Index Volume VIII – 1974

This article, written in the first days of the Bush Administration, is part of what will no doubt be a flood of “end of term” assessments of the Reagan era. Much of this work, naturally enough, will be concerned with evaluating the economic record of that administration and discussing the economic legacy inherited by George Bush. This article, however, is a rather different endeavor; it is an attempt by two observers from across the Atlantic to explain the triumph in the United States of supply-side ideas.     

The Italian approach to the theory of public goods *

Abstract

The subject of needs is the centre of attention of Italian public finance scholars. The financial activity of the State is justified by the existence of collective or public needs to whose satisfaction collective or public goods and services are linked. Italian economists have studied the problems of public goods in a general context, taking into consideration concurrently both taxes and public expenditure and giving prominence to positive analysis. Italian theorists have always been far removed from the classical approach, which denies the productivity of public services, and have deemed it necessary to take into account the political context in which fiscal structures operate. Their models include the State as a major factor. Herein lies the main value of the Italian tradition in public finance, which puts in coercion into the market mechanism via State intervention.     

Immigration, Unemployment and Pensions

This paper examines the impact of immigration on a host country with welfare state arrangements that support both the unemployed and the elderly. It is shown that low‐skilled immigration increases the unemployment rate. Furthermore, it harms the low‐skilled native population and benefits the high‐skilled natives and pensioners. Nevertheless, as under competitive labor markets, immigration generates an unambiguous gain for the native population as a whole. However, in contrast to the findings under full employment, this gain can be dampened by an expansion of the pension system.     

中国养老保险制度变迁的经济学分析

1980年前后随着市场化改革的进行,中国也开始了养老保险制度的改革①。自20世纪90年代建立部分基金制后,制度的转轨带来了前所未有的转轨成本和激励问题,这给羽翼未丰的中国养老保险制度带来了沉重的负担。文章透过中国养老保险制度的变迁,分析了不同时期不同利益集团是如何推动养老保险制度改革,分析了利益集团在当前情况下对下一步改革又会产生如何的影响。一种可行的养老保险制度的选择还有待进一步讨论。     

信用衍生品的信用风险转移对金融稳定性的影响

银行信用风险转移激励与监管当局提高金融稳定性的目标是一致的,监管当局应该通过鼓励金融机构之间的总信用风险转移,使得信用风险转移的收益最大化;研究还发现,随着跨部门之间信用风险转移的出现,为了使得个体激励与提高信用风险管理中金融机构稳定性的社会目标相一致,应该鼓励部门之间的差异化监管。     

Small-Group,Multi-Level Democracy: Implications of Austrian Public Choice for Governance Structure

This paper examines the process of mass democracy as the fundamental cause of transfer seeking and the centralization of governance, using Austrian-school theory and methodology such as decentralized knowledge, disaggregated phenomena, and the structure of capital goods. The alternative of decentralized, small-group governance reduces the demand for campaign financing and makes more effective use of decentralized knowledge. In addition, when public revenues originate in the local districts and are passed on to higher levels of governance, it provides incentives for revenue sources which do not have an excess burden on production. The governance structure of cellular, bottom-up, multi-level voting, with public revenue flowing up from the lower to the upper levels, provides a contrast for a comparative systems analysis that can yield insight into the transfer seeking endemic in mass democracy.     

Pensions reforms,workforce ageing and firm-provided welfare

This paper investigates the impact of an exogenous increase in the legal retirement age on the firms’ propensity to provide welfare services voluntarily to their employees. To this purpose we exploit a unique information derived from the Rilevazione su Imprese e Lavoro (RIL), a survey conducted in 2015 on a large and representative sample of Italian firms. Applying different regression models we show that firms which were forced to give up previously planned hirings because of the Law 201/2011 (the so-called ‘Fornero pension reform’), increased the probability of providing welfare services at workplace. By referring to the sociological, human resource management and economic literature we then argue that a sudden increase in the legal retirement age may motivate the employers to establish welfare schemes as a way to cope with an ageing workforce. Our findings also hold when propensity score matching methods are used in order to control for sample selection issues.     

中国金融控股公司发展模式的新制度经济学分析

随着区域经济一体化和金融全球化的加强,金融控股公司混业经营所带来的规模经济性日趋强化,从而成为金融业发展的一种重要组织形式,从本质上反映了各国金融业和政府制度面向新的前景而作出的相应战略性调整,初步展开了21世纪世界银行业的市场结构与竞争态势。这种态势为中国金融业的发展和中国金融控股公司模式的选择提出了外在的要求。同时,中国的金融业将在WTO的框架下融入全球金融市场,中国的金融业也要走向世界,在国际金融市场上成长壮大,这就要求中国金融业必须与国际惯例接轨。     

国家与农民财务关系的处理规则及改进

本方以农村税费改革为背景,探讨了国家与农民之间在农业税收、政府财政支出及转移支付等特定财务关系处理的现状和应该进行的规则改进。文章认为,农业税收作为国家与农民之间特定财务关系的重要体现,要解决的主要问题是农业税的收缴标准、方式方法、使用和监督制度;建立有效的农村财政规范体系的关键是以税费改革为契机,全面建立农村公共财政规范体系;要解决的现实问题是如何通过建立政府财政转移支付制度使低财政收入乡镇及村组织实现财政财务的收支平衡。     

