A Critique of ‘Neoliberal Autonomy’: The Rhetoric of Ownership Society

The rhetoric of the Ownership Society defined by the Cato Institute has been integral to framing the motivation behind the Social Security reform introduced by George W. Bush. This motivational frame involves a fierce advocacy of what we will call ‘neoliberal autonomy’ in a Hayekian and Friedmanite sense. For Hayek and Friedman, the social adequacy component of Social Security is problematized in the name of self-reliance and individual choice, which rejects any authoritative standards as morally indefensible. Nevertheless, the rhetoric of the Ownership Society, though it glorifies the neoliberal notion of autonomy, does not explicitly question the moral basis of Social Security. Rather, by defining the terms of debate, it frames the meaning of Social Security along neoliberal lines in an attempt to make a supposedly detached economic case for private retirement accounts. In this ‘pro-privatization’ framework, the social adequacy component of the Social Security system fades away as individual equity, or actuarial fairness, comes to the fore as the chief theme. We suggest a ‘pro-social’ rhetoric that recognizes the pursuit of social standards as providing the element of autonomy.

地方政府政策变迁对跨国公司企业社会责任的影响

笔者运用合作博弈的谈判模型研究地方政府政策对跨国公司企业社会责任合约的影响。模型推导出在宽松、适度、严格三种政策下,地方政府收益最大时对跨国公司社会责任履行合约的取值要求,研究认为政策的选择取决于地方政府谈判成本大小和声誉损失系数以及跨国公司在当地的社会责任履行成本系数,并就三种政策下跨国公司企业社会责任的影响因素进行分析。     

社会创业活动驱动机制研究——一个模糊集定性比较分析

利用fsQCA方法,以22个经济体为样本分析个体、制度环境以及文化层面的5个条件联动匹配对社会创业活跃度的影响。结果表明：第一,机会感知、失败恐惧感、制度环境以及人文导向文化维度无法单独构成高或者非高社会创业活跃度的必要条件。第二,高社会创业活跃度路径有3种：高人文导向下的环境—能力型、低人文导向下的环境拉动型与环境推拉型。第三,非高社会创业活跃度产生路径有两种：低人文导向及拉动型制度环境缺失条件下,与其它要素联动匹配;高人文导向文化、低机会感知以及低失败恐惧感条件下,与不同类型制度环境联动匹配。第四,社会创业活跃度影响路径具有非对称性。     

The World Market for Labor and the World Market for Industrial Sites

At the center of the on-going debate about the U.S. Social Security system is the question of whether the way the system is financed can cope with the future challenges posed by the retiring Baby Boom generation. The "reformers" suggest changing the design of the system by moving to fully funded defined contribution retirement plans. Others argue that the so-called demographic problems are being used as an excuse to privatize the system. But both sides spend almost all of their energy and time figuring out the timing of insolvency of the system and the validity of the assumptions made in each forecast. In contrast, the present study closely examines the changing macroeconomic dynamics of the system since the 1960s. The analysis shows that undermining of the system is caused not by demographic changes or financing mechanisms but by low wages and medical inflation.     

西南民族地区城镇适度社会保障水平研究——以贵州省为个案的实证分析

社会保障制度作为社会的最后"安全网"和"自动稳定器"功能已经早在诸多国家的实践中得到充分证明,但是其前提条件是需要建立适度的社会保障水平,社会保障水平过高将导致财政负担过高和个人、企业负担较重;而社会保障水平过低又不能实现其"保基本"的目标。所以,研究社会保障水平的适度性是社会保障研究的重要课题之一。西南民族地区城镇社会保障制度发展缓慢,通过对贵州城镇社会保障水平的适度性进行测度,发现城镇社会保障水平低于理论上适度社会保障水平。需要从经济发展、扩大覆盖面、提高资金使用效率和适度提高社会保障绝对水平等方面入手,以实现西南民族地区城镇社会保障水平与社会经济发展相一致。     

