You say you want a (Rose) Revolution? The effects of Georgia's 2004 market reforms

After Georgia declared its independence from the Soviet Union, it experienced civil war and strife for more than a decade. In late 2003, the peaceful Rose Revolution installed a new government that began a series of radical market‐liberal reforms. However, the effectiveness of these reforms was controversial. We offer a rigorous evaluation of these reforms via the synthetic control method which creates a credible counterfactual. Compared to the synthetic controls, we find that the reforms enacted after the Rose Revolution led to significant improvements in Georgia's social and economic development, albeit with temporary side effects and argue that this case provides some support for the effectiveness of rapid, multidimensional reform.     

Equity-settled share-based payments and their (strategic) use under asymmetric information

Share-based payments are of widespread use in today's economy. Consulting firms are increasingly accepting equity compensation for their services (particularly from startups) and many governments provide fiscal incentives to support this choice. Likewise, profit-sharing licensing is an on-trend business practice by innovative firms and patent holders when transferring their technology to interested adopters. This paper unveils strategic considerations according to which an agent/seller designs its optimal policy in regard to the equity share to request in exchange for its service, technology, or trademark. The model assumes a fringe of interested users/customers differentiated by both the support they need from the seller and the value of the underlying relationship; and also holding an informational disadvantage on their own type. Given the seller's cost configuration, equilibrium outcomes entail entering a profit-sharing relationship either with the high-type customers only or with all customers. Yet, in this case, equity-based payment claims are —for rent extraction purposes— common (i.e., not differentiated) across types.     

What women want (their men to do): Housework and Satisfaction in Australian Households

The time allocated to household chores is substantial, with the burden falling disproportionately upon women. Social norms about how much housework men and women should do are likely to influence couples’ housework allocation decisions and satisfaction. Using Australian data spanning 2001–14, this study employs a two-stage estimation procedure to examine how deviations from housework norms relate to couples’ satisfaction. The study finds that satisfaction is negatively affected by predicted housework time and that women’s satisfaction, but not men’s, is robustly affected by their partners’ residual housework time. When he exceeds housework norms, she is happier with housework allocations, but less happy in broader dimensions. The study suggests several reasons for the results, including that housework is more salient in women’s lives than in men’s, that housework generally is not a preferred activity, and that some degree of gender-norm conformity in regard to housework can positively affect women’s life satisfaction.     

From less promising to green? Technological opportunities and their role in (green) ICT innovation

This article aims to shed light on the role of technological opportunities for green innovation by studying the case of Green ICT innovation. We test whether firms active in low-opportunity technological areas are less likely to be innovative and whether they are more likely to change their direction of technical change. To do so, we construct a firm-level panel data set for the years 1992–2009 combining patent data from the European Patent Office with firm-level data from the German Innovation Panel (Mannheim Innovation Panel). The results are based on dynamic count data estimation models applying General Methods of Moments estimators. Our results support our hypotheses: firms active in low-opportunity technological areas are less innovative but are more likely to switch from pure ICT innovation to Green ICT innovation.     

论张家山汉简《算数书》的经济史料价值

张家山汉简《算数书》是与《九章算术》性质相同但年代比后者至少要早三个世纪的一部中国古代数学著作。《算数书》涉及的社会经济史料包括物价、关税、合资、贷息、亩产、地租、亩制、度田、纺织、米率、传马以及仓廪物资的管理等。尤为可贵的是,《算数书》所反映的时代为战国至汉初,而恰恰是这一段时期的相关资料非常罕见。利用出土文献和传世典籍印证这些资料,方知《算数书》的经济史料价值举足轻重,弥足珍贵。     

中国非正规经济(下)

三、非正规经济与社会流动 李明欢(厦门大学社会学系):劳动力市场跨国化和跨国的非正规经济 我要谈的题目是关于劳动力市场跨国化和跨国的非正规经济.从字面上看,这似乎是一个和本次会议主题有一定距离的话题,因为我讲的是跨国的非正规经济,而我们这次会议的主题是中国的非正规经济.那么,两者是否有联系呢?我想到一件事,大概是2001年吧,我到加拿大UBC,即位于温哥华的不列颠哥伦比亚大学参加一个学术研讨会.会上,一位加拿大教授在谈到跨国技术移民问题时,非常激动地挥着拳头大声说道:是千百万中国农民养育了比尔·盖茨!当时正是比尔·盖茨的微软事业如日中天之时,此言一出,全场一片唏嘘声,我作为在场唯一来自中国大陆的学者,感到强烈的震撼.     

