Harassment, corruption and tax policy: reply

Saha [Eur. J. Polit. Econ. (2003)] has raised some points about our paper [Eur. J. Polit. Econ. 16 (2000) 75]. We herewith reply to these points.     

Environmental taxes and industry monopolization

This paper considers a market with an incumbent monopolistic firm and a potential entrant. Production by both firms causes polluting emissions. The government selects a tax per unit of emission to maximize social welfare. The size of the tax rate affects whether or not the potential entrant enters the market. We identify the conditions that create a market structure where the preferences of the government and the incumbent firm coincide. Interestingly, there are cases where both the government and incumbent firm prefer a monopoly. Hence, the government might induce profitable monopolization by using a socially optimal tax policy instrument.      

Market structure and market performance in E-commerce

We analyze the interaction between market structure and market performance and how it varies over the product cycle. To account for the potential endogeneity in this relation, we use an instrumental variable approach. We combine data from the largest Austrian online market for price comparisons with retail data on wholesale prices provided by a major hardware producer for consumer electronics. Our results show that instrumenting is important for estimating the empirical effect of competition on the markup of the price leader. One more firm in the market is associated with a reduction of the price leader׳s markup which is equivalent to competition between existing firms for an additional 3 weeks in the product life cycle. Our results support search theoretic models and contradict models of monopolistic competition. Moreover our results support the existence of price dynamics over the product cycle. They also highlight the substitutability between newly innovated and old expiring technologies and how it varies with respect to competitors׳ and own brand innovations.     

Corruption and privatization

This paper analyses the relation between corruption and privatization. In particular, we study how corruption affects the acquisition price and the post-privatization market structure. The model predicts that privatization in countries with highly corrupt government results in a higher degree of market concentration than in countries where governments are less corrupt. The acquisition price is also likely to be higher when a government is highly corrupt than when government officials are honest or moderately corrupt. Finally, and perhaps surprisingly, we demonstrate that a stronger propensity to embezzle state revenues may reduce government officials' benefits from corruption. The reason is that the more eager the government officials are to take bribes, the cheaper they are to buy.     

Effluent taxes,market structure,and the rate and direction of endogenous technological change

This paper studies the effects of effluent taxes on firms’ allocation of resources to cost-reducing and emission-reducing R&D, and on entrepreneurs’ decisions to develop new goods and enter the market. A tax set at an exogenous rate that does not depend on the state of technology reduces growth, the level of consumption of each good, and raises the number of firms. The induced increase in the variety of goods is a benefit not considered in previous analyses. In terms of environmental benefits, the tax induces a positive rate of pollution abatement that offsets the “dirty” side of economic growth. A tax set at an endogenous rate that holds constant the tax burden per unit of output, in contrast, has ambiguous effects on growth, the scale of activity of each firm and the number of firms. Besides being novel, the potential positive growth effect of this type of effluent tax is precisely what makes this instrument effective for welfare-maximizing purposes. The socially optimal policy, in fact, requires the tax burden per unit of output to equal the marginal rate of substitution between the growth rate of consumption and abatement. Moreover, a tax/subsidy on entry is needed, depending on whether the contribution of product variety to pollution dominates consumers’ love of variety.      

北京市大华山镇发展生态经济农业研究

本文以发展生态农业成就突出的北京市大华山镇为例,阐述了生态农业持续高效发展的两个基础;立足市场需求,发挥区域优势。     

Income taxes and entrepreneurial choice: empirical evidence from two German natural experiments

Does tax policy affect entrepreneurial choice? We use two tax reforms in Germany as “natural experiments”. These reforms reduced the marginal income tax rate for entrepreneurs with income above a certain threshold, with the exception of freelance professionals. The two conditions for belonging to the treatment group allow us to apply a “difference-in-difference-in-difference” identification strategy to estimate the effects of the tax rate reductions. We base our analysis on the microcensus, the official representative continuous household survey in Germany. The results indicate that the tax rate reductions increased the probability of choosing self-employment.     

