The gender wage gap in Austria: eppur si muove!

We examine the change of the gender wage gap in Austria between 2002 and 2007 using Juhn et al. (Workers and their wages, AEI Press, Washington DC, pp 107–143, 1991) decomposition. We analyze data from Austrian tax records which we merge with social security records and Austrian micro-censuses of the years 2002 and 2007. We find that the gender wage gap declined from 21 % in 2002 to 18 % in 2007. The main determinant of this decline is the relative improvement of women’s unobserved characteristics. The decline of the gender wage gap is also due to women having attained more formal education and to a convergence of men’s and women’s returns to education. Women’s improved educational attainments were partly offset by a shift in the demand for skilled workers that disadvantaged unskilled workers, most of whom are women, resulting in a moderate decrease of the gender pay gap over these years. Robustness checks confirm our results.     

Housing price fluctuations and financial risk transmission: a spatial economic model

Financial risk derived from housing price fluctuations in China garnered much public concern recently. Based on the theoretical analyses of the transmission of financial risk from housing price fluctuations, this paper establishes panel spatial Durbin models to empirically analyse housing price fluctuations and financial risks transmission from a spatial economic perspective. Employing the panel provincial data from 1999–2015, we conduct an analysis on the 30 provinces in China as well as a comparison among the Eastern, Middle and Western regions of China. The results indicate that: (1) The soaring housing prices driven by bank credit, real estate developers’ heavy investment, local governments’ land revenue and individuals and households demands leads to financial risk in various sectors; (2) due to the ‘substitution effect’, the capital agglomeration in metropolis from bank credits, real estate developers, and individuals and households furthers the amassment of financial risks; (3) housing prices have a significant spatial contagion effect throughout the country, and financial risk could directly transmit across provinces through housing price fluctuations; (4) financial risks could indirectly transmit across provinces via the ‘imitative behaviour’ or ‘driving effect’ of different sectors for different regions of China.     

Foreign and domestic R&D investment

A considerable share of R&D investment is due to multinational firms that simultaneously operate R&D bases at home and abroad. We develop a simple model of foreign and domestic R&D investment and test the model's predictions on a sample of 146 Japanese multinational firms’ R&D investments in Japan and the United States in 1996. The empirical results confirm that the foreign to domestic R&D ratio depends on relative technological opportunities and relative demand conditions, with foreign research expenditures responding to technological opportunity and foreign development expenditures responding to demand.     

农村小额保险与小额信贷结合发展及其模式探讨

小额保险是一种新型保险项目,它以低廉的保费为中低收入人群提供能够保障基本生活的保险产品,具有商业性和社会公益性的双重特征,被认为是一项重要的扶贫措施。农村小额信贷在支持三农发展、帮助农村低收入群体脱贫方面起到不可替代的作用。本文分析了小额信贷机构在经营中面临的信贷风险,在对比国际经验的基础上指出农村小额信贷与小额保险相结合的发展模式,是我国发展农村金融可资借鉴的一种良好模式。文中分析指出了农村小额信贷与农村小额保险相结合的必要性与紧迫性,并提出发展农村小额信贷与农村小额保险的政策建议。     

Sen and Commons on Markets and Freedom

Amartya Sen's enlarged conception of freedom has augmented the scope of economic analysis but it also has had the surprising effect of being more supportive of the free market than conventional welfare economics. It is argued here that a comparison of Sen's position with that of the American institutionalist, J R Commons, highlights some problems with Sen's approach and points to possible ways in which they might be addressed.     

选举提名方式与土地管理体制:村民对村领导行为及其绩效的评价

提名方式是选举的重要组成部分 ,农村民主选举的不同提名方式对村领导的行为及其绩效有不同的影响。对土地的投入是农村普遍的经济活动 ,与土地相关的活动对村民来说是至关重要的 ,村民对村领导决定的土地分配有着强烈的反响。从农村民主选举与土地管理体制的角度来研究选举提名方式是农村民主政治建设研究的一个新视角。     

家长式领导效能的实证研究

就目前我国管理学界而言,管理理论的借鉴多于本土原创.因此,将中国企业一些优秀的管理方法抽象和总结,并与其他国家企业进行分享,家长式领导理论就是其一重要成果.家长式领导是我国台湾学者郑伯埙等人(2000)基于中华文化背景而提出的管理理论.企业管理行为因文化的不同会有不同的风格、内涵和效能.本研究在家长式三元领导管理的基础上,探讨家长式领导在我国企业组织中的有效性及其内在作用机理,以发现适合我国文化特点的管理方式.实证研究了家长式管理广泛存在于所有的组织结构中,而其中用德行管理具有更高的效能.     

吉林省城镇体系空间结构及优化研究

本文在回顾城镇体系空间结构研究的基础上，引进经过修正的重力模式和断裂点计算方法，对吉林省城市基础数据进行处理，得出吉林省9个地市（州）及2个样本市的人口经济规模排序及相互间的横向引力矩阵与纵向引力矩阵，分析了吉林省城镇体系空间结构的现状特点，并提出了相应的结构优化对策。     

从按劳分配到按要素贡献分配变迁的理论依据

在收入分配变迁原因的理论依据上,我国存在着从所有制理论和价值理论出发解释收入分配变迁的两种理论,我们分别称之为收入分配变迁的所有制理论和收入分配变迁的价值理论。本文认为,收入分配变迁的所有制理论,只能说明我国收入分配方式和分配理论为什么必须按某一路径变迁,却无法对这种变迁本身做出价值判断,对这一问题的回答必须借助收入分配变迁的价值理论。如果说收入分配变迁的所有制理论旨在探求收入分配方式、收入分配理论变迁的客观必然性的话,收入分配变迁的价值理论则是对这种变迁做出好或坏的评价。收入分配变迁的价值理论和收入分配变迁的所有制理论是从两个不同角度对收入分配进行论述的。