Do economists have anything to contribute to the debate on urban sprawl? (and would anbody listen to them if they did?)

This essay explores reasons for the relative shortage of work by economists on the subject of urban sprawl. I argue that a correct economic understanding of the sprawl issue is difficult to communicate. Meanwhile, a simplified caricature of economic thinking on sprawl has emerged. It argues that decentralized, low-density development has been chosen by the “free market”, therefore the problem signified by the word sprawl does not exist. This argument, made in the name of economics but not always by economists, has served to polarize the detabe as much as to enlighten it. I propose an alternative understanding of the economics of sprawl that provides common ground for debate among economists, planners, and politicians. The author is associate director of the Center for Regional Economic Issues at Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management. In a prior life, he studied cost-of-sprawl issues for the New Jersey Office of State Planning. Thanks go to Rachael Callanan for assistance on this paper.     

A note on the robustness of Card and Krueger (1994) and Neumark and Wascher (2000)

This note adds to the discussion originating from Card and Krueger (Am Econ Rev 84:772–793, 1994) and Neumark and Wascher (Am Econ Rev 90:1362–1396, 2000) by re-evaluating their results using the semiparametric difference-in-differences estimator introduced in Abadie (Rev Econ Stud 72:1–19, 2005). The note addresses the question of whether the differences in the original datasets can explain the differences in their conclusions. Although we observe heterogenous employment effects together with the differences in the distributions, the results show that the original findings on the overall employment effect of a minimum wage are fairly robust and just slightly changed when the differences in the distributions of the observed covariates are taken into account.     

唐代屯田、营田费用与效益的量化分析——以官营粮食生产为中心

以往对唐代屯田、营田的经济效益缺乏量化分析,本文根据有关资料加以估算,认为在一般情况下,唐代军士屯田营田的平均亩产量若达5斗以上,其生产成本会低于同等条件下的和籴费用。比之长途转运所费,财政、经济效益均较突出。募民屯田营田的亩产量若不超过6斗,会导致入不偿费,经济效益较差,但与长途馈粮或高价和籴的费用比较,其财政效益仍相当显著。由于唐代屯田营田是政府组织的经济活动,具有较强的政治、军事的功利性,故其对社会经济的促进作用有一定的地区性与时效性。     

熙丰时期农田水利法取得的主要成果及其原因

农田水利法是北宋王安石当政期间颁行的第三项经济改革措施。学术界在肯定农田水利法立法宗旨的同时,对其实行效果则有不同看法。本文认为农田水利法实施后取得了良好的效果,主要表现在垦田面积的扩大、土质的改善、治水工具的改进、水利著作的出现、河流的治理等方面。按验制度、察访制度、考课制度、资金来源多样化等制度安排比较得当,获得广大民户的支持,为农田水利法的实施提供了较好的制度环境,这是农田水利法实施取得较好成果的原因。     

The effects of heavily indebted poor countries initiative (HIPC) on millennium development goals (MDGs) for education

In this study, we employ the difference in difference approach to estimate the impact of heavily indebted poor countries initiative on Millennium Development Goals for education in Africa. Using the World Bank data for the period 1990–2015, the studies further identifies other factors that contribute to the achievement of millennium development goals for education. For instance, because of HPIC, the level of the following education MDGs indicators increased: gross enrollment in primary school (21.69%), female-to-male ratio (8.68%) and primary completion rate (13.69). Our study also show that the probability to achieve the millennium development goals for education increases in: female primary education teachers; school enrollment in tertiary, private school enrollment; pupil–teacher ratio; control of corruption and political stability and decreases with increase in the rural population. In this perspective, government of African countries should promote governance, subsidy private schools and recruit female teachers.     

Wicksell's lecture notes on economic crises (1902/05)

The article brings to light Knut Wicksell's Lund lecture notes of 1902 and 1905 on economic crises. In these notes, written a few years after his book on interest and prices but before most of his published work on business cycles, Wicksell made an attempt to bridge the gap between monetary and real theories of crises. The notes are remarkable for a discussion of how partial overproduction is generalized through the credit mechanism and for an assessment and diagrammatic treatment of the controversies between Malthus, Say and Owen on general overproduction.