Tax Competition and International Public Goods

A well known result in the tax competition literature is that tax rates are set too low in the Nash equilibrium to finance an efficient level of public consumption goods. In this model we introduce international spillovers in public goods provision and show that such spillovers reduce, and in the limiting case of perfect spillovers, eliminate tax competition. There is, however, always underprovision of the public good in equilibrium, since larger spillovers increase the problem of free riding. In an extension to the model, we demonstrate that congestion costs may result in overprovision of the public good.     

The Importance of Social Capital to the Management of Multinational Enterprises: Relational Networks Among Asian and Western Firms

Social capital is an important concept for multinational firms. Firms operating in global markets rarely have adequate resources to compete effectively in global markets; they access the needed resources through formal and informal relationships with other firms. The cultures in Asian countries have emphasized relationships much more strongly than Western firms. Thus, relational capital, based on guanxi (China), kankei (Japan) and inmak (Korea), provides the framework for business dealings in many Asian countries. As a result, the social capital of many Asian firms gives them a potential competitive advantage in global markets. Western firms must develop social capital and learn to manage relational networks to gain and sustain a competitive advantage in global markets. Western firms can learn how to develop and manage social capital from Asian firms. Alternatively, social capital has some disadvantages. Firms are limited by their networks and thus experience opportunity costs and path dependence. Additionally, while Asian firms often have strong network ties in their domestic markets, they have to develop many more ties globally to operate effectively in global markets. As a result, the development and management of social capital has become of critical importance for competitive advantage in global markets.     

培育和发展金融资本促进我国金融业改革

作为世界贸易组织成员国，在经济全球化、全球金融市场一体化和金融自由化的大环境中培育和发展金融资本，是我国金融业的发展趋势，也是更为适合的改革途径。本文试图从金融资本理论出发，探讨这一改革途径的必要性、可能性和发展思路。     

Inequality, Crime and Economic Growth. A Classical Argument for Distributional Equality

This paper studies the dynamic general-equilibrium interactions between inequality, crime and economic growth by embedding the rational choice-theoretical approach to criminal behavior in a heterogeneous-agents endogenous-growth OLG model. Based on their respective opportunity costs, individuals choose to specialize in either legal or criminal activities. While legal households contribute to aggregate goods supply over time by either working or building human capital, criminals make a living by expropriating legal citizens of part of the latter's income. An increase in inequality lowers the economy's growth rate and possesses negative welfare effects for all agents with endowments equal to or above average and for agents with endowment below average that are born sufficiently far in the future.     

Capital mobility,wage bargaining,and social insurance policies in an economic union

In a two-country model with mobile capital we analyse decentralized social insurance policies. These policies are a compromise between the preferences of workers and capital owners. Due to wage bargaining, worker-based social insurance contributions are borne by capital owners. These contributions affect the profitability of investment, and consequently the direction and size of capital flows. Countries will take account of these effects in determining social insurance policy. Noncooperative decision making results in tax competition and an underprovision of social insurance. In addition, increasing economic integration, represented by increasing capital mobility, could imply a divergence of social insurance levels in the two countries.     

Assessing the international spillover effects of capital income taxation

Changes in capital taxes by one economy spill onto other economies with internationally mobile capital. We evaluate these impacts using a two-region, intertemporal general equilibrium model. The foreign economy's unilateral reduction in corporate income taxation has positive but small effects on U.S. welfare. In contrast, unilateral reductions in personal income taxation impose large negative spillovers. The differences result from CIT being source-based and PIT residence-based. The CIT cut reduces tax burdens to U.S. residents who invest abroad, while the PIT cut reduces foreigners' tax burdens only. Through general equilibrium adjustments neglected in simpler models, the PIT cut lowers U.S. residents' welfare.     

Does the cost of capital differ across countries? An agency perspective*

In this keynote speech, I ask the question: Does the cost of capital differ for firms located in different countries? I argue that there are two ways to look at the cost of capital. First, there is the neoclassical perspective, which assumes that there are no agency problems. In integrated markets, the neoclassical cost of capital is the same in every country. Second, there is the agency perspective. Agency costs increase the cost of capital understood as the expected rate of return necessary for an investment to leave the value of the firm unaffected. Adjusting the cost of capital for agency costs, I argue that it differs across countries because of differences in corporate governance. I then provide a comparison of the agency-adjusted cost of capital between Japan and the US.     

资本充足率监管与商业银行经营目标的路径选择

满足资本充足率监管要求和实现盈利是商业银行需要完成的两个基本经营目标。本文建立了单期模型,从理论角度分析了商业银行是如何通过调整资本金水平、存贷款总量以及风险偏好等不同的路径选择来实现上述双重经营目标。文章对我国商业银行近年来的经营行为进行实证分析表明,依靠股东注资、上市融资和发行次级债的方式已成为有效补充商业银行资本金以达到资本充足率监管要求的中长期主要路径,而调整存贷款总量和贷款组合的风险偏好是调节商业银行资本充足率水平的短期工具。在此基础上,指出国有商业银行完成上述双重基本指标是一项涉及政府、监管机构和商业银行三位一体的系统工程。     

资本约束、风险管理与商业银行成长

基于资本必须覆盖风险命题的要求,银行的风险管理能力决定了银行的资本规模和资本的配置,银行资本管理实质上等价于风险管理,资本约束实质上就是风险约束。资本软约束是制约中国商业银行成长的主要障碍之一,但仅仅致力于资本充足率问题的解决并不能保证我国商业银行的可持续成长,风险约束是制约我国商业银行成长的瓶颈。只有从制度、技术和经营战略等方面入手,不断提高风险管理能力,建立以资本约束为核心的业务增长模式和资源配置方式,尽快实现成长模式由资金约束到资本约束的转变,中国商业银行才能在效益、质量和规模协调发展的基础上实现持续成长。     

当前人民币汇率制度选择的理论思考

任何汇率制度都只是实现经济目标的手段而不是目的,我们在各个时期选择的汇率制度应该是对我国经济发展最有利的制度。在现有的国际货币体系下,如果资本项目尚未开放,则理性的选择应该是固定汇率制度;如果资本项目已完全开放,则实行浮动汇率制是有效而保险的。对于中国这样一个资本账户部分开放的国家,现阶段重新回到真正意义上的有管理的浮动汇率制是必要的,也是可行的。