Measuring the welfare effects of tax changes using the LES: An application to a carbon tax

This paper explores the use of a parametric approach to the measurement of compensating and equivalent variations resulting from price changes. The approach is based on the application of the Linear Expenditure System (LES) to each of a range of household income groups, rather than being based on a representative consumer. The method is then used to examine the distributional effects of a carbon tax, designed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The price changes resulting from a carbon tax depend on the carbon intensities of each good, which depend in turn on the nature of inter-industry transactions (the input-output matrix). The use of transfer payments to compensate for adverse distributional effects of a carbon tax is investigated, using social welfare functions based on equivalent incomes.     

时滞产品生产的经济增长与社会福利分析

时滞产品生产所带来的负外部性 ,使厂商利益与社会利益往往不一致 ,时滞产品的生产导致经济增长率与社会福利的同步下降 ,并可能引致资本向时滞产品生产领域流动从而加剧其影响程度。在生产领域适当的政府调控是保障经济增长目标实现与社会福利提升的必然选择。     

土地政策调整对经济发展和社会福利的影响

构建了一个土地对社会福利影响的分析模型,并用天津市的数据进行检验。研究结果表明：（1）政府对于土地供应量的控制减少了均衡资本量;（2）严格的土地政策会使单位资本产生的福利量减少;（3）土地政策的适时调整能使经济发展沿着社会福利最大化的路径发展。因此,土地政策的制定应该以社会需求为导向,并通过适时调整以实现社会福利最大化。     

Social Employment of Welfare Recipients in Belgium: An Evaluation

In Belgium, welfare agencies receive a subsidy to employ welfare recipients for a period sufficiently long to entitle them to unemployment benefits. We investigate the effect of this programme on the exit rate from welfare. We propose a grouping/IV estimator of the programme effect that eliminates selection bias. The estimator is consistent, even if the selection into the programme depends on the average unobserved characteristics of welfare recipients in a region and in a welfare duration interval. Without correction for selectivity we find that the programme reduces welfare dependence, but after correction this conclusion is reversed.     

Welfare distribution of collective in-kind transfers in education: an application to the extended schools programme

In this study, we employ the distributional characteristics approach to analyse the welfare distribution of the Extended Schools Programme, a social programme that fights inequality in Northern Ireland’s public schools. Our main result is that increasing funding to schools as their size increases penalizes the most deprived students. This is because the school size, although related to the educational supply, does not reflect the distribution of deprivation within schools. Thus, although in the Northern Irish context the largest welfare gains are possible if funds are redistributed among middle-size schools, our general result indicates an excessive support of small-size schools at the expenses of large-size schools.     

能源消费对经济增长溢出效应的差异分析——以人均消费作为减排门限的实证检验

本文利用一个两部门的生产函数,建立了估计能源消费对经济增长溢出效应的计量模型。利用45个国家(地区)1980-2007年的数据,本文实证检验了当以人均消费水平作为门限变量时,能源消费溢出效应的国家(地区)差异。实证检验的结果证实了能源消费与经济增长之间存在非线性转换行为,具体来说两者有且只有一个门限值,当人均消费水平在门限值以内时,能源消费增长对经济增长具有显著的拉动作用;而当超过这一门限水平时,作用反向且不再显著。此外,本文发现超过门限值的主要是发达经济体。这意味着这些国家(地区)不仅从对消费者负责的角度应当实施节能减排,而且从减少对经济增长的负面影响看,也应当并且可以实施严格的能源政策。     

Integration, Fragmentation and the Geography of Welfare

The welfare effects of trade integration with endogenous production technology are examined in a monopolistic competition framework. In addition to explaining industry location, trade patterns and accompanying effects on local welfare, the analysis highlights the endogenous change in the costs of supervising fragmented production when economies open up to trade. By regarding fragmentation as a skill‐intensive activity, factor proportions (rather than size) strongly affect the international distribution of gains from trade. Nevertheless, albeit not generally, for a wide range of parameter values, even a skill‐poor country can participate in the gains—despite loss of industry.     

Economic gains from technology-intensive trade: an empirical assessment

National investment in technological activity is commonly justifiedin terms of the positive impacts upon productivity, internationalcompetitiveness and related aspects of national economic performance.This premise has found a supportive theoretical framework inthe new technology and growth models. Based on extended technology-gapmodels, this study examines cross-country empirical evidenceon the relationship between technology-intensive trade performance(as a proxy for technological output) and per capita economicperformance, utilising 1978 to 1992 data for around 45 nations.The results provide some support for a positive relationshipbetween trade performance and economic returns. However, theweak and often inconsistent results suggest that the unconditionalpursuit of technology-intensive trade improvements may not necessarilyhave the expected net benefits.     

