The Potential and Limitations of Self-Targeted Food Subsidies

Can self-selection ofsubsidized commodities be used as a mechanismto transfer income to the poor? Evidence from two self-targetingprograms, one in South Africa and one in Tunisia, shows thatalthough self-targeting can clearly improve the distributionof food subsidies to the poorest members of society, its powerto alleviate poverty and reduce income disparities is limitedby preference patterns, income inequality, and the size of theindividual subsidies. Self-targeting through quality and productdifferentiation can be a useful means to reform existing universalsubsidy schemes, but it should be considered a transitionaltool while the capacity for implementing more precise mechanisms is developed.      

住房、便利设施与异质性劳动力流动——微观机制与福利效应

通过构建住房和便利设施供给内生的空间均衡模型,运用人口调查数据和反事实检验方法,本文考察了住房成本和便利设施水平变动影响异质性劳动力流动的微观机制及其福利效应。研究发现:(1)住房成本随着异质性劳动力向城市集聚而显著上涨,但城市便利设施水平的提高主要得益于高技能劳动力就业规模的扩大,低技能劳动力就业增长的贡献并不显著;(2)住房成本上涨与便利设施水平提高进一步推动了异质性劳动力在城市间的流动与配置,反映在城市体系上,使得城市的规模分布分别呈现出扁平化和向大城市极化的特征;(3)就福利效应而言,住房成本上涨压缩了工资溢价带来的福利水平提升空间,但一定程度上缓解了高、低技能劳动力福利差距的扩大趋势;更高水平的便利设施促进了福利水平的提升,但也加剧了高、低技能劳动力之间的福利不平等状况。城市规模对上述福利效应存在放大机制。     

Measuring Housing Subsidies: Distortionary and Distributional Effects in the Netherlands

This paper measures the distortionary and distributional effects of housing subsidies in the Netherlands. Its broad scope allows us to discuss the results in the light of the main justifications for subsidising housing, i.e. the merit–good argument, external effects and the distribution motive. Our measurements reveal some patterns of subsidisation that seem difficult to justify on these grounds. This applies especially to the differences between subsidisation of rental and owneroccupied housing and between mortgage– and equity–financed ownership. Moreover, the inelastic supply of housing in the Netherlands entails that subsidisation has only a limited effect on promoting housing quality.     

Incentive Effects of Assigned Goals and Compensation Schemes on Budgetary Performance

This study examines the combined effects of two management interventions, assigned goals and monetary compensation, on performance in a routine task. It investigates the effects of assigned goals (four goal levels: low, medium, high, impossible) and three types of compensation scheme (fixed-pay, piece-rate and budget-based). A laboratory experiment involving 180 undergraduate accounting students showed that, in some circumstances, assigned goals dominated performance effects while, in other circumstances, monetary incentives played a major role. Over medium to high levels of difficulty, assigned goals had a positive and dominating effect on performance, regardless of type of compensation. When the assigned goal was low, however, performance-contingent pay schemes had an additive effect on performance, while at an impossible goal level, budget-based incentives had a negative effect on performance. Of the interventions tested, the highest performance resulted from using incentive-based compensation when the budget (assigned goal) was relatively low (80% achievable).     

政府补贴和国有参股对参与PPP企业外部融资的影响

政府补贴和国有资本参股是政府参与PPP(政府和社会资本合作)的两种主要方式。本文借助一个资本具有外部性的一般均衡模型来分析这两种方式对企业外部融资的影响机制,并进行经验验证。理论分析发现,国有参股的担保效应增加了项目公司对高杠杆的需求,提升了金融中介发放贷款的意愿,使金融中介接受更低的借款利率。政府补贴不影响项目公司与金融中介之间的借贷合约。项目公司外部融资所受影响会进一步传导至参与PPP的企业。因此,国有参股增加稳态时的企业杠杆率,降低借款利率;政府补贴则不影响杠杆率和利率。实证部分通过整合2014-2018年财政部PPP项目库数据和2010-2018年上市公司财务数据,借助PSM-DID分析发现,国有参股程度显著降低参与PPP项目的上市公司的借贷成本并提升其杠杆率,但政府补贴支出没有明显作用,印证了模型结论。此外,市场化程度更高的地区,国有参股程度对参与企业外部融资的影响程度更小。本文研究对PPP模式下如何减少政府债务风险以及控制债务风险向企业转移具有一定的参考意义。     

零售商市场势力及其福利效应

随着服务型经济社会的到来,以及零售产业内部诸如进入壁垒、规模经济和范围经济、产品差异化等促进零售商获得市场势力的产业组织因素的存在,零售商的市场势力将越来越大.如果零售商同时拥有买主势力和卖主势力,它可能会对社会福利带来负面效应.因此,需要密切关注外资跨国零售商的市场势力对我国社会福利的影响.     

政府补贴、财务冗余对高新技术企业双元创新的影响

高水平的财务冗余政策与创新战略相协调,对企业持续保持竞争优势至关重要。政府补贴作为企业获得的外部资金支持,是创新资源的重要补充。本文以上市高新技术企业为样本,研究财务冗余、政府补贴对企业双元创新投资的直接作用和互补作用。研究主要发现:较之于对开发式创新的影响,政府补贴、财务冗余对企业探索式创新投资具有显著的促进作用,财务冗余与政府补贴对激励探索式创新投资具有一定的互补作用;相对于国有企业,民营企业的财务冗余与探索性创新投资的相关性较弱,政府补贴与财务冗余激励探索性创新投资的互补作用更加显著。     

关税、配额与补贴：效果分析与政策取向

关税、配额与补贴是一个国家用来保护国内市场、帮助国内厂商抵御国外对手竞争的常用措施.由于保护机制不同,关税、配额与补贴对不同利益主体的利益再分配会产生不同的影响.因此,一个国家可以根据其要保护的利益主体不同采取相应的保护措施.     

