heterogeneous region which has more complex tenure systems than elsewhere in China. Empirical estimations based on a survey of 352 households, complemented by interviews with key informants, demonstrate that formal institutions (measured by official land documents) do not significantly contribute to households' perceptions of tenure security on either type of land, and that both interpersonal trust and political trust significantly enhance perceived tenure security on either land type in our research area. The empirical evidence further shows that perceptions of tenure security on both types of land are more sensitive to trust towards village cadres than trust in villagers.     

税收公平原则在实务中的运用与分析

税收原则是税收制度建立、改革和完善时所要遵循的指导思想和基本准则。现代各国普遍认为,公平和效率是当代税收的最高原则。从我国社会主义市场经济的现实出发,税收公平原则主要包含以下两层含义:经济意义上的公平和社会意义上的公平。一、经济意义上的公平所谓经济意义上的公     

中国传统社会地权分配的周期波动

清代河北获鹿县编审册之地权分配资料显示：地权分配在康熙年间至乾隆初年呈逐渐集中之势；乾隆中叶以后，地权分配渐趋分散，前后形成周期性波动。这种波动既不同于俄国恰亚诺夫式周期，也与中国的治乱周期相矛盾。它是由土地市场变动及诸子分家继承制共同形成的，具有中国特色。