Capital accumulation with tangible assets

The paper develops a neoclassical growth model with capital accumulation and a retradable tangible asset in an overlapping generations framework. It analyzes its effect on the dynamics of capital accumulation. Two period lived consumers hold portfolios consisting of real capital and the tangible asset. It is shown that the possibility of trading the tangible asset as an alternative to capital may cause the coexistence of stable steady states with high and low levels of capital and with disjoint basins of attraction. Thus, the so-called poverty trap may appear purely endogenously generated as a consequence of asset trading alone. The possibility of the occurrence of the poverty trap is reduced as factors of production become more substitutable. However, the result is robust for continua of homogeneous as well as heterogeneous consumers.     

Capital Openness and Financial Crises: A Financial Contagion Model with Multiple Equilibria

Abstract

This paper explores the effects of capital openness on financial crises and contagion. In the model, we analyze four channels of contagion involved in the process of financial crisis: monsoon effects, spillovers, self‐fulfilling expectations and new information. We empirically test the data from China, an economy with capital account controls, and find that the fundamentals of China (PRC) are now in a vulnerable area which yields multiple equilibria. Consequently, the Chinese economy is easily affected via the channels discussed in this paper. Finally we suggest that the capital account of China should be opened gradually.     

Theory of the firm facing uncertain demand revisited

Summary. Empirical evidence shows that the Principle of Increasing Uncertainty (PIU) introduced by Leland is easily violated. Necessary and sufficient conditions, without relying on the PIU assumption, under which risk-averse monopolistic producers reduce their output levels upon the introduction of the Leland-type demand uncertainty are derived.Received: 12 August 2002, Revised: 10 July 2003JEL Classification Numbers: D81, D42.Financial support from the Academic Programme Research Grants (Business Programme) of Lingnan University Ref.# DB01A3 (Res201/Bus003) is gratefully acknowledged. The author would also like to thank the editor and an anonymous referee for their valuable comments that have led to substantial improvement of the paper.     

The (Over)Cost of Capital: Financialization and Nonfinancial Corporations in France (1961–2011)

ABSTRACT

The term ‘financialization’ is often used to describe the major changes that occurred in the macroeconomic regimes of most developed and, to a lesser extent, emerging economies since the beginning of the 1980s. In the present paper, we propose a reappraisal of the notion of the cost of capital and subsequently argue that financialization in France has increased the cost of capital for nonfinancial corporations with new standards of financial profitability. We introduce a measurement for what could be called the over-cost of capital and describe how the evolution of this additional financial burden may explain the slowdown in the pace of capital accumulation, and thus the drop in French macroeconomic performance observed for the past 30 years.     

企业:一种人力资本使用权交易的粘性组织

本文沿着科斯的思路 ,把企业理解为一种人力资本使用权交易的粘性组织。企业用权威关系替代价格机制 ,而权威关系能够减少交易费用的原因在于“组织粘性”的存在。企业是一种有粘性的契约 ,而市场是一种无粘性的契约。企业的组织粘性把关键员工和企业联在一起 ,并使企业在引入企业家才能时有更低的临界交易效率。企业的边界由交易费用和组织粘性共同决定。     

The optimal control of emissions and renewable resource harvesting under uncertainty

A model of a renewable resource is developed where the growth and quality of the resource are reduced by pollution. Ambient pollution concentrations and the renewable resource stock are modeled as stochastic processes. Conditions for the optimal harvest plan and the optimal emissions rate are derived. The effect of stochastic variations on the optimal management of the resource is analyzed. The steady-state joint probability distribution of the resource and pollution stocks is shown to exist under certain conditions.     

略论对污染的最优控制

本文从经济学的角度阐述了对污染的最优控制，即确定污染控制的最优水平和最优分配，以及实现对污染控制的方法。     

论人力资本与智力资本的"虚拟资本"性质

本文认为人力资本、智力资本理论的产生,本质上是提出了"虚拟资本"问题,是对这些过去被看作是费用或成本的东西进行"资本化定价".在当代企业的资本范畴中实际上已经形成了以实体资本为一方的"硬资本"和以虚拟资本为另一方的"软资本"两大部份,而这两大部份是建立在"资本三要素"--物质资本、人力资本、智力资本基础上的.由"资本三要素"的基础概念,我们可以推解出一系列新的资本概念和形态,从中我们可以较清晰地辨别虚拟资本与实体资本的构架与层次,并可直观地厘清它们的边界与关系,这有利于我们更好地理解人力资本与智力资本的特性和功能.     

资本结构突变的制度动力学模型探讨

现代资本结构理论缺乏企业资本结构动态调整的制度动力学模型.本文利用新制度经济学的基本理论,研究了相关制度对重新谈判和股票发行时企业资本结构突变的影响,得出的结论是银行监管制度和债权人保护制度的变化,通过银行的债务豁免区的范围和位置而影响处于财务困境中的企业的资本结构被动调整;股票发行制度和股东权利保护制度的变化,通过发行人信号组合的选择而影响利用投资机会的企业的资本结构的主动调整.     

偏远地区小型企业社会资本的特征及积累路径分析

对我国中西部偏远地区众多小型企业社会资本形成和积累问题作了探讨。鉴于小企业发展是当地群众脱贫致富的重要途径,在投资和技术不足的条件下,社会资本形成和积累遂成为企业成长的基本动力。在对小企业社会资本的特征作出分析的基础上,着重提出应从企业和政府两个方面推进企业社会资本的积累和更新。     

Theories of the firm: contractual and competence perspectives

The article compares alternative approaches to the theory of the firm. The two main approaches confronted are the contractual (Coasian) perspective and the competence (evolutionary) perspective. Whereas the firm as a repository of tacit knowledge is neglected in the contractual perspectives, it occupies center stage in the competence perspective. It is argued that the competence perspective is not only applicable an understanding of the sources of firms' competitive advantage, but may also be applied to the issues of the existence and the boundaries of the firm. This means that a distinct theory of the firm can be constructed on the basis of evolutionary theory.     

