康涅狄格州纽海文大学商学院 “中国价格”源于补贴

很多人认为中国制造业的价格优势得益于低廉的劳动力成本。但我们对中国钢铁业的研究表明，其低价格和政府大量的能源补贴密切相关。     

The Ancients against the Moderns: Focusing on the Character of Corporate Leaders

When a series of corporate scandals erupted soon after the collapse of the 1990s bull market in equities, policy makers and reformers chiefly responded by augmenting and refining the checks and balances surrounding publicly traded corporations. Through measures such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, securities regulations were intensified and corporate governance was tightened. In essence, reformers followed the tradition of modern political philosophy, developed in the 17th and 18th centuries, in its insistence that pro-social outcomes are best produced through institutional mechanisms that harness self-interest. The empirical evidence, however, suggests the institutional approach will do little to prevent future ethical breakdowns. To corroborate this finding, we survey the literature on board composition, auditor consulting practices, shareholder activism, and executive compensation. Consequently, we look to another stream of political philosophy, the ancient tradition comprising Plato and Aristotle, which argues that social groupings, such as corporations, work best when led by individuals of good character. Applying the ancient view to modern commercial realities, the paper concludes that Benjamin Franklin’s attempt to connect virtuous character with enlightened self-interest offers a compelling ethic for corporate leaders. George Bragues is head of the Media Studies program and teaches philosophy, politics, and economics at the University of Guelph-Humber in Toronto, Canada. He is an occasional contributor to the National Post in Canada, writing op-ed pieces on financial and economic topics for that paper’s financial section. His academic articles have been published previously in the Journal of Business Ethics, as well as the Independent Review and in Business Ethics Quarterly.     

DEVELOPING A CONSTITUTION FOR A LIBERAL EUROPEAN UNION

In many ways the EU Reform Treaty represents an advance over the status quo: it streamlines decision-making and makes institutions more accountable. However, the Treaty ignores opportunities for important institutional reforms and is unlikely to provide strong constraints on institutional power or halt centralisation.     

CHAOS AND COMPLEXITY IN ECONOMICS

Books reviewed in this article:
William A. Barnett, John Geweke and Karl Shell (eds) (1989) Economic Complexity: Chaos, Sunspots, Bubbles and Nonlinearity
W. A. Brock and A. G. Malliaris (1989) Differential Equations, Stability and Chaos in Dynamic Economics
Carl Chiarella (1990) The Elements of a Nonlinear Theory of Economic Dynamics
Tönu Puu (1989) Nonlinear Economics Dynamics
Kumaraswamy Velupillai (ed.) (1990) Nonlinear and Multisectoral Macrodynamics     

Distinguishing market segments to assess price responsiveness

Economists and marketers have developed theoretical constructs which suggest that effective market segmentation can be used to identify differences in price sensitivity among market theory in the industrial marketing literature by using marketing research to distinguish market segments that are useful in industrial pricing decisions. Both macrosegmentation, using characteristics of customers (that is, end-use and usage level), as well as microsegmentation (using behavioral variables) were utilized in a survey of natural gas customers to determine if segments of the industrial market differ in price sensitivity.     

Survey of Recent Developments

Amid global economic uncertainty and tumbling world oil prices, Indonesia's economy faces pressure on its external balance and a continued growth slowdown. The government of President Joko Widodo (widely known as Jokowi) has set an agenda of reform, including simpler, faster investment licensing, historic cuts to fuel subsidies to generate fiscal savings, and increased spending on infrastructure. On the political side, Jokowi has had to deal with several political issues coming not only from parties in opposition but also from parties supporting his government, including during the formation of the new cabinet. We examine the consequences so far of the government's policy initiatives and of the policymaking process. While some initiatives have been implemented with success, some seem to have been launched without enough preparation, consultation, or empirical evidence, and many have been poorly communicated. Although inflation accelerated after the November fuel-price rise, efforts have been made to contain inflationary expectations and to mitigate the effects on poverty through social-assistance programs. The government took steps to cushion the impending impacts of higher fuel prices on vulnerable households by giving cash handouts of Rp 200,000 per month to 15.5 million disadvantaged families who receive the lowest level of welfare, and by promoting publicly funded education and health care. The partial removal of gasoline subsidies and the introduction of a fixed-subsidy policy for diesel in the revised 2015 budget reduce uncertainty about the fiscal position, although increases in government spending in infrastructure development were announced at the same time. The revised budget for 2015 increases spending on infrastructure development by 63% from the 2014 budget, mostly on projects to improve connectivity on land and at sea—such as the development of toll roads, railways, and ports—and to increase the performance of the agricultural sector. However, the recent drop in international oil prices forced the government to increase its target for tax revenue by 30% on last year's target, raising concerns about the effect of falling oil prices on the economy. Trade and investment policy reform is important in unlocking Indonesia's growth potential and improving the country's current external balance. Jokowi's administration, however, has been sending mixed signals about its position towards more open policies. The country has yet to recommence several trade negotiations that were postponed in 2014 and is still struggling to meet its commitments under the ASEAN Economic Community. Although improvement in investment procedures and licensing is currently underway, Indonesia needs to adopt a more positive attitude if it is to attract more investment.     

Local Intergovernmental Competition and the Law of 1/n

This article proposes an empirical framework based on a synthesis of the seminal “Law of 1/n” and “Leviathan” theories, which models the relationship between government spending and the number of jurisdictions in a federal system as determined by the interplay of the costs related to centralized government (which fall as the number of jurisdictions increases) and the costs of distributive politics (which rise as the number of jurisdictions increases). Using a panel of U.S. state and local government spending data, empirical tests based on this combined framework show that the effect of intergovernmental competition predicted by the Leviathan model is partially offset by the Law of 1/n. This result helps explain the inconsistent findings in the previous empirical literature.     

宏观审慎政策:选择什么目标,需要什么工具

包括逆周期性资本比率、动态准备金、贷款价值比率、资本管制等在内的现有宏观审慎政策工具,分别有不同的效果及其局限性,而且宏观审慎政策的有效实施需要与货币政策、财政政策协调配合。因此,采取谨慎还是积极的政策框架取决于理论研究和政策试验的结果。