日本人为低利率政策及其效应分析

人为低利率政策是日本金融体制的重要组成部分。它通过为民间部门创造租金机会,刺激了民间部门的发展,特别是通过降低企业投资成本,从金融层面有力地支撑了经济的高速增长。然而20世纪70年代以后,由于其形成强的路径依赖,未能随着日本经济结构的变化而及时地被废止,不仅助长了泡沫经济的形成,而且最终导致日本金融危机的爆发。     

租金房价比失效了吗——基于四大城市的经验研究

本文基于住房使用成本模型,通过构建租金和房价变动的预测模型,并使用北京、上海、广州和深圳四大城市1993年第二季度至2010年第一季度的时间序列数据,考察了租金房价比对未来租金和房价变动的预测能力。研究发现：（1）北京、上海的租金房价比与未来房价变动呈负向关系,与现值模型预测相反,而深圳的二者关系为正,广州的租金房价比对于未来房价变动不存在统计意义上的预测能力;（2）北京、广州和深圳的租金房价比可以预测未来的租金变动率,二者呈反向关系,上海的相应统计值不显著。本文的经验结论表明,租金房价比作为估值指标在中国城市住房市场上的适用性值得谨慎判断。     

Political patronage and firm performance: Further evidence from Malaysia

This paper investigates the characteristics, performance, and share price reaction of politically connected firms versus a control sample of independent firms in Malaysia. Politically connected firms had higher level of leverage, lower profitability, and lower sales to profitability, and paid lower taxes and lower dividends compared to independent firms. Their share prices increase with the announcement of favorable political events. In terms of performance, the active rent‐seeking activities in return for preferential treatment produce comparable performance to independent firms during an economic upturn. However, their performance deteriorates more than independent firms during an economic downturn. The percentage of ownership of government institutions in politically connected firms is also much lower, and these firms use more Tier 1 auditors than the independent firms. Overall, the findings are consistent with expectations and evidence from similar studies in developed and developing economies. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

我国对外贸易制度寻租初探

对外贸易政策的制定和实施会产生大量的寻租机会和寻租活动,外贸关税壁垒和非关税壁垒寻租活动产生的垄断会对社会福利产生不同的影响。外贸制度寻租产生的原因有政府保护和"经济人"本质,克服对外贸易制度寻租的方法有创建有限政府、法制化和加强监督。     

浅析会计寻租

会计寻租是一种负和博弈,其本质是利用会计信息来取得非公平的财富转移和资源的不平等配置。通过探究会计寻租含义、会计寻租行为和会计寻租的预防措施等,优化会计行为,提高会计信息质量,促进资本市场的健康发展,为我国的经济建设服务。     

透视美国巨额贸易逆差与经济增长并存的合理性

美国巨额贸易逆差既是美国经济增长的内在需要,也对美国经济增长做出了贡献,亦非美国失业率上升的根源,从而巨额贸易逆差与经济增长、低失业率长期并存。而美元的特殊地位和美国独特的进出口商品结构,以及跨国公司内部贸易和不同统计口径所得逆差数据的差异,也分别从不同侧面解释了美国经济增长中存在巨额贸易逆差的合理性。虽然巨额贸易逆差暂时未阻碍美国经济增长,但必须重视其未来潜在的风险。     

旅游市场的寻租行为分析

寻租行为是现代经济社会中一种较为普遍的形象,在旅游市场上也是如此。旅游市场上的寻租活动有着特殊的表现形式,它是旅游市场中各种弊病的症结之一。减少租源,遏止旅游市场上的寻租行为是规范旅游市场的要求,同时也是保证旅游业可持续发展的关键。     

老字号小吃败走前门

老字号小吃是微利行业。当高租金、低客流等局面摆在老字号小吃的经营者面前时,他们无奈地选择了撤出。     

基于福利经济学视角的出租车数量管制分析

出租车行业竞争性很强，对该行业进行的数量管制必然以社会福利的损失为代价，主要表现在：数量管制造成人为的垄断，给社会带来无谓的损失并形成高额的垄断租金；数量管制限制消费者的选择权，对管制租金的争夺又导致出租车司机和管制主体之间的冲突；数量管制不能克服城市拥堵问题。取消出租车数量管制，可以避免由垄断造成的低效率，增加社会就业，提高消费者的福利。     

