诗人之死的哲学沉思

海子--一位生活在功利的现实世界中的具有哲学家气质的诗人,在无尚的精神追求中与功利的科学精神发生矛盾与冲突,丧失了精神的家园,信仰荒芜而导致诗人自觉地结束了被叔本华称为"梦境"的人生.     

The Elasticity of Taxable Income: The Case of South Africa

A key tax policy parameter that has received much attention in the international literature, but about which there is substantial uncertainty, is the overall elasticity of taxable income. The size of this parameter is central to the formulation of tax and transfer policy, as well as for the study of the welfare implications of tax decisions. This paper uses a panel of individual tax returns for the period 2009–2013 and the phenomenon of “bracket creep” to construct instrumental variable estimates of the sensitivity of income to changes in tax rates. Estimates suggest that the overall elasticity of taxable income is approximately 0.3, while that of broad income is significantly lower. The overall response is primarily driven by the elastic response of taxable income for high‐income earners, who have an elasticity of closer to 0.4. Using the elasticity estimates within an optimal tax framework, it is determined that the optimal marginal tax rate for the top 10% of income earners is broadly in line with the current income tax schedule. However, results also suggest that there is little scope for raising marginal rates on high‐income earners further without inducing a negative revenue response.     

The importance of incompleteness

Kotaro Suzumura can be seen as the most complete social choice theorist the subject has ever had. No area of social choice has failed to benefit from Suzumura's penetrating analyses. Among the many important contributions made by Suzumura is the use of the idea of incompleteness of evaluation in his analysis of consistency, particularly in the form of what has come to be called “Suzumura consistency”. In this paper I explore the need for allowing – and incorporating – incompleteness of preferences in choice theory in general and social choice in particular. This is followed by a number of critical enquiries. Why is incompleteness important? How does it arise as an essential part of rational reflections? What are its implications (i) for prudential decisions, and (ii) for ethical judgments? Finally, how should making room for incompleteness influence theories of justice?     

The determinants of unemployment and jobsearch duration in The Netherlands

Summary This study investigates the determinants of individual unemployment and jobsearch duration and the size and direction of duration dependence in a proportional hazard model. New insights into the shape of the time dependence of unemployment duration are obtained using a semi-parametric baseline hazard specification in combination with a parametric (gamma) heterogeneity correction or with a semi-parametric heterogeneity correction. Registration data on unemployed individuals in The Netherlands in the period April 1987–May 1987 are used. For both sexes, the hazard rate quickly rises during the first five months, but then after the fifth month rapidly declines until the end of the first year of unemployment, not showing any clear tendency thereafter. Commonly used parametric specifications for the baseline hazard prove to be too restrictive. For men we discuss the influences of the regressors.We like to thank Simon Kuipers, Theo van de Klundert, Wiji Narendranathan, Mark Stewart and an anonymous referee for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper     

The uses of theory

Abstract

This textbook on methodology and theory for economic and social historians is designed for use at a variety of educational levels, and assumes that it is to be deployed in conjunction with supplementary reading. The book consists of fifteen selected methodological articles by various authors, arranged in eight chapters, each including an introduction and commentary by Adamson, with a number of exercises.     

The ideology of unemployment

Summary The views on unemployment, its significance, its causes and its possible remedies are manifold and ideologically loaded. The author's plea is for a cool approach, that is, for the building and the testing of empirical models. But he also enumerates a number of ideological elements in the art of model building; in particular the influence of profits is difficult to ascertain quantitively. This leads to beliefs and to room for ideology. The author singles out five elasticities that he considers to be key parameters; research work should concentrate on estimating these five elasticities.     

The Assessment: The Economics of Sport

The study of sports economics has expanded rapidly in recentyears in response to significantly increased demand–forsport itself, for economic analysis relevant to commercial litigationin sport, for lively teaching material in schools and universities,and for research into the incentive properties of sporting contests.While much of the literature has focused on the issue of competitivebalance and how to achieve it, there have still been relativelyfew studies that apply the lessons of the economic theory ofcontests to the analysis of sports. There remain huge opportunitiesboth to develop our theoretical understanding of incentive mechanismsin sport and to conduct empirical research in the operationof incentives in sporting contests.     

