Private Investment and Political Institutions

Recent research has demonstrated a negative link between macroeconomic and political uncertainty and levels of private investment across countries. This raises the question whether certain types of government institutions might help reduce this uncertainty. North and Weingast (1989) propose that political institutions characterized by checks and balances can have beneficial effects on investment by allowing governments to credibly commit not to engage in ex post opportunism with respect to investors. In this paper I develop and test a modified version of their hypothesis, suggesting that checks and balances, on average, improve possibilities for commitment, but that they are not a necessary condition for doing so. Results of heteroskedastic regression and quantile regression estimates strongly support this proposition.     

Political Institutions and Policy Volatility

Checks and balances that limit the discretion of policy-makers reduce the volatility of government expenditure and revenue. While this assumption is at the heart of a large body of empirical work, the association between political institutions and policy volatility has itself been the focus of only limited empirical testing. The results presented here support the existence of this link, allow for a comparison between two prominent measures of checks and balances and provide insight into the relative impact of checks and balances on the volatility of nine different types of fiscal policy both during times of macroeconomic stability and upheaval.     

Oil Discovery,Political Institutions and Economic Diversification

Diversification is touted as a desirable policy objective for oil‐rich nations because it reduces exposure to volatility. However, the empirical relationship between petroleum and diversification is not well understood. Here, we test the effect of giant oil discoveries on diversification using a panel dataset of 136 countries observed over the period from 1962 to 2012. We notice non‐oil sector export concentration 8 years after a discovery. However, we do not observe any effect on the structure of employment in non‐resource and manufacturing sectors. Democratic political institutions moderate the export and employment concentration effects of petroleum discovery.     

Credit Rating Agencies: An Analysis Through the Lenses of Industrial Organization,Finance and Regulation

This article uses insights from the disciplines of industrial organization and of finance, and the understanding that has developed within both disciplines with respect to regulation, for an analysis of the credit rating industry.     

COVID-19 Regulations,Political Institutions,and the Environment

Environmental and Resource Economics - The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with short-term air quality improvements in many countries around the world. We study whether the degree of democracy and...     

对外经济政策的国内政治影响因素——国际政治经济学的视角

作为西方主流经济学的国际经济学,忽视了国内政治因素尤其是政治制度在对外经济政策中的重要作用。国际政治经济学作为一门新兴学科,将政治因素纳入了经济学的分析框架,从政治与经济相互结合的视角探讨影响对外经济政策的因素。在实行代议民主制的国家,作为政治制度主要行为体的利益集团和左右翼政党的政策偏好,以及不同的民主模式,对贸易政策、汇率政策和资本流动政策的选择都具有十分重要的影响。     

How Society Makes Itself: The Evolution of Political and Economic Institutions

This paper explores the origins and evolution of the concept of the disutility of work. The original formulation of this concept developed by Stanley Jevons and by Alfred Marshall recognizes the variability of work motives stressing the effects of both the quantity and quality of work on labor supply. Subsequent writers, notably Lionel Robbins, and later Gary Becker, focus on the opportunity cost of work time, to the neglect of the content of work. These writers lose sight of the influence of the nature of work on the supply of labor. Contemporary research on the economics of labor supply, while accepting the presence of agency problems surrounding the enforcement of the labor contract, continues to consign the determinants of work motives to a black box. The new emphasis on the problem of “shirking” by workers, in particular, offers an unbalanced treatment of the causes and consequences of work resistance.     

Institutions and Development: The Interaction Between Trade Regime and Political System

This paper argues that an unequal distribution of political power, biased to landed elites and owners of natural resources, in combination with openness to trade is a major obstacle to development of natural resource- or land-abundant economies. We develop a two-sector general equilibrium model and show that in an oligarchic society public investments conducive to industrialization. schooling for example.are typically lower in an open than in a closed economy. Moreover, we find that, under openness to trade, development is faster in a democratic system. We also endogenize the trade regime and demonstrate that in a land-abundant economy the landed elite has an interest to support openness to trade. We present historical evidence for Southern economies in the Americas that is consistent with our theoretical results: Resistance of landed elites to mass education, comparative advantages in primary goods production in the 19th century globalization wave, and low primary school enrollment and literacy rates.     

Social Change versus Transition: The Political Economy of Institutions and Transitional Economies

The “transition” process in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union (EEFSU) was one of the most dramatic non-marginal adjustments in economic systems ever experienced. During the transition process, elements of centrally administered socialism and embryonic market relations co-existed. This made traditional economic theory irrelevant. The purpose of this paper is to discover policy concerns and outcomes that orthodox “transition” literature ignores. Stanfield’s contribution to the economic literature, a cultural-holistic approach of radical institutionalism, makes it possible to understand the “transition” process from a new and more enlightened perspective. Stanfield provides a better understanding of the complexities involved, since the nature of change in the EEFSU is social and ever-lasting, not an end-state in the form of “transition”. Students of transition and of international development would benefit from this novel approach, which dismisses “transition” and substitutes “social change”, as the proper designation and manifestation of what actually took place in EEFSU.     

