A genealogy of the concept of merit wants

This paper proposes a genealogy of the concept of merit wants coined by Richard A. Musgrave in his Theory of Public Finance (1959). The concept of merit wants can only be understood as a complement to the concept of public goods. I suggest that Musgrave invented the concept to apprehend some considerations that have been left out in the process of consolidation of the concept of public good. The narrow definition of the latter could not account for important state responsibilities that have been asserted by many economists.

I attempt to reconstruct Musgrave's intellectual background. First, I select examples of arguments for state intervention from authors influential in Musgrave's formative period (J.S. Mill, H. Sidgwick, E. Sax, H. Ritschl, G. Cassel, A. Wagner). Second, I argue that the invention of the concept in the 1950s reflected contemporary concerns for redistributive policies. I show that critics of the New Welfare approach (G. Colm, A. Hansen, W. Heller, H. Bowen) have held similar views, which were also in line with the liberal policy spirit of the post-war era in the United States.     

Nudging Merit Goods: Conceptual,Normative, and Practical Connections

Abstract

Mainstream economics has traditionally maintained a respect for preferences and the choices that individuals make based on them. But recent advances in psychology and behavioral economics have led scholars and policy-maker to doubt if people make wise choices in their own interests. Based on this, libertarian paternalists endorse choice interventions—nudges—designed to steer people to decisions that will better promote their interests. However, the complex, multifaceted, and subjective nature of interests implies that policy-makers are imposing externally chosen interests for people’s own when designing nudges. In this sense, policy-makers are treating the interests they choose to advance like merit goods as described by Richard Musgrave, goals or ends that are explicitly judged by policy-makers to be worth advancing even if they are not ranked highly or chosen consistently by individuals themselves. This paper will make explicit the conceptual and normative connections between nudges and merit goods, arguing that nudges can be considered delivery mechanisms for merit goods, and recommending that libertarian paternalists abandon their claim to be advancing people’s true interests and instead adopt the objective theories of good used to justify merit goods.     

Institutional Foundations of Heritage Railways: The High Cost of Low Trust in the Preservation of Merit Goods

This article is an empirical inquiry into the nature and causes of the preservation and reuse of railway heritage from a comparative point of view. It addresses the question of why this heritage is not preserved in Andalusia (Spain). Railway heritage is a mixed good, as a public good requires either the public or the not-for-profit sector to intervene to ensure its preservation. In the case of a merit good, it is legitimate for the government to interfere with consumer preferences. The results suggest that three factors directly impact the preservation of railway heritage: (i) the quality of government, (ii) volunteering, and (iii) collective preferences. The first two factors depend on social capital as measured by generalized trust, while the third one is idiosyncratic.     

消费者信息处理方式研究综述:基于商品评价的视角

个体的购买决策被认为是一种信息处理过程,信息处理方式能有效揭示消费者将输入信息转化为输出结果的购买决策机制。本文从购买决策中消费者商品信息评价的视角,对消费者信息处理的具体方式、分类及其研究方法进行分析总结,以期为后续研究打下基础。     

中国扩大进口中高档消费品可行性分析

目前中高档消费品已成为消费升级的重要对象",十二五"规划纲要首次提出要适当扩大消费品进口。基于科学发展观、全球新竞争理念及全新开放战略的"顶层设计",通过对扩大进口中高档消费品的理念、福利及条件等研究与分析后发现,中国具备扩大进口中高档消费品的条件,扩大进口中高档消费品是关乎国民福利的重要举措。     

Normative and positive theories of public finance: contrasting Musgrave and Buchanan

This paper assesses James M. Buchanan's claim of following a positive approach in stark contrast to the normative approach to public finance of Richard A. Musgrave. The goal of this paper is to shed light on the foundations of modern American public finance by analysing one aspect of the methodology of its two most prominent fathers. I show (1) that it is difficult to distinguish Musgrave's and Buchanan's theories of public goods along the positive/normative dividing line and (2) that Buchanan's theory can also be considered normative. In the first three parts, I follow the Weberian methodological tradition in looking for value judgements in the theories, and by reflecting on the nature of ideal types. In the last part, I propose a broader interpretation of Buchanan's methodological stance within the academic context of the 1960s.     

