Condition and Prospects of the Development of the Housing and Utilities Sphere in the Mari El Republic

The article has considered the conceptual foundations of business management in the housing and utilities sphere. The condition of housing stock in the Mari El Republic, as well as housing and the state of utility facilities and systems, has been monitored. A forecast for providing the Republic’s population with social housing and the priority regional project of the comfortable urban environment formation has been presented.     

Neo-liberalism in low-income housing policy – problem or panacea?

The provision of decent, affordable and well-located housing for low-income communities has been an intractable problem, especially for developing countries. A recurrent issue in the discourse of this problem relates to the appropriate role of the state on one hand and the private sector on the other. The debate has been given renewed urgency in the current context of a growing critique of ‘neoliberalism’. Through rigorous literature review, this paper intends to review the successes and failures of neo-liberalism and explore the intricate linkages between neo-liberal housing policy and low-income housing provision. The raison d’être for the paper is that, despite the growing disenchantment with neo-liberal housing policy, the empirical basis of this criticism has not been established convincingly, and neither have that of potential alternative policies. This paper therefore fills a critical gap in the low-income housing policy literature.     

States and economic growth: Capacity and constraints

State capacity has become one of the most discussed concepts in development economics and political economy. In this survey we argue that the study of economic history provides vital insights into the process through which modern states have acquired ‘state capacity’. By evaluating the process of state building across a range of different countries in Europe and Asia, we are able to ‘decompress’ the relationship between state capacity and economic growth. Our analysis emphasizes the variegated nature of the state building process. We focus on recent research that helps to elucidate the mechanisms that relate state capacity to economic growth.     

保障性住房物业管理资金来源与运用机制研究

目前中国的住房市场中,保障性住房因为政策和制度的优势,其所占的比例越来越大。"十二五"期间,我国会有大量保障性住房的建设。在不久的将来,这些保障性住房会大规模地投入使用。在建筑物的使用过程中,物业管理是一项重要的内容。文章首先简单介绍了我国保障性住房的现状和发展趋势,提出保障性住房在物业管理中遇到的资金来源与运用问题,建立保障性住房物业管理资金来源与运用机制,确保保障性住房在使用过程中物业管理的有效进行。     

Whither the study of development in South Africa?

In South Africa we have, since 1990, experienced an upsurge of interest in the study and teaching of development. In this article it is argued that two brands of development research and teaching have emerged in South Africa: one brand has a distinct public administration/management focus, while the other has a more pan-disciplinary, development studies focus. Despite these different focuses, a peculiar convergence has taken place in that the themes of study of the two ‘schools’ often overlap. This convergence demands further exploration of a number of themes, such as the research methodologies appropriate to the South African development context; approaches to administration and management relevant to South African development; balancing the role of state and civil society in South Africa; and clarity on what we mean by the concept ‘empowerment’ in our deliberations on development in South Africa.     

A ‘socialist’ economy in a capitalist world

Contending views about the ‘threats’ and ‘opportunities’ relating to China’s economic rise reflect the complex and, for many, confusing role of the state in China’s reform and development process. This in turn relates to a marked difference between China’s official perception of ‘Socialism with Chinese characteristics’ and alternative views regarding the nature of its emerging capitalist system. This glaring gap in perceptions is problematic in an increasingly globalised world, complicating debates about what China should and will do to rebalance its domestic economy how other nations should and will react to the recent surge in Chinese investment overseas. This paper reflects on these debates in the context of China’s multifaceted and ever-evolving economic system.     

Rethinking Industrial Policy for Low Income Countries

Abstract: The governments of low income countries should be giving more attention to ‘industrial policy’ than they and the aid donors have given in the past quarter century. (‘Industrial policy’ means any sectorally or activity‐targeted interventions, including in agriculture and services.) The first step is to discard the common assumption that industrial policy is about ‘picking winners’. The second step is to realize that industrial policy can be done ‘big’ or ‘small’, and by ‘leading the market’ or by ‘following the market’. It can be tailored to the available resources and state capacity. The third step is to see that the key issues of industrial policy are less to do with ‘what activities should be encouraged?’, or ‘what sorts of policy instruments are best?’, and more to do with, ‘how do we organize a process of discovery of sensible objectives and policies?’, and ‘how do we organize a constant nudging of producers to upgrade, diversify, link up with foreign firms?’ (where the nudging effort has to be targeted at some activities and sectors more than others). The paper illustrates with East Asian examples. One of the good effects of the current global crisis is that it has shaken confidence in the virtues of lightly regulated markets and free capital movements, and opened the way to a less ideologically charged debate about the role of the state in development—in which thinking is not precluded by easy jeers like ‘governments can't pick winners’ or ‘maybe the East Asians can do it but you can’t, so you have nothing to learn about industrial policy from them’.     

