The effect of legal status on immigrant wages and occupational skills

Native and foreign-born workers with a high school degree or less education work in different types of occupations. This article exploits the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act to examine whether legal status causes immigrants to work in occupations that use skills similar to those of natives. Legal status decreases the manual skill intensity of immigrants’ occupations by about two percentiles. It increases communication skill intensity by a similar amount. This reduces the skill gap between Mexican-born and native-born American workers by 11–15%.     

Fiscal Equalization and Tax Enforcement

In many countries organized as federations, fiscal equalization schemes have been implemented to mitigate vertical or horizontal imbalances. Such schemes usually imply that the member states of the federation can only partly internalize (marginal) tax revenue before redistribution. Aside from the internalized marginal revenue, referred to as the marginal tax‐back rate, the remainder is redistributed. We investigate the extent to which state‐level authorities in such federation under‐exploit their tax bases. By means of a stylized model, we show that the member states have an incentive to align the effective tax rates on their residents with the level of the marginal tax‐back rate. We empirically test the model using state‐level and micro‐level taxpayer data, OLS regressions and natural experiments. Our empirical findings support the results from our theoretical model. Particularly, we find that states with a higher marginal tax‐back rate exploit the tax base to a higher extent.     

von Thünen: Capital,Production Functions,Marginal Productivity Wages,and the Natural Wage

This paper puts seminal contributions to theory of production functions and maximization of explicit quantitative objective functions by Johann Heinrich von Thünen into a systematic historical perspective. We show that his comprehensive ‘Tableau Economiques’ do imply two exact parametric production functions. Moreover, the renowned ‘geometric mean wage’ formula is restated as an exact CES marginal labor productivity wage for σ = 2. We review four alternative modes of normative (natural) wage calculations without an explicit production function, and conclude that von Thünen's natural wage differentiation formulas are bona fide alternatives for deriving the natural wage formula.     

论建设国家旅游综合改革试验区的战略取向和政策内涵

建设国家旅游综合改革试验区,是中国在促进产业结构优化提升,把旅游业培育成战略性支柱产业过程中作出的重大战略决策和部署。从国家经济社会发展的战略层面,分析建设国家旅游综合改革试验区的必然要求和战略取向,并结合国家对建设云南、海南、桂林3个国家旅游综合改革试验区的战略要求和部署,从推动产业结构优化升级,建设国际一流旅游目的地,提升可持续旅游发展能力,推进城乡一体化进程,提高开放型经济水平,优化旅游消费环境和增强旅游综合服务保障能力等方面,综合分析了建设国家旅游综合改革试验区的政策内涵。     

中外资源税费法律制度对比及对我国的启示

资源税费立法作为解决资源短缺问题的法律手段被各国广泛采用,美国、俄罗斯、北欧一些国家根据本国国情进行了各具特色的资源税费立法实践并取得了显著的成绩。通过我国与其他国家在立法层次、立法目的、中央与地方的分享机制、征税范围、资源＂税＂与＂费＂地位、配套机制、公众参与程度等方面的对比分析并以此作为借鉴,提出改革我国资源税费法律制度的建议。     

上合组织多边合作的前景——管道合作视角的分析

能源领域的合作项目——尤其是管道合作——是上合组织多边合作的一个重要方向。于2009年底开通的“中国-中亚”天然气管道就是这种多边合作的新亮点。互利共赢是管道成功的理念基础,它不仅是中国能源安全的有力保障,同时也符合管道的起始国和过境运输国的国家利益。     

城乡公共服务供给均衡化及其约束条件分析

在城乡公共服务供给中,从社会公正的层面,以人人共享、普遍受益的基本宗旨作为相应制度安排和机制创新的依据,坚持城乡公共服务供给均衡化。在政府财政有限供给能力下,城乡公共服务均衡供给成为众多因素决定的函数。     

国有林区森林资源所有权改革过程中的博弈分析

近年来,由于国有林区森林资源所有权不明晰,森林资源的国家所有权并未得到有效的保护,国家财产未得到有效的使用。本文从博弈论的视角探讨国有林区林权改革过程中所有权究竟采取何种形式能使资源保护达到最优的问题,并试图对当前改革提出部分建议及策略。     

中国建立覆盖城乡社会保障体系的基本条件分析——基于国际比较的经验

中国正着手建立覆盖城乡居民的社会保障体系。从国外的经验来看,虽然各国建立这一体系的社会背景不同,但都是在满足一定的人均GDP、工业化与城镇化水平等基本条件下完成的。基于国际比较的经验,对中国建立覆盖城乡社会保障体系的条件进行了比较分析。虽然中国现阶段已初步具备了建立这一体系的基本条件,但条件并不充分。今后应该依据具体国情和条件分阶段逐步推进这一体系的建设。