Addiction and backsliding: A theory of compulsive consumption

A time-specific model of compulsive consumption incorporates the two central characteristics of addiction: that people get hooked through use of addictive commodities and that people often are of two minds, simultaneously wanting to consume an addictive commodity and to avoid it. The paper demonstrates the importance of modeling that stable and bounded human non-constancy that is ruled out by orthodox equilibrium analysis: it induces ‘anti-market’ selling consumption avoidance; it creates consumer conflict and the need for self-control; it implies the possible welfare superiority of blind hedonism over expected utility maximization.     

Transitional Progress and Business Challenges

Eight Central European and Baltic countries have joined the European Union in May 2004. Transitioning economies need to develop a business environment with a healthy financial sector to realize economic growth. This paper uses two classification methods, the discriminant analysis and taxonomic measure, to investigate the possibility of the South Eastern European and Commonwealth of Independent transitional countries to develop an enterprise and business environment that is compatible with the newest European Union (EU8) members. This paper found that the EU8 countries are correctly classified as having transitioned successfully in their business development. Bulgaria and Croatia have transitioned closely to the EU8. However, Romania, Ukraine, and the Commonwealth of Independent countries are not close to the EU8 in achieving a compatible business environment.      

违规与转轨秩序

通过对体制转轨过程中违规行为的特质进行了分析，可以发现在中国现行体制下违规行为存在的深刻必然性。其关键是所违之规是计划经济之规还是市场经济之规，这种制度规则是不是各方利益的均衡点。违规构成中国转轨秩序的基本特色。它是计划经济和市场经济相互作用的产物，违规即是市场经济冲破旧体制的手段，又是旧体制“扼杀”市场经济的根据。     

Macroeconomic stability and economic justice

This article presents a proposal to broaden the right to acquire capital with the earnings of capital as a means of promoting sustainable economic recovery and growth. It would open the markets for real and financial capital acquisition more fully and competitively to poor and working people (1) to distribute more broadly the earnings of capital and (2) to profitably employ more capital and labor. Both the recession and the strategies advanced to promote economic recovery may be viewed as responses to the prospect of inadequate present and future earning capacity of both consumers and producers (1) to purchase what can physically be produced and (2) to repay existent and anticipated debt obligations. To increase the prospects of sufficient, sustainable earning capacity, the proposal advanced in this article would extend to all people the same protections and benefits presently provided by government that facilitate market transactions whereby capital is acquired with the earnings of capital primarily for well-capitalized people. Although in theory, all people in a market economy are able to acquire capital with the earnings of capital, reliable empirical data reveal that as a practical matter, the major determinant of the ability of individuals to acquire capital with the earnings of capital is the existing distribution of capital ownership. The theory of “binary” economic growth underlying this proposal holds that the market return on capital is positively related to the distribution of capital acquisition with the earnings of capital. The prospect of a broader distribution of capital acquisition with the earnings of capital carries with it the prospect of more broadly distributed earning capacity in future years, which in turn will provide the market incentives to profitably employ more capital and labor in earlier years. The idea that the broader distribution of capital acquisition with the earnings of capital will promote growth is not found in any of the widely accepted theories and models of economic growth such as those proposed by Schumpeter, Solow, Roemer, and Lucas. By opening to all people the institutions of corporate finance, banking, insurance, government loans and guaranties, and monetary policy (the very institutions presently relied upon by the Federal Government to stimulate the economy) the practical ability to acquire capital with the earnings of capital can be more broadly extended to all people with the result that greatly enhanced prospects for greater and more broadly distributed earning capacity and growth can be reasonably expected and realized by all.     

Macroeconomic stability and economic justice

This paper has benefitted from discussions with Thomas Naylor, Edward Kane, John Westerhof, Walter Benjamin, Loren Eckroth, Forrest Smith and Jane Sheffield.     

Power struggle and pork barrel politics in authoritarian countries: Evidence from China

This paper examines how power struggle among cliques within ruling parties shape public policies. We develop a simple model of bargaining among ruling elites to study government staffing and use it to explain why the number of subnational government staff in China has increased rapidly despite repeated government streamlining programs initiated by the central authority. Using provincial‐level panel data in China from 1992 to 2011, we show that the subnational government headed by a politically weaker party secretary, in terms of the size of the opposition of elites in the provincial standing committee, tends to have a larger number of senior cadres and public employees. Notably, the party secretary's power from the centre mitigates the tendency to expand government staff. We also provide suggestive evidence that the local government finances government expansion by selling more land.     

Hot spots regulation and environmental justice

This paper analyzes whether regulating “hot spots” of toxic air pollution by increasing the spatial resolution of regulation could address environmental justice (EJ) concerns. To examine this question, this paper develops a decision model of a regulator choosing emission controls within a net cost minimizing framework. An empirical application of the model using air toxic emission data for Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties in Florida estimates the emission standards and spatial distribution of risks at a coarse and a finer spatial resolutions. Implications for EJ are analyzed by combining the simulated spatial risk distributions at the two resolutions with the demographic data. Results indicate that different measures of EJ point to different conclusions regarding the question of whether finer resolution regulation alleviates EJ concerns. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for EJ policy.     

Bureaucratic discrimination in electoral authoritarian regimes: Experimental evidence from Russia

Are investors in electoral authoritarian regimes discriminated against for political activism? In this paper, we implement a simple experiment to test whether affiliation with the ruling party or the political opposition affects the probability that investors receive advice from investment promotion agencies in Russian regions. Between December 2016 and June 2017, we sent 1504 emails with a short question and a number of randomized treatments to 188 investment promotion agencies in 70 Russian regions. Although investment promotion agencies are nominally depoliticized in Russia, we find that switching the political affiliation of a potential investor from the opposition party “Yabloko” to the government party “United Russia” on average increases the chances to receive a reply by 30%. The effect strongly depends on regional levels of political competition, with higher levels of discrimination in regions that are less politically competitive.     