Classical Economics and the Problem of Exhaustible Resources

In this paper we discuss in terms of the simple model of exhaustible resources proposed by Bidard and Erreygers some of their propositions. The concept of ‘real rate of profit’ introduced by them is shown to be of no analytical use. It is stressed that the mathematical properties of the economic system under consideration are independent of the numeraire adopted. The classical treatment of exhaustible resources in terms of differential rent is shown to be correct under well‐defined conditions. It is argued that it is complementary to, rather than incompatible with, the approach which emphasizes that in conditions of free competition the rate of profit obtained by conserving the resource equals that in production processes.     

The impact of management capability on the resource-performance linkage: Examining Indian outsourcing providers

The increase in offshore outsourcing of information technology-enabled business processes has renewed scholarly attention to better understand the dynamics of service provider firms. In this study, we examine how offshore outsourcing service providers’ internal and relational resources and capabilities jointly predict their economic performance. Analysis of data collected from a sample of 105 Indian service providers suggest that rent generation from firm-specific, idiosyncratic resources is positively moderated by the level of management capability possessed by such firms. Theoretical and managerial implications of the findings are discussed and avenues of future research are offered.     

Rent-to-own agreements: Customer characteristics and contract outcomes

The rent-to-own (RTO) industry, by offering immediate access to household goods for a small periodic fee with no credit check or down payment, has strong appeal to low income and financially distressed consumers. An important policy question is whether an RTO agreement is used as a rental/lease with build-in purchase option or as something more akin to an installment loan. Given the embedded options to return the item or to purchase it early, the actual rent paid by RTO customers is substantially lower than the oft-reported total rent which assumes that agreements go to term. We employ a log-normal censored regression model to analyze the influence of customer demographics as well as the transactional details of the contract on the rent paid by consumers using rent-to-own. Our main conclusions are (1) it is the “working poor” that are likely to pay more rent, (2) there appears to be a clientele effect with customers paying more rent under bi-weekly and monthly, as opposed to weekly, payment schedules, and (3) customers who exhibit delinquency in making contractual payments generally end up paying more rent. Further, our data allows some observations on annual percentage rates by illustrating the business risk present for RTO stores as well as the cross-subsidization of consumers.     

Upping the Ante for Political Economy Analysis of the International Financial Institutions

Public choice analysis has clearly demonstrated the need to consider the roles of rent seeking and bureaucratic self‐interest in influencing the international economic policies of national governments and the behaviour of international organisations. We have reached a stage, however, where more attention needs to be paid to the nature of bureaucratic incentives and the degree of discretion that bureaucracies have under different circumstances. It is suggested that the incentives for budget maximisation are likely to vary substantially from one institution to another. Specifically such incentives seem likely to be much stronger for the World Bank than fot the IMF. The evidence presented by Rolanf Vaubel for budget maximisation by the IMF is critically examined and it is argued that much of this evidence is equally constant with other hypotheses. Thus there is a need for more research on the political economy of the international financial institutions.     

An Absurd Tax on our Fellow Citizens: The Ethics of Rent Seeking in the Market Failures (or Self-Regulation) Approach

Joseph Heath lumps in quotas and protectionist measures with cartelization, taking advantage of information asymmetries, seeking a monopoly position, and so on, as all instances of behavior that can lead to market failures in his market failures approach to business ethics. The problem is that this kind of rent and rent seeking, when they fail to deliver desirable outcomes, are better described as government failure. I suggest that this means we will have to expand Heath’s framework to a market and government failures approach. I then try to defuse objections that as a government failure, rent seeking may not appear relevant to what managers ought to do. Solving this conceptual issue will also give us an excuse to revisit a separate conceptual issue: the normatively thick conception of “rent” and rent seeking behavior that some use. This normatively thick conception is problematic, I argue, and I offer the beginnings of a novel, normatively neutral conception that is useful for our purposes in making the ethics of rent and rent seeking behavior more than a merely trivial exercise.     

