Entrepreneurship,economic development and institutions

This paper is an introduction to the special issue from the 3rd Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Research Conference held in Washington, D.C., in 2008. The paper has three objectives. First, to discuss the importance of the three stages of economic development, the factor-driven stage, the efficiency-driven stage and the innovation-driven stage. Second, to examine the empirical evidence on the relationship between stages of economic development and entrepreneurship. Third, to present a summary of the papers in the context of the theory.

我国房地产宏观金融风险研究

本文通过对房地产业中资金循环的三个环节以及影响房地产金融风险的宏观经济因素和制度因素的分析,研究了存在于我国房地产业中的宏观金融风险.通过与国际经验的比较,发现存在于我国房地产业中的宏观金融风险主要集中在开发企业环节,但是仍处于比较合理的范围内;宏观经济的繁荣带动了房地产业的本轮上升;制度因素对房地产宏观金融风险影响较大.从供给和需求两个层面的分析发现,存在着对房地产业金融风险的误读,对此需要进行客观评价.最后提出了从制度建设方面防范房地产宏观金融风险的建议.     

论国际金融体系改革与布雷顿森林机构重塑

论文在回顾了国际金融体系改革主要历程的基础上探讨了现存体系的核心缺陷,并对已经进入改革日程的一些议题上存在的分歧意见进行了分析。论文认为,由于发达国家和发展中国家存在着巨大的利益差异,短期内在核心内容的改革上将难以取得突破,但是在已经提上议事日程的改革领域,将有可能取得进展。20国集团对国际金融体系改革的推动是令人鼓舞的信息,中国将为推动改革做出越来越多的贡献。     

Land owners’ perception of land consolidation and their satisfaction with the results – Slovenian experiences

Land consolidation has been an important instrument of rural development for over a century throughout Europe. Nowadays, land consolidation can be an integral part of both rural and urban development projects, but the focus of our study is on land consolidation in rural areas. In addition to the efforts aimed at making agriculture and forestry more competitive through a comprehensive reallocation process, improvement of road and drainage networks, landscaping, environmental management, conservation projects, and other functions may be implemented in land consolidation. There are differences in the objectives and procedures of land consolidation among the countries. Beside the formal institutional framework of land consolidation, informal institutions can have a substantial influence on the implementation of land consolidation. In the article, the past experiences in the field of land consolidation in Slovenia are presented, which are still reflected in the limited acceptability of this instrument among land owners. Furthermore, the current institutional (legal) framework is analyzed in detail. The main objective of the research was to investigate the opinion of land consolidation participants about land consolidation. Based on the field survey conducted on a sample of private land owners involved in selected land consolidation projects we tried to define the advantages and disadvantages of the current practice. The main finding is that the active participation of land owners contributes to their comprehension of the aims and to their satisfaction with the results of the land consolidation. It has been shown that the active participation of land owners in the land consolidation is the basis for developing good practices; moreover, it affects the land owners’ perception of land consolidation. The transfer of knowledge and representation of good practices among actors are still needed, in particular because of bad experiences in the past (i.e. enforced and environmentally unfriendly projects) and the traditional emotional attachment to land among land owners. In parallel, there is a great need to provide an optimization of the land consolidation process in Slovenia.     

Must we choose? European unemployment, American inequality, and the impact of education and labor market institutions

In the last 15 years, two equilibria have arisen in the advanced world. On the one hand, wage dispersion has widened in those countries where unemployment has remained low (with cyclical variations). On the other hand, wherever income inequality has remained unchanged, unemployment has shot upwards. To account for these distinct patterns, we develop a political–economic model showing that, controlling for the skills of the population, the effects of technological and trade shocks (that have affected OECD nations) that are contingent on the institutional rules in place. Economies with generous unemployment allowances adjust through subsidized unemployment. By contrast, low levels of social protection lead to less unemployment but wider wage dispersion. The level of qualifications of the labor force determines the extent of the adjustment for a given institutional arrangement. We derive, in turn, the institutional structure of each country from the political conditions in place at the time of the shock. The empirical part successfully tests the model for the sample of European regions and US states.     

Capitalism and democracy at a crossroads: the civilizational dimension

This paper evaluates Schumpeter's grand vision as reflected in his Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, and elaborates it in conjunction with the so-called “globalization” trends characteristic of the wake of the twenty-first century. In addition to the evolutionary nature of his methodology, the institutionalist dimension of Schumpeter's definitions are brought to light. A case is made for a fundamental process of “uncreative destruction” as far as the institutional setup of the economy is concerned. The contention of this paper is that there is ample support in Schumpeterian analysis for a counterpoint to the liberal thesis that envisages the worldwide spread of individualism, market economies, and democratic forms of government.     

对人参“大发展”背景下金融机构创新经营发展的思考——以中国“人参之乡”抚松县为例

抚松县是中国"人参之乡",是长白山人参的主产地,人参种植面积及产量均居全国之首。近年来,抚松县以万良长白山人参市场为依托,积极推进人参产业升级改造,经过几年的开发,抚松县人参"大发展"战略已初具规模,2011年抚松县人参产业实现产值43.3亿元,同比增长75.7%,拉动全县经济增长17.4个百分点。人参产业比重逐年增加,人参"大发展"加快推动县域经济农业化进程的同时,也辐射了"三农"经济的快速发展,同时也为县域涉农金融机构的经营及发展提出了新考验。     

美国金融危机与金融监管改革——基于新政治经济学的视角

金融监管的新政治经济学强调，作为一国政治制度行为主体的利益集团和政党在政策选择上具有十分重要的作用。本文分析了美国金融利益集团与左右翼政党的政策偏好对美国金融监管失灵与金融监管改革的影响。     

Country size and the rule of law: Resuscitating Montesquieu

In this paper, we demonstrate that there is a robust negative relationship between the size of country territory and a measure of the rule of law for a large cross-section of countries. We outline a framework featuring two main reasons for this regularity; firstly that institutional quality often has the character of a local public good that is imperfectly spread across space from the core of the country to the hinterland, and secondly that a large territory usually is accompanied by valuable rents and a lack of openness that both tend to distort property rights institutions. Our empirical analysis further shows some evidence that whether the capital is centrally or peripherally located within the country matters for the average level of rule of law.     

Budgetary institutions and fiscal discipline: Edmund Burke's insightful contribution

Recent developments in the political economy of public finance literature have focused on the features of budgetary institutions that facilitate budgetary discipline — a sub-discipline of constitutional economics. In this literature, there has been no attempt to trace the development of economic thought on the relationship between budgetary institutions and fiscal discipline. This may be because debt accumulation in peacetime is seen as a late twentieth-century phenomenon. As a result, Edmund Burke's contribution, in his speech ‘On Economical Reform’, seems to have been forgotten. This paper highlights Burke's contribution and identifies the extent to which it captures those features of budgetary institutions that are currently recognized as facilitating budgetary discipline.