The Political Economy of Social Security

We consider a two-period overlapping generations model in which individual voters differ by age and by productivity. In such a setting, a redistributive pay-as-you-go system is politically sustainable, even when the interest rate is higher than the rate of population growth. The workers with medium wages (not those with the lowest wages) and the retirees form a majority which votes for a positive level of social security. This level depends on the difference between the rates of population growth and interest as well as on the redistributiveness of the benefit rule.     

Young People's Attitudes Towards British Political Advertising: Nurturing or Impeding Voter Engagement?

SUMMARY

This article presents findings from a national survey of ‘potential’ first time voters at the 2001 British General Election–specifically their attitudes towards the print advertising used by the main political parties during this election. In analysing the data, the authors were particularly interested in examining the claim that political advertising contributes to a sense of malaise–most acutely apparent among young people. While we found high levels of claimed advertising awareness, this was coupled with largely unfavourable attitudes towards most of the print advertising used in the election. Despite these judgements, most young people considered the advertising to be at least as persuasive as its commercial cousins. Not surprisingly the evidence provides a mixed picture in terms of the role political advertising plays in the political dispositions of young people. As a familiar discourse advertising offers the political classes an entry point to establish a dialogue with young sections of the electorate. However, for many young people, political advertising appears to help reinforce their predilection about politics being something one naturally distrusts.     

信息不对称、异质性交易与企业资本结构的决定

在将信息不对称划分为内部人和外部人之间以及知情交易者和非知情交易者之间的基础上,借鉴金融市场微观结构和财务学的相关理论成果测度这两类信息不对称,使用中国上市公司的数据,考察了这两类信息不对称与企业资本结构的关系。结果表明,两类信息不对称程度越高,杠杆水平越低;前者对杠杆的影响程度在小公司中更强,而后者对杠杆的作用效果在大公司中更强。此外,股权分置改革在某种程度上降低了前者的影响程度,而提升了后者的作用效果。这表明,我国资本市场的主要问题可能已由原先的内部人和外部人之间的利益冲突,转变为知情投资者和非知情投资者之间的利益冲突。     

黄金股研究综述

黄金股在欧洲国有企业民营化过程中发挥过重要作用,在目前中国国有企业股份制改革中,政府设置黄金股作为新的企业控制形式非常有研究价值。本文较为详细地梳理了黄金股的各类相关研究文献,从私有化对业绩的影响、公司业绩和收购可能性的关系、投票权溢价和控股的价值、限制国外直接或间接投资对公司的影响四个方面对黄金股的研究进行归纳总结。     

基于Shannon-RVM模型的科研项目评审排序方法

对科研项目进行合理排序,是科研项目评审和筛选的前提,是科研管理的重要内容。现有的研究均是基于专家打分进行的,因为专家打分的主观性,排序结果往往失于准确。本文基于信息熵理论和专家有序投票模型,提出一种多专家多科研项目的排序方法。该方法的数据基础(即专家排序)更为合理,因而能得出更为客观的排序结果。实例研究证实了本方法的合理性。     

Endogenous political competition and political accountability

We contribute to the debate over the effectiveness of elections in motivating incumbents to perform well. We show that with endogenous political competition the effectiveness of democracy in disciplining officials can be largely diminished.     

Does a deviation between the rights and obligations of the board and controlling shareholders affect firm value？

This study examines the association between firm value and ownership structure, when board and controlling stockholders＇ voting rights deviate from obligations. The measurement of the corporate governance variables is different from prior research. The author further investigates whether monitoring mechanisms can alleviate the agency problem due to percentage of outside directors. The empirical results show that the higher board voting rights-obligations is deviated, which means the weaker relation with the firm value. The author also finds the monitoring from outside directors can reduce the agency problems from board＇s deviation and thus can improve firm value. But the results of the controlling stockholders＇ deviation are mixed or insignificant. This research has implications for Taiwan＇s regulators who are striving to improve the information, transparency, and corporate governance of board and controlling shareholders＇ voting rights-obligations deviation.     

柔性延迟申领养老金政策视角下个人账户效益分析

文章以柔性退休延迟申领养老金政策为研究对象,从职工个人的缴费积累和养老金待遇领取两个角度对上海市柔性延迟申领养老金政策的个人账户效益进行测算评价.通过对柔性延迟申领养老金五种方案下的缴费、收益测算分析,得出如下结论:劳动者延迟申领养老金有利于个人账户的积累;延迟申领养老金有利于劳动者退休后养老金水平的提高;柔性延迟申领养老金政策通过养老金权益的调整可以起到对劳动者的激励作用.     

The Secretary Problem Revisited - The Group Decision-Making Perspective

We consider a decision situation where there is an initial set of alternatives that may be augmented, a variant of the problem known in the literature as the "secretary problem". We focus the discussion on the special case of group decision-making, where a group or committee is charged with the responsibility of negotiating the decision. We investigate situations of explicitly stated (multiple) criteria and the simpler situation of no such stated criteria. The former case includes the congenial, the mixed, and the uncongenial cases, where the individuals agree on the direction of all, some, or none of the criteria, respectively. We offer a framework within which a group of individuals can be supported in such a decision process. In the case of explicit criteria, we provide the decision-makers with probability information of the likelihood of finding more preferred alternatives provided the initial set of alternatives is expanded. The framework is tested using a simulated real-world choice situation.     

Unsettling aspects of voting theory

Summary. Voting procedures are known to be plagued with a variety of difficulties such as strategic voting, or where a voter is rewarded with a better election outcome by not voting, or where a winning candidate can lose by receiving more support. Once we know that these problems can occur, the next objective should be to completely understand how, why, and where they arise. Namely, for each election procedure, the new goal is to determine when such problems can occur, all voter types who can cause these difficulties, and the actions they must take. This paper develops an easily used approach to handle all of these issues for standard voting methods. New intuitive explanations for these various oddities follow from this approach. Received: August 14, 2002 ; revised version: September 4, 2002 RID="*" ID="*"My thanks to Richard Barrett and, in particular, to Hannu Nurmi for corrections, several useful comments, and suggestions they made about earlier versions. Also, my thanks to a referee for calling some excellent references to my attention. An earlier draft was presented at the 2002 Public Choice Society meeting. This research was supported by an NSF grant.