论公租房的功能与住房保障对象——以上海公租房为例

中国城镇住房问题源于消费者支付能力的不足,因此财政补贴是政府提供住房保障的基本内容。与廉租房和经适房相比,公租房是副作用最小的一种住房保障方式。中国城镇租金市场化的公租房供给不能发挥住房保障的职能,其继续存在只能降低住宅市场和国民经济的运行效率。公租房租金市场化的实质是继续和维护现行的劣质土地财政。中国必须将公租房租金确定在劳动力再生产成本的水平上,排除城市地租的干扰,才能扩大公租房的覆盖面,有效解决中国城镇的住房保障问题。     

论加入WTO后我国个人信用征信业中的经济租——立法缺失的成本国际比较及相应政策建议

个人信用征信是解决我国目前信用缺位、维护市场经济秩序的有力手段。我国加入WTO的服务贸易特定义务承诺对国内个人信用征信业的长远发展产生了较为不利的影响 :由于我国对消费者个人信息隐私权保护立法的缺失而创设的行业经济租可能导致大量的寻租活动和巨大的社会成本。为了使我国建立伊始的个人信用征信体系能得到较全面的法律基础支撑、与国际惯例接轨 ,需要以立法的形式保护消费者的个人信息隐私权以使个人信用征信业的外部成本内在化。     

Rent seekers in the U.S. international trade commission escape clause investigations

This article addresses the question of the political and economic characteristics of firms that are active in filing escape clause petitions. Filing an escape clause petition is considered to be a part of a political rent seeking strategy of a firm. The sample consists of publicly traded firms in industries in which escape clause petitions were filed 1975–1986. The results of a logit analysis suggest that firms active in the petitioning process tend to be profitable and dependent on the petitioned product. We also find tentative support that these firms are in concentrated industries and have Washington offices. These results raise some questions about the utility of the escape clause in providing aid for those firms that it is intended to help.     

搜寻成本与信誉租金对厂商定价的影响

信息的非对称性导致消费者在购物时要进行搜寻。搜寻是有代价的经济活动 ;在搜寻中花费的精力、人力、金钱、时间的机会成本构成搜寻成本。由于搜寻成本的存在消费者在购物时往往放弃搜寻 ,直接到信誉好的商店高价购物 ,以确保商品的效用。信誉度高而给产品定出高价从中获得的经济利润叫做信誉租金。搜寻成本与信誉租金存在因果关系。他们使厂商面临的需求曲线向下倾斜 ,使厂商给自己的产品定高价 ,长期均衡在经济利润上。     

How Does Free Trade Become Institutionalised? An Expected Utility Model of the Chrétien Era

This paper seeks to go beyond the question of ‘why free trade?’ and pursues issues related to the tendency for controversial free trade agreements to become institutionalised. In other words, why do opponents of free trade not mobilise to overturn it? Even more puzzling, why do opposition parties, which had opposed passage of free trade in the first place, not undo liberalisation undertaken by their predecessors upon coming to power? Rather than seek reversal, it is not uncommon for free trade opponents, upon assuming control of the government, to deepen liberalisation initiatives, hence serving to institutionalise the very policies they had decried vigorously. Seven sections make up this study. It begins with a statement of the basic puzzle and an illustration in the recent Canadian context. The second section is a theoretical discussion of opposition parties and free trade. An expected utility model, based on the limits of rent‐seeking, is introduced in the third and fourth sections, to explain institutionalised free trade. The fifth section provides the background to the case at hand, that is, the evolution of free trade as a politico‐economic issue in Canada. The sixth section applies the expected utility model to the superficially puzzling case of Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's dramatic about‐face on the issue of trade liberalisation after coming to power. In the final section, the contributions of the model are reviewed, along with directions for future research.     

The risk concept for entrepreneurs reconsidered: New challenges to the conventional wisdom

This paper explores the entrepreneurial risk construct, focusing on how the decision to launch a new venture may entail risks different from what is found in established firms. Opportunities often emerge from the creation of specialized knowledge: in start-ups this knowledge is characterized by concerns for rent appropriation and information asymmetry. We suggest that traditional measures of risk do not properly account for these concerns; hence an illusion of greater risk-taking attaches itself to entrepreneurs, especially if the specialized-knowledge is difficult to observe. We suggest alternative measures that better capture these concerns, including the dilution of control when issuing equity, cash burn rates, etc.