The Distributional Effects of Public Expenditure

It is commonly agreed that economic policies, including budgetary policies, can have potentially strong distributional effects. Traditional economic analysis held that economic policies affected the income distribution primarily through their impact on the rate of growth. More recently, it has come to be recognised that qualitative aspects of economic growth are probably more important than the rate of growth itself. While recent research has confirmed the potential role of expenditure policies as a redistributive tool, it has also shown that redistribution does not necessarily have to come at the expense of economic growth and efficiency. Although there are substantial analytical and technical problems to be faced in the design of equitable and cost-effective public expenditure programmes, unfavourable distributional outcomes of these programmes can usually be traced more to political and institutional pressures than to purely technical factors. JEL Classification number: H5     

THE FUTURE OF MARKETS

In the 2009 Wincott Lecture, the author argues that in their approach to markets, economic researchers and policy-makers have focused too much on the role of prices as signals to guide resource allocation, at the expense of two possibly more important elements – markets as a process of discovery and markets as a mechanism for the diffusion of political and economic power. Government policies should support the market rather than particular industries, promote competition not concentration, and facilitate entry, not confer advantages on existing firms.     

Navigating the New Normal: Political Affinity and Multinationals’ Post-Acquisition Performance

The New Normal in the international business landscape reflects a world challenged by economic volatility and political hostilities. This suggests increased political risk, even for MNEs operating in developed markets. We use the legitimacy-based view of political risk to examine how political affinity between host and home markets may contribute to an MNE’s post-acquisition performance in a developed market. A high degree of political affinity signifies aligned national interests thus reducing legitimacy concerns faced by MNEs during post-acquisition integration. Based on cross-border M&A deals focused on U.S. targets completed by MNEs representing 45 countries between 2004 and 2012, we find that MNEs from countries with greater political affinity to the U.S. experience better post-acquisition performance. We also investigate two country-level factors that intensify the threat to legitimacy; the MNEs’ home market economic status and the presence of a financial crisis in the host market. Our findings indicate that political affinity mitigates risk for MNEs originated from emerging economies much more than for MNEs originated from developed economies, whereas a financial crisis reduces the benefit of political affinity.     

高管政治升迁对企业价值的影响研究综述

随着中国经济和政治的发展,越来越多的公司管理者获得了某种形式的政治升迁,高管获得政治升迁后势必会对相关企业产生影响,而高管的政治升迁与政治关联既有联系又有区别,政治关联往往是高管政治升迁的结果,政治关联会导致高管追求政治升迁。国内外学者以政治关联为出发点,对政治关联、政治关联对企业价值的影响以及其经济后果的研究现状进行阐述,很有必要在此基础上进行评价、分析,为日后的研究奠定基础。     

Feminist Economics: Theoretical and Political Dimensions

Feminist economics is a school of economic thought and political action that gained important visibility during the 1990s, although its origins can be dated back to the mid‐19^th century. Since then, feminist economics has developed its own concepts, analytical frameworks, and methodologies. With gender as a central category, it seeks a more integral and humane comprehension of the economy and of the processes of inclusion and exclusion taking place in it. In addition, feminist economics has grown into a political practice that aims at improving the functioning of the economic system so that all people can have access to a dignified life on the basis of equality. This article presents a general systematization of these theoretical and political dimensions, particularly focusing on the critique of the neoclassical paradigm and its political correlates. We connect the epistemological, methodological, and conceptual contributions of feminist economics, as well as its propositions for transformative action, to specific debates on economic issues, such as the ecological emergency, crisis and austerity, the commodification of life, and the liberalization of trade.     

The sexual division of care in mainland China and Hong Kong

The aim of this paper is to explore the extent to which the sexual division of domestic labour in Hong Kong and mainland China is influenced by traditional Chinese values and contemporary political and economic factors. It discovers that women in these two societies assume far more caring responsibilities than men. This is similar to women in traditional Chinese society. An important reason is that the political and economic conditions in Hong Kong and mainland China favour the reproduction of traditional Chinese values. Hence it can be argued that the unequal division of domestic labour between men and women will continue as long as the political and economic conditions are unfavourable to women. Le but de cet article est d’explorer jusqu’à quel point les valeurs chinoises traditionnelles et les facteurs politiques et économiques contemporains influencent la division sexuelle du travail domestique à Hong Kong et en Chine. Cet article a découvert que, dans ces deux sociétés, les femmes ont beaucoup plus de reponsabilités sociales que les hommes. Ceci est similaire à la société chinoise traditionnelle. Une raison importante est que les conditions politiques et économiques à Hong Kong et en Chine favorisent la reproduction des valeurs chinoises traditionnelles. On peut donc dire que la division inégale du travail domestique entre les hommes et les femmes continuera tant que les conditions politiques et économiques seront désavantageuses pour les femmes.     