Corruption perceptions vs. corruption reality

This paper examines the accuracy of corruption perceptions by comparing Indonesian villagers' reported perceptions about corruption in a road-building project in their village with a more objective measure of ‘missing expenditures’ in the project. I find that villagers' reported perceptions do contain real information, and that villagers are sophisticated enough to distinguish between corruption in a particular road project and general corruption in the village. The magnitude of the reported information, however, is small, in part because officials hide corruption where it is hardest for villagers to detect. I also find that there are biases in reported perceptions. The findings illustrate the limitations of relying solely on corruption perceptions, whether in designing anti-corruption policies or in conducting empirical research on corruption.     

市场结构及市场效率的实验经济学综述

实验经济学对于市场效率和市场结构的研究最早在1948年由Chamberline开创。经济学家经过大量实验发现,不但市场前提假设关系到市场均衡结果及效率,交易制度也会对均衡产生重大影响。并且,不符合完全竞争市场假设的市场结构也有可能实现资源有效配置。本文对实验经济学关于市场结构及市场效率的相关研究进行了回顾与综述,并重点阐述其对完全竞争市场的研究,以揭示交易制度及市场前提对市场效率的综合影响。本文得到的结论显示：即使没有达到完全竞争市场的严格假设,也可能达到完全竞争市场的均衡状态,因而达到最优的配置效率。并且,对于市场结构——完全竞争、垄断和寡头垄断市场的实验研究也表明,并不是如传统古典经济学模型所言：只有完全竞争的市场结构才能够达到资源的有效配置,垄断市场效率也并不是完全与模型所言一致。而且不同于古典经济学,实验经济学将交易制度看作外生变量,认为其对最终市场效率也会产生很大影响。     

我国烟草商业市场结构与绩效的实证研究

烟草行业作为一种特殊的行业,自从1982年实行烟草专卖制度以来,为我国的经济发展做出了巨大贡献,成长为国民经济发展的支柱产业。作为烟草行业的一个重要分支——烟草商业,承担着烟草制品的经营和销售,对烟草制品最终实现经济价值具有举足轻重的作用。本文从实证的角度分析了烟草商业1999-2003年间的市场结构和市场绩效。     

Analysis of price competition and strategic implications for heterogeneous market structure

This paper examines strategic competition behavior in heterogeneous market structure where both conventional offline and online firms coexist in equilibrium and draws strategic implications with some remarks on welfare. Research on the price competition between conventional offline and online firms has been done through empirical approaches; however, the results are conflicting. This paper reconciles the existing conflicting empirical findings on price levels between conventional offline and online firms through a theoretical approach. We find that as the online market matures, prices in both conventional and online firms drop, and the price in the online firm can be higher than that in a conventional offline firm. Furthermore, if convenience associated with the online increases, the online price tends to exceed the conventional offline price.     

Taxation,corruption, and growth

We build an endogenous growth model to analyze the relationships between taxation, corruption, and economic growth. Entrepreneurs lie at the center of the model and face disincentive effects from taxation but acquire positive benefits from public infrastructure. Political corruption governs the efficiency with which tax revenues are translated into infrastructure. The model predicts an inverted-U relationship between taxation and growth, with corruption reducing the optimal taxation level. We find evidence consistent with these predictions and the entrepreneurial channel using data from the Longitudinal Business Database of the US Census Bureau. The marginal effect of taxation for growth for a state at the 10th or 25th percentile of corruption is significantly positive; on the other hand, the marginal effects of taxation for growth for a state at the 90th percentile of corruption are much lower across the board. We make progress towards causality through Granger-style tests and by considering periphery counties where effective tax policy is largely driven by bordering states. Finally, we calibrate our model and find that the calibrated taxation rate of 37% is fairly close to the model׳s estimated welfare maximizing taxation rate of 42%. Reducing corruption provides the largest potential impact for welfare gain through its impact on the uses of tax revenues.     

市场结构、流通能力与我国农产品流通企业扩张绩效

通过对企业扩张影响因素全面的理论梳理,构建一个新的企业扩张行为分析模型,可以认为企业扩张行为并非是外部因素决定的,企业扩张行为绩效的决定是内部性的.在这一企业扩张新假设条件下,企业在竞争中的能力的积累是流通企业扩张行为取得绩效的根本来源.运用这个模型对中国农产品企业扩张问题进行实证研究,从而对我国农产品流通企业扩张的合理化提出相关建议.     

