Can German vocational training combat skill shortages in developing countries? Evidence from dual training system in the Philippines

This paper examines the labor market impacts of the Philippine Dual Training System (DTS), a vocational training program that combines firm-based on-the-job training (OJT) and conventional institution-based training, using a recent survey that tracked graduates from DTS and regular institution-based programs. The estimation results using fuzzy regression discontinuity design show a significantly positive impact on the most recent monthly earnings. The impact significantly increases with the OJT intensity, measured by the number of hours a week in OJT. The above results imply that vocational training has to be aligned with actual production technologies and work practices to narrow skill gaps and create positive returns.     

Impact of international trade under dual labor markets

A country's unemployment rate can be affected by technology choice and the opening of international trade. This general equilibrium model examines the impact of international trade with the presence of dual labor markets in which manufacturing firms engage in oligopolistic competition and choose technologies with different marginal and fixed costs to maximize profits. In a closed economy, it is shown that an increase in labor market efficiency or a population increase induces manufacturing firms to adopt more advanced technologies and the wage rate in the manufacturing sector increases. With the existence of a continuum of technologies, technology choice is not a source of firm heterogeneity. The opening of international trade leads to an increase in the wage rate in the manufacturing sector and the price of the agricultural good. When countries are identical, international trade always increases national welfare.     

国际友好城市与中国出口贸易*

作为正式协议和制度安排的重要补充，缔结国际友好城市关系加强了中外城市之间的信任和深层次交流，成为国际经济合作的重要催化剂和助推器。本文从外贸高质量发展视角切入，基于2002—2015年287个中国城市与136个国家或地区的匹配对数据，考察了国际友好城市形成的“朋友圈”是否以及如何影响城市间的出口贸易。研究发现：（1）缔结国际友好城市协议使得中国城市出口量和出口额分别提高了100%和116%。（2）国际友好城市的贸易促进效应更多源于贸易创造而非贸易转移。（3）除了影响出口集约边际，国际友好城市还从产品种类数和高技术行业所占比例等方面促进了出口扩展边际。（4）以非典和全球金融危机作为事件冲击，国际友好城市协议在一定程度上增强了中国城市出口的风险抵抗能力。（5）异质性分析结果表明，国际友好城市协议对非“一带一路”倡议国家与地理邻近国家或地区的出口促进效应更明显。以上结果得到了一系列稳健性检验的支持。本文的研究有助于全面认识国际友好城市的经济内涵以及探讨外贸高质量发展的新路径。     

Study on Medium- and Long-Term Fiscal Policies to Cope with Climate Change under the “Dual Carbon” Goals

Carbon peaking and carbon neutrality constitute an extensive, profound and systemic economic and social change. It is worthwhile to explore how fiscal policy, as a key institutional arrangement in the public policy system to cope with climate change, can play a fundamental and pillar role. Based on literatures, theories and empirical materials, this paper systematically explores the relationship between climate change and public finance. The fiscal impact of climate change will eventually be reflected in fiscal behavior, fiscal costs and fiscal relations, and the fiscal system has the adaptability of an “automatic stabilizer” and the proactiveness to enable the Discretionary Approaches function when facing climate change impacts. This implies such a governance logic of fiscal policy that is systematic, forward-looking and flexible in addressing climate change. In the future, it is necessary to further incorporate climate change or related environmental factors into the fiscal policy framework, target the two key aspects of mitigation and adaptation, and carry out a holistic, systematic and forward-looking reform of the existing fiscal expenditure policy, fiscal revenue policy, fiscal investment and financing policy, government budget system, government procurement policy and ecological compensation policy. While highlighting the “governance” function of fiscal policy in addressing climate change, Chinese government needs to strengthen the coordination and collaboration between fiscal policy tools and other public policies, and magnify the governance effectiveness of fiscal policy in the process of addressing climate change. This paper helps understand the positioning, role and influence of fiscal policy in the process of addressing climate change, provides a basis for better playing the fundamental and underpinning role of the modern fiscal system in the governance of ecological civilization, and presents an analytical framework for building a theoretical system of ecological fiscal governance.     

