The Great Divergence: Why Britain Industrialised First

What drove the precocious industrialisation in Britain was not demand for machines but rather (as Joel Mokyr and his co-authors have argued) the supply of useful knowledge and the skills needed to put it into practice. They were the force behind early innovation. But they did not act alone. They were reinforced by British institutions, which gave the British economy a century's head start over the rest of Europe and likely too over the rich parts of Asia. The institutions included a uniform fiscal and legal system; an effective means of training apprentices, who had escaped from local guild control; and a parliament that could raise taxes and exercise eminent domain but was at the same time a credible protector of private property. Among other things, these institutions facilitated the transportation of goods such as coal and they were backed up by policies that worked in favour of manufacturing. Together, the institutions and policies generated agglomeration effects that encouraged innovation. The agglomeration effects were more pronounced in western Europe than anywhere else in Eurasia and more developed in Britain than anywhere else.     

知识营销模式构建及特点研究

随着经济时代的快速发展,给传统经济面临带来一定冲击,各行企业需要迅速调整市场营销模式,应对知识经济带来的影响。以知识密集型的药品公司为例,详细阐述知识营销的特点,构建知识营销模式,并分析实践应用中知识营销的关键点,以此来完善企业的市场营销策略,使其实现知识经济时代背景下的良性发展。     

“海丝”背景下福州市县域经济空间格局分析

福州市作为“21世纪海上丝绸之路”核心区建设支点城市获得快速发展,各区县之间的经济联系逐步加深,区域经济格局不断演变。以福州市13个区县作为研究对象,测度“海丝”核心区建设实施前后各区县的经济潜力与经济联系强度,通过分析区域经济格局演变,对福州市在“海丝”背景下的经济发展方向提出建议,为今后加快建成支点城市提供参考。     

绿色金融支持区域经济生态化发展——以福建三明为例

推动区域经济生态化发展,绿色金融的支持尤为重要。对三明市绿色金融发展现状进行研究发现,虽然近几年该工作取得了长足的发展,但仍存在内生动力不足、供给结构过于集中、绿色产品创新度低、绿色直接融资发展滞后等问题。因此,应该建立长效的激励补偿机制、健全绿色融资担保体系、创新绿色金融产品以及完善绿色金融市场体系,通过加快绿色金融发展助推区域经济生态化发展。     

农村基本公共服务农户满意度影响因素研究——基于Logistic-ISM模型

农村基本公共服务农户满意度对促进农村基本公共服务的可持续健康发展具有重要意义。基于496份调查数据,运用多元有序Logistic模型和ISM模型分析了农村基本公共服务农户满意度的影响因素及各影响因素间的关联关系和层次结构。结果显示,农户满意度受年龄、文化程度、家庭年收入水平、政府投入力度、政府监管力度、政府人员服务态度、农户参与度和对基本公共服务的了解程度等8个因素影响。因此,建立信息披露机制,完善政府投入机制,加强政府监管力度,有助于提升农户对农村基本公共服务的满意度。     

农村产业融合发展路线图及发展对策研究——以福建三个国家农村产业融合发展示范园为例

通过探讨建立农村产业融合发展路线图,提出农村产业融合应加快纵向一体化和横向端到端集成的融合发展思路。结合福建三个国家农村产业融合发展示范园创建实践,提出了农村产业融合发展的发展对策与建议:一是聚焦主导产业,加快构建现代农业全产业链体系;二是创新引领,建设融合发展创新平台;三是因地制宜,加快推进产城融合、多业态复合、产业链延伸型等多种融合发展机制创新;四是对标国际热点,加快形成高质量项目推动格局;五是开展合作社升级运营公司模式、要素折价入股模式、供应链金融模式、微商模式、社群模式等新型利益联结机制建设,有效保障更多增值效益留在农村。     

