Informality,public employment and employment protection in developing countries

This paper proposes an equilibrium matching model for developing countries’ labor markets where the interaction between public, formal private and informal private sectors are taken into account. Theoretical analysis shows that gains from reforms aiming at liberalizing formal labor markets can be annulled by shifts in the public sector employment and wage policies. Since the public sector accounts for a substantial share of employment in developing countries, this approach is crucial to understand the main labor market outcomes of such economies. Wages offered by the public sector increase the outside option value of the workers during the bargaining processes in the formal and informal sectors. It becomes more profitable for workers to search on-the-job, in order to move to these more attractive and more stable types of jobs. The public sector therefore acts as an additional tax for the formal private firms. Using data on workers’ flows from Egypt, we show empirically and theoretically that the liberalization of labor markets plays against informal employment by increasing the profitability, and hence job creations, of formal jobs. The latter effect is however dampened or even sometimes nullified by the increase of the offered wages in the public sector observed at the same time.     

浙江工业产品贸易的“污染足迹”研究

改革开放以来,浙江省的贸易保持着快速的增长。工业产品作为浙江省对外贸易的绝对主体,每年巨大的贸易顺差,必然给浙江省带来很大的污染成本。文章从＂污染足迹＂的概念出发,利用浙江省各工业部门的对外贸易量及污染物的排放数据进行定量分析,核算出浙江省具有代表性的产业部门的产污系数,进出口污染系数及部门来源。结果表明：浙江省工业产品的对外贸易虽然向海外转移了污染物,但是总体来说,巨大的贸易逆差在浙江省留下了污染足迹核算和分析的结果表明,从1997年到2006年,浙江工业产品出口正慢慢偏向于低污染行业,进口偏向于污染密集型行业;浙江省工业产品出口带来的废水的增长速度最快,而废气和固体废弃物呈缓慢增长趋势;化学工业的进口转移了最多的污染物,而金属采选业的进口转移了最多的固体废气物。     

Open access,common property and scarcity rent in fisheries

Open access resources are frequently not managed efficiently, resulting in falling stock levels and a declining income for fishermen. In the late 1970's, the policy response to this problem was the implementation of 200-mile fishing zones, which enabled the European Union to formulate and implement the Common Fisheries Policy, aimed at (among other things) conservation and distribution of available stocks. In Germany, this shift from an open access regime towards a common property regime had favourable outcomes. The trend of falling prices was reversed. The conclusion was that intertemporal efficiency had increased as a result of (inter)governmental policy. Apparently, a wedge was formed between price and marginal harvesting costs, implying that scarcity rent had returned as a component of prices.     

进入管制行业的集聚效应和社会福利——基于航空航天制造业的实证研究

基于省级和国家层面的宏观数据,分别构建了产业集聚和社会福利发展水平的综合评价指标体系,利用脱钩理论分析了我国航空航天制造产业的集聚效应及其与社会福利发展水平之间的关系。研究表明:航空航天制造业在东部地区发展迅猛;产业集聚的总体水平呈现下降趋势;集聚效应所带来的社会福利总体发展水平呈现下降的趋势,直接福利和间接福利并没有得到同步发展;产业集聚和社会福利发展水平多为同向变化,集聚福利脱钩指数呈现下降趋势;进入管制政策在一定程度上能够促进产业发展。     

区域政策协调模式比较分析

为促进区域经济协调发展,在政策制定上既要利用地方政府的信息优势,又要协调地方政府之间的行为。在不对称信息框架下,本文构建了一个包含两级政府的理论模型,通过分析集权、分权以及授权三种政策模式下的信息损失与协调损失,比较三种模式的优劣。研究表明,分权和授权模式均优于集权模式,而授权模式与分权模式的优劣主要取决于地区之间经济规模的大小与区域政策协调重要性的差异。     

Governance And The Implementation Of Technology Policy In Less Developed Countries

This study discusses key issues of technology policy in less developed countries from a governance perspective. In particular, it analyzes critical problems of policy implementation and looks for general principles which may be suitable as guideposts in making the state more effective regardless of the particularities of its technology policy. The main argument is that governments need to assume a market-enhancing role and must enhance the state's capabilities and capacities for implementing public policies. Crafting public institutions which ensure accountability, transparency, and predictability of policy making and involve the private sector in political decision-making processes is critical for successful policy implementation. Besides institutional arrangements which help governments to credibly precommit to policies, the quality and institutional design of the public administration and the public-private interface are crucial ingredients of an effective governance structure.     

