Setting consolidated reporting standards for local government

Under a corporatization trend, traditional financial reporting is generally considered unable to offer a complete view of the economic and financial activities of a group of public entities. Consequently, several reforms and standards have been introduced related to consolidated financial reports. Through interviews with key actors, the authors analysed the normativity process for issuing consolidated reporting standards for local governments in three European countries: Italy, Spain, and Sweden.     

Complementary currencies: what role should they be playing in local and regional government?

The current climate of fiscal austerity has seen a resurgence in ‘complementary currencies’ as local and regional governments look for ways to use under-utilized assets, maintain employment and avoid local economic decline. The authors explore how local and regional governments can facilitate complementary currencies to reduce the impact of external economic shocks and enable their economies to continue to function in the face of austerity. They recommend that localities consider participating in existing complementary currency ‘circles’.     

Carbon taxes and the double dividend hypothesis in a recursive-dynamic CGE model for Spain

A carbon tax is potentially a policy that can reduce CO₂ emissions and mitigate climate risks, at lowest economy-wide costs. We develop a dynamic CGE model for Spain to assess the economic and environmental effects of a carbon tax, and test the double dividend (DD) hypothesis. We simulate the impact of three carbon taxes: €10, €20 and €30 per ton of CO₂. For each tax, four ‘revenue recycling’ scenarios are examined: a reduction of taxes on capital, on labor, on value-added tax, and a scenario in which revenues are not recycled. We find a DD for taxes of €10/ton and lower, within five to seven years of implementation. We estimate an annual CO₂ emissions reduction of around 10% with this tax. Under some circumstances, the DD can be achieved for a tax of €20/ton. In any case, recycling revenues to cut pre-existing taxes reduces costs of imposing carbon taxes.     

谈地方高校图书馆馆员素质——以贺州学院图书馆为例

随着社会的不断进步,改革的步伐不断加快,信息时代的飞速发展,对地方高校图书馆馆员的综合素质要求越来越高。地方高校图书馆事业的发展与图书馆员的素质与能力密切相关,馆员素质的提高已刻不容缓。通过对地方高校图书馆馆员应具备的几个素质的阐述,并介绍了贺州学院图书馆提升馆员素质的方法。这样有利于地方高校图书馆工作有条不紊地开展,更好地为学校的教学和科研服务。     

地方人大重大事项决定权工作机制探索

党的十八大对坚持和完善人民代表大会制度提出了新的更高要求,十八届三中全会作出的《中共中央关于全面深化改革若干重大问题的决定》,特别明确了人大重大事项决定权。鉴于目前地方人大及其常委会的决定权基本虚置的状况,本文探讨了地方人大重大事项决定权的涵义及工作机制,以期健全人大讨论、决定重大事项制度,推进人民代表大会制度理论和实践创新。     

本土理论供给不足地域性建筑的发展——来自云南当代建筑创作的启示

本文首先对云南本土理论及地域建筑的发展历程进行叙述,同时对未来地域性建筑的发展趋势进行展望。描述了云南本土理论落后于地域建筑创作实践及大多本土理论未能有效指导和帮助地域创作实践的现状。在说明对本土理论思想形成的土壤营造的重要意义之后,阐明了本土理论与地域性建筑发展之间的理想关系。     

PRICING DERIVATIVES ON MULTISCALE DIFFUSIONS: AN EIGENFUNCTION EXPANSION APPROACH

Using tools from spectral analysis, singular and regular perturbation theory, we develop a systematic method for analytically computing the approximate price of a large class of derivative‐assets. The payoff of the derivative‐assets may be path‐dependent. In addition, the process underlying the derivatives may exhibit killing (i.e., jump to default) as well as combined local/nonlocal stochastic volatility. The nonlocal component of volatility may be multiscale, in the sense that it may be driven by one fast‐varying and one slow‐varying factor. The flexibility of our modeling framework is contrasted by the simplicity of our method. We reduce the derivative pricing problem to that of solving a single eigenvalue equation. Once the eigenvalue equation is solved, the approximate price of a derivative can be calculated formulaically. To illustrate our method, we calculate the approximate price of three derivative‐assets: a vanilla option on a defaultable stock, a path‐dependent option on a nondefaultable stock, and a bond in a short‐rate model.     

Factor substitution and taxation in a finance constrained economy

In this paper, we examine the effects of constant-rate factor taxation on macroeconomic stability in the Woodford (1986) model. Our focus is on how the degree of factor substitution, as measured by the elasticity of factor substitution (EOS) in production, affects different balanced-budget tax rules. Analytically, we show that indeterminacy can occur under capital income taxation only when the EOS is very low, whereas indeterminacy under labor income taxation is not subject to the EOS restriction. This finding is robust when we tax all of the factor incomes with equal rates. Thus, in terms of macroeconomic stability, taxing capital income is preferred to taxing labor income.     

The impact of governance and transparency on firm investment in Vietnam

A large literature asserts a causal relationship between the quality of economic governance and economic performance. However, attempts to establish such a link at an aggregate level have met with considerable methodological criticism. This paper seeks to overcome this limitation. We match a panel of Vietnamese enterprises from 2006 to 2010 with a unique panel dataset measuring sub‐national economic governance to estimate a relationship between local governance and private investment. We do not find a significant relationship between investment and most traditional forms of governance. However, there is one important exception – transparency, especially the public posting of planning documents, is strongly associated with higher investment across a range of different specifications. Our results have significant implications for policy, given the prevailing theory that changes in the quality of local economic governance will spur improved economic performance.     

Direct Democracy and Local Public Finances under Cooperative Federalism

In this paper, we exploit the introduction of the right of local initiatives in the German state of Bavaria in 1995 in order to study the fiscal effects of direct democracy. Our identification strategy combines difference‐in‐differences and regression discontinuity methods: we compare municipal expenditure and revenue between pre‐ and post‐reform periods at population thresholds where the signatures needed to launch initiatives and minimum quorum requirements decrease discontinuously (difference‐in‐discontinuities design). The results suggest that stronger direct democratic institutions lead to an expansion of local government size.