DEFINING AND MEASURING THE PUBLIC SECTOR: SOME INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS

The public sector is defined here to include government plus public enterprises. Historically, economists and statisticians have been more concerned with its separate components than with the public sector as a whole, but it is suggested that the public sector may be an appropriate concept for studying several current problems of economic policy. While there is general agreement as to what constitutes government, countries have differing views about what makes an enterprise public. Differences in country definitions of public enterprises are identified as one of the main problems in making international comparisons for the public sector. Statistics are presented for up to 16 OECD countries on the share of the public sector in total final demand, value added, employment, and net lending. It is argued that there is rarely a unique answer to the question “How big is the public sector?” For most countries judicious selection of data and careful definition will lead to different conclusions about the size and growth of the public sector. Because of the lack of data, it is not possible to analyse public sectors in developing countries in the same detail as OECD countries. The evidence available suggests that while public sectors are about the same size in both OECD and developing countries, public enterprises play a more important role in the latter.     

ON THE EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT PATTERNS OF PUBLIC CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURES

The multiplier effects resulting from an isolated increase in the level of public consumption within different public branches are investigated and the policy implications are discussed. The article begins with a theorethical analysis which shows why and in which ways these multipliers can be expected to differ between public branches. Thereafter, an empirical investigation is given, based on simulations with an econometric model of the Swedish economy. In this model the public activities are divided into 13 different public branches. The effects of an increase in public consumption on employment, imports and private consumption are found to differ considerably depending on which branch of the public sector is expanded. Some implications for short run stabilization policy are discussed. The article ends with a special analysis of the implications for a medium term planning problem: the trade off between private and public consumption growth. This analysis throws new light on the old topic "private or public consumption". In an economy with highly differentiated production in the public sector the trade-off is shown not to be unique. The sacrifice of private consumption growth corresponding to a given growth of public consumption expenditures will vary considerably according to the distribution of the public consumption growth within the different branches of the public sector.     

公共财政与基本公共服务均等化

基本公共服务均等化是公共财政"公共性"的重要体现,也是科学发展观在社会领域的基本体现。文章首先探讨了基本公共服务均等化的理论内涵,接着就我国目前公共财政促进基本公共服务均等化的现状及存在的问题进行分析,最后,提出了促进基本公共服务均等化的对策。     

公众参与纳米技术风险沟通意向认知因素实证研究

公众参与纳米技术风险沟通的行为意向有一定的认知基础。将传统技术风险认知评价模型构成分为科学素养维度、信息感知维度和信任维度3个层面,衡量公众纳米风险认知程度,并构建了公众参与纳米技术风险沟通意向概念模型。通过对调研数据进行Smart分析,获得了公众参与意向的影响因素路径模型,验证了公众对纳米技术的风险认知与公众参与纳米技术风险沟通意向之间的关系假设,可为纳米风险治理中有针对性地提高公众参与度提供理论支持。     

住房保障与财富效应逆转——基于平滑转换回归方法的实证分析

本文采取非线性的平滑转换回归方法,对我国保障房供给影响财富效应的程度进行了研究,结果表明:保障房的供给会使得房地产价格的财富效应发生V型逆转,即当保障房供给处于低水平阶段时,房地产价格的财富效应为负向,房价上涨会抑制消费增加;当保障房供给处于高水平阶段时,房地产价格具有正向的财富效应,房价上涨促进消费增加。这说明存在一个保障房供给的最低门槛,只有跨越这个门槛,才能有利于发挥房地产价格的财富效应,进而促进消费。从对全国各省份的数据分析发现,西部地区的大部分省份已经跨越了保障房供给的最低门槛,而东部地区较多的省份,连续几年都低于这个门槛值。因此,应积极建立健全保障性安居工程的融资机制,合理协调好保障房与商品房用地之间的关系,进而促进消费。     

Public investment and budgetary consolidation in Portugal

In this paper we find that public investment in durable goods has a positive effect on long-term economic performance in Portugal. We also find that these positive effects are not strong enough for public investment to pay for itself in the form of future tax revenues. Therefore, cuts in public investment in durable goods, although costly in terms of long-term economic performance seem to be an effective way of alleviating pressure on the public budget. It is important to note, however, that this general result contrasts sharply with the evidence found in this paper for public investment in equipment, a small component of public investment in durable goods, as well as with evidence elsewhere for public investment in transportation infrastructures. For these, the effects on output are strong enough for public investment to pay for itself. Therefore, cuts in these two types of public investment, would have negative long-term economic effects as well as negative long-term budgetary effects. Clearly, not all public investment is created equal. We would like to thank the editor as well as two anonymous referees for unusually useful comments and suggestions. The usual disclaimers apply.     

