对水务产业“有限物权”约定的原因分析

本文根据外资进入中国水务市场.采取"高溢价"战略.利用"恶意竞价"方式击退中国水务企业的现象.分菥了地方政府利用"有限物权"约定这种管理方式,给水务市场带来的种种益处. "有限物权"约定管理犹如给市场和人民利益修筑一道安全屏障.促进市场公平竞争,促使地方政府培养市场意识和责任意识,保护城市居民和生产企业的利益不受侵犯,进而保障国家财产和人民生活安全.     

分类适度管制:放松管制背景下的我国政府管制结构重构

伴随着西方放松管制改革的浪潮,国内学术界也开始呼吁放松管制,但目前我国的政府管制面对的主要是行政垄断问题以及管制结构的不合理.因此,我国政府管制改革,不是"放松管制"的问题,而是管制结构重构的问题:一方面要消灭原来计划体制的管理体制、管理办法和管理方式,消除行政垄断,另一方面要转变管制重点实行分类管制,即根据垄断性产业的业务进行划分实施放松管制的政策;根据不同产业以及同一产业不同时期实施放松管制政策.     

论我国住宅地震保险基金的建立

我国是世界上地震灾害最严重的地区之一,但与此同时,并未建成相应的住宅地震保险基金,导致地震发生时,民众住宅无法得到保障,生活和生产受到影响。本文从地震的可保性出发,在借鉴了美国、日本以及我国台湾地区建立住宅地震保险基金上的经验后,得到若干建立中国住宅地震保险基金的启示。     

Risk management by SPV partners in toll road public private partnerships

ABSTRACT

Research on risk management in Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) has largely overlooked that the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) is made up of several project partners with different interests and objectives to manage risk. This paper makes an important contribution to this literature as it articulates SPV partners’ perceptions of how they manage risk in toll road PPPs. Our case studies show that the different skillsets of both the international and domestic partners with their sub-contractors provide opportunities for mitigating and managing risk but also pose potential problems in terms of measuring and obtaining value for money for taxpayers.     

How does public participation affect perceptions of public–private partnerships? A citizens’ view on push,pull, and network approaches in PPPs

ABSTRACT

In this study, we analysed US-based public opinion data to determine the influence of particular modes of participation on citizen perceptions of public–private partnerships (PPP). Our summary finding is that information dissemination can improve community support of PPPs, but interactive engagement is more important, and likely required, for assuring citizens that projects reflect their interests – an issue vital to the long-term sustainability of PPPs. Counter to expectations, respondents indicated a preference for meetings with private partner representatives over those with their public sector counterparts; implying the value of citizen-direct relationships in holding third-party providers to account.     

Corporate Governance Reforms in the Post-1997 Asian Crisis: Is There Really a Convergence to the Anglo-American Model?

Abstract

Following the 1997-Asian crisis, a number of crisis-hit countries were committed to the rapid transformation of the corporate governance system to one that is modeled after the Anglo-American system. This, as the article argues, is based on a false premise, that what may have worked in the United States/United Kingdom can also be applied in East Asia. In this regard, the convergence at the firm level is seen to be more in “form” rather than in “substance”. This study assesses Singapore's corporate system in terms of its recognition of the merits of the Western model. It then details the corporate governance style of Temasek Holdings Limited (THL), a state- owned enterprise (SOE) in charge of monitoring government investments in companies. The choice of THL as a case study is based on the premise that THL operates very much like a private sector corporation. In addition, it has the ability to influence the standard of corporate governance of Singaporean SOEs. Because the SOEs are large players in their respective industries, the corporate governance of SOEs establish the standards and expectations for monitoring in non-SOEs. There are indications to suggest that the THL has taken into consideration certain aspects of corporate governance practices that may not necessarily be in line with those advocated by the Singapore government. The article argues that selective adaptation such as the style adopted in the THL more realistically portrays the corporate governance practices of East Asian corporations.     

