Public action and the quality of life in developing countries

An attempt is made to identify the developing countries that have performed better than others in terms of the indicators of the so called "quality of life," relating this progress to the nature of these economies and to the public policies followed in these countries. A table presents data on life expectation at birth and adult literacy rates for 100 countries that had a gross national product per head of less than $3000 in 1977. The data have some comparability, and it is reasonable to use them for a rough international comparison of performance. 38 countries have shown distinction in 1 or both of the fields. There are 10 communist countries in the total list of 100, and 9 of them show some distinction. 8 of the 9 do this despite not having literacy figures reported. The entry is longevity, which is arguably a more basic indicator of success than poverty. Many of the communist countries are wealthier than the mean or median developing country. Although the indices are relative ones, the richer countries have typically done better, on the whole. The longevity performance of the communist countries is typically superior. This applies to the poorer group also. Some of the high growth early capitalist countries also have very good performance in terms of the chosen indicators (e.g., Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore). Taiwan and Hong Kong have the best overall performance record in terms of the 2 criteria for those 61 countries for which both sets of data are available. The countries that appear to have done relatively worse in terms of the indicators are those in the "middle," i.e., neither communist nor successfully capitalist. There are some exceptions. Tanzania appears to have been relatively successful in terms of the removal of illiteracy, and Sri Lanka has been successful in raising life expectancy. In examining the excellent performance of the Republic of Korea and Taiwan, the lesson to be learned from their experience is the great importance of employment expansion in poverty removal. The experiences of Sri Lanka and Tanzania are recounted to illustrate the positive role of state action. Like Sri Lanka's program of social welfare, Tanzania's literacy program shows how much can be achieved by a determined effort, sensibly directed toward specific goals. Poverty removal and related features, including longevity enhancement, is ultimately dependent on a wide distribution of effective entitlements. This, for any given level of per capita income--would tend to be reflected in the low level of inequality in the distribution of income.     

Famines

This is a text of the first Annual Lecture of the Development Studies Association. It investigates a variety of issues that arise in famine analysis, covering identification, causation and prevention. The rejection of the food availability approach is combined with exploration of the ‘entitlement approach’ presented by the author in an earlier contribution in the Cambridge Journal of Economics, Vol. 1 (1977). Four recent famines as well as some famous historical ones are examined in the light of the entitlement approach. Aside from throwing light on the causes and cures of famines, the entitlement approach also permits us to distinguish between various types of famines all of which share the feature of a common predicament of a mass of people but which do not share the same causal mechanism, nor invite the same response. Famine analysis, it is shown, requires more structure than the traditional approaches are able to provide.     

风险条件下商业银行高管的激励机制

商业银行高管与股东之间存在着委托-代理关系。由于信息不对称,银行高管和股东对于风险水平的估计存在差异,而风险估计直接影响着银行高管的努力水平和激励水平。本文基于双方的风险估计,构建了风险条件下银行高管的委托-代理模型。并依据模型的结果,对风险条件下银行高管的薪酬激励机制进行分析,并提出了优化商业银行高管激励机制的措施。     

3种ELISA试剂盒对牛新孢子虫血清抗体比较检测

用瑞典Svanova公司、美国IDEXX公司和美国VMRD公司生产的3种检测新孢子虫血清抗体ELISA试剂盒对来自澳大利亚牛血清（41份）、新西兰牛血清（40份）、乌拉圭牛血清（30份）和中国新疆牛血清（46份）进行了同步检测和比较分析,并以其中2个试剂盒检测结果均为阳性或阴性的血清为真阳性或真阴性,对另1个试剂盒在诊断相对敏感性和相对特异性方面进行了比较评估。结果表明,3个试剂盒的诊断相对敏感性和诊断相对特异性分别为：85.7%和92.5%（Svanova）、95.8%和98%（IDEXX）、88.5%和98%（VMRD）。3个试剂盒都具有较好的重复性,检测低限相近。在对样品的检测中,IDEXX与VMRD两个试剂盒检测符合率较高,但对不同国家的样品检测符合率差别较大。     