Distributive justice in taxation

A classical criterion for apportioning taxes is that all should sacrifice equally in loss of utility. Suppose that a method of apportioning taxes is continuous and has the following four properties: (i) the way that taxpayers split a given tax total depends only on their own taxable incomes; (ii) an increase in the tax total implies that everyone pays more; (iii) every incremental increase in tax is apportioned according to taxpayers' current after-tax incomes; (iv) the ordering of taxpayers by pre-tax income and after-tax income is the same. Then there exists a utility function relative to which all sacrifice equally.     

变动与转型中的企业管理

本文首先对企业管理理论与管理思想演进的主要阶段进行了简要回顾 ,指出企业所处的宏、微观经济环境都发生了变动和转型 ,从而企业管理也应随之进行变革。最后提出了应对变动与转型环境的知识管理、迅速反映、敏捷竞争、建立学习型企业组织等若干管理策略。     

转型经济中的贿赂与企业增长

运用欧洲复兴与开发银行(EBRD)在转型经济国家进行的BEEPS调查数据,本文研究了转型经济中企业增长与贿赂的关系.控制了企业、行业、制度和宏观经济的相关因素,以及控制了遗漏企业隐含特征所造成的内生性问题后,发现企业的贿赂与增长间存在显著的正向关系.进一步的研究表明贿赂能够通过降低官员掠夺(保护费功能),或帮助企业获得资源(润滑剂功能)来促进企业增长,这体现了贿赂的关系资本作用.     

转轨时期的政府与企业成长

文章介绍了企业内生成长理论,分析了企业内生成长的根源与机制。并结合经济体制的转变,阐述了由外生成长论向内生成长论转变的同时,政府在企业成长中角色的转换。     

Transitional dynamics and the distribution of assets

Summary. We study the evolution of the distribution of assets in a discrete time, deterministic growth model with log-utility, a minimum consumption requirement, Cobb-Douglas technology, and agents differing in initial assets. We prove that the coefficient of variation in assets across agents decreases monotonically in a transition to the steady state from below, if (i) the consumption requirement is zero, or (ii) the consumption requirement is not too big and the initial capital stock is large enough. We also show how a positive consumption requirement or a small elasticity of substitution between capital and labor can generate non-monotonic paths for inequality.JEL Classification Numbers: D31, E21, O41.We would like to thank S. Chatterjee, M. Huggett, T. Keister, P. Krusell, M. Santos, S. Williamson, and an anonymous referee, for their valuable comments and suggestions. All remaining errors are ours. Urrutia aknowledges the support of Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, to which he was affiliated during early phases of this project.     

转型期的环境公共性与生态文明

转型时期的环境物品既有物本身的属性,又有公共性,既是主体也是客体。主体性表现为物品本身性质,客体性表现为公共性。二者因为社会转型产生间隙,生态文明既可以消融转型期环境物品的主体性与客体性的间隙,也可以使环境物品的客体性和公共属性得到充分发挥,从而实现环境与社会和谐发展。     

转型期中国的犯罪治理政策:堵还是疏?

面对日益上升的犯罪率,依靠快速增加司法投入来减少犯罪是否有效,这需要进行政策评估。在用中国省政法委书记的政治资历作为司法投入的工具变量,控制了司法投入和犯罪率之间的联立性内生问题之后,本文发现司法投入对犯罪率没有显著影响。相比之下,不断增长的犯罪率更大程度上是转型期多种社会经济特征综合所致。本文的政策含义是,中国的犯罪治理应以疏为主,以堵为辅。对非法行为进行直接打击虽然必不可少,但政策重点应该转向增加福利支出、提高教育水平、改善收入分配及给予外来居民户籍。此外,青春期男孩具有较高的犯罪倾向值得关注,由于人口密度增加而导致的犯罪上升也是城市化进程中特别需要注意的现象。     

Exploitation,international taxation,and global justice

Abstract

I investigate the central principle that underlies the OECDs tax base erosion and profit shifting initiative. The principle claims that (corporate) profits should be taxed where economic activities deriving the profits are performed and where value is created. First, I argue that its plausibility depends on establishing that states have an entitlement to the productive factors in their territory, and therefore to a share of the value created by employing those factors. Second, I maintain that this cannot presently be established. If states fail to discharge duties requiring wealth redistribution, they do not have an unqualified right to the productive factors in their territory. Even if they are not subject to such duties, states can only legitimately claim a share in the fair value of the goods created. I show that given widespread exploitation in global value chains, the market prices of (intermediary) goods do not reflect their fair value.     

Labour markets, social justice and economic efficiency

In conventional economic theory, a trade-off supposedly existsbetween social justice and economic efficiency. In reality,market and other economic institutions are dominated by powerrelations, so that the sponsorship of social justice is a productivefactor. Neo-liberal economic policies, by lifting the constraintson the exercise of unequal power, increased injustice and triggereda downward economic and social spiral. Reversing this requiresa revolution in economic theory and policy focused on full employment,the working of labour markets, the organisation of work, andhousehold organisation, social provision and self-sufficiency.     

Reserve accumulation and exchange rate policy in China: The authoritarian elite's aim of political survival

Since the Asian financial crisis of 1997–1998, China has significantly increased its foreign exchange reserves. We argue that the resulting abnormal levels of currency reserves accumulated by Chinese authorities are not intended to maximize the citizenry's economic welfare, as in a mercantilist or a precautionary account, but rather to forestall the elite's own political demise. This goal has been pursued mainly by generating large current account surpluses through manipulation of the renminbi exchange rate. The Chinese elite has sought to promote the acceptance of this policy by influencing the costs of collective action taken by winners and losers.