The Determinants of Governance: A Cross-Country Analysis

Drawing on insights from economic, political, and cultural theories of governance, this article investigates the determinants of governance for a large sample of countries, both developed and developing. The results indicate that countries with a history of Western European influence and with British common law origins have better governance. In addition to these exogenous and historically predetermined variables, economic factors such as openness to trade, resource-intensity in exports, and levels of economic development have a significant impact on governance. (JEL D73 , H11 , K42 )     

银行效率的决定因素：跨国实证

本文基于1990—2009年间68个主要国家和经济体的面板数据,从管理效率、市场竞争性和盈利能力三个基本方面对影响一国银行业效率的相关因素进行了实证分析。实证结果表明：从宏观经济政策来看,保持宏观经济的持续稳定增长,稳步推进资本账户开放,将有助于提高一国银行业的整体效率;从银行产业发展来看,银行业效率的提高需要在保持适度资产规模和产业集中度的基础上,防止银行信贷的过度扩张和银行危机的发生;从制度文化发展来看,加强产权保护,促进社会信用文化水平的提升,将有助于一国银行业效率的整体提升。     

Socio-economic Determinants of Multidimensional Poverty in Rural West Bengal: A Household Level Analysis

The present study tries to estimate the incidence, depth and severity of multidimensional poverty (MDP) along with the contributions of dimensions to MDP among the rural households using multi-stage random sampling method in West Bengal. We decompose the inequality of deprivation scores between and within different socio-economic, religious and ethnic groups. The factors affecting the probability of falling in multidimensional poverty is also explored here using logistic regression, and the regression results suggest that public infrastructure plays an essential role towards explaining the variations of MDP. The present study is expected to be helpful to the development planners for better understanding of the root causes of MDP among the rural households in West Bengal.

     

Biodiversity Loss and Economic Growth: A Cross-Country Analysis

This article empirically examines the relationship between biodiversity loss and economic growth in light of the current debate on the effects of economic growth on environmental quality. The basic premise is that biodiversity belongs to a special class of environmental degradation because it involves complex ecosystems, the loss of which cannot be recovered by technological advances. The main finding is that although economic growth has an expected adverse effect on biodiversity, the composition of economic output can also be significant, particularly in low-income countries. The study highlights the need to develop appropriate institutions and macroeconomic policies that allow biodiversity values to be internalized in decisionmaking processes.     

A Cross-Country Empirical Analysis of International Reserves

Using data from more than 100 economies for the period of 1975 to 2005, we conduct an extensive empirical analysis of the determinants of international reserve holdings. Four groups of determinants, namely, traditional macro variables, financial variables, institutional variables, and dummy variables that control for individual economies’ characteristics are considered. We find that the relationship between international reserves and their determinants is significantly different between developed and developing economies and is not stable over time. The estimation results indicate that, especially during the recent period, a developed economy tends to hold a lower level of international reserves than a developing one. Furthermore, there is only limited evidence that East Asian economies including China and Japan are accumulating an excessive amount of international reserves.     

居民储蓄的多视角分析

2003年2月末,我国居民本外币储蓄存款余额达到了10 03万亿元,首次突破10万亿元大关,这一前所未有的金融现象引起了社会各界的广泛关注和热烈讨论。本文对10万亿元居民储蓄的规模与结构、历史与趋势以及分流居民储蓄的渠道等进行了多视角分析。     

Household Formation,Female Labor Supply,and Savings

In this paper, we aim to quantify the impact of changing family structures on labor supply and savings in Western societies. Our dynamic general equilibrium model features both genders, and it takes into account changes in marital status as a stochastic process. The numerical results indicate that changes in household formation can partly explain the reallocation of male and female labor supply observed during the last decades in Germany. We also find a negative impact on capital accumulation, and we show that a combination of higher marital risk and a narrowing gender wage gap can explain the changes in hours ratios between single and married men and women.     

Wage Adjustments and Labour Market Systems: A Cross-Country Analysis*

Evidence is presented on how well alternative systems of wage determination facilitate disaggregate labour market adjustment. Tests of statistical causality are used to relate labour market pressure to relative wage changes. The conclusion is that rates of change of relative wages are determined independently of the microeconomic market balance. This result holds irrespective of the institutional form of the wage-fixing system.     

Household Participation in Formal and Informal Savings Mechanisms: Evidence from Pakistan

Savings are an important determinant of both individual and national wellbeing. Typically, households employ a wide range of mechanisms for saving, including both formal and informal institutions. The choice of savings instrument has important micro- and macroeconomic implications. However, little is known empirically about the patterns of use of these instruments, or the factors affecting household decisions/ abilities to use them. The authors apply household-level data from a nationally representative survey for Pakistan to explore these issues in detail. In particular, they focus on the choice between banks and bisi , an informal saving committee similar in nature to a rotating-savings-and-credit association.     

中国城市化与居民储蓄研究

本文利用1992年-2004年的数据对我国居民储蓄进行了实证研究,力求在居民储蓄率、城市化程度的测量两个方面体现出新意.本文研究表明,目前我国城市化的程度有所高估.在城市化过程中,居民储蓄率受影响较大,进而影响全国国民储蓄和投资,减缓我国经济的增速.但随着城市化的不断深入,这种影响将逐渐削弱.     