明清民国时期大陆泽流域县际用水秩序与社会互动

以往研究着重于大陆泽流域县域内以"镰"为中心的水利共同体,而忽视了整个流域内县际之间的水资源分配与用水互动问题。自明代水利兴起以来,这一流域县际之间曾存在数个用水规章,清代国家营田又曾短期强化过县际均水秩序。不过因流域自然地理因素和政区界限的作用,这一流域县际之间用水秩序一直未得到切实而持久的执行。同时,地方士绅与棍徒类豪民因自身利益的不同,不时打破常规,甚至直接掌控闸堰、灌渠,从而加剧了县际用水的矛盾。他们也不再是乡民的代言人和沟通官府的中介,反而是水利社会的蠹虫和令官府头痛的对象。用水纠纷和诉诸官府成为这一地区围绕着水利开发而产生的县际社会互动之主要特征。     

中国体育产业的投入产出分析

体育产业已经成为重要的经济增长点。文章利用2002年和2007年的投入产出表,分析了中国体育产业与其他产业的产业关联、感应度和影响力,认为体育产业具有非常强的产业影响力,对其他产业的影响大,但是感应度系数比较低,说明还未能发挥体育产业对国民经济的推动作用,需要积极改善。     

The Dowry Gift in South Asia: An Institution on the Intersection of Market and Patriarchy

Abstract

Dowry refers to marriage gifts that are instrumental to the negotiation of the marriage contract. Historically, the dowry gift was constituted by law across the Roman empire. While dowry has become largely irrelevant in Europe in contemporary times, it is still pervasive across the Brahmanical Hindu societies of South Asia. Moreover, what was traditionally token gifts from friends and well-wishers has taken on the form of “new dowry” since the colonial period. “New dowry” is heavily composed of cash and market goods, including land and is frequently accompanied by violence against new brides when their families fail to make larger dowry gifts with higher market value. This article examines the evolution of “new dowry” through a Polanyian lens. Unlike the neoclassical Beckerian approach which takes an ahistorical outlook to marriage as a “market” for matching partners and dowry as a market price, the substantivist lens à la Polanyi investigates the historical evolution of “new dowry” through the advent of market processes in the colonial period and the countermovement of legal reform in the post-colonial period.     

大跨度天基数据链的TDD时隙调度分析与优化

针对天基数据链系统卫星间的传播时延较大且节点间距离变化较大等特点，提出了一种提高时频资源利用率、提升系统容量、减小时延的方法。在时分多址与空分多址相结合的接入方式下，进行了时隙调度的分析与优化，利用卫星星座的空间复用与大跨度传播时延特性，采用时隙编排、收发状态调整、帧格式优化等手段，将信道利用率和系统容量提升了1倍，将卫星节点在某一方向获得服务的平均等待时间缩短为原来的1/4，提高了天基数据链系统的服务质量。     

Crime,apprehension and clearance rates: Panel data evidence from Canadian provinces

The Becker model of crime establishes the importance of the probability of apprehension as a key factor in a rational individual's decision to commit a crime. In this respect, most empirical studies based on US data have relied on variation in the number of police officers to estimate the impact of the probability of apprehension or capture. We measure the probability of apprehension by clearance rates and study their effects on crime rates, employing a panel of Canadian provinces from 1986 to 2005. OLS, GMM, GLS and IV estimates yield statistically significant elasticities of clearance rates, ranging from ?0.2 to ?0.4 for violent crimes and from ?0.5 to ?0.6 for property crimes. These findings reflect the importance of police force crime‐solving productivity.     

会计信息供求的经济学分析

本文运用经济学的原理,并结合两个图形,对会计信息的供求双方之间的矛盾进行分析。最后得出在现有的制度安排下,无法完全解决会计信息的供求矛盾,如果要完全消除供求矛盾,应改变现有的制度安排。