中国国际收支结构的变迁及启示

本文通过对1982～2004年间中国国际收支一级账户结构、次级账户结构和差额平衡结构的考察发现:中国国际收支结构的发展历程带有明显的政策烙印;“双顺差”的形成和发展具有相当的可持续性;正在进行的人民币汇率机制改革短期内对国际收支结构难以发挥显著的作用,长期来看影响深远。     

抚仙湖学潜水

抚仙湖位于云南澄江县以南5公里处,距离昆明70多公里,这里的水质极佳,湖水清澈见底。据说整个云南地区也只剩下抚仙湖是没有被污染的内陆湖,所以这里被称为昆明人的“后花园”。     

论新时期我国中小商业银行的客户管理战略

银行业竞争的焦点是客户的争夺。中小商业银行要在残酷的竞争中得以生存必须发挥自己的长处,实行差异化的市场定位策略,为客户提供个性化、高效率的金融服务,为此,要重视制度、产品和技术创新。     

International Trade, OECD Membership, and Religion

Transaction costs in trade gravity equation are proxied by the distance that separates two trading partners, under the assumption that the distance elasticity is the same across all trading partners. We show that distance elasticity, however, critically depends on whether trading partners are industrial countries (i.e., members of the OECD) or share same religion. These heterogeneities are both statistically and economically significant. For instance, expected trade flows are the largest when an OECD member trades with a non-member and both are non-religious. Expected trade flows fall as much as by 62.9% between two non-religious, non-OECD members. Expected bilateral trade drops by 48.1% when both countries in the pair are OECD members while one is Christian and the other is Islamic. Both religion and OECD membership significantly affect the typical transaction costs implied by the gravity equation. JEL Classification Number: F13     

Auditors' Fee Premiums and Low‐Quality Internal Controls*

We examine the relation between low‐quality internal controls and audit fee premiums. Using a novel data set of audit hours and audit fees we find, consistent with the audit risk model, that auditors increase their effort (hours) owing to low internal control quality. We find that auditors also charge a significant fee premium to clients with internal control weaknesses. This premium is observed for severe internal control weaknesses and companies with low‐quality alternative governance mechanisms. The results are robust to multiple methods to address endogeneity, including company fixed effects, difference‐in‐differences design, and a propensity score‐matched sample. Taken as a whole, low internal control quality leads to fee premiums, which are a deadweight loss to client companies.     

Pro-poor growth,poverty and inequality in rural Vietnam

This study explores the effects of Vietnam's transition on the welfare of different ethnic groups in rural Vietnam. It draws on three rounds of national household surveys in 2002, 2004 and 2006. It is first observed that the pace of poverty reduction for minorities surpassed the majority over the period 2002–2006, although poor people were still concentrated in the minority groups throughout the period. Secondly, the disparity in living standards has been widening. In particular, inequality within both the majority and minority groups increased over the period. Thirdly, the study shows that the effect of economic growth on poverty is estimated to have been greater if inequality remained constant. It is also noted that the impacts of economic growth on poverty vary across different ethnic groups. Finally, regression decompositions of within inequality have confirmed that the main driver of inequality is not the same among ethnic groups. Given the diversity across different ethnic groups, we can conclude that government policy aimed at equal access to infrastructure and more equal distribution of assets, such as land, for ethnic minority groups would lead to more equal distribution of consumption and poverty reduction of those groups. Also, consideration of local needs would be necessary in designing and implementing public policies, given the heterogeneous socio-economic circumstances surrounding each ethnic minority group.     

马克思理论视角下我国城市贫困及反贫困研究

20世纪90年代以来,中国城市贫困问题日益显现,已成为国家经济增长、社会稳定、家庭和个人全面发展的阻碍。依据马克思贫困理论的三个层面,从技术基础、表现形态和制度决定,分析转型期我国城市贫困的产生背景、社会构成和结构成因,提出了城市反贫困的途径,旨在为我国的城市贫困研究提供借鉴。     

完善社会保险基金监管制度的几点思考

我国社会保险基金监管制度存在监管法律法规缺失,监管机构不健全等问题,需从以下几方面进一步完善：提高立法层次,完善社会保险基金监管的法律法规体系;建立健全社会保险基金监管机构;深入推进社会保险基金监管的市场化改革。     

The extension of social security coverage in developing countries

We study the dynamic general equilibrium effects of introducing a social pension program to elderly informal sector workers in developing countries who lack formal risk sharing mechanisms against income and longevity risks. To this end, we formulate a stochastic dynamic general equilibrium model that incorporates defining features of developing countries: a large informal sector, private transfers as an informal safety net, and a non-universal social security system. We find that the extension of retirement benefits to informal sector workers results in efficiency losses due to adverse effects on capital accumulation and the allocation of resources across formal and informal sectors. Despite these losses recipients of social pensions experience welfare gains as the positive insurance effects attributed to the extension of a social insurance system dominate. The welfare gains crucially depend on the skill distribution, private intra-family transfers and the specific tax used to finance the expansion.