Institutions and economic growth in Portugal: a quantitative exploration

This paper presents a broad diagnostic of the level of institutional development in Portugal in the legal, corporate governance and financial systems. A comparative assessment suggests that Portuguese institutions are less developed than their European Union and East Asian counterparts, more developed than Greek institutions and on a level similar to that of Spanish institutions. We use data for a wide cross-section of countries since 1960 and correlate indicators of institutional development with the long-term average growth rate, identifying issues where reform is likely to significantly affect economic growth. We construct three new indices that measure the potential of institutional reform - the impact of reform on growth, the required reform effort and the efficiency of reform index - by taking into consideration the institutional distance between Portugal and the European Union. These indices measure, respectively, which reforms have the most payoff in terms of growth, which are less costly to undertake and which deliver the most growth per required effort. Our results strongly suggest that in a large number of issues, institutional reform may translate into substantially higher rates of economic growth. Of the ten most promising reforms, six are in the legal area, irrespective of which of the indices is considered. Whereas legal reform is promising at the aggregate and the microeconomic levels, in the financial sector aggregate indicators offer the wider scope for productive reform, while in the corporate governance area it is indices at the micro level that hold the most promise. These results support the view that a comprehensive reform effort is likely to deliver higher rates of growth in Portugal, allowing faster real convergence with the rest of the European Union.Received: January 2003, Accepted: February 2004, JEL Classification: O0, O5, K00, K4, G2, G3This paper is based on Firms, Financial Markets and the Law: Institutions and Economic Growth in Portugal, prepared for the conference Desenvolvimento Económico Português no Espaço Europeu: Determinantes e Políticas, organized by the Banco de Portugal. Financial support by the Banco de Portugal, NOVA FORUM and FUNDAÇÃO Para a Ciência e tecnologia and Polti through feder are gratefully acknowledged. Comments from Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, two anonymous referees and the editor are sincerely appreciated. The usual disclaimer applies.     

Group Selection and the Limits to Altruism

Several evolutionary mechanisms have been identified in the literature that would generate altruism in humans. The most powerful (except for kin selection) and most controversial is group selection, as recently analyzed by Sober & D.S. Wilson. I do not take a stand on the issue of the existence of group selection. Instead, I examine the level of human altruism that could exist if group selection were an engine of human evolution. For the Sober & Wilson mechanism to work, groups practicing altruism must grow faster than other groups. I call altruistic behavior that would lead to faster growth efficient altruism. This often consists of cooperation in a prisoner's dilemma. ltruistic acts such as helping a temporarily hungry or injured person would qualify as efficient altruism. Efficient altruism would also require monitoring recipients to avoid shirking. Utilitarianism would be an ethical system consistent with efficient altruism, but Marxism or the Rawlsian system would not. Discussions of efficient altruism also help understand intuitions about fairness. We perceive those behaviors as fair that are consistent with efficient altruism. It is important to understand that, even if humans are selected to be altruistic, the forms of altruism that might exist must be carefully considered and ircumscribed.     

非国有经济发展对中国经济增长质量影响机理研究——来自VEC模型的新证据

转轨以来,中国非国有经济的发展促进了经济增长的数量扩张.这是因为,经济非国有化改革作为一种制度创新,是一种增量式改革.这种改革使得体制内利益在未受影响的条件下,实现了帕雷托式的增长.然而,非国有经济的发展并没有带来中国经济增长质量的同比改善.这是因为,中国民营企业发展一般都过分强调以利润为中心,忽略环境成本,并且由于融资困难等因素导致了其技术创新能力的弱化;其次,中国引进的外资不仅在技术和管理创新的扩散效应上没能达到预期效果,而且日益增加的加工贸易通过转移定价方式使中国经济不能充分享有出口增长带来的利润贡献.     

铜陵矿区生态经济建设

本文根据矿区生态经济系统协调发展和演化的原理,提出合理规划、建设铜陵生态市的建议,以实现铜陵经济、社会的可持续发展。     

经济全球化进程中城市群发展的制度创新

从我国城市群目前的发展现状来看,影响城市群发展的主要因素是制度障碍:城市群跨界需求与行政区分割的障碍、缺乏城市群一体化发展的协调政策、没有形成有效的空间管理机制。因此,制度创新应是发展我国城市群的关键所在,重点是在法律制度、空间规划和管理制度等方面的创新。     

天山北坡经济带绿洲生态经济脱钩分析

本文根据脱钩理论与模型的基本思想,引入转移投入概念,建立了绿洲脱钩分析模型,对"七五"以来四个五年计划期间GDP快速增长的天山北坡绿洲经济带的生态—经济关系进行了分析,提出了经济带脱钩关系特点,进一步提出了绿洲经济优化调控的建议。     

中国产业结构变迁与经济增长的实证分析

本文对我国1978～2002年产业结构变化状况和产业结构变化趋势进行定量分析,考察产业结构变动引起各产业部门对经济增长的贡献和作用的相应变化.实证检验表明,这一时期我国产业结构变动基本符合工业化发展的演变规律,但从我国经济发展的要求看,产业结构转换仍滞后于总量增长的要求;进一步优化产业结构,需要着力解决"三农"问题、提升企业的国际竞争力、加快发展第三产业.     

中美公众对收入差距的反应差异探讨

中美的基尼系数如实地反映了两国的收入差距。中美两国民众对收入差距反应有差异的原因是因为两国的收入分配形状、社会保障水平、经济发展水平、非法收入的社会影响不同。由此可得出这样一个结论：要缩小我国收入差距，就必须在农村实行规模经济，完善社会保障，加大打击非法收入的力度。     

Régulation School and environment: Theoretical proposals and avenues of research

The article explores the relevance of a particular approach of the institutionalist movement, régulation theory, to deal with the relationship between the economy and the environment. Régulation theory, which appeared in France at the end of the 1970s, is mainly interested in macroeconomic issues. In contrast, until now it has tended to neglect environmental questions. By taking several key concepts of this theory (accumulation regime, mode of régulation, institutional forms), we have sought to assess its significance vis-à-vis the environmental field. More precisely, from the perspective of establishing an environmental regulationist theory, we propose considering the economic relation to the environment as the articulation of three forms: a transhistorical form, a general capitalist form and a specific capitalist form, the latter being variable in capitalist time and space. We give several illustrations of the variability of the relation to the environment, depending on the different accumulation regimes and the different modes of régulation. Two principal avenues of research are proposed: historical analyses for given economic areas, and comparative analyses relating in particular to different capitalist areas.     

中国期货市场的回顾与展望

中国期货市场产生于中国由计划经济向市场经济转轨的过程中，其形成与发达国家期货市场迥然不同。随着中国经济的逐步市场化，中国经济的逐渐国际化，政府扮演的角色的重要程度势必越来越小，期货市场在市场经济中将会充分发挥其功能，成为中国市场经济体系不可或缺的组成部分。