Does Gibrat's Law hold among young,small firms?

According to Gibrat's Law of Proportionate Effect, the growth rate of a given firm is independent of its size at the beginning of the examined period. Aimed at extending this line of investigation, the present paper uses quantile regression techniques to test whether Gibrat's Law holds for new entrants in a given industry: that is for new small firms in the early stage of their life cycle. The main finding is that for some selected industries in Italian manufacturing Gibrat's Law fails to hold in the years immediately following start-up, when smaller firms have to rush in order to achieve a size large enough to enhance their likelihood of survival. Conversely, in subsequent years the patterns of growth of new smaller firms do not differ significantly from those of larger entrants, and the Law therefore cannot be rejected.JEL Classification: L11, L60Previous versions of this paper were presented at the 27th Annual EARIE Conference (Lausanne, 7-10 September 2000) and at seminars held between 2000 and 2003 at the Economics Department of Harvard University, the Catholic University of Milan, the University of Ferrara, the University of Bologna, the Bank of Italy, and Athens University of Economics & Business. We would like to thank Carlo Bianchi, Giuseppe Colangelo, Giovanni Dosi, Steven Klepper (Editor), Stephen Martin, Ariel Pakes, Aman Ullah and, in particular, Helen Louri and two anonymous referees for their valuable comments on earlier drafts. Financial support from MIUR (Year 2000; protocol #MM13038538_001; project leader: E. Santarelli) is gratefully acknowledged.Correspondence to: E. Santarelly     

基于B2B平台的长三角产业价值链升级研究

根据价值链和电子商务理论与实践可以发现,B2B电子商务平台正在改变产业价值链模式,为提升产业价值链带来新的战略途径。长三角内外产业价值链的正在经历跨边界重组,较为发达的B2B平台环境则提供了重要的技术条件。以阿里巴巴为例分析来看,B2B平台中存在着国内和国外两类产业价值链的复杂嵌套,而国内企业在全球价值链中还基本处在低端位置。B2B电子商务平台支持的产业价值链租金是长三角价值链高级化的基本动力之一;长三角未来应有意识地引导充分利用中心城市的比较聚集优势,政府通过宏观协调,形成发挥B2B平台优势的产业环境,通过B2B电子商务平台激活高级要素,采取全球产业价值链与国内产业价值链并建的策略。     

The effects of tariffs on coalition formation in a dynamic global warming game

The prospects for cooperation on climate protection beyond 2012 are currently uncertain. Thus policy instruments which foster participation in International Environmental Agreements (IEA) are in demand. Among the instruments under discussion are trade sanctions. Multi-region optimal growth models are a state of the art tool for integrated assessment, but introducing trade sanctions distorts the competitive equilibrium, making it difficult to compute numerically. We introduce trade and trade sanctions into a model of coalition stability to assess the potential of trade sanctions to support an IEA. Trade is modeled by having all countries produce a generic output good, but adopting national product differentiation (Armington assumption). Coalitions are free to impose tariffs on imports from non-cooperating countries. We solve the model numerically using a refined version of Negishi's [Negishi, T., 1960. Welfare economics and existence of an equilibrium for a competitive economy. Metroeconomica 12, 92–97] basic algorithm. We then apply the model to analyze the influence of tariffs on international cooperation. The model suggests that there is indeed a significant potential to raise participation through trade sanctions, even when goods from different countries are nearly perfect substitutes. Furthermore we investigate the effect of trade sanctions on global welfare, environmental effectiveness, and the credibility of the tariff mechanism.