代际公共品供给视角下的环境规制研究

从代际维度看,环境规制的成本主要发生在当代,其影响却超出了一代以上人的范围,因此,环境规制不仅是一种一般性公共品的供给,也是一种代际公共品的供给。由于环境规制的成本与收益在代际间的不对称,通常具有正的代际外部性,因而在现实中往往出现供给不足的趋势。     

Strategy-Proof Probabilistic Mechanisms in Economies with Pure Public Goods

Public good economies where agents are endowed with strictly convex continuous single-peaked preferences on a convex subset of Euclidean space are considered. Such an economy arises for instance in the classical problem of allocating a given budget to finance the provision of several public goods where the agents have monotonically increasing strictly convex continuous preferences. A probabilistic mechanism assigns a probability distribution over the feasible alternatives to any profile of reported preferences. The main result of the paper establishes that any strategy-proof (in the sense of A. Gibbard, Econometrica45 (1977), 665-681) and unanimous mechanism must be a random dictatorship. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: D70, D71, H40, C60.     

关于医院其他物资材料管理的体会

医院其他物资材料占医院流动资金的比例较小,相对于药品等高值、可独立收费的物资,其被关注的程度较低。为降低医院的运行成本,提高医院经济运行管理的效益,以保证医疗活动持续有序地进行,根据其他物资材料的特点,在管理过程中应加强其他物资材料的预算管理、建立物资统计分析制度、重视库存物资清查盘点管理等容易被忽视的几个重要问题。通过科学、规范的管理,使之最大限度地为医院各项业务活动提供必要的物资供应,发挥后勤的保障作用。     

国有垄断性资源产业与竞争性消费产业企业价值比较

本文构建了股权结构、市场结构和企业价值模型,分析十年横截面数据,证实了我国垄断和竞争两极并存、国有企业向资源产业集中的市场结构特征;得出资源产业的企业价值十年来迅速增加,并超过消费产业;发现股权和企业价值存在理论上的倒U型曲线,但资源产业的股权结构超过理论上的最优企业价值股权区间,而消费产业的股权结构低于最优企业价值区间,市场结构对企业价值存在负影响。本文政策建议是：政府降低对资源产业的垄断程度同时引入竞争机制、加强对消费产业的监管时增加集中度,促使我国的市场结构由垄断与竞争两极并存格局向垄断竞争市场结构转化,为技术创新提供最佳的产业组织形式。     

Strategic Complements, Substitutes, and Ambiguity: The Implications for Public Goods

We examine the effect of ambiguity in symmetric games with aggregate externalities. We find that ambiguity will increase/decrease the equilibrium strategy in games with strategic complements/substitutes and positive externalities. These effects are reversed in games with negative externalities. We consider some economic applications of these results to Cournot oligopoly, bargaining, macroeconomic coordination, and voluntary donations to a public good. In particular we show that ambiguity may reduce free-riding. Comparative statics analysis shows that increases in uncertainty will increase donations, to a public good. Journal of Economic Literature C72, D81, H41.     

公共物品的特许经营

公共物品性质使公共物品的提供和管理天然具有垄断性，公平和效率难于兼顾。委托代理制在解决公平和效率问题上仍然有缺陷。竞争性特许经营是解决公共物品提供的优化方式。     

公共产品供给中的“政府失灵”现象分析

公共产品是指消费过程中具有非排他性和非竞争性的产品。从本质上讲,生产公共产品与市场机制的作用是矛盾的,生产者是不会主动生产公共产品的。而公共产品是全社会成员所必须消费的产品,它的满足状况也反映了一个国家的福利水平。这就需要由政府来承担提供公共产品的责任。但是,政府部门在提供公共物品时趋向于浪费和滥用资源,致使公共支出规模过大或者效率降低,政府的活动并不总像应该的那样或像理论所说的那样“有效”。克服这种现象,有三种政策选择：（1）市场化改革;（2）宪法改革;（3）政府机构改革。     

