Why Sweden's pension reform was able to be successfully implemented

Governments that do not reform pay-as-you-go (PAYG) pension systems will eventually face a pension crisis. In a democracy, reforms require majority support. The problem is that pension reform requires today's generation to bear the burden to avoid burdening tomorrow's generation. Sweden recently passed pension legislation that specifies a gradual transition from a public defined-benefit plan to a defined contribution plan. Why was Sweden successful in reforming its pension system? We find that a political economy perspective helps to answer this question: there are more winners who would vote in favour of the reform than non-winners who would vote against it. When comparing the net effect (present value of expected benefits minus present value of remaining contributions) of the new and old systems, contributions of the working generation (age < 53) are reduced by more than their expected benefits.     

Islamic economics versus market economics： The concept of taxations

Taxation plays a major role in both market economics and Islamic economics. The difference is that in market economics, the tax system has evolved throughout the centuries in order to address the constant change in market-based societies. In Islamic economics, however, the tax system bases on the writings of the Qur＇an and the principles of shariah. As a result, it did not flourish as the needs of Islamic society changed. Therefore, governments in Islamic countries that seek to follow Islamic law are facing major economic challenges. Recently, some Islamic scholars have asserted that Islamic governments can go beyond the explicit instructions of the Qur＇an and impose taxes as needed. They justify their arguments based on the interpretation of Qur＇anic verses. This paper briefly compares both rationality and the methods of taxation in both market economics and Islamic economics, and further elaborates on the shortcomings of the original Islamic tax laws.     

House money effects in public good experiments: Comment

We reconsider evidence from experiments that claim to show that using “house money” in standard public goods experiments has no effect on behavior. We show that it does have an effect when one examines the data using appropriate statistical methods that consider individual-level responses and account for the error structure of the panel data. JEL Classification D7 · C92 I am grateful for comments from two referees and an editor. All data and statistical code are available for public access at the ExLab Digital Library located at http://exlab.bus.ucf.edu.     

中西部民营企业产业政策的特性分析

我国民营经济不断发展壮大 ,已经成为推动我国经济增长的主力军 ,但是民营经济的进一步发展却受到多方面因素的约束 ,其中政策的因素在某种程度上是制约民营经济发展的一个主要原因。相对全国范围而言 ,中西部地区的落后在一定程度上表现为政策落后 ,虽然政府制定了不少政策 ,但是在有效性上存在颇多问题 ,政策特性遭到忽略就是主要问题之一。政策的制定和实施应体现出以下几种特性 :公平性、管理性、竞争性、优惠性和保护性。产业政策是影响民营经济发展的最重要政策之一 ,中西部有必要认真研究产业政策的特性 ,发现现有政策的不足 ,为政策创新提供思路     

Does new health information affect health behaviour? The effect of health events on smoking cessation

This article empirically assesses the role of new health information in the decision to quit smoking. Using individual level data from the Swiss Household Panel, health information is proxied by three different types of health events: physical health problems, mental disorders, and accidents. Exploiting retrospectively reported information on smoking behaviour, smoking cessation is modelled using a discrete time hazard model that also accounts for estimation problems arising from almost quasi-complete separation in the data. The empirical results yield robust evidence that general health problems increase the probability of instantaneous smoking cessation. Differentiating between the type of health event reveals that the overall effect is mainly driven by physical health events.     

促进信息技术产业发展的税收思考

IT产业是一个比较幼稚的产业,但它对于国民经济而言又具有非常重大的现实意义。从某个角度上说,它在竞争中处于不利的地位,因而有必要对其在税收政策方面给予一定的扶持。扶持的措施是完善税收政策,改革现行的企业所得税,增值税和个人所得税,使我国的税收制度更加有利于IT产业的发展。     

中国企业年金税收优惠政策的比较与选择

2005年,随着首批金融机构获得企业年金经办资格认证,中国企业年金保险进入到具体实施阶段.然而,直到2006年底,关于企业年金的缴费方式、基金的投资管理、给付机制、法规监管以及税收优惠政策等一系列相关问题仍未解决,成为严重制约企业年金市场发展的瓶颈.本文着重从企业年金税收优惠政策的比较与选择入手,结合城镇基本养老保险的情况,通过核算国家税式支出、企业年金积累额等指标,对国家采取适当的企业年金税收优惠政策去引导和促进企业年金市场的发展提出理论依据.     

Response to Shuklian

The Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA) was enacted by the State of Alaska in 2007 in an attempt to progress the construction of a natural gas pipeline from the Alaska North Slope to North American markets. The Act conveys monetary inducements from the state to the exclusive licensee in exchange for certain performance requirements. The financing of any pipeline requires the contractual commitment from the shippers (producers) to pay to ship the gas over an extended period of time. However, many of the performance requirements of AGIA are antithetical to the commercial interests of the shippers. A flawed financial analysis of the project by the administration overstated the economic vitality of the project, and hence understated the severity of the commercial issues. Consequently, the prospects for success in getting a pipeline constructed appear doubtful.     

