Provision of Step-Level Public Goods with Uncertain Provision Threshold and Continuous Contribution

Common to most theoretical and empirical research on public goods is the assumption that the parameters of the game are common knowledge. Recent theoretical and empirical studies have questioned this assumption by arguing that many public goods situations are characterized by uncertainty regarding various aspects of the situation. In particular, Suleiman (1997) argued that members of production groups of step-level public goods are often uncertain about the value of the provision threshold. For this type of uncertainty he proposed three distinct models to account for the individual's contribution.The present study reports the results of an experiment designed primarily to test and contrast the predictions derived from two of these models – a subjective expected utility model and a cooperative model – regarding the effects of threshold uncertainty on contribution for the provision of step-level public goods. Other goals of the study were to test the joint effect of the threshold uncertainty level, and its mean (low vs. high), on contribution, and to examine the effect of threshold uncertainty on the individuals' estimates regarding the contributions of other group members.The results show that the effect of threshold uncertainty is moderated by the threshold mean: Contribution to the public good increased as a function of uncertainty for the lower threshold mean, and decreased (though not significantly) for the higher threshold mean. In contrast, for the two threshold means the subjects' estimates of the mean and variability of others' contribution increased with threshold uncertainty.The models' comparison revealed that the cooperative model was superior to the subjective expected utility model. This result adds to a substantial body of research on social dilemmas showing that under conditions of social (strategic) uncertainty, group members tacitly coordinate their choice behavior by anchoring their decisions on rules of fairness.     

Chasing Success: Health Sector Aid and Mortality

As many cases studies show, successful public health measures are being implemented in many places around the globe, and country-level mortality has fallen significantly in recent decades in all but a few countries. Are the two linked? Does development assistance for health (DAH) improve, on balance, recipient countries’ mortality trajectory? Using a new data source containing DAH on 96 high mortality countries, the regression analysis shows no effect of DAH on mortality. Other types of aid, including water development, also have no effect. Economic growth, on the other hand, has a strong negative effect on mortality. These findings confirm and build upon recent work by Williamson (2008) and are shown to be robust to a variety of sensitivity analyses and alternative model specifications and estimation methods.This analysis also shows that the effectiveness of DAH has not increased over time, even as the level of that funding has increased fourfold, though spending on infectious diseases and family planning may have caused small reductions in mortality. Furthermore, even though it is encouraging that DAH has tended to go where the need is highest, it also goes to states that have experienced the greatest mortality reductions in the recent past. In other words, DAH appears to be following success, rather than causing it.     

Role-Playing a Public Relations Crisis

Abstract

Crisis management affects all institutions. Organizations now operate in a media-saturated world where individuals can disseminate information instantaneously across the globe via the internet. As a result, ensuring future business leaders have an understanding of how crises develop and what alternatives exist is a valuable educational outcome. Through a role-playing exercise, students undertake crisis management for a fictitious organization. The exercise, according to participants, provides a realistic environment where higher level learning (as compared w th merely listening to lectures) resulted. Role-playing also improved student awareness of the components of good crisis management and prepared them to handle a crisis.     

论我国土地征收法律制度的市场化改革路径

长期实践证明,以政府为中心的土地征收资源配置方式导致了日益严重的"城乡二元结构"经济社会问题。文章指出,目前,无论是在立法层面还是在政策层面,我国都有意无意地排斥市场决定性作用的发挥。"土地财政"之瘾、"对上负责"之道和"身兼数职"之状是导致上述问题的经济、政治和体制利益根源。文章认为,遵循市场规律、以市场为主导、使市场在资源配置中起决定性作用和更好地发挥政府的监管职能,是我国土地征收法律制度改革的正确路径。     

公共经济学视角下的会展经济现象分析

当前,会展经济现象引起了越来越多的人关注,但人们对它还存在一些模糊认识。会展经济不等同于会展业,它是一种经济现象和经济行为。从公共经济学视角看,与会展经济相关的设施和服务属混合产品。应科学界定会展经济参与主体特别是政府的职能范围,引导会展经济健康有序发展。     

基于新农村建设的农村公共品供给模式探析

我国目前农村公共产品的供给模式不利于新农村建设对农村公共产品供给的需求,原因在于体制外的资金筹集方式、供给责任的缺失、政府职能的缺位、缺乏第三方参与的有效机制。应当明确各类农村公共产品供给主体,改变投入格局,创新筹资模式,变革供给体制,提高供给效率。     

The Fear of Exclusion: Individual Effort when Group Formation is Endogenous*

To secure their membership in a popular group, individuals may contribute more to the group's local public good than they would if group formation were exogenous. Those in the most unpopular group do not have this incentive to contribute. This may result in substantial differences in individual effort level between groups. Our model thus provides one explanation for the existence of group‐specific behavioral norms. A principal will prefer exogenous or endogenous group formation depending on whether he prefers high or low levels of the local public good. We analyze two stylized examples: social interaction in schools, and multiple‐task teamwork.     

An assessment of market-based approaches to providing ecosystem services on agricultural lands

Market-based approaches are increasingly being advocated as tools for achieving the conservation of ecosystem services. We examine the reasons why markets so far appear to have failed to provide an efficient allocation of many ecosystem services, and identify the conditions under which markets deliver efficient resource allocation. We discuss different forms of market-based approaches to ecosystem services and identify the characteristics of services that make them better suited to one or another of these approaches. We find that lack of low-cost measurability and valuation currently precludes efficient allocation of many ecosystem services through market-based approaches. Still, some forms of market-based approaches hold promise for cost-effectively managing some ecosystem services provided by and to agricultural lands. In many cases some form of well-designed government involvement will be required to seek outcomes that protect the public interest.     

Spatial Evolution of Social Norms in a Common-Pool Resource Game

We study the conditions for the emergence of cooperation in a spatial common-pool resource (CPR) game. We consider three types of agents: cooperators, defectors and enforcers. The role of enforcers is to punish defectors for overharvesting the resource. Agents are located on a circle and they only observe the actions of their two nearest neighbors. Their payoffs are determined by both local and global interactions and they modify their actions by imitating the strategy in their neighborhood with the highest average payoffs on average. Using theoretical and numerical analysis, we find a large diversity of equilibria to be the outcome of the game. In particular, we find conditions for the occurrence of equilibria in which the three strategies coexist. We also derive the stability of these equilibria. Finally, we show that introducing resource dynamics in the system favors the occurrence of cooperative equilibria.      

完善我国地方税制的思考

完善地方税制是我国分税制改革的内在要求。1994年我国分税制改革后建立的地方税制还存在着一些不完善之处。本文提出了完善地方税制的设想。