Going-Private Decisions and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002: A Cross-Country Analysis

This article investigates whether the passage and the implementationof the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) drove firms out of thepublic capital market. To control for other factors affectingexit decisions, we examine the post-SOX change in the propensityof American public targets to be bought by private acquirersrather than public ones with the corresponding change for foreignpublic targets, which were outside the purview of SOX. Our findingsare consistent with the hypothesis that SOX induced small firmsto exit the public capital market during the year followingits enactment. In contrast, SOX appears to have had little effecton the going-private propensities of larger firms. (JEL G30,G34, G38, K22)     

School Attainment, Completion, and Economic Development: A Cross-Country Analysis

The primary aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between school attainment, school completion, and economic development. In doing so it also examines the effect of other macroeconomic variables on school attainment and completion. Estimation is conducted using a panel dataset of 138 countries. Our results show that income levels, government expenditure on education, and political instability all have significant effects on school completion and attainment. In addition these variables have different effects on male and female schooling. Our results have important policy implications and in particular allow policymakers to identify different instruments to target the problem of non‐completion of schooling.     

A Clustering Approach to Some Monetary Facts: A Long-Run Analysis of Cross-Country Data

Long-run dependencies among inflation, growth rates of money, real output and real output per capita are analysed. For a cross-section of 119 countries, clusters are obtained, and correlations among these variables within each cluster are calculated. Unlike the correlations obtained using data from the full sample, correlations of growth rates of real output and real output per capita with money growth and inflation are dissimilar across clusters. In particular, for some clusters of countries positive long-run relationships of money growth and inflation with growth rates of real output are observed.
JEL Classification Numbers: E5, F01, C69.     

Insurance of Household Risks and the Rebalancing of the Chinese Economy: Health Insurance,Health Expenses and Household Savings

This paper studies the effects of a public insurance system, the New Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS) on household savings in rural China. We develop a theoretical model in which we explain the impact of health insurance on savings through the impact of health insurance on out‐of‐pocket (OOP) health expense given the household level of wealth and seriousness of illness. We test the model empirically using data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey. We run endogenous and exogenous quantile regressions to evaluate the effects of NCMS participation on the distributions of household savings and OOP health expense. The impact of NCMS varies with the seriousness of illness. The NCMS induces an increase in OOP health expense for mild illness and, inversely, a decrease in health payments for more serious illnesses. The NCMS also leads to a higher incidence of catastrophic healthcare spending. The impact of the NCMS, given a certain state of illness, also varies with the household level of wealth. Poor households face health expense for both mild and serious illnesses. As the NCMS has opposite effects on the OOP expense for these two kinds of illness, we observe no effect on poor households’ precautionary savings. Because the decrease in OOP health expense for mild illness is larger for less poor households, the NCMS induces a decrease in their savings. For the most affluent households, the higher decrease in OOP spending on most moderate illness is dominated by a sharp increase in catastrophic expense, causing an increase in savings. To significantly reduce household savings and enhance household consumption, the NCMS has to offer better coverage against both serious and catastrophic health risks.     

Inflation Targeting as a Framework for Monetary Policy: A Cross-Country Analysis

This study makes use of a dynamic Taylor‐type model to examine the conduct of monetary policy by central banks that profess to engage in inflation targeting. Previous research regarding inflation targeting and Taylor‐type rules is reviewed and a dynamic Taylor‐type model is developed. Tests for regime shifts upon the adoption of inflation targeting indicate a significant change in policy in each of the nations in the study for which sufficient data were available. Next, the central bank reaction functions were estimated. Results suggest that most of the central banks conducted a policy of inflation targeting by seeking to contain inflationary pressures rather than reacting to current inflation.     

Determinants of Household Weatlh: Assets of Divorcing Couples in Australia

Recent reviews indicate that research on wealth in Australia has been limited by a lack of reliable data. The Economic Consequences of Marital Breakdown Survey containing data on the wealth of couples about to divorce, and items from the National Social Science Survey, provide new data for analysis. Shares of net wealth of housing (55 per cent) and superannuation (1 4 per cent) are comparable to those in previous studies. A 'wealth function' was developed taking account of age, gender, years of schooling and further education. There was a 2.6 per cent gain for each year of age and a decumulation of assets after age 58 years. Each year of schooling adds another 10 per cent to net wealth. There is a 16 per cent gain for those who have undertaken some further education after completing school. Some 22 per cent of adult Australians report ever receiving an inheritance. This new information begins to provide some of the answers on 'how' and, by inference, 'why' Australian households save.     

Market Work, Home Work, and Taxes: A Cross-Country Analysis

This paper uses a simple model of labor supply extended to allow for home production to understand the extent to which differences in taxes can account for differences in time allocations between the US and Europe. Once home production is included, the elasticity of substitution between consumption and leisure is almost irrelevant in determining the response of market hours to higher taxes. But to account for observed differences in leisure and time spent in home production, one still requires a relatively large elasticity of substitution between consumption and leisure, combined with a relatively small elasticity of substitution between time and goods in home production.     

老龄化与养老保险对居民储蓄率的影响

通过设定综合社会老龄化和养老保险制度的三期迭代模型,文章对社会老龄化、养老保险和居民储蓄率三者的关系进行实证检验.结果 表明,社会老龄化和养老保险均会导致居民的总体储蓄水平下降.进一步把收入用途划分为消费和储蓄后发现,养老保险的不同账户形式对居民收入分配决策的影响存在差异,即公共账户方式下的养老保险会在一定程度上侵占消费,而个人养老金账户方式下的养老保险则会完全替代储蓄.文章的研究结论能够为完善中国的灵活退休政策,健全社会养老体系带来有益思考.     

The Effect of Public Education Expenditure on Shadow Economy: A Cross-Country Analysis

This paper empirically examines whether devoting more resources to education can reduce the size of the shadow economy on a cross-section of countries. The findings show a negative relationship between public education expenditure and the size of the shadow economy, which is robust to the inclusion of different proxies for the control variables, a large set of policy variables, regional differences and endogeneity. The findings also emphasize the role of education, suggesting that public policies devoted to higher education level imply a decreasing effect on the shadow economy.