An alternative quasi likelihood approach,Bayesian analysis and data-based inference for model specification

This paper studies an alternative quasi likelihood approach under possible model misspecification. We derive a filtered likelihood from a given quasi likelihood (QL), called a limited information quasi likelihood (LI-QL), that contains relevant but limited information on the data generation process. Our LI-QL approach, in one hand, extends robustness of the QL approach to inference problems for which the existing approach does not apply. Our study in this paper, on the other hand, builds a bridge between the classical and Bayesian approaches for statistical inference under possible model misspecification. We can establish a large sample correspondence between the classical QL approach and our LI-QL based Bayesian approach. An interesting finding is that the asymptotic distribution of an LI-QL based posterior and that of the corresponding quasi maximum likelihood estimator share the same “sandwich”-type second moment. Based on the LI-QL we can develop inference methods that are useful for practical applications under possible model misspecification. In particular, we can develop the Bayesian counterparts of classical QL methods that carry all the nice features of the latter studied in  White (1982). In addition, we can develop a Bayesian method for analyzing model specification based on an LI-QL.     

The methodology combination of a national foresight process in Germany

In September 2007, the Federal German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) launched a new foresight process which aimed at four specific targets. To achieve them, a tailor-made combination of methods was applied. This paper focuses on the concept design of the process and explains one of the methods — the future online survey — in more detail.The German Foresight Process of the BMBF delivers results on different levels: broader future fields as well as single future topics. Both kinds are relevant and selected according to a set of criteria. Some of the results of this foresight process will be directly integrated into national policy activities, others are just more indirectly filtered into the innovation system of the specific sectors in the country. The future fields are all cross-cutting issues based on science and technology. All of them are specifically knowledge dynamic fields.     

Uneasy Alliances: Lessons Learned from Partnerships Between Businesses and NGOs in the context of CSR

Interest in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has proliferated in academic and business circles alike. In the context of CSR, the spotlight has traditionally focused on the role of the private sector particularly in view of its wealth and global reach. Other actors have recently begun to assume more visible roles in the context of CSR, including Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which have acquired increasing prominence on the socio-economic landscape. This article examines five partnerships between businesses and NGOs in a developing country context that fall in the realm of CSR. The article starts with a literature review, delineating foundational underpinnings that have to be carefully designed and crafted to promote the success of collaborative ventures. An empirical study of five selected partnerships between businesses and NGOs in Lebanon is then presented, allowing to derive interesting insights into types of existing alliances, their relational characteristics as well as salient factors considered most determinant of success or failure in this regard.     

Problem-Based solutions from the classroom to the Community: Transformative approaches to mitigate the impacts of boom-and-bust in declining urban communities

Strategic partnerships between universities and declining urban neighborhoods with limited resources have resulted in some innovative and forward-thinking approaches to land use and planning. These approaches respond to the impacts of boom-and-bust through the implementation of problem-based solutions and have spurred development to make communities more resilient. The university-community partnerships and engagements have multiple goals, including increasing university responsiveness to local needs, stimulating real-world change, and preparing students to effectively address complex social challenges (Dorado and Giles, 2004). However, such approaches are complicated by a variety of factors, including stakeholder expectations, power imbalances, and the conflicting goals of educators and community members (Mansuri and Rao, 2004). While the benefits of service-learning programs to universities are well documented, the benefits of such higher education partnerships to community participants are not as well known (Netshandama, 2010). Successful engagements seem to require community involvement and decision-making authority at every phase, mutual accountability, and trust (Winkler, 2013). This paper refers to a series of case studies of community engagement and neighborhood empowerment that involved the development of a collective sustainable plan/vision for declining inner-city neighborhoods with limited resources. This participatory form of local community development combines and goes beyond spatial planning and land use tools to demonstrate in some depth how an “inside the neighborhood” approach can make communities less vulnerable to boom-and-bust cycles. These neighborhoods, located in Columbus, Ohio, have seen tremendous declines in population and economy over the past years because of significant losses in manufacturing jobs. The case studies can inspire communities and demonstrate that service learning has the potential to provide communities with place-specific guidelines and recommendations that improve the quality of life for residents; but their implementation requires a collective effort that goes beyond the classroom.