新媒体视域下的企业政工工作路径探究

我国媒体传播工作在新媒体技术的快速发展下发生了巨大的变化,利用新媒体技术使得人们获取信息的方式越来越多样化。结合这一实际情况,为了提高企业政工工作的有效性,企业政工工作者应当顺应经济和社会发展的潮流,有效利用新媒体做好政工工作。论文首先论述了企业政治工作的背景,并在此基础上提出了许多政治工作对策,以期提高政治工作的有效性。     

国有企业政治关联、政府审计质量和企业绩效——基于我国A股市场的实证研究

在我国,国有上市公司既拥有股权政治关联又拥有高管政治关联。相对于樊纲指数,更为微观的政府审计质量是影响政治关联对国有企业绩效作用发挥的重要因素。在不考虑政府审计质量的情况下,国有股权政治关联会降低企业的绩效,而高管政治关联会提升企业绩效;在考虑政府审计质量的情况下,政府审计质量越高,高管政治关联提升作用越不明显,也越会降低股权政治关联对企业绩效的损害作用。因此,提高政府审计质量可以改善国有企业的生存环境,优化资源的配置,促进企业的健康发展。     

企业经营管理中企业文化的内涵和功能

随着我国社会和信息的发展,企业之间的竞争越来越激烈,企业思想政治工作与企业文化建设在研究对象、基本原则、工作目标上具有一致性和相容性,这为探索二者相互融合的途径提供了思路。企业文化建设作为企业价值理念的一种体现,对企业的发展壮大起着越来越重要的作用。它不仅可以提高企业的核心竞争力,而且有助于丰富思想政治工作的内容,为思想政治工作注入新的活力,对加强和改进思想政治工作有很大的促进作用。所以,企业政工干部一定要通过各种途径加强企业文化建设。企业文化与企业的生存、发展和管理紧密相连,所以构建企业文化,也成为建立现代企业管理体制必不可少的关键因素。     

The impact of HRM practices on service quality,customer satisfaction and performance in the Indian hotel industry

This article reviews findings from a first survey of employers' views on collective bargaining reform that now forms the centrepiece of post-apartheid South Africa's experiment with 'democratic corporatism'. Using factor analysis, three constructs have been identified that inform employer attitudes to a revised system of sectoral bargaining: 'autonomous capacity'; 'conditional association'; 'external threat'. Despite the potential for anomie, these factors appear significant in the way they consistently explain an employer's orientation towards associational membership and, by proxy, sectoral bargaining. Moreover, at least two-thirds of responding firms identified strongly with each of the three factors but, typically, firms with weak capacity and in need of collective protection from the other actors are most likely to associate. Regression analysis further reveals company well-being, foreign ownership and union presence to have a significant impact on these three factors to varying degrees. Equally, two of the factors (autonomous capacity and external threat) impact significantly on an employer's tolerance of free-riding in others and on the temptation to do so for oneself. Overall, for this sample of firms, employer bodies are to be viewed more as 'political devices' than as 'economic agents' in the immediate aftermath of political liberation. In this sense, they are different from their European counter-parts. However, there is an increasing likelihood of this changing as the flexibility agenda looms ever larger in employers' minds and as issues of 'political insecurity' correspondingly fade.     

基于不同融资体系的国别会计差异研究

笔者由于政治、经济、法律等因素的影响,各国的会计模式呈现出巨大差异。各国的融资体系差异对会计模式选择具有重要影响。以资本市场为导向的融资体系更倾向于会计信息的公允性,而以银行等机构为导向的融资体系则更关注会计利润的平滑性。通过比较两种融资体系的差异,说明这些差异对各国会计模式产生的影响,以探寻融资模式在国别会计及国际会计协调中的重要作用。     

Politics vs Economics: Evidence from Municipal Annexation

This paper investigates economic and political factors in suburban annexation decision in large U.S. cities. This paper employs a median-voter model, which suggests a natural latent-variable estimation strategy. Bivariate logit and normal procedures incorporating information about state laws governing annexation are run on census tract level data. Estimated parameters are used to evaluate the effects of economic and political variables. Results show cities' desire to expropriate suburban tax base did not motivate annexation, although cities were sensitive to other economic factors. The desire to offset political and racial effects of urban migration had a consistent and positive effect on annexation.     