Fiscal Decentralization,Budgetary Transparency,and Local Government Size in China

This article makes use of panel data for 31 provinces between 1985 and 2010 and specifies a dynamic panel model to investigate the determinants of local government size in China and achieved several conclusions: (1) the fiscal decentralization since TSS reform in 1994 has increased the local government size; (2) budgetary transparency has a U-shape nonlinear effect on local government size; (3) fiscal revenue is the important factor to drive the overexpansion of local government size in China; and (4) local government size has a strong dependence of past path.     

Uncertainty,Inflation, and Welfare

This paper studies the welfare costs and the redistributive effects of inflation in the presence of idiosyncratic liquidity risk, in a microfounded search‐theoretical monetary model. We calibrate the model to match the empirical aggregate money demand and the distribution of money holdings across households and study the effects of inflation under the implied degree of market incompleteness. We show that in the presence of imperfect insurance the estimated long‐run welfare costs of inflation are on average 40% to 55% smaller compared to a complete markets, representative agent economy, and that inflation induces important redistributive effects across households.     

The Thai Rural Credit System: Public Subsidies, Private Information, and Segmented Markets

Thailand has sought to increase farmers' access to credit bygovernment intervention. In 1966 it created a government agriculturalbank to lend solely to farm households, and beginning in thelate 1970s it required commercial banks to lend heavily in therural sector, either directly or by making deposits in the agriculturalbank. The result was an enormous expansion of credit in therural sector. But because formal lenders were either unableor unwilling to solve the information problems involved in thebroad range of rural credit transactions, the informal creditsector (which charged interest rates many times higher thanthe formal sector) continued to thrive. Using household surveysand surveys of moneylenders, this article provides a detailedanalysis of the ways in which lenders in the informal sectorhave solved the information problems of providing credit. Theauthors argue that the informal sector is competitive, and thathigh interest rates reflect high information costs, not thescarcity of funds.     

Insider Trading, Investment, and Liquidity: A Welfare Analysis

We compare equilibrium trading outcomes with and without participation by an informed insider, assuming inflexible ex ante aggregate investment choices by agents. Noise trading arises from aggregate uncertainty regarding other agents' intertemporal consumption preferences. The welfare levels of outsiders can thus be ascertained. The allocations without insider trading are not ex ante Pareto efficient, because our model differs from standard ones with negative exponential utility functions and normal returns. We characterize the circumstances under which the revelation of payoff-relevant information via prices—arising from insider trading—benefits outsiders with stochastic liquidity needs, by improving risk-sharing among them.     

Budgetary biasing in organizations: Theoretical framework and empirical evidence

The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of budgetary biasing behaviour. The findings are of both a theoretical and empirical nature. The theoretical results provide a framework containing two major parts: an explanatory model of budgetary biasing at the individual level, and an organizational model for budgetary biasing. In the empirical part of the study an attempt is made to test the usability of the framework in a relatively large firm with several profit-centers. Biasing action is found to be a result of an interplay of various inter-related factors. Overall, the framework is considered to provide a valid basis for trying to understand and interpret the budgetary biasing behaviour in the firm studied.     

The Effects of Regulated Premium Subsidies on Insurance Costs: An Empirical Analysis of Automobile Insurance

State regulation of rates is sometimes used as a means to make automobile insurance more affordable to consumers by restricting insurer profits and pricing practices. Incentive distortions arising from this type of rate regulation might lead to higher accident rates and higher insurance loss costs. Annual state‐level panel data for the time period 1980–1998 are used to investigate these effects, using empirical methods that recognize the endogenous determination of states’ regulatory choices. Results suggest that rate regulation that systematically suppresses (some or all) drivers’ insurance premiums is associated with significantly higher average loss costs and higher insurance claim frequency.     

Depositors' Welfare,Deposit Insurance,and Deregulation

We develop an analytical model to address the question of optimal deposit insurance policy and to examine the impact of deregulation on depositors' welfare and the soundness of the insurance system. We find that the optimal level of regulation depends critically on the functional relationship between risk and return. We show that in general deregulation of bank activities and/or of deposit rate ceilings will in volve tradeoff between depositors' welfare and the soundness of the insurance system. Our analysis also indicates that risk-sensitive premium and capital requirement schedules may not be efficient in managing the risk of banks.     

消费税对收入再分配的公平与福利效应——基于2017年中国家庭金融调查数据的分析

消费税因其选择性征收而具有一定的收入分配调节作用。随着社会经济发展水平的不断提高,不同收入群体因消费结构差异和"税负感受度"差异产生的客观物质性与主观感受性差异,是消费税调节职能与作用关注的重点。本文运用微观模拟方法和投入产出模型,使用2017年中国家庭金融调查数据测算中国城镇与农村家庭的消费税负担,评估2014年消费税改革效应。结果表明,我国消费税的家庭平均负担率为0.75%,具有累退性,对收入再分配起逆向调节作用;但征收消费税后家庭收入分布更接近帕累托最优,社会整体福利水平得到提升,其中,对农村家庭征收消费税后的收入平等性和福利效应都不如城镇。基于此,本文提出扩大高奢消费的征税范围、减轻农村居民消费税负担、适当降低高档化妆品税率等建议。