经济环境、政府补贴与企业发展——基于生存分析方法的实证研究

通过我国工业企业统计数据分析宏观经济的两个方面,提出宏观经济发展速度和宏观经济政策稳定性在政府补贴政策对企业生存发展影响的调节作用方面的理论假设,并利用生存分析方法对理论假设进行实证检验。理论和实证研究表明,政府补贴更愿意在宏观经济增长速度低的时期实施,但在宏观经济高速增长时期,政府补贴对企业生存概率的提升作用要明显高于低速增长时期。宏观经济政策不稳定性企业获得政府补贴的概率较大,并且在宏观经济政策不稳定时期加大企业的补贴力度相比政策稳定期能够更明显地促进企业的生存发展。     

中国能源补贴政策形成和出口产品竞争优势的关系研究

本文研究中国能源补贴政策对提高中国出口产品竞争力的作用机理,并对出口产品能源补贴载量进行实证分析。我们认为,中国能源补贴政策经历了能源要素的政策性低价、价格粘性和权衡产品竞争力与贸易条件三个阶段,能源要素价值低估成为提高我国出口产品竞争优势的重要因素之一,实证结果表明:中国是一个能源出口大国,出口结构中多以高能耗产品为主,全部能源补贴中约有10%通过出口产品净补贴给国外消费者,呈现出巨大外贸顺差和严重生态逆差并存的悖论。     

Subsidizing power

This study explores whether the amount of fossil fuel subsidies paid by the government is subject to an election cycle. Theoretically, it is not a priori directly clear whether the provision of fossil fuel subsidies should go up or down when elections are upcoming. On the one hand, governments may reap electoral benefits from offering additional support in an election year since voters generally prefer candidates from whom they expect to receive greater material well-being by reducing the prices of basic goods. On the other hand, if the number of recipients is only small or when they are politically not well organized, reducing fossil fuel subsidies to finance a tax cut or an increase in other public spending areas that benefit and attract more voters might be a more successful re-election strategy. My main empirical findings clearly show a U-shaped election effect. It turns out that election cycles encourage fossil fuel support only in countries that have either a large or small fossil fuel demand. In these countries, governments are more inclined to provide additional fossil fuel support in an election year. In turn, I do not find any significant evidence for the notion that upcoming elections create a window of opportunity to reduce fossil fuel subsidies. Finally, the significant election effects are in particular visible during presidential elections.     

Are housing benefit an effective way to redistribute income? Evidence from a natural experiment in France

In this paper, I show that in-kind benefit such as a housing benefit program may have a significant impact on the price of the subsidized good. I use a French housing benefit reform to evaluate the impact of the subsidy on the level of rents. The results indicate that one additional euro of housing benefit leads to an increase of 78 cents in the rent paid by new benefit claimants, leaving only 22 cents available to reduce their net rent and increase their consumption. This large impact of housing benefit on rents appears to be the result of a very low housing supply elasticity. I show that the housing benefit reform induced additional demand, not only from low income households but also from students who used the benefit to become independent. Unfortunately, this increase in demand was unmatched by increasing housing supply in the short and middle term. The only possible effect of the reform is a small increase in housing quality. These results raise questions about the use of such in-kind transfers when the supply of the subsidized good is almost inelastic. It is therefore very important to estimate the incidence of the subsidy when assessing the efficiency of such welfare programs.     

The economic cost of fuel subsidies in Ghana

Apart from fuel subsidies failing to provide the greatest benefits to the poor, they create overconsumption, market inefficiencies and negative environmental and social externalities. This study extended the comprehensive Harberger formula for deadweight loss (DWL) to account for the cross-price substitution effects between the gasoline and diesel markets, estimated the own-price and cross-price elasticities for gasoline and diesel in Africa, and predicted the DWL or economic cost created by gasoline and diesel subsidies in Ghana. Using the simple Harberger formula yields DWL estimates ranging from GHS 2.03 to 8.58 million per year from 2009 to 2014, but accounting for cross-price effects reduces the DWL estimates, from GHS 1.53 to 7.55 million per year, over the same period. However, because fuel demand is highly price inelastic, the DWL created for every GHS 1 million spent on gasoline and diesel subsidies only represents between 0.5% and 2% of subsidy expenditures. These findings suggest that fuel subsidy reforms would be better motivated by other social problems associated with fuel subsidies, such as the ineffective targeting of such subsidies to poorer consumers and the negative externalities of overconsumption, rather than the economic inefficiencies that fuel subsidies generate.     

住房补贴:从模糊到清晰

住房补贴是一种具有社会保障性质的用于解决低收入或贫因家庭基本居住条件的政府财政补贴。住房补贴理论模型，住房制度改革主要阶段中住房补贴的不同涵义。对巳实施的住房“补贴”和住房分配货币化的新解释。     

Clean technology — Innovation and environmental regulation

The development and diffusion of clean technologies has an important role to play in preventing pollution. Government must address the issue of how firms can be given the necessary incentive to develop environmentally sound production techniques and products. This paper focus on how subsidies can — under certain restrictive conditions — stimulate innovation. Subsidization is usually assumed to involve unit subsidies for pollution reduction. Unit subsidies have little to do with the subsidy schemes in actual use. Our focus is on subsidy schemes specifically designed to promote the development of clean technologies through the use of grants/financial aid. Based on data from the development projects initiated through The Danish Clean Technology Programme we analyze how environmental innovations take place when the polluters, their suppliers and consultants are actively engaged in the development processes. The main merit of subsidy schemes like the Danish one is its direct focus on the innovation processes and the active incorporation of the network of firms surrounding the polluters. Our findings lead us to conclude that when it comes to subsidization, the role of government should be redefined. Government can act as a matchmaker by providing firms with informative incentives and necessary contacts for finding more efficient technological solutions to specific environmental problems.     

研发补助影响企业价值的规模差异

研发补助通过两种路径影响企业价值,不同规模企业融资实力、财务约束的差异导致补助影响企业价值效果的差异。本文利用上市公司2007～2009年的数据,以股票回报率、财务业绩和市场价值作为企业价值的代理,对研发补助影响企业价值的效果及其规模差异进行了检验。发现补助并不能显著增加企业价值,但中小企业的研发补助显著增加了企业价值,对补助的负作用有显著抑制作用。本文的结论为评价和改进我国补助政策、设立中小企业创新基金提供了重要证据。     

The effects of state-subsidised housing on poverty in Cape Town

Property rights are widely thought to have considerable direct and indirect effects on urban poverty. However, few studies have been conducted and the evidence supporting these claims is scarce, especially in Southern Africa. This article examines effects of property rights in South Africa through a case study of subsidised housing for poor people in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. A difference-in-differences estimation strategy is employed. Results show that housing subsidies are associated with better physical health and (counter-intuitively) more teenage pregnancies. Improvement in health is attributed to better housing quality and environment while increase in teenage pregnancies is attributed to increased privacy. Effects of titling extend to social effects, which have been understudied in the literature. Since titling showed no effect by most measures, it is likely that poverty is driven so strongly by factors such as unemployment and poor location of housing projects that property rights make little overall difference to poverty.