跨国公司国际研发的新趋势与发展中国家的对策

跨国公司作为全球经济的发动机，依然是国际研发的主体。但是，随着经济全球化的不断深入发展，跨国公司的国际研发也出现了新的发展趋势，跨国公司在发展中国家的研发投入日益增加，给发展中国家带来了机遇和挑战。本文认为，发展中国家在积极吸引跨国公司研发投资的同时，应该趋利避害，发展本国的经济。     

The Revenue–Expenditure Nexus: The Experience of 13 African Countries

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to investigate the causal relationship between government revenue and government expenditure for 13 African countries within a multivariate framework using a modified version of the Granger causality test due to Toda and Yamamoto (1995) . The empirical evidence suggests that there was a bi‐directional causality running between expenditure and revenue for Mauritius, Swaziland and Zimbabwe; no causality in any direction for Botswana, Burundi and Rwanda; unidirectional causality running from revenue to expenditure for Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Mali and Zambia; and a uni‐directional causality running from expenditure to revenue for Burkina Faso only.     

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 law of trademarks in India

A law for the registration of trademarks was first enacted in India in 1940. This was replaced by the Trade and Merchandise Marks Act, 1958, which is now in force. This placed the trademarks Registry and the Patent Office under a common head. The trademarks Register is divided into two parts, distinctive marks being registered in Part A and marks capable of distinguishing in Part B. There is also provision for defensive registration. The duration of registration is 7 yr but may be renewed. There are provisions for preventing trafficking in trademarks. Permission of the Central Government is necessary for registration as a registered user. Civil, and sometimes criminal, proceedings can be initiated for infringement.     

The economics of university research parks

In recent years, there has been a substantial increase in publicand private investment in university research parks (URPs).URPs are important as an infrastructural mechanism for the transferof academic research findings, as a source of knowledge spillovers,and as a catalyst for national and regional economic growth.We present international evidence on the growth of URPs, reviewthe academic literature on URPs, and outline an agenda for additionaltheoretical and empirical research on this topic.     

大数据技术创新的伦理审视——负责任创新方法论应用研究

大数据技术有了长足的发展,但是仍然存在技术创新过程中的不确定性风险,技术上的可行措施仍然不被用户所接受的问题。大数据技术的创新设计既应实现理想的社会和环境效益,也应当考虑到在未来应用过程中的风险。"负责任创新"是一种针对技术创新领域的伦理问题提出的理论方法,对研究和创新进程中综合的途径进行探索,为以大数据技术为代表的创新设计提供了方法指导和建议,对我国大数据技术的创新和应用具有重要的借鉴意义。     

中国的舌尖

一部荟集国传统美食之粹的专题片《舌尖上的中国》,没有预告造势,没有商业炒作,却奇迹般地一夜蹿红——它是那样强烈地激发起人们对于中国传统美食的相像力,几乎让全国的电视观众为之颠狂。《舌尖上的中国》并不徘徊于灯红酒绿的美食之都,几乎完全舍弃了国际级豪华大酒店的后厨,它的镜头总是在交通闭塞、人迹稀少的地域细细搜索,搜索那些即将消失的古老、原始和传统。它是一部土色土香、土得掉渣的中国饮食文化纪实片。而在这部极具商业价值     

The history of the city of Trondheim

Abstract

The study of ‘local history’ i.e. the history of particular towns and rural districts, has been much in vogue in Norway in the last twenty or thirty years and has produced some valuable results of significance for more general history. The initiative in studies of this kind, as well as the burden of financing them, has usually been assumed by the communities themselves, and it is natural that the purely local interest in particular events, institutions, and persons has had to be emphasized more than might be desirable from a more comprehensive point of view. Apart from this obvious limitation, there is a good case to be made for the study of social history in particular at the level of relatively small communities. The limited material and scope of such studies make it possible to go into greater detail in the analysis of social relations within the unit under observation and, equally important, to see a relatively complete social system functioning as a whole. When a series of such studies has been made, a basis is then provided for comparisons and generalizations which cover a larger national society.     

