EU Fiscal Rules: A Look Back and the Way Forward

Intereconomics - The decline of “natural real interest rates” during the last three decades is a common phenomenon in all advanced economies and can be explained by a number of...     

Productivity and Microeconomic Reforms: Strengthening EU Competitiveness

This paper argues that standards of living are a meaningful measure of competitiveness. It views comparisons with the performance of other regions, and in particular with the US, as an evaluation of the distance to the “technology frontier” and the potential for improvements. Productivity and external competitiveness developments are reviewed from a sectoral perspective. A forward looking dimension is given by a brief presentation of the revised “Lisbon Strategy” and the new industrial policy approach proposed by the European Commission.      

Corporate Governance and Ethics: A Feminist Perspective

The mainstream literature on corporate governance is based on the premise of conflicts of interest in a competitive game played by variously defined stakeholders and thus builds explicitly and/or implicitly on masculinist ethical theories. This article argues that insights from feminist ethics, and in particular ethics of care, can provide a different, yet relevant, lens through which to study corporate governance. Based on feminist ethical theories, the article conceptualises a governance model that is different from the current normative orthodoxy.     

Institutions,Governance and Economic Growth in the EU: Is There a Role for the Lisbon Strategy?

While European economic integration and in particular the single European market often appear to be only a smallest common denominator in the EU, they condition the economic policy framework facing Member States and have been instrumental in putting governance patterns into motion. The Lisbon Agenda is a case in point. Motivated by competitiveness concerns, it outlines an economic and social strategy meant to relaunch the EU within the changed setting of world-wide competition and a knowledgebased economy. Its success ultimately hinges on whether the necessary coordination to implement policies with an EU rationale can be achieved so as to realise the efficiency properties of the internal market. *and Research Fellow at IEEI **and National Institute for Public Administration (INA). This paper stems from the authors' joint research and teaching on European Economics at the University of Victoria, Canada, at INA and at the University of Aveiro in 2005 and 2006 and is part of an FCT research project on Economic Growth, Convergence and Institutions (research grant POCI/EGE/55423/2004, partially funded by FEDER).     

Governance of the Euro Area: Fiscal Union,Debt Union,Fiscal Freedom

Over the past three years, as the euro area has struggled with high levels of sovereign debt, it has been gradually developing into a debt union. However, this is not a sustainable arrangement. This article proposes two alternatives to a debt union — a fiscal union and a monetary union with fiscal freedom — and evaluates the pros and cons of each approach.     

财政治理视角的支出整合、融资适配与复式预算:一个分析框架

为把公共预算塑造为促进财政治理和发展目标的核心工具,中国近期的改革议程基于当代公共支出管理(PEM)文献开发的三角范式,聚焦建构旨在联结特定财政成果的制度安排,但以复式预算促进支出整合和融资适配仍未受到重视.鉴于该主题事关重大且未被相关文献澄清,建构适当分析框架予以根本论述和普遍概括显得日益紧迫,该框架把PEM的两个三角范式扩展为六个互补的三角范式,贯穿其中的复式预算→支出整合与融资适配→财政政策与部门政策→治理目标这一主线表明,资本/经常支出整合和融资适配对促进财政良治至关紧要,但两者都依赖对传统复式预算的系统改进,涵盖四个主要路径:把投资职能整合到预算中、全面的预算竞争、支出经济构成的全面分析,以及把资本/经常支出作为预算的主要申报.     

数字金融的公司治理效应--基于非家族股东治理视角

非家族股东治理能够有效助力家族企业实现可持续发展与现代化转型的目标,因而提升非家族股东治理水平具有重要意义。数字金融作为传统金融发展模式的重要创新,能够实现“金融服务实体经济”的目标,促使非家族股东积极参与家族企业治理。基于此,本文以代理理论与社会情感财富理论为基础,探讨了数字金融对非家族股东治理的影响。实证检验发现,随着数字金融的发展,非家族股东治理水平不断提升。其作用机制在于,数字金融能够通过缓解代理冲突、弱化家族控制与强化传承意愿,提升非家族股东治理水平。拓展性分析发现,对于非创业型、融资约束较强、位于金融监管程度较强地区的家族企业来说,数字金融对非家族股东治理的积极效应更显著;数字金融对异质性非家族股东制衡度存在差异化影响,即相较于外资股东与机构股东制衡度,数字金融能够强化国有股东与民营股东对家族股东的制衡;数字金融能够通过提升非家族股东治理水平促进家族企业可持续发展。本文从数字金融视角探究非家族股东治理的动机,丰富了数字金融与非家族股东治理的相关研究。     

EU Constitutional Governance: Failure as Opportunity!?

