The implications of private tutoring on the school education in LDCs

In many LDCs, we observe that the public school teachers receive low wages, expend less than their full effort at school, and provide private tutoring to the students for a fee. To capture this institutional arrangement, we develop a theoretical model which shows that in comparison with ‘no-tutoring’, ‘tutoring’ is welfare reducing for all students in the economy. However, if the government considers only the students in the public system, then ‘tutoring’ can be welfare improving. In that case, the government would set a lower tax rate to pay wages to the teachers and let them provide tutoring to the students for a fee.     

福利危机与改革路径——20世纪90年代以来的香港社会救助

作为全球最活跃的经济体之一,香港一直坚持低税制、低福利、高发展的路线,并根据自身情况建立了一套具有香港特色的社会救助制度。但是,20世纪90年代后,经济、社会等领域发生的重大变化导致这一制度面临诸多问题。为此,香港政府进行了一系列改革,改革汲取了当代全球先进福利理念及经验,在许多方面突破了单纯强调收入援助的传统救助模式,而转向一种新的具有社会投资倾向的积极救助模式。     

On the incidence of commissions in auction markets

We analyze the welfare consequences of an increase in the commissions charged by intermediaries in auction markets. Commissions are similar to taxes imposed on buyers and sellers, and standard economics suggests that both sellers and buyers are made worse off by the tax. However, we show that when the buyers' participation constraint binds and when sellers set optimal reservation prices, the level of commissions correlates to participation and reservation prices in such a way that participating buyers strictly gain from higher commissions.     

Renminbi exchange rate exposure: evidence from Chinese industries

This paper investigates sensitivity of stock returns of industry-sorted Chinese firms with respect to renminbi exchange rate movements. Strong evidence of significant exposure is documented for 7 out of 16 Chinese industries. Evidence is also found of the size asymmetry effects. In addition, we explore the characteristics of the exposure, and detect evidence of significant exposure among non-exporters in some of the industries. Special attention is given to examining the time-varying exposure under the impact of the new Chinese exchange rate regime in place since 2005, in which even stronger exchange rate exposure is reported. The conditional exposure estimated in this paper also reveals the close relation between stock returns and changes of the renminbi exchange rate.     

Understanding the welfare effects of unemployment insurance policy in general equilibrium

This paper analyzes the welfare effects of unemployment insurance reforms in a general equilibrium incomplete market model. In particular, it decomposes the total welfare effect for each individual into different factors. I consider a model where the consumers face an uninsurable unemployment risk, can save in an interest-bearing asset, and are subject to a borrowing constraint. The labor market is modeled using a Diamond–Mortensen–Pissarides style search and matching model. The decomposition exercises reveal how each factor contributes to the heterogeneity of welfare effects among different consumers.     

经济全球化背景下的深圳公共文化建设

深圳公共文化包括公共文化设施、文化场所、文化活动,它具有文化性、公益性、社会性、地域性。目前准确把握公共文化的基本特性,在经济全球化背景下卓有成效地开展深圳公共文化建设,对促进经济和社会发展,具有十分重要的意义。     

State competition in higher education: A race to the top,or a race to the bottom?

How does competition affect higher education? This paper explores this question for public and private universities. Theory indicates that competition can push higher education policy in one of two different directions. On the one hand, competition may increase spending. For states, this would occur if states treat higher education as developmental; for private universities this would occur if they view spending as a means to attract students and prestige. On the other hand, competition may decrease spending if states treat higher education spending as redistributive, and competition may decrease spending by private schools if lower spending enhances their ability to attract students with low tuition. To determine which of these perspectives is most valid, we examine higher education policy choices in the 1980s and 1990s. We find that states appear to act as if higher education funding is redistributive while private schools appear to compete more on the basis of tuition than spending. These results demonstrate the important effects competition and governance structure have on higher education.Received: August 2001, Accepted: May 2002, JEL Classification: I2, I22, H72, I3     

Is globalisation undermining the welfare state?

This paper analyses the evolution of the welfare states in themajority of OECD countries during the pre-globalisation (1946–80)and globalisation (1980–2000) periods. Our purpose isto find out whether globalisation has produced a convergencetowards a smaller welfare state, funded increasingly by non-mobilefactors such as labour, property and consumption rather thanby mobile factors such as capital. The data presented here challengethe claims about such a convergence, showing that social publicexpenditures and public employment have continued to expandduring the globalisation period in most OECD countries. We alsoshow that the welfare states remain rooted in the politicaltraditions that have governed them.     

Regulating prices for shifting between service providers

The price that a regulated access provider charges for shifting customers between service providers has significant welfare implications. Typical regulatory approaches to pricing, such as pricing based on fully allocated cost or incremental cost, ignore the characteristics of consumer demand. A theoretical alternative, Ramsey pricing, considers only the elasticity of demand for given products. This paper directs attention to the competitive process. Using US long-distance telephone services as an example, this paper shows how empirical evidence concerning customer acquisition costs, customer switching costs, and churn among service providers can help to inform price regulation.