Public debt management and credibility: Evidence from an emerging economy

This study is a contribution to the literature concerning the management of the public debt in emerging economies. A novelty in this article is the introduction of a fiscal credibility index based on the market's expectations in regard to the public debt to GDP ratio. The main objective is to present empirical evidence for the Brazilian case concerning the framework of the public debt composition and also the effect of this framework on public debt to GDP ratio. The findings demonstrate that the commitment with the public debt increases the fiscal credibility and that it is crucial for the success of the management of the public debt. Contrary to what is recommended in the standard literature an increase in the average maturity and the share of inflation-linked bonds imply costs that cannot be neglected.     

公共财政论的理论缺陷

作为一个理论体系,公共财政理论起码在三个方面存在严重缺陷：一是它的理论基础－公共物品理论是不完整的,本引入制度性公共物品的概念后,会使公共财政理论陷入十分尴尬的“左右逢源”中;二是所谓政府（国有资本）退出竞争性物品的生产和提供行列,并不意味着国家财政将专门为公共物品提供资金保证;三是国家财政也不能退出所有私人物品的生产和提供行鲍,因为一些基础设施和公用设施实质上是根据私人物品的属性提供的,尽管国家财政也参与对它们的资金提供。     

Sustainability of public debt,public capital formation,and endogenous growth in an overlapping generations setting

Under the golden rule of public finance for public investment with a constant budget deficit/GDP ratio, we show that for the sustainability of government budget deficits there is a threshold of the initial public debt for a given stock of public capital, and that this threshold level of public debt is increasing in the stock of public capital. If the initial public debt is greater than the threshold, the government can no longer sustain budget deficits, while if it is smaller, the government can conduct a permanent deficit policy, which eventually leads to a positive public debt/GDP ratio.     

Public Preferences for Government Spending Priorities: Survey Evidence from Germany

Employing data from a representative survey conducted in Germany, this paper examines public preferences for the size and composition of government expenditure. We focus on public attitudes towards taxes, public debt incurrence and public spending in six different policy areas. Our findings suggest, first, that individual preferences for the use of additional tax money can be categorised as either capital‐oriented expenditure or public debt reduction. Second, we find that fiscal preferences differ along various dimensions. Specifically, personal economic well‐being, economic literacy, confidence in politicians, political ideology and time preference are significantly related to individual attitudes towards public spending, taxes and debt. The magnitude of the effects is particularly large for time preference, economic knowledge and party preference. Third, public preferences for public spending priorities are only marginally affected when considering a public budget constraint.     

黄浦江两岸地区公共空间可达性研究 ——基于社会网络分析的公共交通评价与 优化策略

黄浦江两岸地区正在打造世界级的滨江公共空间, 如何便捷、多样地抵达滨江公共空间是其规划设计和建设实施 的重要评价指标。将该评价指标定义为滨江公共空间可达性, 指居民利用滨江公共交通系统(常规公交)抵达滨江公共空间的 便捷性和多样性程度。利用社会网络分析方法,以虹口区和徐 汇区的滨江公共空间为例,构建了滨江公共空间可达性模型, 借助地理信息系统(ArcGIS)与计算机编程语言(Python)对现 状可达性进行量化分析评价,并提出优化滨江公共空间可达性 的算法和策略,以期更好地提升滨江公共空间可达性。     

全球公共物品理论研究

全球公共物品理论为全球化问题的解决提供了新思路。然而,中国的学术界对于全球公共物品理论的理解,还存在莫衷一是的现象,并倾向于把全球公共物品理论与国际公共物品理论混为一谈。这不仅制约了全球公共物品理论运用的效果,也影响了该理论的发展。为此,本文通过对全球公共物品理论和国际公共物品理论的辨析,提出了应该从三个维度来理解和认识全球公共物品理论的观点,进而对全球公共物品理论对传统公共物品理论的拓展问题进行了研究,旨在为全球化问题的解决提供正确的理论基础。     

The social value of public information with convex costs of information acquisition

In a beauty contest framework, welfare can decrease with public information if the precision of private information is exogenous, whereas welfare necessarily increases with public information if the precision is endogenous with linear costs of information acquisition. The purpose of this paper is to reconcile these results by considering nonlinear costs of information acquisition. The main result of this paper is a necessary and sufficient condition for welfare to increase with public information. Using it, we show that costs of information acquisition are linear if and only if welfare necessarily increases with public information. Thus, welfare can decrease with public information for any strictly convex costs. This is because convex costs mitigate the so-called crowding-out effect of public information on private information, thereby making the social value of public information with endogenous precision closer to that with exogenous precision.     