《红字》中丁梅斯代尔的圣经原型分析

纳撒尼尔·霍桑是美国19世纪杰出的浪漫主义作家。《红字》是霍桑文学思想和文学艺术的成熟代表,富有浓厚的宗教色彩。自从1850年这部小说发行以来,《红字》就引起了极大的关注并得到文学圈中的各种评论。本文通过对男主人公亚瑟·丁梅斯代尔的圣经原型分析,见证了霍桑的宗教特质及其对《红字》的描述。而文章的分析也进一步论证了《红字》这部小说中大量的圣经原型的必然性。     

The Economic Effect Of Competition Law Enforcement: The Case Of The Netherlands

Summary  In this paper we try to bridge the gap between the outcome ambitions of competition policy in terms of welfare gains and consumer surplus and the longer term effects of competition policy on growth and employment. First of all, an overview is given of the different definitions of welfare. We explain why maximising the consumer surplus is an important part of the mission statement for most competition authorities. In the second part of the paper we estimate the impact of the introduction of the competition law on economic development. The effects of antitrust policies, merger control and energy regulation on the consumer surplus appear substantial. This increase in consumer surplus can be interpreted as a cut in the “market power wedge” which, from a modelling point of view, is comparable to a cut in the tax wedge. A model simulation for the Netherlands shows that the economy responded positively to this increase in the consumer surplus. We find that production has grown by an extra 0.5% and that employment has increased by 0.4% as a result of the enforcement of the Competition Law. The authors are respectively Chief Economist of the NMa and senior advisor at the Office of the Chief Economist of the NMa. This paper is the background paper for the presentation with the same title at the conference “Measuring the Economic Effects of Competition Law Enforcement”, held in The Hague, 17 and 18 October 2007. The authors would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions.     

The rise of consumer co-operatives

Abstract

In 1866 a Co-operative Society was formed in Thisted on the English pattern. It became the mother society of the Danish Co-operative Society Movement, in the sense that its rules and regulations served as the model for the Co-operative Societies which grew up rapidly after this time. In 1896, after a period of dissension and clashes, these Co-operative Societies succeeded in forming a central organ called the Danish Co-operative Wholesale Society, one of whose functions was to attend to the wholesale business of the Co-operative Societies. It is these 30 years that Preben Dollerup has made the subject of his ‘Social, Economic and Political studies’. This subtitle deserves particular notice. To a certain extent the studies are monographs which have been put together in an attempt to form a whole. This has been done with journalistic skill; however, it cannot conceal the fact that the investigations covering the first half of the period are generally more thorough and reliable than those for the second half. The general effect of the book is thus somewhat unequal.     

The Psychology of Billing

Contracting between tax entities and tax professionals occurs millions of times every year, yet little is known about the nature of these economic interactions. This study examines the effect of commonly occurring contextual factors on tax professionals’ billing decisions for tax research. These contextual factors are unrelated to the tax research itself and the time it takes to conduct the tax research, but we find that billing decisions are strongly influenced by the three non‐time‐related contextual factors that we manipulate. Initial client volume impacts amounts billed for tax research, with lower initial client volume resulting in higher per client fees. Further, we find that initial billing decisions serve as value billing benchmarks for unanticipated subsequent clients who benefit from research conducted for initial clients. As a result, subsequent clients are billed higher fees when they follow a smaller number of initial clients. We also find that client referrals are billed higher fees than nonclient referrals because professionals attempt to avoid making initial clients feel as though they have been treated unfairly relative to subsequent clients who would otherwise be billed lower fees. The results of this study are relevant beyond the traditional confines of accounting research—they are relevant to the millions of tax entities that contract with tax professionals each year.     

The political realities of African management

Amidst the outburst of concern for public management in Africa there is frequently a failure to distinguish among its components—policy-making, leadership, general internal administration and bureaucratic hygiene (accounting, procurement, the merit system, etc.). Each of these four areas is different in the importance that it has for project performance, the knowledge base that is available for improving it, and the way in which it is affected by African political and social structures. As a consequence those seeking to improve public management on the continent frequently are mistaken in the priorities that they establish and import inappropriate management technologies.