多维企业家社会资本、企业吸收能力与企业绩效研究

基于社会资本理论,将企业家社会资本划分为市场、制度及金融3个维度,利用139家中国创业板上市公司数据,对企业家社会资本、企业吸收能力、企业财务绩效及创新绩效的内在关系进行实证分析。实证结果表明,企业家市场社会资本对企业财务绩效和创新绩效具有显著的正向影响,企业吸收能力与企业财务绩效及创新绩效显著正相关。企业吸收能力正向调节企业家市场社会资本与企业财务绩效和创新绩效的关系,也正向调节企业家制度社会资本与企业创新绩效的关系。     

A simple model of homophily in social networks

Biases in meeting opportunities have been recently shown to play a key role for the emergence of homophily in social networks (see Currarini et al., 2009). The aim of this paper is to provide a simple microfoundation of these biases in a model where the size and type-composition of the meeting pools are shaped by agents׳ socialization decisions. In particular, agents either inbreed (direct search only to similar types) or outbreed (direct search to population at large). When outbreeding is costly, this is shown to induce stark equilibrium behavior of a threshold type: agents “inbreed” (i.e. mostly meet their own type) if, and only if, their group is above certain size. We show that this threshold equilibrium generates patterns of in-group and cross-group ties that are consistent with empirical evidence of homophily in two paradigmatic instances: high school friendships and interethnic marriages.     

“一带一路”战略下中部六省专利实施许可网络研究

“一带一路”战略为中部地区科技创新成果转化提供了新机遇。为制定和优化中部地区跨域技术扩散政策,运用社会网络分析方法,以2015年度国家知识产权局专利实施许可备案数据为样本,分析了专利许可整体网络、跨区域专利许可网络、四大国家级自主创新示范区节点城市专利许可网络结构特征和技术类型。研究发现存在如下问题：中部六省在整体网络中处于次边缘层向次中心层过渡位置、地域结构与“一带一路”战略目标不匹配、自主创新示范区节点城市的技术扩散引领辐射作用不足。据此,提出了构建中部六省技术帮扶联盟增强科技扶贫力度、发挥区位优势搭建跨域技术扩散中介桥梁、优化示范区技术扩散评估和激励政策以及发挥技术比较优势等建议。     

社会资本对企业员工创新行为的影响

知识经济时代,创新是企业可持续发展的战略选择。社会资本作为一种社会结构性资源,通过知识分享在员工创新过程中产生溢出效应。以信任和知识共享为中介变量,以创新动机为调节变量,构建社会资本对企业员工创新行为的影响模型,并提出研究假设。通过对成都高新区软件园5家电子信息企业员工进行问卷调查,共收集443份有效问卷,采用SPSS22.0软件对样本数据进行中介和调节效应分析。结果显示：社会资本的3个维度（结构维度、关系维度和认知维度）均显著影响员工创新行为;信任在认知维度社会资本和员工创新之间具有完全中介作用,分别在结构维度、关系维度社会资本和员工创新行为之间具有部分中介作用;知识共享分别在结构维度、认知维度社会资本和员工创新行为之间具有完全中介作用,在关系维度社会资本和员工创新行为之间具有部分中介作用。此外,创新动机对员工创新行为影响的主效应显著,但对知识共享、信任与员工创新行为之间的调节效应不显著。     

RAIFFEISEN AS SOCIAL INNOVATOR

In recent years the term social innovation has become widely used by policy makers, yet important ambiguities remain. One of these concerns what has been called the paradox of embedded agency – how social innovators conceive of something new when working with existing social institutions. So far few writers have considered whether historical examples can, with benefit of hindsight, shed light on the relationships between social innovators and social institutions. This paper considers the example of Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen, creator of rural credit unions and agricultural co‐operatives in 19th‐century Germany. Raiffeisen was a social conservative who worked in many ways within existing social institutions. At the same time, his desire to meet social needs drove him to create new forms of action and organization that resulted in social innovation. Raiffeisen's process of invention shows that social innovation, particularly in transitional eras like his, need not be a matter of using logical‐deductive processes to address a social need, but may depend critically on values, will, a readiness to experiment, and an ability to find allies. These qualities enabled Raiffeisen to break through existing institutions to do something fundamentally new, and they may be qualities that provide new focus for social‐innovation research and policy.