AN ENDOGENOUS GROWTH MODEL WITH PUBLIC CAPITAL AND SUSTAINABLE GOVERNMENT DEBT*

This paper presents and analyses an endogenous growth model with public capital and public debt. It is assumed that the ratio of the primary surplus to gross domestic income is a positive linear function of the debt income ratio which assures that public debt is sustainable. The paper then derives necessary conditions for the existence of a sustainable balanced growth path for the analytical model. Further, simulations are undertaken in order to gain insight into stability properties of the model and in order to analyse growth effects of deficit financed increases in public investment. The latter is done for the model on the sustainable balanced growth path as well as for the model along the transition path.     

公共产品供给中的“政府失灵”现象分析

公共产品是指消费过程中具有非排他性和非竞争性的产品。从本质上讲,生产公共产品与市场机制的作用是矛盾的,生产者是不会主动生产公共产品的。而公共产品是全社会成员所必须消费的产品,它的满足状况也反映了一个国家的福利水平。这就需要由政府来承担提供公共产品的责任。但是,政府部门在提供公共物品时趋向于浪费和滥用资源,致使公共支出规模过大或者效率降低,政府的活动并不总像应该的那样或像理论所说的那样“有效”。克服这种现象,有三种政策选择：（1）市场化改革;（2）宪法改革;（3）政府机构改革。     

村落公共空间的农户认知与支付意愿——以河南省双沟村为例的经验研究

通过对河南省双沟村75家农户的深入访谈,运用Logistic二元选择模型对影响农户公共空间的支付意愿进行分析。结果表明,所有农户都认为公共空间受到不同程度的破坏,大多数农户认为无论是破坏还是改善都存在政府不作为。农户对公共空间的支付意愿受个体特征、农户特征和认知特征的共同制约,支付意愿普遍较低。年龄和学历与支付意愿负相关;职业与之呈显著正相关;农户家庭农业收入和非农收入与之具有统计上的正相关,但系数较小,实际意义并不明显;农户认为公共空间破坏越严重,越易产生支付意愿。农户对村域公共空间的认知及其支付意愿对村域治理有重要的政策含义,社会主义新农村建设应重视公共空间在村庄的稳定和发展中的作用。     

Public goods,voting, and growth

We study a parametric politico‐economic model of economic growth with productive public goods and public consumption goods. The provision of public goods is funded by a proportional tax. Agents are heterogeneous in their initial capital endowments, discount factors, and the relative weights of public consumption in overall private utility. They vote on the shares of public goods in gross domestic products (GDP). We propose a definition of voting equilibrium, prove the existence and provide a characterization of voting equilibria, and obtain a closed‐form solution for the voting outcomes. Also we introduce a “fictitious” representative agent and interpret the outcome of voting as a choice made by a central planner for his benefit. Finally, we undertake comparative static analysis of the shares of public goods in GDP and of the rate of balanced growth with respect to the discount factors and the preferences for public consumption. The results of this analysis suggest that the representative‐agent version of our model is capable of capturing the interaction between many voting heterogeneous agents only if the heterogeneity is one‐dimensional.     

公共部门与非公共部门收入差异的变迁

基于社会阶层动态演化理论,本文提出了部门收入差异阶段性假说。随后利用CHNS面板数据实证检验了该假说。结果表明,第一阶段(1989—1997年),在较高的收入层次上,非公共部门比公共部门具有明显的收入优势,并且这一收入优势随着收入水平的提高而提高。非公共部门的教育回报率也更高;第二阶段(2000—2009年),在中低收入分位数上,公共部门比非公共部门表现出明显的收入优势。在较高的收入分位数上,非公共部门不再具有收入优势。在较高的教育水平上,两大部门的教育回报率接近。同时,两个阶段中在较低和较高收入分位数上表现出的部门收入差异主要源自部门特征因素。实证研究支持了阶段性假说,为我国收入分配结构性调整提供了启示。     

公共危机由谁买单——以“5·12”汶川大地震和三鹿奶粉事件为例

公共危机给人民的生活造成了极大的困难。由于其自身的特点,公共危机的治理成本计算将比其他事故治理更加困难。但是我们也不能忽视其中的问题：公共危机事件究竟应该由谁来买单呢？从公共危机的概况出发,通过＂5·12汶川特大地震＂和＂三鹿奶粉事件＂对比来研究针对不同的公共危机由谁来买单展开论述。     

公共产品供给的"第四条道路"--PPP模式研究

PPP 是基础设施等准公共产品供给新模式。该模式依据公共产品理论和代理理论,依托私人部门的资金、技术和管理等优势,缓解了公共部门支出不足,提高了公共支出效率的新公共管理模式。PPP 的突出特点是公共部门向私人部门转移风险和私人部门向公共部门传递现金价格。我国已具备实行 PPP 模式的现实环境和管理意识。应重新界定公共部门,加强政府服务意识,加快公共管理改革步伐,通过 PPP 模式,减轻政府财政压力,提升我国公共服务的供给水平。