Political Institutions, Capital Flows, and Developing Country Growth: An Empirical Investigation

The paper examines the real per-capita growth effects of the quality of democracy, the rule of law, and capital flows in developing countries. The direct growth effects of democracy are positive and often statistically significant. Moreover, the estimates from a three-stage least-squares regression offer evidence that democracy has indirect growth effects that work by encouraging schooling and that the rule of law influences growth indirectly by encouraging foreign direct investment. A higher FDI to GDP ratio is associated with a faster growth rate. The estimated growth effect of the FDI to GDP ratio is several times higher than the estimated growth effect of the domestic investment to GDP ratio. By contrast, this study does not find a clear asso-ciation between other types of capital flows and growth.     

The Financing of Regulatory Agencies

This paper examines the financing of monitoring agencies deriving the welfare-improving combinations of public revenue, industry fees, and penalties that should be used to finance quality regulations. The model shows that if some firms are not expected to comply with quality standards, penalties are optimal to cover the agencys regulatory exposure though these need to be augmented with other instruments as monitoring costs increase. If all firms are expected to comply with the quality standards, a per-firm fee is the optimal method of regulatory financing but needs to be augmented with a lump-sum tax as monitoring costs increase.Jel classification: H21, L51The authors extend their thanks to Editor Michael Crew and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and suggestions. All errors are ours.     

Why Credit Rating Agencies Exist

Although credit rating agencies exist and are important to the capital markets, there remains a question of why they should exist. Two standard theories are that rating agencies correct a problem of information asymmetry and that they de facto regulate investments. These theories do not fully answer the question. This paper suggests an alternative explanation. While rating agencies produce little new information, they sort information available in the credit market. This sorting function is needed due to the large volume of information in the credit market. Sorting facilitates better credit analysis and investment selection, but bond investors or a cooperative of them cannot easily replicate this function. Outside of their information intermediary and regulatory roles, rating agencies serve a useful market purpose even if credit ratings inherently provide little new information. This alternative explanation has policy implications for the regulation of the industry.     

园艺产品出口影响因素的新政治经济学解析

本文收集了2001年和2004年41个园艺产品主要贸易国的相关数据资料,采用面板数据建模技术检验了政体、政党、政策、文化、经济、地理区位等因素对我国园艺产品出口的影响程度.通过对加入世贸组织前后我国园艺产品出口额的对比分析,测算了加入世贸组织对我国园艺产品出口的影响程度.主要结论为:政体、政党、政策、文化,经济、地理区位等因素对我国园艺产品的出口有显著影响;实证期内,加入世贸组织对我国园艺产品出口影响不显著.     

旅行社:变革之中求发展

一、加入WTO为我国旅行社发展带来了机遇和发展空间１．服务贸易条款的签署，使中国旅游业与其他所有服务贸易签署国站在同一标准线上。特别是服务贸易协议中关于国民待遇的规定，使所有服务贸易签署国公民在中国与中国公民享受同等待遇，势必会使中国与其他服务贸易签署国之间的贸易量大大增加，出入境更加方便，使那些对中国心存疑虑却又希望到中国旅游的国际旅游者早日实现其旅游消费行为。加入WTO，意味着我国进一步融入世界经济体系。投资、贸易的自由化会使更多的商务客人来华，而商务客人是我国国际旅游市场的重要来源。目前全球…     

政府科研机构科技资源配置效率影响因素组态分析

结合超效率SBM模型和模糊集定性比较分析（fsQCA）法,以中国内地25个省级行政区政府科研机构为样本,探讨科技资源配置结构、配置方式和配置环境对省级政府科研机构科技资源配置效率提升的组态效应。研究发现：①单个要素不构成高科技资源配置效率的必要条件,但基础研究强度在科技资源配置效率提升方面发挥了较为普遍的作用;②5种组态均可带来高科技资源配置效率,分别为由基础研究构成的基础研究型组态;由基础研究和应用研究构成的科学研究型组态;由基础研究、计划配置和区域开放度构成的基础研究—环境型组态;由基础研究、市场配置、计划配置、产学研合作水平和区域开放度构成的基础研究—平衡型组态;由应用研究、产学研合作水平和区域开放度构成的应用研究—环境型组态。其中,基础研究型组态和基础研究—平衡型组态在提升科技资源配置效率方面更有效;③我国东西部地区政府科研机构科技资源配置效率提升路径存在显著差异。据此,提出各地区政府科研机构应“因地制宜”地采取匹配路径和针对性措施,以有效提升科技资源配置效率。