Political Underdevelopment: What causes ‘bad governance’

The states of the ‘South’, although diverse, tend to be underdeveloped in the political sense: neither authoritative and effective nor legitimate and accountable to citizens. The conventional response of aid donors is institutional transfer : trying to align the institutional configurations of Southern states even more closely with those of Northern polities. This may not be the best approach. The political underdevelopment of much of the South largely results from the ways in which Southern states have been created and political authority shaped through economic and political interactions with the wealthier countries of the North. Political underdevelopment is an outcome of uneven (economic) development. A better appreciation of the nature of these processes could lead to more appropriate policy. History cannot be reversed. But more attention could be paid to the ways in which Northern states currently help sustain political underdevelopment in the South, notably by perpetuating the conditions under which state elites in the South can remain too independent of their own citizens.     

Politics,Economic Provisioning,and Suffrage in St. Louis: What Women Said,What Men Heard

One of the enduring questions in history is why any group would choose to share power with another group. The granting of suffrage to American women in 1919 is one of those events in which we seek answers. I focus here on the diversity of women's economic provisioning functions, arguing that, because of that diversity, the granting of suffrage had more political benefits to the men in power and less political risks. The social provisioning status‐quo, which had been threatened by the feminist voices of the 19^th century, must have seemed to be back under the control of the men in power. In order to consider economic provisioning and politics more specifically, I study the economic profile of women and the political cost/benefit thinking of male legislators in St. Louis, Missouri.     

关于中国工业企业利润率决定因素的研究

根据产业组织理论中的SCP分析框架可知,影响企业利润的因素包括市场结构,企业的经营状况。同时,由于在我国的转轨时期,存在大量不同的经济成分以及各种所有制类型的企业。在中国特殊的政治经济环境下,所有制结构也是影响企业盈利能力的重要因素。本文拟采用2000~2003年全国工业企业数据,对行业利润水平、差异状况进加以度量,并构建行业利润决定模型,找出决定我国工业企业利润差异的因素,然后进一步分析这些因素发挥作用的机制,并分析其政策含义。     

Political Ambivalence vs. Economic Rectitude

Pressures from bureaucracy and voters alide for disbursements from the 'public' purse carry much more political force than the desire to reduce government expenditure. Cecil Parkinson, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in 1963, Considers the interests in the formulation of spending plans and argues that the politicion willpuf political feasibility before economic desiderato.     

The politics of cutback management in thirteen European countries: statistical evidence on causes and effects

The politics of fiscal consolidation in thirteen European countries are statistically analysed. Based on the political economy literature, political factors are identified that explain for the consolidation. Variables are selected representing strength of government and political orientation, and fiscal consolidation is distinguished into spending cuts and cuts in administration. The statistical analysis of political explanations for cutbacks hardly yields significant results and nor does the analysis of fiscal and economic effects of consolidation. The analysis of political effects of consolidation does lead to significant results. Some earlier political economic findings are not supported for our sample of thirteen European countries.     

贯彻落实科学发展观 创新房产管理思想政治工作

坚持做好思想政治工作历来是我们党的优良传统和政治优势，是我们党取得革命成功和建设中国特色社会主义的重要法宝。在长期的思想政治工作实践中，我们党积累了非常丰富的经验，创造了许多行之有效的方法。在建立和完善社会主义市场经济体制、全面建设小康社会的今天，思想政治工作仍然具有不可替代的重要作用。     

论市场经济条件下国有企业思想政治工作的开展

思想政治工作是党建和经济工作的生命线。当前,世情、国情、党情发生了巨大变化,这给思想政治工作的开展带来了良好机遇和严峻挑战。在当前特殊的新形势下,如何保持和发挥好思想政治工作的优势,推进国有企业在政治文明、精神文明、物质文明方面的协调发展,是摆在国有企业党务工作者面前的一个重要课题。     

The mid-life crisis of the American labor movement

Although the US labor movement remains an important part of the nation's organized economic and political life it is now struggling to reverse its decline in power and membership. In this article the author identifies factors explaining this decline and its implications for American labor. This contribution continues the debate begun by Michael Piore in Vol 17 No 3 Autumn 1986.