Political economy of income distribution dynamics

Income distribution varies considerably across countries; it tends to become more equal with development in some countries, but just the opposite occurs in other countries. This paper provides a theoretical investigation of the persistent differences in income distribution across countries over time. Motivated by the relationship between income distribution and public spending at different school levels for a broad range of countries over the past 30 years, the analysis centers on the role of public education where specific investments interact with political involvement by different socio-economic groups. Socio-economic groups may form lobbies to influence education policy making. The formation of lobbies is endogenous. Persistent inequality is caused by persistent lobbying efforts of the wealthy that lead to an allocation of public education spending more biased toward them.     

Spending propensity and price perceptions

ABSTRACT

This article presents a systematic investigation of how Spending Propensity moderates consumers’ perceptions of prices. Results from three studies are presented. Studies 1 and 2 reveal that, in the absence of any external cues, consumers who are predisposed to spending freely evaluate a posted price more favorably than those who are not. Such consumers also report anticipating less pain associated with spending than those who are not inclined to spend. Additionally, Study 2 informs that simple price communication tactics, without any real reduction in price, may be effective at mitigating the pain felt among those who are less inclined to spend. Furthermore, such tactics are capable of reducing, and even reversing, the gap between those who are not predisposed to spending and those who are. Finally, Study 3 explores how spending propensity moderates consumers’ perceptions of a discount.     

Digital marketing and social media: Why bother?

Changes in consumer behavior require firms to rethink their marketing strategies in the digital domain. Currently, a significant portion of the associated research is focused more on the customer than on the firm. To redress this shortcoming, this study adopts the perspective of the firm to facilitate an understanding of digital marketing and social media usage as well as its benefits and inhibitors. The second generation of Internet-based applications enhances marketing efforts by allowing firms to implement innovative forms of communication and co-create content with their customers. Based on a survey of marketing managers, this article shows that firms face internal and external pressures to adopt a digital presence in social media platforms. Firms’ digital marketing engagement can be categorized according to perceived benefits and digital marketing usage. To improve digital marketing engagement, marketers must focus on relationship-based interactions with their customers. This article demonstrates how some firms are already accomplishing just that.     

俄罗斯国防工业“军转民”政策视角研究

俄罗斯拥有庞大军工企事业单位,国防部将研究所和工业企业移交国防和非国防部门管理,并要求军工综合体企事业单位停止私有化改革,保留国防科技工业的核心和骨干,为企业生产民品、开发军民两用技术,同时致力于军转民工作且制定一系列支持政策。我国国防工业改革应借鉴俄罗斯军工改革经验。     

俄罗斯国防工业“寓军于民”战略研究

俄罗斯国防工业从国家战略上重视国防工业军民融合,大力推行军转民政策。尤其在军事航天装备上,更是体现国家从战略高度上的重视和一系列政策支持。国家政策支持、循序渐进的改革以及在军工企业之间建立有效的军转民协调机制就显得十分重要。     

Disentangling the Poverty Effects of Sectoral Output,Prices, and Policies in India

This paper attempts to disentangle the poverty effects of key policy variables that directly affect the poor (namely the government‐led channel of development spending and financing) in both agricultural and non‐agricultural sectors after accounting for the effect of respective sectoral per capita income and prices, using data from India over five decades. The paper emphasizes the sectoral composition of income and prices as mechanisms influencing the level of poverty and establishes empirically that it is the rise in non‐agricultural per capita income that reduces rural poverty via the channel of internal migration, after having controlled for the variation in key components of fiscal spending and monetary/financial policy via the availability of credit. Uneven sectoral growth pattern explains why urban poverty becomes a spill‐over of persistent rural poverty when the agricultural sector shrinks. While checking for robustness, there is evidence that the rise in non‐agricultural income alone may not reduce rural poverty, when measured in terms of rural infant mortality rate as a non‐income indicator of well‐being.     

Costs of providing local public services and compact population in Spanish urbanised areas

This paper addresses the impact of land use patterns associated with compact population on the costs of provision and maintenance of urban public services for local entities, controlling for other factors. The aim is to develop an econometric analysis using a panel data set of municipalities of the Spanish Mediterranean area and Madrid in the period 2006–2014. The estimations derived from the study confirm one main hypothesis and indicate that compact population impacts positively on the decrease of municipal costs of urban public services. This study suggests that municipal planning instruments of local entities could contribute to efficiently manage their budgets, as well as orients public policy in terms of its local land use decision-making.     

政府支出、房地产投资与经济增长——基于省际面板数据的实证分析

现阶段,我国的经济增长是投资拉动的经济增长,忽视了投资过度膨胀的不利影响。本文利用2000~2011年全国31个省区市财政支出、房地产投资和经济增长的有关数据,通过单位根检验和协整检验,建立面板数据模型,以财政支出、房地产投资与经济增长之间的长期稳定关系为研究对象进行实证性分析。研究表明:政府支出与房地产投资对经济增长具有明显的促进作用,政府支出的产出弹性大于房地产投资产出弹性;财政支出与房地产投资对经济增长的影响程度在各个省份之间存在较大的差异。分析结果表明:财政支出和房地产投资的激增导致了经济体中流动性的增加和通胀危险的加剧,而硬化财政预算约束、优化财政支出结构、提高信贷成本、缩小信贷规模是防范这一风险的重要途径。