Trade Liberalization in Agriculture in Developed Nations and Incidence of Child Labour in a Developing Economy

This paper is an attempt to analyse the consequence of trade liberalization in agriculture in the developed countries on the incidence of child labour in a developing economy in terms of a three‐sector general equilibrium model with informal sectors. Adult labour and child labour are substitutes for each other in the two informal sectors of the economy and are used together apart from capital in producing two exportable commodities. The interesting result that appears from the analysis is that agricultural trade liberalization in the developed countries may be effective in bringing down the incidence of child labour in the system. The paper substantiates the desirability of trade liberalization in agriculture in the developed nations from the perspective of the developing economies for reasons other than welfare improvement.     

非完全竞争市场假设在CGE模型中的引入及应用

通过对部门生产函数及相关参数、系数的改造,将非完全竞争市场条件引入CGE模型,并模拟在完全竞争与不完全竞争两个不同市场结构下国际油价上升对我国经济的影响.结果表明,当油品市场设定为不完全竞争时,面对国际油价上升的冲击,GDP下降的程度大于完全竞争的情况.因此随着油品市场逐渐开放,油品市场的产出增加,可以增强我国石油产业和总体经济应对国际油价上升冲击的能力,应继续推动我国石油产业市场自由化的进程.     

住房空置率对住宅价格的影响分析

住房空置率一直是房地产业所关注的问题,在对住房空置率进行学术界定和对我国现阶段住房空置率实际状况进行分析的基础上,结合交易价格对均衡价格的换算理论,对住房空置率与房地产价格的影响进行量化分析,提出政府可通过完善房地产市场信息披露制度、完善土地供应机制和引导房地产业的投资结构,企业提高开发质量来控制住房空置率。     

Public pension policy and the equity–efficiency trade-off∗

This paper illustrates that the equity–efficiency trade-off between a redistributive, Beveridgean, pension system and an earnings-based, Bismarckian, scheme can collapse when accounting for labor supply effects on the extensive margins. I introduce a general equilibrium overlapping generations model with endogenous savings, human capital formation, and labor supply. The model is calibrated to an average OECD economy. The results suggest that allocating funds towards a Bismarckian pension system always reduces earnings inequality – and, in some cases, lifetime inequality – when compared with a Beveridgean scheme. However, the Bismarckian scheme crowds out more human capital in the economy following a higher steady-state interest rate.     

中国产业结构升级内生动力：需求还是供给

一国产业结构转型的内生动力包括需求和供给两个方面。本文构建了综合上述两类影响因素的产业结构转型模型。通过对模型的校准和模拟,本文发现需求方面的收入增长和供给方面的资本深化两个因素对我国结构转型的影响较大,而技术进步率差异的影响程度较小。因此,保持一定的投资速度,从而稳定增长,提高居民收入,深化资本劳动比是调整产业结构的重要力量。同时,为了在未来推动产业结构升级,需要进一步提高第一产业和第二产业的技术进步率。     

管子轻重理论的均衡思想

<管子>后16篇,也称轻重篇,着重阐述了轻重理论,是中国古代特有的一种经济管理思想.前人学者大多从供求规律与货币数量论等角度对商品之间的轻重规律进行阐释.文章则重点阐述了轻重规律所蕴含的均衡思想,并且在阐述管子轻重理论中蕴含的局部均衡、动态均衡、一般均衡思想后,借用现代经济学的分析工具,试图重建管子轻重规律的均衡分析.西方经济学直到1769年以后才在经济学中引入均衡的概念,此研究将进一步丰富中国经济思想的研究.     

房地产属性、收入差距与房价变动趋势

以往关于收入差距与房价之间关系的研究,较少兼顾房地产的消费与投资双重属性。文章基于双重属性的角度,首先从理论上阐述了收入差距与房价之间的动态关系。在经济发展水平较低的情况下,房地产的消费属性凸显,收入差距扩大会抑制房价上涨;随着经济的进一步发展,房地产单一属性不明显,收入差距变化对房价不存在显著影响;当经济发展水平较高时,房地产投资属性占优,收入差距扩大会促进房价上涨。进一步对理论结果进行实证研究发现,整体上我国收入差距与房价之间无显著相关关系,单一属性不明显;但就省际差异而言,在经济发展水平较高的省份,收入差距促进了房价上涨,而在经济发展水平较低的省份,收入差距则抑制了房价上涨。随着时间的变化,收入差距由抑制房价上涨转变为促进房价上涨。     

Imperfect competition and capital accumulation: the role of price normalization

We consider a capital-accumulation model with infinitely lived households and two production sectors. The intermediate-good sector is characterized by perfect competition, a constant-returns-to-scale technology, and production externalities. The final-good sector is a monopoly operating under constant returns to scale. We analyze the general equilibrium in the sense of Gabszewicz and Vial [Journal of Economic Theory (1972) 4: 381–400] for this economy and different price-normalization rules. It is shown that the qualitative behavior of the equilibrium paths depends crucially on the chosen normalization rule. In particular, whether equilibria are monotonic or oscillating and whether indeterminacy occurs or not may depend on the choice of the numeraire.     

ACE versus CBIT: Which is Better for Investment and Welfare?