国外促进低碳经济发展的税收政策及启示

欧盟、美国、日本等国家在促进低碳经济发展方面都有本国的税收政策,应基于中国国情并借鉴国外先进经验,着力打造适合中国国情的低碳经济。为此,需进一步完善税收政策,坚持有所为、有所不为的原则,从而实现经济增长与可持续发展。     

开征物业税对土地利用效率的影响——比较静态模型的理论分析与数值模拟

文章通过引入土地国有制,土地再开发等因素建立了符合我国土地市场制度特征的土地开发和物业税模型,然后以比较静态分析和数值模拟为主要研究手段,考察了物业税对土地利用效率的影响。结论是开征物业税对土地利用效率存在负面的影响。     

利用税收优惠政策激励企业研发投入——澳大利亚政府的企业研发经费减税政策的综述

本文较详细地报告了澳大利亚的研发经费减税计划以及最新出台的研发税收信用政策,介绍了澳大利亚研发经费减税政策的实施步骤和相关的管理机构、中请办法、具体要求及研发费用的认定原则。文章还阐述了研发税收信用新政策的主要特点及与原政策措施的差别,并针对我国的情况提出了一些建议,供相关部门参考。     

Robust political economy

This paper introduces the idea of “robust political economy.” In the context of political economic systems, “robustness” refers to a political economic arrangement's ability to produce social welfare-enhancing outcomes in the face of deviations from ideal assumptions about individuals' motivations and information. Since standard assumptions about complete and perfect information, instantaneous market adjustment, perfect agent rationality, political actor benevolence, etc., rarely, if ever actually hold, a realistic picture and accurate assessment of the desirability of alternative political economic systems requires an analysis of alternative systems' robustness. The Mises-Hayek critique of socialism forms the foundation for investigations of robustness that relax ideal informational assumptions. The Buchanan-Tullock public choice approach complements this foundation in forming the basis for investigations of robustness that relax ideal motivational assumptions. JEL Code B53, P16, P26     

Hedonic adaptation and the role of decision and experience utility in public policy

Many economists are becoming supportive of ‘soft’ paternalistic interventions that help people to avoid common decision errors without curtailing individual autonomy. To identify when such interventions could be beneficial, and to assess their success, requires a welfare criterion. However, traditional preference or choice-based criteria cannot serve this function because they assume that whatever people choose makes them better off. An alternative criterion that bases welfare on happiness rather than choice avoids this problem but has several of its own drawbacks. Most notably, people often adapt to serious chronic health conditions, and exhibit high levels of happiness, even though both those with and those without the condition agree that it is much preferable to be healthy. After reviewing different lines of research that shed light on the pros and cons of these alternative welfare criteria, we argue that no simple criterion based on either concept can surmount these problems. Instead, evaluations of welfare will inevitably have to be informed by a combination of both approaches, patched together in a fashion that depends on the specific context.     

税收对城镇居民劳动供给影响的实证分析

针对中国现阶段就业形势,运用计量经济学的方法,建立税收对中国城镇居民劳动供给的回归模型。在中国现阶段的经济环境中,对劳动要素征税会增加城镇居民的劳动供给,可通过创造良好的经济增长环境促使经济与就业同步增长,利用税收政策促进就业增长。     

完善个人所得税制度研究

个人所得税制改革必须与国情相结合分步实施、循序渐进,而不能一步到位。“十一五”乃至更长的一段时期,个人所得税制应按照主要体现收入再分配的政策目标来完善:实行综合与分类相结合的混合所得税制课税模式;简并税率形式,调整税率的幅度和结构;采取有效措施,减少个人所得税流失。     

Re-treatment with varenicline is a cost-effective aid for smoking cessation

Objective: One quit attempt with varenicline has been found to be a cost-effective smoking cessation intervention. The purpose of this study was to analyze varenicline’s cost-effectiveness in patients who relapse during or after the first treatment. A comparison was made between re-treatment schema with varenicline and re-treatment schema with bupropion, NRT and unaided cessation, and treatment once with varenicline in a Finnish context.

Methods: The two-quit version of BENESCO Markov model was used to follow a cohort of smokers making up to two quit attempts over a lifetime. The abstinence rates of the interventions were derived from a Cochrane review. Gender- and age-specific data on the incidence and prevalence of five smoking-related diseases were included in the model. Quality-adjusted life-years, total expected costs, and the lifetime cumulative incidence of smoking-related morbidities and mortality were the primary outcomes evaluated.

Results: The study cohort comprised 116,533 smokers who were willing to make a quit attempt. In the lifetime simulation, re-treatment with varenicline yielded 6,150–20,250 extra quitters, depending on the comparator. Among these quitters it was possible to prevent 899–2,972 additional cases of smoking-related diseases, and 395–1,307 deaths attributable to smoking. Re-treatment with varenicline resulted in cost savings of up to 54.9 million Euros. Re-treatment with varenicline dominated all the other smoking cessation interventions used in the analysis. Sensitivity analysis supported the robustness of the base case results.

Limitations: The analysis did not consider adverse events, and included only five major smoking-related diseases, which is a conservative approach, and probably leads to under-estimation of cost-effectiveness of cessation interventions. Furthermore, assumptions of constant relative risks for smoking-related diseases for each smoking status and the proxy values used as efficacy estimates of second quit attempts for other interventions than varenicline are limitations.

Conclusions: A second quitting effort with varenicline is economically justifiable.