Four‐G Episode and the elevated risks

Complacency and a false perception that markets will correct imbalances during two decades of ‘Great Moderation’ led to ‘Global Imbalances’. The low interest rates and a lack of proper oversight, combined with a perception that housing prices will always move north, brought the sub‐prime crisis in the USA and the subsequent ‘Global Financial Crisis’ and European crisis. The Quantitative Easing policy in advanced economies (AE) created an even more permissive global liquidity. The externality affecting emerging markets (EM) took the form of massive capital inflows, first channelled through banks where the global banks‐mostly headquartered in Europe‐played a significant role and then through capital market with fund managers being the protagonist. The augmented liquidity spurred growth in EM but also elevated the risk of financial instability. Capital flows reversal, slower growth and less benign external conditions have put EM in a quandary. The uncertainty is heightened by a non‐synchronised monetary policy in AE (‘Great Divergence’). To the extent that standard policies have become ineffective, and to defend from externality caused by AE's unilateral policy (financial nationalism), it is argued that EM can put a damper on the dangerous component of capital inflows. As part of macroprudential policy, such a measure is equivalent with discouraging risky behaviour to prevent financial instability and worsening income inequality.     

Development policy and water services in South Africa: an urban poverty perspective

This paper explores the impact of overall macroeconomic development policy on water service delivery policy and urban poverty in South Africa. It scrutinises ambiguous definitions of ‘urban’ in the literature, which tend to obscure the extent of urban poverty in this country. This is crucial given that a large proportion of the urban poor live in informal settlements, which are sometimes lumped with rural areas. Informal settlements are generally characterised by limited essential services such as housing, water supply, storm-water facilities and sanitation services. Water services, like other social services, retain the racial imprint of apartheid. Consequently, water policy in South Africa attempts to address water issues from an equity perspective. By analysing the effects of the tariff subpolicy within the water policy, the paper recommends that free basic water should be made available only to poor households.     

Is Real Estate Really an Inflation Hedge? Evidence from Taiwan*

This study examines whether Taiwan's housing returns hedge against expected and unexpected inflation. In other words, how well does the rise in housing returns compensate for the costs added as a result of the shrink in wealth and purchasing power? Within the exponential generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity in mean model framework, we further explore the impact of conditional hetero‐risk on housing return and the influence of asymmetric information on conditional risk. Over the period from 1991 to 2006, the empirical results reveal negative relationships between housing returns and expected as well as unexpected inflation, proving the ineffective inflation hedge of Taiwan's housing investment. The determinant of this phenomenon is the leverage shock between ‘good news’ and ‘bad news’.     

对养老保障和住房保障整合发展的探讨

养老保障与住房保障整合发展是指以居民的社会保障需求为中心进行政策调整,形成一体化的解决方案,使人们对养老和住房的需求得到同时满足;整合各种社会资源来完善养老保障和住房保障,使两者实现良性互动,互为补充,互相促进,协调发展,产生“1 1>2”的整体效应。     

Housing price and household savings rates: evidence from China

This article investigates the effect of house prices on household savings rates in urban China employing the 2002 and 2007 data of the Chinese Households Income Project (CHIP). We find that the rapid appreciation of house prices cannot explain high Chinese households’ savings rates and the rising of Chinese savings rates. On the contrary, we find a negative relationship between house prices and household savings rates for home renters and homeowners. We do not find any evidence of ‘savings for housing purchase’ for young home renters when house prices increase. Their savings rates declined during housing market booms in recent 10?years. Savings rates of homeowners possessing multiple housing have decreased more because of ‘the pure housing wealth effects.’     

The impact of structural adjustment on housing prices in China

Studies of the factors that influence housing prices have focused on housing characteristics, governmental policies, environmental goods, macroeconomic and social fundamentals, and so on. However, the effect of industrial structural adjustment on housing prices is worthy of further investigation. In China, it would be helpful to measure this effect to coordinate housing policy and the ‘Made in China 2025’ strategy, which aims to accelerate industrial restructuring. We selected a spatial panel data model to quantify the effects of the industrial rationalisation and sophistication attributable to spatial dependence in housing prices. Estimation results show that structural adjustment has a statistically significant effect on housing prices that varies widely across regions. In descending order, the impact of industrial structure sophistication decreases in eastern, central, western, and northeastern China. This finding suggests that the government should match housing with local industry, prevent excessive real estate development in conventional agricultural areas, and pay close attention to changes in housing prices caused by increasing industrial restructuring.     