The French and Dutch rejection of the proposed EU Constitution in May 2005 threw the European Union into what many observers regard as its deepest crisis to date. This crisis can also be seen as a unique opportunity for political, economic and institutional renewal, however. The following article outlines the problems presently facing Europe and discusses what changes would have to be made in the EU system of governance in order to overcome them.      

Business Institutions and Behaviour in Australia: A New Perspective

There are no ready explanations for the shift from private to public ownership of the infrastructure which occurred in many Western countries in the period from about 1850 onwards. This paper presents for the first time, from parliamentary and trade sources, a comprehensive record of the number of gas undertakings in England and Wales, their geographical spread and the incidence of municipal ownership. The experience of some 400 towns are analysed for the period 1851–1939 to ascertain the causes of municipalisation. These are identified as the desire of local authorities to get access to gas company profits in order to relieve local taxes and finance urban improvements, and to control the monopoly position of local suppliers. Municipalisation also involved costs, mainly of an administrative and legal nature. The differential incidence of these costs and benefits can be used to explain the complex pattern of public and private ownership which persisted to the Second World War.     

Corporate Governance: An Ethical Perspective

This paper discusses corporate governance issues from a compliance viewpoint. It makes a distinction between legal and ethical compliance mechanisms and shows that the former has clearly proven to be inadequate as it lacks the moral firepower to restore confidence and the ability to build trust. The concepts of freedom of indifference and freedom for excellence provide a theoretical basis for explaining why legal compliance mechanisms are insufficient in dealing with fraudulent practices and may not be addressing the real and fundamental issues that inspire ethical behavior. The tendency to overemphasize legal compliance mechanisms may result in an attempt to substitute accountability for responsibility and may also result in an attempt to legislate morality which consequently leads to legal absolutism. The current environment of failures of corporate responsibility are not only failures of legal compliance, but more fundamentally failures to do the right (ethical) thing. Surendra Arjoon is an Associate Professor of Business Ethics at the University of the West Indies, Trinidad. He served as Chair, Department of Management Studies (2002–2005) and as Associate Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences (1996–2002). He is also the Vice-President of the Trinidad and Tobago Economics Association. His work has appeared in the Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Markets and Morality, Global Development Studies, Applied Financial Economics, and Social and Economic Studies.     

Some Effects of EU Sugar Reforms on Development in Africa

Intereconomics - The sugar industry is a major provider of jobs and income for sugar-exporting countries in Africa. The lower sugar prices that were caused by the recent liberalisation of the EU...     

财政学300年:基于国家治理视角的分析

本文从财政与国家治理的关系角度,将近代以来的财政学发展划分为三个100年左右的时期,分别为官房学时代、政治经济学时代和经济学时代,探讨了这三门学科及其国家治理理念对财政学所产生的影响.在总结历史的基础上,本文提出财政学发展是一种演化而非进化的观点.官房学时代的财政学,极其重视国家的作用,奠定了财政学的政治学基础;政治经济学时代的财政学,强调国家要顺应经济规律,构建了财政学的经济学基础;经济学时代的财政学,主张财政要依据民意,满足社会需要,形成了财政学的社会学基础.当前我国财政学的发展应当融合三个学科的相关合理内涵,而不仅限于经济学的研究范式.     