Decentralized Bribery and Market Participation

I propose a bribery model that examines decentralized bureaucratic decision‐making. There are multiple stable equilibria. High levels of bribery reduce an economy's productivity because corruption suppresses small business, and reduces the total graft, even though the size of an individual bribe might increase. Decentralization prevents movement towards a Pareto‐dominant equilibrium. Anticorruption efforts, even temporary ones, might be useful to improve participation, if they lower the bribe levels demanded and thus encourage small businesses to participate.     

How should commodities be taxed?: Market structure,product heterogeneity and the optimal structure of commodity taxes

This paper is concerned with the form in which commodity taxes are best imposed, and particularly with the appropriate balance between specific and ad valorem components. This neglected issue is of policy importance in relation to the harmonization of tax structures within the EEC, and of theoretical interest as a point of contact between optimal tax theory and models of non-price competition. The roles of the two taxes as purely corrective devices under a variety of market forms are established and discussed. The analysis suggests that heavily taxed commodities should normally be subject to high specific rather than high ad valorem taxes.     

Gender gaps across countries and skills: Demand,supply and the industry structure

The comovement between gender gaps in hours and wages across countries and skills reveals the presence of net demand forces shaping gender differences in labor market outcomes. This paper links the rich pattern of variation in gender gaps to the process of structural transformation. Based on a stylized, multi-sector equilibrium model, we illustrate that the gender bias in labor demand can be decomposed into measurable within- and between-industry components. Using comparable micro data across countries, we find that international differences in the industry structure explain more than eighty percent of the overall variation in labor demand between the U.S. and all other countries in our sample, and roughly one third of the overall cross-country variation in wage and hours gaps.     

市场需求要素驱动的创新溢出效应研究

市场需求是技术创新的内在源泉,现有研究并未将产品市场和技术市场统一纳入创新能力提升分析框架,不能全面反映市场需求对创新活动的影响效果。在理论模型推演出市场需求与创新水平存在关联性基础上,基于创新数量和创新质量双维视角,采用2004-2016年中国内地30省份面板数据,分别检验市场需求要素对研发投入和创新效率的影响。结果发现：国内市场需求既显著激励了研发投入强度,又明显提高了创新效率水平,培育国内市场需求对创新活动同时具备数量和质量的双重激励;出口贸易对研发投入的影响不明显,但显著有利于创新效率提升;进口贸易与技术交易市场对创新活动存在数量和质量双重压力,是阻碍市场创新效力发挥的主要因素,降低二者〖JP〗的负面约束值得重视;现阶段我国创新活动仍表现为显著的“资本驱动型”特征,R&D人力资本投入数量很高,但贡献相对有限。上述实证研究结论可为高质量发展背景下,通过启动市场需求进而提升自主创新能力和制定产业结构升级政策提供参考。     

社会结构、市场结构与企业技术创新

本文建立了一个基于社会结构与市场结构的技术创新系统模型,来解释企业的技术创新行为,认为企业是社会网络中的一个行动者,其技术创新行为是一种社会行动,它会受到人际关系和社会结构的影响.作为一种结果,社会结构会影响市场结构,从而两者共同作用于企业的技术创新过程.在这个过程中,对企业的社会资本分析是非常重要的.推动社会结构、市场结构与技术创新活动的协调发展是深化我国经济体制改革进而提升企业技术创新竞争力的重要途径.     

Spatial aspects of retail market structure: BLS and ERS food prices revisited

This paper draws on the spatial model in (Claycombe and Mahan, 1993) and the BLS data developed in (Lamm, 1981) to test for the significance of spatial and concentration variables as determinants of retail prices. Results strongly suggest that structure in narrow retail markets affects price. Different results are found using the ERS data in (Kaufman and Handy, 1989), further fueling controversy there.The author wishes to acknowledge the assistance of David Skeehan in this work and to thank Charles Handy for providing the ERS data.