Foreign aid preferences and perceptions in donor countries

We present original survey data on preferences for foreign aid in 24 donor countries from 2005 to 2008. On publicly-funded foreign aid (Official Development Assistance, or ODA), we find patterns that are consistent with a standard model of democratic policy formation, in which donations are treated as a pure public good. Controlling for perceptions of current ODA, we show that individual preferences for ODA are (i) negatively correlated with relative income within a country-year; and (ii) positively correlated with inequality at the country level. We extend the analysis to explain variation in the gap between desired aid and actual ODA, arguing that lobbying by high-income special interest groups can divert resources away from the median voter’s preferred level of aid. Consistent with this, we observe that ODA is significantly lower where policymakers are more susceptible to lobbying. Finally, we present a novel test of competing “crowding out” hypotheses. Self-reported private aid donations are negatively correlated with actual ODA, and positively correlated with perceived ODA. This finding is consistent with an emerging argument in the literature, whereby ODA crowds out private aid by enabling charities to forego fundraising activities and crowds in private aid through a signaling channel.     

COMPARING PPP WITH TRADITIONAL PROCUREMENT: THE CASE OF SCHOOLS PROCUREMENT IN IRELAND

Advocates of public‐private partnerships (PPPs) argue that they can deliver public infrastructure more efficiently than traditional procurement through timelier completion and superior value for money. Despite these claims comparative analysis of the performance of both procurement methods has received scant attention in the PPP literature to date. This paper addresses this issue by providing an in‐depth, case‐based comparison of PPP versus traditional procurement in the schools sector in Ireland. Through detailed semi‐structured interviews with key stakeholders and an examination of the available documentation, we assess whether the key objectives of using PPP have been achieved. Overall, we find no evidence that PPP leads to faster delivery of infrastructure when the overall procurement process from contract notice to delivery is accounted for. In addition, we find only limited evidence to suggest that PPP results in better value for money.     

Changing patterns of transfers in Slovenia in the last three decades: transition from a socialist economy to a market economy

Rapid population ageing increases interest in economic flows across ages and intergenerational transfers in general. This article uses the National Transfer Accounts methodology to measure consumption and production at each age, and how the difference between consumption and production is financed through (private and public) transfers and the interaction with assets, i.e. ‘asset-based reallocations’. During working ages, people earn more than they consume and with the surplus they finance the deficit of the young and old generations who consume more than they produce. Such a pattern of economic dependency is universal across countries and across time, but huge differences exist in the ages at which individuals produce more than they consume and vice versa. Moreover, the importance of private and public transfers and asset-based reallocations varies across countries and times. In the last three decades, life expectancy at birth in Slovenia increased by 9.3 years, while the age span in which production exceeds consumption narrowed rather than increased. Child dependents are predominantly financed by private transfers, whereas the elderly mainly rely on public transfers. Young and old individuals increasingly rely on public transfers. Together with rapid population ageing, this is likely to jeopardise the public finance system in the future.     

Anti‐immigration policy in the destination country and skilled–unskilled wage inequality in a source economy with or without unemployment

This paper is aimed at theoretically examining the consequence of the anti‐immigration policy adopted in the destination country on the skilled–unskilled wage inequality in a source nation using a couple of two‐sector, specific‐factor general equilibrium models in both the presence and absence of unemployment. Emigration requires incurring some capital cost for professional skill formation on the part of every prospective emigrant that adds to the opportunity cost of emigration. The authority of the destination country determines the number of visas to be granted and hence directly controls the magnitude of skilled emigration from the source country. In the migration equilibrium, the expected skilled wage income abroad is equal to the opportunity cost of emigration. In both the presence and absence of unemployment of unskilled labor, the outcome of the policy on the wage inequality crucially hinges on both the magnitude of the fixed cost of emigration and the technological factors. In the specific‐factor Harris–Todaro model, the degree of imperfection in the unskilled labor market is an additional factor. Finally, some policy recommendations have been made for protecting the interest of the poor unskilled workforce.