中国农村公共品供给与农村财政制度创新

近年来我国以农业发展缓慢、农民负担沉重、农村社会问题突出为主要表象的“三农”问题,虽然原因是多方面的,但是农村公共品供给不力是其中最重要的方面。这就要求我们从公共财政学的角度科学地安排农村公共品的供给,进行农村财政制度创新。     

The Distributional Impact of Public Goods Provision: A Veil of Ignorance Approach

The "veil of ignorance" approach is used to consider the redistribution implied by different tax-benefit systems. Assuming a (hypothetical) ex-ante situation in which individuals lack any knowledge about their future income, redistribution from rich to poor can be seen as a form of insurance. Taking redistribution and insurance as synonymous, the analysis derives cases of redistributionally neutral systems of taxation and public good provision.
JEL classification : H 23; D 30;, H 41     

公共品供给中的政府责任

在公共品供给中,政府责任是提供它需要并且能够提供的公共品。需要提供的公共品是指在现有的资源技术条件下,达到社会效用最大化所需提供的公共品。能够提供的公共品是指征到拉弗曲线隐含的最大税收量所能提供的公共品。需要并且能够提供的公共品是指需要提供的公共品与能够提供的公共品中量较小的一方。通过比较政府实际提供的公共品与需要并且能够提供的公共品,可以评价政府在这一领域称职与否。     

节假日对消费者购买决策的影响——来自非季节性商品的微观证据

区别于研究我国假日经济的已有文献,采用零售扫描数据对消费者购买行为的假日效应进行微观实证研究,主要考察节假日对非季节性商品购买决策的影响。选取具有代表意义的非季节性商品的购买记录进行统计分析,发现其需求在节假日期间并没有明显增加;进一步通过异方差probit模型分析消费者的购买决策,结果表明节假日显著影响了消费者对价格的敏感度,但不同商品价格敏感度的变化方向并不一致。厂商制定节假日促销策略时应对不同的非季节性商品加以区分。     

Rewards and Sanctions and the Provision of Public Goods in One-Shot Settings

A burgeoning literature in experimental studies of the Voluntary Contribution Mechanism focuses on the ability of institutions that allow the monitoring, sanctioning, and/or rewarding of others to facilitate cooperation. In this paper rewards and sanctions are examined in a one-shot VCM setting that so far has been unexplored in the literature. The study finds that while some subjects are willing to reward and sanction others at a personal cost, the opportunity to reward or sanction is ineffective in facilitating cooperation relative to previous experiments in which a repeated game environment is employed. The study also compares behavior in an environment in which the imposition of rewards and sanctions is certain to an environment in which imposition is uncertain. The expected value of the reward or sanction is kept constant across environments to focus simply on the effect of uncertainty about imposition. Uncertainty does not change behavior in a significant way, either in the level of cooperation or the willingness of individuals to impose rewards or sanctions.     

知识产权保护与文化创意产品进口

文化创意产业被誉为21世纪的“朝阳行业”,在过去的十年间,经历了极为快速的发展,而知识产权保护与文化创意产品又有着天然而不可分割的关系。文章从知识产权保护的角度研究中国文化创意产品贸易,对于我国文化创意产业发展具有一定的现实意义。文章首先梳理了知识产权保护与国际贸易关系的相关文献,并报告了中国文化创意产品贸易与知识产权保护水平的现状,在引力模型的基础上,运用了18个发展中国家从20个发达国家进口文化创意产品的贸易数据,研究了知识产权保护力度对文化创意产品进口额的影响。研究表明,随着发展中国家提高知识产权保护力度,文化创意产品进口额也出现了增加的趋势。此外,文章使用了GDP和IPR的滞后一期作为工具变量以控制内生性问题,同样也得到了较为稳健的结果。     

村镇公共产品供需调查与投资博弈分析

增加农村公共产品供给对于新农村建设、和谐社会小康社会建设、提高农民生活质量具有重要的战略意义。根据村镇居民对公共产品意见的调查数据,从参与人、行动、信息、支付效用、均衡和战略组合等六个方面分析村镇公共产品投资博弈的特点和规律,指出村镇公共产品投资和供给不足的主要原因是预期效用不高、机会主义行为偏好和投资能力弱产生的非合作型博弈。提出增加村镇公共产品供给的政策建议。