Corporate Governance Reforms: Redefined Expectations of Audit Committee Responsibilities and Effectiveness

Comprehensive regulatory changes brought on by recent corporate governance reforms have broadly redefined and re-emphasized the roles and responsibilities of all the participants in a public company’s financial reporting process. Most notably, these reforms have intensified scrutiny of corporate audit committees, whose role as protectors of investors’ interests now attracts substantially higher visibility and expectations. As a result, audit committees face the formidable challenge of effectively overseeing the company’s financial reporting process in a dramatically changed – and highly charged – corporate governance environment. This paper discusses the new expectations of audit committee responsibilities and effectiveness in the wake of corporate governance reforms, key challenges, “whistleblower” provisions and shortcomings, and provides some directions for future research.     

The Effectiveness of Bank Governance Reforms in the Wake of the Financial Crisis: A Stakeholder Approach

This study examines the impact of bank corporate governance reforms in the wake of the financial crisis. These reforms correspond to criticism of shareholder-focused agency-based corporate governance practices and a renewed focus on the stakeholder impact of corporate governance lapses in the financial sector. This study differs from previous studies of corporate governance in the financial sector in using performance indicators that proxy the interests of customers and the community. Drawing on data from 134 countries over an eight-year period from 2004 to 2011, we find that the post-crisis corporate governance reforms in the banking sector appear to be effective in promoting greater bank attention to non-shareholder stakeholders’ interests. This study provides a means to conceptualize measures of bank performance from a stakeholder perspective in order to test emerging ideas about governance effectiveness in the financial sector.     

European Fiscal Governance and Cyclical Stabilisation: Searching for a Lasting Arrangement

Starting from a brief assessment of the present rules-based framework in this respect, this piece stresses that the possible addition of a common stabilisation capacity has to be considered in deep connection with (possibly revised) fiscal rules.     

Good Governance and Growth in Developing Countries: A Case Study of Regulatory Reforms in the Telecommunications Industry

We investigate whether good governance, measured in terms of the regulatory structure, has a positive impact on the development of the telecommunications industry in developing countries. To this end we construct a data set on a panel of developing countries with information on the number of mainlines per capita and proxies for certain aspects of regulatory structure argued in the literature to be important for optimum development. Our results indicate that if the regulator is given certain functions with which to carry out telecommunications policy, this can enhance growth, but that there is no similar evidence in terms of operational separation of the regulator from the government.     

财政政策视角下的就业网络支持系统研究

财政政策对于扩大就业和降低失业率一直发挥着重要作用。目前,受国家财力有限、失业统计不足、就业网络培训支持系统和组织系统不完善、促进就业的财政资金使用效率低等因素的影响,致使财政功能未得到充分发挥。政府应进一步完善就业网络支持系统,加强失业统计力度,建立失业预警机制,完善就业培训制度,健全就业组织体系,提高就业扶持资金的使用效率,以期更好地发挥财政政策的职能,有效解决我国就业难问题。     

从网络广告监管到网络广告治理——公共治理的视角分析

目前,我国网络广告正在逐步勃兴,与此同时,传统的广告监督管理体制与网络广告发展不相适应的问题也日益突出,引发了许多矛盾和冲突。面对市场和政府的双失灵,实现由传统的网络广告监管向网络广告治理的转变成为必然选择。网络广告治理是一项系统工程,单纯依靠政府职能部门无法实现预期效果,需要政府、社会组织、民众等多方共同参与,强调服务导向和参与意识,明确各自的责任,从而形成良好的合作网络,实现网络广告的有效治理。     

A Relationship Governance Perspective of Organizational Buyers' Supplier Choice Decisions

Although the transaction cost analysis (TCA) has long been used by marketing and management scholars to study organizational buyers' make-or-buy decisions, it sheds limited light on their choice behavior beyond the make-or-buy trade-off. In the meantime, many organizational purchase decisions are structured around which independent supplier to buy from, rather than a typical make-or-buy decision. This study extends existing research on TCA by applying this theoretical framework to explore why organizational buyers make purchases from among independent suppliers. The article posits that (1) two forms of relationship governance—buyer trust and market (i.e., the relative dependence between the buyer and supplier)—help explain the differences in buyer decision-making uncertainty involving independent suppliers, which further influences the buyers' propensity to purchase; and that (2) trust further influences the buyers' propensity to purchase due to its effect on customer perceived value. The empirical study based on organizational purchasing decisions lends support to the predictions of the relationship governance theory.