This article analyses the switch to an Allowance for CorporateEquity (ACE) or to a Comprehensive Business Income Tax (CBIT)type of tax system starting from the present German tax system.We show that in case an ACE type of reform is financed by anincrease in the VAT and not in the profit tax, it might be preferredto a CBIT even in the context of an open economy. Moreover,the required exogenous increase in the profit tax rate cannotensure revenue neutrality on its own due to the negative generalequilibrium effects it triggers on the whole economy. For aCBIT, the exogenous reduction in the tax rates on corporateand non-corporate profits leads to better results than whenwe allow for an endogenous change in the VAT. The best resultsarise when the CBIT is accompanied by a provision for immediatewrite-off and a lower profit tax or when the ACE with no additionalcapital gains taxation on household side is financed by an increasein the VAT. (JEL-Classification: C68, D58, D92, E62, H25.)     

Further evidence on the law of factor proportionality in multiple households closed CGE models

This article provides additional evidence that factor contents of different consumers’ consumption bundles computed from multiple households closed Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models are approximately proportional. This empirical regularity has been observed up to now for a total of 11 CGEs for very diverse countries, and we therefore state it as law. It implies that these models display price rigidity with respect to endowment re-allocations, an observation which has broad implications for their capacity to capture general equilibrium effects.     

Environmentally Sustainable Transport: Definition and Long-Term Economic Impacts for Austria

The transition to an environmentally sustainable transport system involves a combination of technological and demand-side transport policies. Regulatory, educational and economic instruments can be used to enhance the development of cleaner transport technologies as well as the shift from road-based towards more environmentally benign modes of transport. This article provides estimates of overall economic impacts in the long term and describes the required change in the transport system. The article proceeds in three steps. First, this article reviews concepts of sustainability and applies them to transportation. Second, a small open economy computable general equilibrium model for Austria is developed to evaluate the long-term macroeconomic and sectoral impacts of a sustainable freight transport policy. Third, simulation results are discussed and conclusions drawn concerning the crucial features of a sustainable freight transport policy.Although the required transition within the transport system is substantial, the economic costs in terms of GDP are comparably low and employment is likely to increase slightly.     

Urban unemployment, informal sector and development policies

We analyze the effects of wage subsidy policies on unemployment and welfare in the model that is characterized by the existence of both open unemployment and the informal sector that producesfinal goods. Our main findings are as follows. Wage subsidies to the agricultural and informal sectors increase welfare and decrease urban unemployment. The effects of a wage subsidy to manufacturing sector on welfare and unemployment are conditional. We identify some sufficient conditions for the definite results and interpret them.     

In-house information activities in an applied general equilibrium framework

Increasingly, firms' activities consist of information generating and processing activities, and information costs tend to dominate production costs. This indicates the necessity for explicitly incorporating private bureaucracies in economic modelling, if we want to understand economic development. Porat and Rubin's concept of the ‘secondary information sector’, which accounts for non-marketed information services produced in-house, is an attempt to account for and analyse intra-firm information activities at an industry and economy-wide level. The present study extends their work by embedding the sector in a simple computable general equilibrium model, using Japan in 1980 as an illustrative case study. Scenarios modelling changes in sectoral exports and domestic demand are conducted. Advantages and disadvantages of the secondary information sector concept are highlighted and areas for further research are indicated.     

Exchange rates of oil exporting countries and global oil price shocks: a nonlinear smooth-transition approach

This paper models logistic and exponential smooth transition adjustments of real exchange rates for six major oil-exporting countries in response to different shocks affecting oil prices. The logistic form captures asymmetric and the exponential form symmetric adjustments in regards to positive and negative oil price shocks. We chose oil-exporting countries that do not peg their exchange rates. For most countries, we detect no statistically significant non-linearities for the adjustment process of real exchange rate returns, be they asymmetric or symmetric, in response to oil supply shocks, idiosyncratic oil-market-specific shocks, and speculative oil-market shocks. Exceptions are oil supply shocks in the UK and possibly Brazil, where exchange rates respond nonlinearly, though the effects are symmetric for both countries. On the other hand, global aggregate demand shocks, which are shocks not originating directly in the oil market, have nonlinear asymmetric effects on real exchange rate returns for Canada, Mexico, Norway and Russia, and nonlinear symmetric effects for Brazil and the UK.     

房地产价格与通货膨胀预期

文章通过构建房地产均衡市场模型,在风险中性的假设前提下,利用无套利均衡定价原理,发展了从房地产价格波动中分离出市场通货膨胀预期的新方法.在此基础上,通过对中国房地产市场的实证研究发现,房地产预期收益率与通货膨胀预期之间确实存在稳定的函数关系.最后,文章提出将房地产价格纳入到居住类消费价格指数中去以减少货币政策认识时滞的政策建议.     

实际汇率、工资和就业--对中国贸易部门和非贸易部门的实证研究

在同时考虑贸易部门和非贸易部门的情况下,实际汇率贬值会增加贸易部门就业,但会减少非贸易部门就业,对实际工资的影响则是不确定的.按照理论分析的结果,文章对人民币实际汇率和中国两部门实际工资及就业的关系进行协整检验,结果发现:人民币实际汇率贬值显著增加贸易部门就业,但非贸易部门就业对实际汇率变动不敏感,而两部门的实际工资和实际汇率之间则都没有协整关系存在.进一步检验发现实际汇率变动对就业在贸易和非贸易部门之间的结构也没有影响.总的结论认为,即使考虑到非贸易部门,人民币实际汇率升值对整个就业也是不利的,而贬值有利于整个就业.     

简化一般均衡模型中一般均衡点的确定

经济学教材在讨论一般均衡的时候,往往以两个人、两种生产要素、两种产品这种最简单的社会作为研究对象,它们通常只阐述了一般均衡的存在,但都没有说明这种最简单的社会一般均衡点的确定即以此作为研究对象。