资本：市场经济一般范畴——资本新概念初探

经济学原有的资本范畴是市场经济中的特殊的资本范畴,有局限性。笔者认为市场经济中的一般资本范畴是:资本是生产和经营商品的生产要素,它能生产社会使用价值并能使自身价值增殖。因此,资本有二重本性,既有客观上满足社会需要的一面,又有经济主体主观追求利润最大化的一面。资本有二重历史作用,既有促进社会生产力发展的积极作用,又有阻碍社会经济发展的消极作用,而积极作用是主导的方面。国家对市场经济的宏观调控,保护资本的积极作用,尽可能使它的负面作用最小化。     

On the opportunism-independent theory of the firm

Previous developments in the opportunism-independent theoryof the firm are either restricted to special cases or are derivedfrom the capabilities or resource-based perspective. However,a more general opportunism-independent approach can be developed,based on the work of Demsetz and Coase, which is neverthelesscontractual in nature. This depends on ‘direction’,that is, deriving economic value by permitting one set of actorsto direct the activities of another, and of non-human factorsof production. Direction helps to explain not only firm boundariesand organisation, but also the existence of firms, without appealingto opportunism or moral hazard. The paper also considers theextent to which it is meaningful to speak of ‘contractual’theories in the absence of opportunism, and whether this analysiscan be extended beyond the employment contract to encompassownership of assets by the firm.     

On the persistence of corruption

This paper tries to answer the question why the phenomenon of corruption seems to be inherently existent in any society. The dynamic model presented shows how rational agents may generate multiple equilibria of corruption within the same kind of socio-economic system. We assume that the individual disutility caused by the loss of reputation from a corrupt transaction depends on the acceptance of corrupt behavior by the representative individual. Depending on the values of some key parameters like the marginal utility of corrupt behavior and the initial acceptance of corruption a completely corrupt equilibrium where all people completely accept corruption or a completely honest equilibrium where corruption is not accepted at all may be the limit state of the optimal path. Also inner equilibria in-between exist; however, they are always unstable.     

企业的契约性质、所有权理论及公司治理结构述评

公司治理结构是一个企业所有权安排的契约,而企业所有权的制度设置是由企业的本质决定的,对企业本质的不同认识必然导致不同性质的公司治理结构.本文通过文献综述,旨在勾勒出企业的契约性质--企业所有权理论--公司治理结构三者的演进脉络和之间的对应关系,发现企业家人力资本产权与企业所有权之间的复杂联系是未来公司治理问题研究的焦点.     

Externalities, monopoly and the objective function of the firm

This paper provides a theory of general equilibrium with externalities and/or monopoly. We assume that the firm’s decisions are based on the preferences of shareholders and/or other stakeholders. Under these assumptions a firm will produce fewer negative externalities than the comparable profit maximising firm. In the absence of externalities, equilibrium with a monopoly will be Pareto efficient if the firm can price discriminate. The equilibrium can be implemented by a two-part tariffWe would like to thank John Fender, Herakles Polemarchakis, Les Reinhorn, John Roberts, John Roemer, Colin Rowat, Erkan Yalcin two anonymous referees and participants in seminars at the Universities of Birmingham, Durham, Heidelberg, Mannheim and Queens, the Public Economic Theory conference at the University of Warwick, July 2000, and the EEA congress, Lausanne 2001 for comments and suggestions     

Financialisation and the slowdown of accumulation

Over the past decades, the financial investment of non-financialbusinesses has been rising, and the accumulation of capitalgoods has been declining. The first part of the paper offersa novel theory to explain this phenomenon. Financialisation,the shareholder revolution and the development of a market forcorporate control have shifted power to shareholders and thuschanged management priorities, leading to a reduction in thedesired growth rate. In the second part, the link between accumulationand financialisation is tested econometrically by means of atime series analysis of aggregate business investment for theUSA, the UK, France and Germany. Extensive tests of robustnessare performed. For the first three countries, evidence supportingthe negative effect of financialisation on accumulation is found.     

Learning-by-doing and input demand of a rate-of-return regulated firm

The significance of learning by doing to input demand of a cost-minimizing rate-of-return-regulated firm is examined. Using a panel data, the results indicate that the firm's cost and input demand decisions are both influenced by learning-by-doing. The firm's cost and the rate-base (capital) input requirements decline as learning-by-doing measured by cumulative production expands. However, LBD may have different effects on the non-rate-base inputs (labor and fuel) considered in this study. While LBD ambiguously reduces fuel usage, it moderately increases labor employment. In addition to changing input intensity, LBD also influences returns to scale and elasticity of substitution.     

我国女性人力资本问题探析——基于教育视角

我国女性受教育程度偏低、地区差异明显、城乡差异较大，导致这种情况的原因是女性自身柔弱、社会制度规定比较笼统、社会习俗重男轻女等文化因素，只有加强女性自立意识、建立规范的保护女性教育发展的投资体制、敢于打破旧的习俗文化体系，才能改变当前女性教育投资现状。     

Irreversibility of Pollution Accumulation

This paper presents an optimal endogenous growth model with pollutionaccumulation and abatement activities which analyzes the implications ofpollution accumulation irreversibility on the existence of sustainablegrowth paths. This model studies different pollution-decay functions whichpresent, among others, the feature that a sufficiently high pollution stocklevel can reduce the rate of decay to zero. This study shows that this newfeature, which gains support for the biological literature, significantlyalters the traditional results on the properties of sustainable endogenousgrowth by reducing the field of existence and strengthening the role ofindividual preferences.