知识产权保护“双轨制”与企业出口技术复杂度

统计数据显示，中国知识产权保护指数位居世界50名以后，而中国出口技术复杂度则位居世界前列。这与制度与贸易的经典文献不符。本文从中国特色的知识产权保护“双轨制”制度视角对上述背离进行了审视。基于专利司法保护和专利行政保护数据，本文发现行政保护在知识产权司法保护不足的条件下发挥了提升企业出口技术复杂度的重要作用；与此同时，专利司法保护和行政保护存在一定的协调不足问题。从影响机制看，知识产权保护主要通过自主创新路径提升了企业出口技术复杂度。异质性分析结果显示，专利司法保护和行政保护对不同地区和不同行业企业出口技术复杂度的影响存在较大差异。本文有效回答了中国知识产权保护与出口技术复杂度的背离问题，有助于深化对中国知识产权保护制度结构性特征及其贸易效应的认识，从而为进一步推进中国知识产权制度改革提供一定启示。     

Preference robust distortion risk measure and its application

Distortion risk measure (DRM) plays a crucial role in management science and finance particularly actuarial science. Various DRMs have been introduced but little is discussed on which DRM at hand should be chosen to address a decision maker's (DM's) risk preference. This paper aims to fill out the gap. Specifically, we consider a situation where the true distortion function is unknown either because it is difficult to identify/elicit and/or because the DM's risk preference is ambiguous. We introduce a preference robust distortion risk measure (PRDRM), which is based on the worst-case distortion function from an ambiguity set of distortion functions to mitigate the impact arising from the ambiguity. The ambiguity set is constructed under well-known general principles such as concavity and inverse S-shapedness of distortion functions (overweighting on events from impossible to possible or possible to certainty and underweighting on those from possible to more possible) as well as new user-specific information such as sensitivity to tail losses, confidence intervals to some lotteries, and preferences to certain lotteries over others. To calculate the proposed PRDRM, we use the convex and/or concave envelope of a set of points to characterize the curvature of the distortion function and derive a tractable reformulation of the PRDRM when the underlying random loss is discretely distributed. Moreover, we show that the worst-case distortion function is a nondecreasing piecewise linear function and can be determined by solving a linear programming problem. Finally, we apply the proposed PRDRM to a risk capital allocation problem and carry out some numerical tests to examine the efficiency of the PRDRM model.     

鱼与熊掌兼得：平台经济二元监管框架及其福利效应

基于平台型企业“社会人”与“经济人”的双重角色，提出了一种平台自我监管与政府公共监管相协同的二元监管框架，并从理论和案例层面探讨了该框架的福利效应。研究发现：首先，从平台场域内部看，平台自我监管的实质是平台型企业将自身商业行为嵌入社会责任的一种功能，集中体现了平台的“社会人” 角色，而其掌握的大数据优势能为这种自我监管功能的实现提供技术支撑。其次，从平台场域外部看，平台型企业之间也在为争夺用户而相互竞争，表现为典型的“经济人”角色，其商业化动机偏差将削弱平台自我监管功能，需要政府公共监管必要的介入。最后，平台自我监管与政府公共监管组成的二元监管框架，在功能目标、技术手段和法律效力三个层面存在既互补又制衡的协同关系，对生产者福利和消费者福利均具有增进作用。上述发现对于“十四五”时期加快推进数字中国建设具有重要的政策启示意义。     

Effects of scenario-based carbon pricing policies on China's dual climate change mitigation goals: Does policy design matter?

Although the carbon pricing policy is a critical driving factor that will help China achieve economic growth, energy transition, and dual climate change mitigation goals, the kind of carbon pricing policy that will complement the country's current development situation remains controversial. We apply the World Induced Technical Change Hybrid (WITCH) model to explore the heterogeneity and synergy of different carbon pricing policies, and the results indicate that it will be challenging to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. The study find that the combined policy —a mix of carbon tax and carbon market policies — has the optimal emission reduction effect but comes with the highest economic cost, proving to be unsuitable in the long run. The carbon tax policy is an important transitional means to assist in emission reduction, which can serve as an important supplement to carbon market policy and be phased out after the market mechanism matures.     

“一带一路”境外经贸合作区赋能新发展格局的逻辑与思路

境外经贸合作区是共建“一带一路”的重要抓手,有助于推动中国企业高质量、规模化和协同化“走出去”,构建以中国为主导的“一带一路”国际产业链供应链,营造良好的共建“一带一路”国际环境。政府推动和引导、政策优惠、园区选址和产业定位是境外经贸合作区建设和发展的重要前提条件。未来共建“一带一路”境外经贸合作区,应完善政府间合作机制,规范园区管理体制,推动中国与沿线国家的标准互认互通,提高园区的金融服务供给水平,更好地发挥跨境电商和数字贸易的作用,积极发挥中欧班列的运输和物流作用,总结园区发展经验并创新园区类型。     

基于“嵌入性”视角的服务外包网络关系研究

基于社会网络的“嵌入性“视角，分析了服务外包网络的结构特征、关系特征和动态演进特征，提出了两类服务外包关系模式，并对其关键特征进行了对比分析。