A Contribution to the Theory of Welfare Accounting

A kind of "unified theory" is proposed as a dynamic generalization of the standard consumer-surplus methodology for evaluating welfare changes. The "unified theory" allows rigorous dynamic welfare comparisons to be inferred between any two economic situations—from just knowing current incomes and observing a short-run market demand schedule. Essentially, the change in present discounted future utility is exactly captured by the formula: difference in current income plus consumer surplus . This well-known formula is thereby shown to cover a far wider class of welfare comparisons than is customarily treated in the textbook static case.     

中国经济国民投资率的福利经济学分析

本文首次系统地从福利经济学角度出发,运用前沿计算方法,试图回答中国投资率是否过高这一重要问题。本文首先计算了两个投资率:一是境内投资率;二是国民投资率,即(境内投资+对外投资)/GDP。通过横向的对比,发现无论是境内投资率还是国民投资率,即便考虑高经济增长率,中国经济都远高于世界各国。其次,采用经济增长理论的基准模型,利用中国的参数进行校准,并且进行稳健性检验,运用逆向积分法模拟中国经济福利最大化的投资路径。结果表明,中国经济上世纪90年代平均境内投资率低于福利最大化的投资率6%,国民投资率4%;2002年后,平均境内投资高于福利最大化的投资率5%,国民投资率12%;1990—2008年实际投资相对福利最大化的投资路径总福利损失约为5.9%,相当于每期损失约3.8%的GDP。最后,本文进一步分析,如果适当地降低国民投资率,同时改善投资效率,中国经济的GDP增长率并不会大幅下降。     

Welfare effects of exchange controls: An application to the Haitian economy

This paper estimates monthly welfare losses and the shadow exchange rate that followed a policy of restrictions of access to foreign exchange, in force in the Haitian economy from 1985 to 1991. These losses are substantial. The determinants of the parallel market, another phenomenon consistent with such a policy of restrictions, are also estimated. The author thanks Steven A. Y. Lin, an anonymous referee, and seminar participants at the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association 1997 meetings and the International Atlantic Economic Conference, Boston, MA, October 8–11, 1998, for helpful comments on earlier drafts. All remaining errors are the author's responsibility.     

Welfare to work propensities: administrative record evidence

The study examines the role of home-to-new-job-hub distance on employment propensity using a unique data set compiled from integrated micro-level administrative records of work-eligible welfare recipients and earnings. Our empirical findings confirm the spatial mismatch hypothesis. Our home-to-new-job-hub distance measure is an innovative weighted measure incorporating both abundance of actual employment opportunities and geographic distance. Other unique contributions of this study include using point-to-point residence and job hub locational information, modelling with community controls and industry-specific analysis. This study also identifies policy implications in advancing employment prospects of inner-city residents receiving government assistance.     

关于经济增长与不平等的综合评价——满意度、熵与社会福利

本文试图探讨关于经济增长与不平等的综合社会福利评价体系.建立社会福利评价体系一般面临两个困难:找出合理的社会福利函数和关于收入的个人效用函数.为此,本文把效用函数和社会福利函数标准化为满意度函数,并证明了,唯一满足齐次性和对称性的社会福利函数是个人满意度的几何平均,不存在常弹性或常相对风险规避的个人满意度函数,常二阶弹性的个人满意度函数意味着效用的收入弹性递减.以地区收入分配为例,计算结果显示我国地区不平等有长期增加趋势,若综合考虑收入增长与不平等,我国的社会福利水平有稍微上升的趋势.     

应对资产价格波动的最优货币规则研究——基于福利损失函数的实证分析

通过构建最优货币政策模型对中国货币政策进行的实证检验,发现中国的货币政策主要以盯住通货膨胀为主要目标,同时关注产出的变化,但对股票价格波动的变化并没有给予充分的关注。而通过中国预设货币政策操作框架下对股票价格波动不同反应状况的分析,发现货币政策对资产价格赋予较小权重时,中央银行的福利损失函数将会有所改善;如果继续加大对资产价格干预的权重,则会导致中央银行福利损失函数的迅速恶化。因此可以认为,中央银行还不适宜对资产价格进行过度的关注,只适合在关注通胀和产出的基础上,对资产价格给予适度的关注。     

