Accelerating innovation in local government

This paper examines what local government leaders might do to achieve more major cost-saving innovations. It brings together the findings from four UK studies on what encourages innovation in councils, covering the perspectives of council chief executives, frontline employees, political leaders and middle managers. It discusses the similarities and the differences between different groups’ views. It suggests the most important actions local government leaders might take to successfully implement more significant innovations more quickly.     

Self-perceptions, government policies and tax compliance in Germany

The policy of choice to fight tax non-compliance is an increase in deterrence, i.e. fines and audits, which seems to be well-grounded theoretically as the economics of crime justifies such an increase of the expected costs of illegal activities. In this paper, the impact of subjectively perceived deterrence on undeclared work is analyzed for the German case. Germany is particularly interesting because it considerably increased deterrence to fight tax non-compliance recently. The data set used for this analysis contains several waves of survey data conducted between 2004 and 2008. According to our evidence, (subjectively perceived) deterrence has an impact on undeclared work, but the influence of social norms is similarly important.     

Dynamic effects of government policies in an open economy

The effects of three government policies, an increase in the provision of government services, an open market operation, and an increase in the rate of growth of government liabilities, are studied in a long-run model of a small open economy with flexible exchange rates. The government budget constraint, the degree to which government bonds are net wealth to the public, and the degree of substitutability of government services for private market purchases are all considered. The determination of the exchange rate and the adjustment of the accounts of the balance of payments to changes in government policy are explored.     

The effect of government industrial policies on corporate accounting conservatism

This study examines whether and how firms adjust their accounting conservatism in response to government support through industrial policies, which reduce firms’ dependence on external financing from the capital market. Based on China’s unique economic programme called ‘Five-Year Plan’ from 1991 to 2015, we observe a decline in accounting conservatism among firms covered by government industrial policies. The decline is more pronounced in covered firms, which face higher ex-ante financial constraints, and in the subsample of firms which receive higher government support. These findings are robust to alternative specifications of accounting conservatism and policy timing. Our evidence implies that government industrial policies can have unintended consequences for corporate financial reporting.     

Banks without parachutes: Competitive effects of government bail-out policies

We analyze the competitive effects of government bail-out policies in two models with different degrees of transparency in the banking sector. Our main result is that bail-outs lead to higher risk-taking among the protected bank’s competitors, independently of transparency. The reason is that the prospect of a bail-out induces the protected bank to expand, which intensifies competition in the deposit market, depresses other banks’ margins, and thereby increases risk-taking incentives. Contrary to conventional wisdom, protected banks may take lower risks when transparency in the banking sector is low and the deposit supply is sufficiently elastic.     

以信用获融资,以资本促创新

重点打造科技企业信用数据库,有利于以企业的优良信用获取融资,为推动科技创新奠定坚实的经济基础。这将在极大程度上缓解广大科技型企业的资金需求,调动企业科技创新积极性,防范和化解金融风险,营造良好的投资环境,提升中关村地区整体形象和综合经济竞争力,实现科技创新驱动经济发展"完善科技企业信用体系,建设信用首善之区",这是成为国家科技金融创新中心之后,中关村国家自主创新示范区的一项核心工作。搞好科技型企     

科技创新是经济发展最根本的动力

人均收入成倍增长的动力是技术创新 从经济长期发展的角度来讲,科技创新确实是一个国家经济发展最根本的动力。根据国际知名的经济学家安德森·麦蒂森的研究,18世纪前,全世界最发达的西部地区的人均收入增长只有0．05％,按此换算,1400年人均收入才能够增加1倍。     

Financial development,government ownership of banks and firm innovation

Using a newly-available World Bank survey of over 28,000 firms from 46 countries, we examine how financial development affects firm innovation around the world. We find that while stock market development significantly enhances firm innovation, banking sector development has mixed effects. We show that the latter result can be explained by different levels of government ownership of banks. Specifically, in countries with lower government ownership of banks, banking sector development significantly enhances firm innovation; while in countries with higher government ownership of banks, banking sector development has no significant or sometimes even significantly negative effects on firm innovation. Such negative effects are significantly stronger for smaller firms. The results are robust to various controls such as firms’ human capital and ownership structure, to estimations using instrumental variable techniques and alternative measures of firm innovation.     

Reforming central government: An evaluation of an accounting innovation

This paper examines a significant accounting innovation in central government accounting – the introduction of Resource Accounting and Budgeting (RAB) in the UK. This innovation is studied through the lens of Rogers diffusion theory. The study setting is the Scotland Parliament. This research shows that, in the terms of diffusion theory, RAB can be classified as an accounting innovation. However, the implementation of RAB is problematic. While the reform of the UK central government system was initially sought as a mechanism to enhance democratic accountability, this paper shows that RAB does not connect with parliamentarians. The introduction of RAB flows as much from a managerial agenda as it does from the aim of democratic accountability.     

Independent technical directors and their effect on corporate innovation in China

As outside advisors, independent directors serve as both consultants and monitors. Based on empirical studies of corporate innovation and independent directors, we used data from listed firms in China from 2007 to 2017 to examine the effect of hiring independent technical directors on the board of directors. This study focused on a firm’s innovation performance and the extent to which this performance is influenced by the relevance of a director’s expertise to the activities of the firm. The results show that when the technical expertise of an independent director is relevant to the operational field of the firm, the firm should perform better in terms of innovation. This result is still significant when applying the two-stage instrumental variable method, showing a higher significance when using the exogenous event of the 2014 Wenfeng.plc case. Moreover, independent technical directors influence innovation primarily by encouraging firms to deepen their current field of research rather than expanding to other fields. Our findings can guide corporations to hire more relevant independent technical directors and can help the government design more accurate policies that promote innovation and entrepreneurship.     

"绿色创新企业"技术成果受到海外青睐

2017年7月6日,由《国际融资》杂志策划,携手北京产权交易所、北京金融资产交易所、北京环境交易所联合主办的2017(第八届)清洁发展国际融资论坛暨2017(第七届)"十大绿色创新企业"颁奖典礼在北京产权交易所成功举行.下午,三场专题对话之后,举行了"绿色创新企业"技术走向海外——新疆国力源投资有限公司(简称:国力源)与马来西亚精艺工程有限公司(简称:精艺工程)战略合作签约仪式.     

Labor cost,government intervention,and corporate innovation: Evidence from China

We examine the inducement effect of labor cost on corporate innovation in emerging markets. To establish causality, we adopt a difference-in-differences approach, based on the variations generated by the passage of the new Labor Contract Law in China, as well as an instrumental variable approach. We find the inducement effect of labor cost is more pronounced for Chinese non-state-owned enterprises, firms without political connections, and firms with low labor productivity. Our results support the induced innovation hypothesis in that increases in wages will induce invention and technology adoption, but also suggest that government intervention through state ownership and political connections largely decreases this inducement effect. Our findings have implications for emerging markets regarding the transition from a low-cost labor development model to an innovation-driven growth model.     

Whole of government accounts developments in the UK: conceptual,technical and timetable issues

When published, the UK's much-delayed whole of government accounts (WGA) will provide valuable incremental information on UK public finances. The WGA will complement existing fiscal indicators such as net debt, which excludes public assets other than liquid financial assets, by establishing a more complete picture. Emphasising the relevance of accounting consolidation to the public sector, this article assesses potential uses of WGA and discusses why the UK WGA timetable for publication—originally 2005–06 and now 2009–10—slipped so badly. A series of conceptual and technical issues is examined, including how the WGA boundary is defined; the emphasis the UK places on alignment with the national accounts; and the proposed treatment of taxes paid by entities within the WGA consolidation.