中国养老保险统筹账户的财务可持续性研究——基于开放系统的测算

文章运用精算估计方法,预测分析了我国城镇职工养老保险统筹账户的财务状况和财务可持续性。研究结果表明,年度支付危机会在2018-2036年之间出现,2023-2050年内源性基金累积不足值得格外关注。从长期看,如果没有外源性融资,仅靠制度本身的资金支持,统筹账户的财务可持续性难以为继。现阶段政府关注的重点应是如何扩大养老保险收入来源和完善养老保险的制度设计。     

我国城镇基本养老保险个人账户定位剖析

我国基本养老保险个人账户资金规模要适度,由劳动与社会保障部统一管理。为提高职工缴费的积极性,关键在于提高个人账户的收益率,实现有效保值增值。我国基本养老保险个人账户的"空账"实质是以不明晰的债权形式存在。当前所讨论的"做实"个人账户,实质是个人账户资产存在形式的转换。对于历史"空账",不应该立即"做实",而应比较机会成本与效益,逐步"做实"。而对于新缴纳的个人账户资金,则应明晰产权,不能随便挪用,但当统筹基金不足时,可以有偿使用。个人账户待遇以自身平衡为原则。     

Positive public economics: reinterpreting ‘optimal’ policies

The standard positive/normative divide fails to capture the way economists use ‘optimal’ taxation models. This paper argues that the better way to understand public economics is through a three-part division between positive, normative, and instrumental models. An instrumental model is about means and ends. Once this additional dimension is acknowledged, one can see that ‘optimal’ taxation models are closely connected to what are generally seen as purely positive models. I argue that economists have been using similar standards to assess ‘optimal’ taxation models as they use to assess positive models. Recent advances in optimal taxation theory have embraced the positive aspects of models, even about social welfare functions, something that is generally classified as a normative.     

金融自由化条件下我国非正规金融问题研究——兼论二元金融之间关系及其经济影响

近几年来非正规金融的发展问题受到普遍关注,已成为经济理论的热点问题之一。长期以来,我国大型企业与国有企业主要从正规金融获得信贷资金,中小企业主要从非正规金融获得信贷资金,形成了相对割裂的二元金融结构。学者们普遍认为金融抑制是我国二元金融产生的主要原因,弱化二元金融也成为了我国利率市场化改革的原动力。始于2011年初的温州债务危机使非正规金融进一步受到广泛关注。加强民间借贷的疏导与监管、推动金融改革与创新、实现非正规金融的阳光化与合法化等日益成为热点问题。     

我国基本养老保险金投资方式的思考

实现基本养老保险金的有效投资,确保基金的保值增值,是我国基本养老保险事业改革中的重要环节。而只有选择适当的投资方式才能在保证基金安全性原则下,实现基金保值增值的目的。我国应根据基本养老金的不同性质采取不同投资方式。     

关于我国财政政策导向调整的研究

近年来我国实施的积极财政政策确实在很大程度上促进了经济和社会的发展。但是随着经济市场化程度的不断提高和经济环境的变化，这种积极财政政策也表现出诸多的不适应性。因此应适时调整财政政策导向以适应经济和社会发展的新要求。拟从我国近年来实施的积极财政政策的成效分析出发，阐述了当前调整财政政策导向的必然性，并提出了今后我国财政政策的调整方向。     

机关事业单位养老保险制度的人性化选择

伴随着城镇企业养老保险制度的逐渐完善,建立机关事业单位养老保险制度无疑是目前社会养老保险工作中最棘手的难题。由于过去城镇内部养老保险“二元化”特征导致现阶段对机关事业单位试点和改革存在诸多的分歧,试图在过去改革试点和城镇养老保险改革的经验基础上,以最终建立全国统一的社会保障制度为目标,力图最小化转制成本,对机关事业单位养老保险制度建立的原则和框架问题做一些探索。     

金融创新与中国金融市场的发展

金融创新是一个伴随金融业发展的持续过程。中国当前金融创新呈现出新的特点,与国际金融业的发展相比还存 在着许多差距。本文分析了产生差距的原因和中国开展金融创新的必要性与可行性,提出了中国金融创新的基本思路。     

对县级公共财政运行体系的思考

在市场经济条件下,县级公共财政运行体系的建立,对增强县级财政的管理和运行效能意义重大。县级政府如何使财政管理与现实经济建设和各项社会事业发展相适应,以发挥财政管理的最大效能,推动和谐、文明社会建设,是需要认真探讨的。     

关于地方公共财政支出体系的思考

近年来,我国地方政府一直致力于构建公共财政体系,其中心环节就是建立科学、规范的地方公共财政支出体系。构建地方公共财政支出体系是个空间立体模型,主要包括公共财政支出的框架和框架里的内容。公共财政支出框架主要是指横向的公共财政支出范围、纵向的财政支出规模;框架里的内容则主要是指地方财政支出结构。