On the post-structuralist critique of development: a view from north-west Namibia

The Namibian government's long-standing plan to dam the Kunene River has generated heated discussion on a number of development issues, both within and outside the country. This article examines the discourses of the various groupings in the so-called Epupa debate by paying special attention to the ways they represent ‘development’, the project and the affected community; and it explores aspects of agency by focusing on Himba people's attempts to assert opposition to the project. The Epupa case also affords us the opportunity to evaluate aspects of the post-structuralist critique of development. The article suggests that the currently fashionable critique offers a simplistic interpretation of the development process and reveals the need for a more thorough (and insightful) scholarly engagement with development.     

郑州市二手房市场现状及其经营策略探索

近年来,为了满足人们的住房需求,改善城市居民的生活品质,国家在发展住房一级市场的同时,大力推动住房二级市场的发展。经过近些年来的努力,二手房市场有了长足的发展。但相比国外二手房市场,无论从政府监管、企业的经营管理、从业人员的素质等方面上,都存在诸多问题。本文从郑州市二手房市场现状、经营管理手段等方面出发,对存在的问题和未来的发展趋势进行了分析和预测,希望为企业经营二手房提供一些帮助。     

Development dichotomies

The author examines a group of dichotomies in the thinking of a large group of development economists about development. These dichotomies range from the meaning of ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ countries, to different approaches and methods of economists and ‘policy-makers’, to policy issues, such as concentration on heavy capital goods versus ‘small is beautiful’ approaches. He finds that in many of those arguments a synthesis of the two views can resolve the apparent contradictions. But even more important for him is the question to what extent each side in the dichotomy can provide useful insights for developing ‘Imaginative but carefully worked out visions of alternative social possibilities’, which he regards as one of the main tasks of the economist, whether working in a developing or developed economy.     

Unions and firm innovation in China: Synergy or strife?

The ‘monopoly face’ of unions suggests that the rent-seeking activities of unions discourage research and development investment and that the collective bargaining rules may restrict management flexibility, thus deterring innovations. On the other hand, the arrival of unions in the workplace may ‘shock’ the management into adopting more systematic rather than ad hoc management practices and that such innovative workplace practices may enhance an organization's ability to introduce new products and/or new processes. Further, the ‘voice face’ of unions argues that the independent ‘questioning’ of the management deliberations by the unions can also lead to better, more creative and, hence, more productive solutions. This paper investigates the link between unions and firm innovations in China. Different from their counterparts in advanced economies, Chinese unions are found to encourage firm innovations and R&D investment.     

Socio-economic developmental strategies as retail performance indicators: A balanced scorecard approach

This research analyses the commitment to and use of ‘balanced scorecards’ by retailers in generating sustainable profitability, whilst contributing to socio-economic development in South Africa. An international literature review of scorecard frameworks, plans and reports by major retail companies and semi-structured dialogic interviews with a purposive sample of retail business stakeholders and government officials formed the methodology. By contrasting the literature and empirical insights, a summary of findings was generated, which conclude that most retailer scorecards (formal or informal) seek to balance financial with ‘cause-related marketing’ targets, but implementation differs according to factors such as company size, developmental maturity and managerial competence. Furthermore, collaboration between retailers and state institutions in scorecard management is not a reality, as has been achieved in other industries. It is therefore recommended that a Retail Charter scorecard framework be considered, to promote public/private-sector knowledge-sharing and socio-economic development.     

Development management regions in South Africa: An empirical evaluation

In this study an attempt has been made to evaluate the validity of the boundaries of the officially approved ‘development regions’ of South Africa. A variety of statistical methods were used for the evaluation of the empirical validity of the boundaries of these regions. Firstly, two sets of homogeneous regions based on different sets of parameters were delimited. Secondly, two sets of regions indicating areas of different levels of economic development were determined. With the aid of this information, some changes in the boundaries of the existing regions are suggested. A historical account of attempts at regionalisation in South Africa for development management purposes is also given. A semantic assessment of definitions points to the need for a change in the use of the term ‘development region’ — for this specific purpose — to the term ‘development management region’.     

Tobacco retail licences and state formation in early modern England and Wales

This article addresses one under‐studied aspect of Charles I's finances during his Personal Rule: the licensing of tobacco retailers. While it was ultimately a failed project, the tobacco retail licence project was fiscally successful before the transformative events of the 1640s triggered its demise. The project enabled tobacco retail licensees to establish commercial outlets for the marketing of tobacco throughout England and Wales, and cooperation with pre‐existing officeholders contributed to the apprehension of unlicensed retailers. Ultimately, the geographic breadth of tobacco licences translated into much‐needed royal revenue which, when added to other projects and patents, contributed to the king's financial survival. The evidence presented here suggests that we may want to rethink some of our assumptions for how the process of state formation worked and that earlier seventeenth‐century ‘prototypes’ of taxation were more fiscally successful than previously recognized.