天气衍生品套期保值福利效应研究——基于中美城市对接方法

近年来,天气风险管理日益受到各界关注。文章利用2007-2012年28个中美城市的天气日数据,将中国直辖市对接到CME Group交易的天气衍生品之标的城市,在数值分析的框架下推导出福利效应模型,通过参数估计和模拟求解,研究中国区域农业在引进天气衍生品套期保值前后的福利变化。通过引入Ornstein-Uhlenbeck过程,使用聚类分析和神经网络方法成功解决了中国农户因缺乏天气衍生工具而难以评价其套期保值福利效应的窘境。研究发现,对中国区域农业来说,引进天气衍生品进行套期保值将带来正的福利效应。且高基本消费量、高需求弹性、高投机者成本系数、低投机者风险规避度、低需求扰动和低供给扰动有利于发生正的福利效应。本文的研究区分了"气候"与"天气",丰富了对"绿色金融"的认识,并为从福利改善角度评估引入天气衍生品的政策效果作出基础性研究。     

跨国公司、区域一体化与社会福利——一个垄断模型的扩展

跨国公司与区域一体化间的关系主要涉及两个核心问题:区域一体化如何影响跨国公司的直接投资行为;跨国公司的存在如何影响区域经济一体化收益。文章通过一个扩展后的垄断模型将以上两个传统上分割开来的命题统一于一个框架内进行探讨,分析显示,区域一体化对跨国公司直接投资的影响具有一定的不确定性,跨国公司的存在也使区域一体化的收益趋于模糊,国家特征和生产技术特征因素在两个互有联系的问题上均具有决定性的影响。     

A theoretical foundation to support the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW), Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), and other related indexes

For some time now, ecological economists have been putting forward a ‘threshold hypothesis’—the notion that when macroeconomic systems expand beyond a certain size, the additional cost of growth exceeds the flow of additional benefits. In order to support their belief, ecological economists have developed a number of similar indexes to measure and compare the benefits and costs of growth (e.g. the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare, ISEW, and the Genuine Progress Indicator, GPI). In virtually every instance where an index of this type has been calculated for a particular country, the movement of the index appears to reinforce the existence of the threshold hypothesis. Of late, a number of observers have cast doubt over the validity of these alternative indexes. One of the concerns commonly expressed is the supposed lack of a theoretical foundation to support the ISEW, the GPI, and other related indexes. By adopting a concept of income and capital outlined by Fisher (Nature of Capital and Income. A. M. Kelly, New York, 1906), this paper demonstrates that these alternative indexes are theoretically sound but, in order to be broadly accepted, require the continuous development of more robust valuation methods.     

Economic Growth,Public Debt and Welfare: Comparing Three Budgetary Rules

Abstract. We present an endogenous growth model with externalities of capital and elastic labor supply where we allow for public debt and welfare‐enhancing public spending. We analyze different debt policies as regards convergence to a balanced growth path and their effects on long‐run growth and welfare. Three budgetary rules are considered: the balanced budget rule, a budgetary rule where debt grows in the long run but at a rate lower than the balanced growth rate and a rule where public debt grows at the same rate as all other economic variables but where it guarantees that the intertemporal budget constraint is fulfilled.     

经济制度安排、国际贸易与经济增长影响机理的经验研究

本文分析了经济制度安排和贸易流量之间的相互关系及其对该国经济增长以及影响经济增长的其他因素的影响。在九个经济制度安排变量中对一国贸易流量影响作用最大的经济制度安排变量是该国的贸易政策,对一国高技术产品出口影响最大的经济制度安排变量是该国的产权保护程度。从对影响经济增长的渠道分析发现,在所有的经济制度安排变量中,一国产权的保护程度对该国经济增长的影响作用最大;同时产权保护的程度和政府干预对技术进步和人力资本的影响最为显著。     

经济增长、经济政策与公司业绩关系的实证研究

本文以1995年至2004年上市公司为样本,考察了经济增长、经济政策与公司业绩之间的关系。通过构筑IS-LM模型,本文测算了我国的各项财政政策与货币政策乘数,以量化我国宏观经济政策的变化,并在此基础上,研究了经济增长、经济政策对公司会计业绩和股票报酬的影响,发现经济政策显著影响公司会计业绩与股票报酬,但不同的经济政策对会计业绩和股票报酬的影响不尽相同;另外,我们还发现,在控制了经济政策因素后,经济增长并没有和公司业绩相背离。本文的发现为诠释我国股市是否是宏观经济的"晴雨表"提供了一个新的研究视角。