加速城市建设应注意的几个问题

目前,我国城市化进程不断加快,城市数量增加,规模扩大,成效显著.但是,也必须清醒地看到,城市建设工作中的短期行为和浮躁之风相当严重,应当引起人们的高度重视.本文认为,城市规模扩张必须以产业支撑为前提,不能搞空壳城市;城市公共设施建设慎向民资伸手,不能滥用市场化手段;居民区搬迁改造应多些人文关怀,不能一拆了之;应遵循城市发展的客观规律,正确处理城市建设中的几个关系问题.     

“分工”的数理经济学分析

将数学化的分工经济理论与现实经济相结合,在微观层面解释了分工的生产效率,在中观层面解释了产业集群的形成,在宏观层面解释了分工生产这种生产模式的优越性。结果表明分工经济对现实世界的强大解释力。     

中国汽车工业市场结构变迁及其成因

为揭示我国汽车工业的结构演进过程,以更好地引导发展,本文运用产业组织理论对我国汽车工业市场结构变迁及其成因进行了梳理。研究表明,我国汽车工业发展史可分为五个阶段,各阶段的市场结构特点、成因、竞争程度均有很大差异,其中政府和市场影响呈现此消彼长的局面,但政府角色更关键。政府一系列行为旨在塑造由国营车企主导的高集中度市场结构,但行政主导式的高集中寡占型市场结构由于缺乏有效市场竞争,因而市场结构始终与较强的市场势力和不完全竞争相联系。此外,本文还运用博弈论探讨了现阶段“多角联盟”下的企业行为,分析表明该结构下的价格合谋更具稳态性。     

江西省制造业产业集聚、地区专业化与经济增长实证研究

采用2006-2009年江西省11地级市20个制造业构成的时间—地区—行业的三维面板数据,实证分析产业集聚、地区专业化与经济增长的关系.结果表明,产业集聚、地区专业化与经济增长之间的关系并不是简单的线性关系,而是呈现倒U型的关系,并运用新地理经济学的相关理论分析拐点出现的原因.结果表明:追求经济增长最大化时,加工制造业较非加工制造业需要更高的专业化水平,非加工制造业较加工制造业需要更高的集聚水平;要素禀赋高的鄱阳湖地区较要素禀赋低的非鄱阳湖地区可以达到更高的产业集聚、地区专业化水平;江西省11个地区的产业集聚、专业化水平远没有达到经济增长最大时的水平..     

Prices and market structure: an empirical analysis of the supermarket industry in Chile

This article investigates empirically the relationship between market structure and consumer prices in the supermarket industry in Chile. A panel of monthly data from 16 cities in the period January 1998–September 2006 is used. We find that, the more concentrated the industry in a city, the higher the prices, while the participation of major national chains in cities tends to lower prices. In terms of magnitude, this latter effect prevails over the former. Moreover, the dominant local chain is found to behave differently depending on whether or not one of the national chains is present in the city. Finally, we find that prices rise when a national chain acquires another chain and both were previously in a city (inmerge) while if only one of the two was present (outmerge), prices fall.     

Preferential trade agreements and manufactured goods exports: does it matter whom you PTA with?

This article explores two questions. First, do preferential trade agreements (PTAs) affect manufactured goods exports of developing countries? Second, does it matter for developing countries whom they sign the PTAs with? We find that the answer to both questions is yes. Using bilateral manufactured goods exports data from 28 developing countries during 1978–2005; we find that South–South PTAs have a significantly positive effect on manufactured goods exports. In contrast, no such effect is detected in the case of South–North PTAs. We confirmed the robustness of these findings to estimation methodology, sample selection, time period, zero trade flows and multilateral trade resistance.     

The hard shadow of the Greek economy: new estimates of the size of the underground economy and its fiscal impact

This article presents new estimates of the Greek underground economy and explores the link between the underground economy and aggregate debt. We show that the Greek underground economy has been underestimated heavily and has been on a rising trend again since Greece adopted the Euro. We also present evidence that the size of the underground economy is positively related to the debt-to-GDP ratio, implying that fighting the underground economy is also conducive to financial and macroeconomic stability. Our results suggest that for our sample of 11 EMU member countries, the loss of the inflation tax as an economic policy instrument had drastic consequences. While the underground economy did not have a statistically significant impact on aggregate debt before the introduction of the Euro, it has pushed up the debt-to-GDP ratio in our sample since.     

The effects of agglomeration economies on technical efficiency of manufacturing firms: evidence from Indonesia

This article examines the effects of agglomeration economies and industrial structure upon firm-level technical efficiency in the Indonesian manufacturing industry over the period 2004–2009. A stochastic production frontier and three channels of agglomeration economies consisting of specialization, diversity and competition are used. The empirical results show that the effects of specialization and diversity upon firm-level technical efficiency are positive and negative, respectively, indicating that specialization is more favourable than diversity for stimulating firms’ technical efficiency. Competition has a positive sign, showing that region with high levels of competition tend to be more conducive in accelerating firm-level technical efficiency. In terms of firm location, both dummy for urban region and industrial complex turn out to be positive, indicating that firms located in both areas are experienced higher technical efficiency. Both firm size and age also have positive effect upon technical efficiency.     

Lending technologies,banking relationships,and firms’ access to credit in Italy: the role of firm size

This paper analyses the role of lending technologies and banking relationships on firms’ credit access in Italy. Using EFIGE firm-level data, we show that the depth and strength of firm–bank relationships have heterogeneous effects on credit demand and rationing probabilities depending on the size of the borrower. Multiple banking relationships alleviate financial constraints for small firms, while borrowing from a large number of lenders hinders access to credit for large companies. Small and medium-sized enterprises with a higher share of debt with the main bank have a lower probability of being credit denied, as debt concentration contributes to overcome the opacity problems typical of the SMEs. Long-lasting relationships, by reducing information asymmetries, significantly improve access to credit for small and large firms. Conversely, we find that medium-sized enterprises are more exposed to financing constraints as relationship duration increases, due to possible lock-in effects. Finally, firms maintaining banking relationships based on transactional technologies are more likely to be credit denied, while the use of relationship lending technologies improves credit availability for both small and large enterprises.     

Disparities in the financial performance of agricultural entities according to the legal form: the case of Slovakia

Financial management in agricultural enterprises is affected by a range of factors that are not present in other sectors. One of the factors that affect the performance of enterprises is the legal or organizational form of the business. In Slovakia, the specific structure of farms is different from that of almost any other member state of the European Union. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the disparities in the financial performance of agricultural enterprises according to the legal form. We analysed and compared two groups of agricultural entities, agricultural cooperatives and business companies, for the period from 2005 to 2014. Based on an analysis of the differences using mathematical and statistical methods, we can conclude that the legal forms are distinguished in all monitored parameters and our hypothesis on the differences in economic performance of agricultural entities according to legal form was confirmed.