Institutional deficit and health outcomes in post-communist states

In this paper we draw upon the unique natural experiment of post-communist transitions to show how the interaction between democratization and economic liberalization impacts health. We argue that, if occurring simultaneously, these transformations reduce overall uncertainty and thus improve health. Two concrete mechanisms are at work: first, people suffer less from stress-related diseases, and second, they start investing more in their own health. To capture the proposed theoretical mechanisms, we use stress-caused mortality and private expenditures on health as our dependent variables. Empirically, we employ mediation analysis with country and time fixed effects. We find that, ceteris paribus, democratization and economic liberalization exert a cumulatively positive impact upon health. Our findings should be relevant to other countries that undergo politico-economic transitions.     

长城非“中国古代中原政权边界”论——以战国秦汉时期为视角

长城是中华民族的精神象征,而不是古代中国中原政权的边界线。从“夏”“夷”观念上看,中国北方少数民族从来没有被认定为“外国”;从长城形成的历史看,长城从来没有被当做古代中原王朝的边界线;古代中原政权也从来没有以长城划定自己的活动区限。     

湛江农垦蔗糖产业现代化生产与管理的探讨简

分析湛江农垦蔗糖产业的发展现状及存在的影响蔗糖产业发展效益的主、客观因素,对湛江农垦加快现代化蔗糖产业发展提出一些生产和管理上的措施与建议。     

Exploring the dynamics of the shadow economy across US states

This article examines the dynamics of the shadow economy using data for 50 US states over the period 1998–2008. Using a panel VAR model, we analyse the impulse response of the shadow economy to an orthogonal shock in capital tax rates, educational attainment, union participation and gross state product. We find evidence of significant dynamics underlying the relationship between the shadow economy and its determinants. The results remain robust to alternate measures of the determinants of the shadow economy, alternate causal ordering of the variables in the system and conditioning on the level of income in each state.     

A Framework for Effective Global Marketing for Developing Country Public Sector Enterprises

Public sector organizations show distinct differences in structure, management, philosophy, and performance when compared to private sector organizations. In recent years, however, public sector organizations have emerged as important income contributors and a potent technology source to developing countries through their active internalization efforts. Public sector organizations have begun to enter and operate in international markets, due to the home-country push and host-country pull factors. The purpose of this conceptual paper is to examine the globalization process of developing country public sector enterprises and develop a marketing oriented framework for effective internalization process.     

Voting for Redistribution under Desert‐Sensitive Altruism*

We endow individuals who differ in skills and tastes for working, with altruistic preferences for redistribution in a voting model where a unidimensional redistributive parameter is chosen by majority voting in a direct democracy. When altruistic preferences are desert‐sensitive (i.e., when there is a reluctance to redistribute from the hard‐working to the lazy), we show that lower levels of redistribution emerge in political equilibrium. We provide empirical evidence that preferences for redistribution are not purely selfish, and that desert‐sensitive motivations play a significant role. We estimate that preferences for redistribution are significantly more desert‐sensitive in the US than in Europe.     

State-controlled economies vs. rent-seeking states: Why small and medium enterprises might support state officials

This study examines the reasons for support that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) provide to government representatives of their choice (in the form of donations, influence through their networks, information and votes). The study tests stakeholder and social capital approaches as legitimate explanations for SMEs’ relationships with state representatives in different transition economies, specifically Belarus and Ukraine. The study shows that the stakeholder approach is sensitive to business environments and more applicable in a rent-seeking state where the parties perceive value in their exchange. Social relations motivate the SMEs’ support in both types of transition economies.     

Women in the Labor Market (Volumes I and II), edited by Marianne A. Ferber

Abstract

European states vary in eldercare policies and in gendered norms of family care, and this study uses these variations to gain insight into the importance of macro-level factors for the work–care relationship. Using advanced panel data methods on European Community Household Panel (ECHP) data for 1994–2001, this study finds women's employment to be negatively associated with informal caregiving to the elderly across the European Union. For the countries included in the study, the effects of informal caregiving seem to be more negative in Southern Europe, less negative in Nordic countries, and in between these extremes in Central Europe. This study explains that since eldercare is a choice in countries with more formal care and less pronounced gendered care norms, the weaker impact of eldercare on women's employment in these countries has to do with the lesser degree of coercion in the caring decision.     

Revisiting Sweden’s response to the Great Depression of the 1930s: economic policy in a regional context

This intra-Scandinavian comparison provides a corrective to existing comparative literature on Sweden's response to the Great Depression at three levels: policy conception, case selection and mode of explanation. The paper's holistic view of economic policy shows that the Swedish response was not just about fiscal policy. A broadly defined Swedish response becomes even less distinctive when compared with its Danish and Norwegian counterparts. The paper makes three points to explain the intra-Scandinavian variation (convergence and divergence). First, the regional-metropolitan context matters. Facing similar international challenges, the three small states developed a defensive reflex by striking domestic compromises, abandoning the gold standard, devaluing their currencies and effecting monetary expansion. Second, the political-economic development experience matters. On one hand, proportional representation entrenched Scandinavian farmers as a critical political force, thus ensuring agricultural protectionism across the region. On the other hand, the cross-national divergence in industrialisation largely shaped industrial policy: Sweden’s relative trade and domestic liberalism sharply contrasted with Denmark’s exchange controls and Norway’s import substitution. Third, ideology matters. Whereas the Danish Social Democrats’ traditional liberalism and their Norwegian counterparts’ radicalism buttressed fiscal orthodoxy, the Swedish Social Democrats’ ideational and programmatic renewal paved the way for the fiscal experiment of the crisis years.     

PUBLIC GOODS AND THE DISSOLUTION OF STATES

We present a simple model of the dissolution of states. We combine elements of the literature on the break‐up and integration of states based on models in the fiscal federalism tradition, with elements of the literature that explains the determination of a state's political institutions as a means to credibly promise redistributions in the face of costly, perhaps violent, redistributive conflict. We are able to characterize when the equilibrium involves the dissolution of a country, and when it involves continued unity. We are also able to explore some aspects of the linkages between political institutions and the determination of national boundaries.