调整政府支出结构促进居民消费增长——基于政府支出与居民消费互补性关系的分析

本文主要从政府支出与居民消费的互补性关系出发,提出政府支出结构调整的三个主要方面,即加大农村基础设施的投资、加大教育和健康服务等优效品的支付以及加大社会保障和收入支持的支出,以此促进居民消费快速增长,推动经济增长由主要依靠投资和出口拉动向主要依靠内需特别是消费拉动转变。     

Ultimate Government Control Structures and Firm Value: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies

We show that 70% of Chinese listed companies are ultimately controlled by government agencies, thereby indicating that state ownership remains widespread in China's stock markets. Three questions are considered that are related to government control structures and their impact on firm value: (1) how do government agencies maintain their control of listed companies; (2) what are the impacts of different government control structures on firm value; and (3) are these impacts different in local government and central government-controlled firms? We find that the Chinese government controls listed companies directly or indirectly through solely state-owned enterprises (SSOEs). Taking into account the trade-off between political and agency costs, we show that firm value increases when some control rights are decentralized from the government to state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Moreover, decentralization improves significantly the performance of local government- controlled, but not central government-controlled firms.     

GOVERNMENT SIZE AND GROWTH: A SURVEY AND INTERPRETATION OF THE EVIDENCE

Abstract The literature on the relationship between the size of government and economic growth is full of seemingly contradictory findings. This conflict is largely explained by variations in definitions and the countries studied. An alternative approach – of limiting the focus to studies of the relationship in rich countries, measuring government size as total taxes or total expenditure relative to GDP and relying on panel data estimations with variation over time – reveals a more consistent picture. The most recent studies find a significant negative correlation: an increase in government size by 10 percentage points is associated with a 0.5% to 1% lower annual growth rate. We discuss efforts to make sense of this correlation, and note several pitfalls involved in giving it a causal interpretation. Against this background, we discuss two explanations of why several countries with high taxes seem able to enjoy above average growth. One hypothesis is that countries with higher social trust levels are able to develop larger government sectors without harming the economy. Another explanation is that countries with large governments compensate for high taxes and spending by implementing market‐friendly policies in other areas. Both explanations are supported by ongoing research.     

关于我国新型政府基本属性的深层解析——兼论推进政府自身建设的紧迫性与明智政府

中国未来的改革与发展迫切要求推进新型政府的自身建设;明智政府是推进政府自身建设的实施前提;新型政府必须是服务型政府、生态型政府、学习型政府三种基本属性的统一体。     

Aid dependence,sustainability and technical assistance Designing a monitoring and evaluation system in Tanzania David Hirschmann

This article demonstrates how aid dependence operates in very concrete terms in the process of consultancy and technical assistance. It draws on the author's experiences in preparing a monitoring and evaluation system for Tanzania's Local Government Reform Program. It illustrates how a comprehensive system of aid dependence, such as prevails in Tanzania, has meant that concern with local ownership, institutional development, affordability and sustainability appeared to find limited support among Tanzanian professionals and in-country donors. The article illustrates how the contradiction between the critically poor data collection system, which seems to demand realism and low cost as priorities and the comprehensive nature of foreign aid operates in four M&E design issues, namely institution building, ambition of performance indicators, pressures for rapid computerization and participatory methods. Finally the article draws a few concluding thoughts about the experience and its relationship to the debates on aid dependency and local ownership.     

Sector choices for public service delivery The transaction cost implications of executive turnover

The question of whether private firms should contract out for products and services or provide them internally (i.e. become more vertically integrated) has been a topic that has concerned scholars for many years. This article argues that the transaction costs in local contracting choices are linked to the characteristics of political systems that influence political and administrative uncertainty. Our analysis examines the transaction costs that result from executive turnover. Specifically, we are concerned with how uncertainty resulting from turnover in leadership positions in city government affects the ability of a municipality to negotiate contracts, make credible commitments to suppliers and faithfully uphold and enforce contracts once they are in force. We find that manager turnover reduces the likelihood of contracting with private sector providers. Mayor turnover has the opposite effect increasing contracting with both government and for-profit providers.     

Local Government Modernization: UK and Comparative Analysis from an Organizational Perspective

This article analyses three strands of local government modernization. The first takes an overview of the development of 'modernization' and 'improvement' of local government in the UK under the Labour government since 1997 and the overall programme of reform. We discuss both the shifts and the continuities with the previous decade and a half of the 'new public management' of Conservative administrations. We examine the implicit assumptions about how to achieve organizational and cultural change, arguing that much modernization is premised on a mechanistic metaphor of organizational change. The second section of the article examines other metaphors and theories of organizational change, arguing for the need to consider institutional and organizational perspectives in analysing local government modernization. The third section of the article then applies some organizational concepts to the comparative analysis of local government modernization.     

Book Review

Following review of definitions of New Public Management (NPM), the paper assesses whether Canada has adopted the NPM, organized by Kernaghan and Charih's (1997) categories and using Loeffler's (1997) definition. Canada has reorganized the machinery of government, changed management methods and reduced the federal public sector substantially. Despite high debt, Canada's federal government reduced its expenditures and/or public service as much or more than the UK and New Zealand. Its expenditures as a proportion of GDP are now similar to those of the UK and New Zealand, the major proponents of NPM.     

Growth,deficits and uncertainty: Theoretical aspects and empirical evidence from a panel of 27 countries

We examine the relationship between fiscal deficits and per-capita income growth in a panel of 27 European countries, allowing for perceived risks, in terms of fiscal sustainability, associated with additional government spending. Such risks are proxied by the conditional variability of manufacturing production and stock market returns and by the unconditional variability of two survey-based economic-sentiment indicators. To help clarifying how fiscal variables impact on growth and to provide a point of reference for the interpretation of the empirical results a structural growth model is first identified. We find evidence of an asymmetric relationship, in that fiscal deficits give rise to adverse growth effects if they coincide with high uncertainty regarding the prospects of the economy and no significant negative growth effects in the low-uncertainty case.     

我国开征不动产税与增强地方政府公共服务能力的思考

在物质生活基本得到满足的情况下．老百姓对医疗、教育、社会保障、公共安全以及环境保护等公共产品和公共服务的需求越来越突出，对地方政府的目标要求也不再是发展经济这一单一目标，而是更加强调其公共服务的能力。地方政府的公共服务能力在很大程度上取决于其收入能力。本文将探讨不动产税改革将如何在增强地方政府公共服务能力中发挥作用，并针对开征不动产税过程可能遇到的难点问题，提出相关对策建议。