Social Security, Poverty and Economic Transition: An Analysis for Bulgaria 1992–96

The paper addresses the issues of poverty and social security in a transitional environment on the basis of recent economic developments in Bulgaria. Special emphasis is placed on the need for a new type of social safety net stemming from the radical changes in the political and economic system. The evolution of the social security system in Bulgaria during the transition is analysed focusing on such elements as the pension system, unemployment benefits, child allowances, etc. The empirical analysis is based on extensive use of data from the Bulgarian Household Budget Surveys during the period 1992–1996. Poverty in Bulgaria is measured using different poverty measurements and some quantitative results showing the changing dimensions of poverty in the transition period are presented and discussed in the paper.EES or e-mail at Corresponding author. E-mail:     

Give Macroeconomic Stability and Growth in Russia a Chance

This paper identifies and investigates conceptual and empirical links among Russia's disappointing growth performance of the mid-1990s, its costly and eventually unsuccessful stabilization, the macroeconomic meltdown of 1998 and the spectacular rise of non-payments. Non-payments developed into a system that flourished in an atmosphere of fundamental inconsistency between a macroeconomic policy geared at sharp disinflation and a microeconomic policy of bailing-out enterprises through soft budget constraints. It embodies a large volume of untargeted, implicit subsidies in the order of 7–10 per cent of GDP, which has stifled growth, contributed to the 1998 meltdown through its impact on public debt and made at best a questionable contribution to equity. The overwhelming priority at this point is to dismantle this system, thereby promoting enterprise restructuring and growth (by hardening budget constraints) and medium-term macroeconomic stability (by reducing the size of the subsidies).     

低保制度是地方性公共服务吗?

本文从公共经济学的视角,分析了低保制度的属性,明确指出低保制度应是全国性公共服务而不是地方性公共服务,阐述了低保制度属于全国性公共服务的现实意义有助于明确中央政府在低保制度建设中的职责、有助于实现基本公共服务均等化、有助于推进社会保障城乡统筹;同时在低保制度是全国性公共服务的框架下,探讨了农村低保制度的供给问题。     

西方财政学在近代中国的传播

西方财政学在近代中国的传播历经清末、北洋政府和国民政府几个历史时期,日渐深入。清末,西方财政学的传播基本上仅限于常识层面;北洋政府时期,深入到理论层面;国民政府时期,西方财政学在中国的传播达到相对成熟的阶段。西方财政学在近代中国的传播呈现出鲜明的特征:首先,瓦格纳强调以财政政策改善收入分配状况的财政理念对国人的影响特别大;其次,西方财政学的传播服务于近代中国的财政改革运动。     

依法治税和纳税服务——基于国家税收和公共税收的视角

依法治税和纳税服务是现阶段税收的两大任务。对两者的认识,不能孤立地或对立地看,而是要在社会主义市场经济下的税收应是国家税收和公共税收的统一的视角下加以把握。从这一认识出发,我们就能真正做到坚持依法治税,优化纳税服务,服务科学发展,就能探索出一条中国特色社会主义市场经济条件下的纳税服务新路。     

国有股权、内部人掠夺与外部人约束——一个理论模型

上市公司的组织结构实际上是一个社会对于投资者保护水平需求的反应函数,而国有股权作为一种非标准的经济组织形式在特定的制度环境和历史阶段具有约束上市公司内部人的掠夺程度以及提高外部投资者参与程度的双重功能.     

文化资本、体制转轨与经济增长——兼及文化产业发展路径

本文回顾了关于经济增长的理论假说,发现围绕文化资本来解释体制转轨和经济增长以及讨论它们三者之间关系的文献较少。在此基础上提出制度是经济增长的重要但非决定性因素,适应文化资本的制度转轨才是经济绩效提高的关键,因此,文化资本中的市场观念在改革开放后被重新激发,构成中国经济增长的内在动力。最后基于结论从文化资本理论出发,兼述地域文化产业发展路径。     

State appropriations and undergraduate borrowing: more debt,less money

When state appropriations decrease, public universities respond by raising tuition. Students borrow more in response to both tuition increases and appropriation cuts. This article investigates the feedback of how borrowing and tuition influence state appropriations. Using a panel data set of 450 four-year public universities from 1999 to 2012, we employ three-stage least squares techniques to control for the endogeneity between state appropriations, tuition and student borrowing. There is evidence that state policy-makers respond to increases in university tuition and student borrowing by decreasing future appropriation levels. After controlling for the effect of appropriations on tuition and borrowing, a one-dollar increase in student borrowing reduces state appropriations per student by $0.06, and a one-dollar increase in tuition results in a decrease of $0.45 in state appropriations per student. When universities increase tuition for reasons other than a reduction in state appropriations, policy-makers respond with a significant cut in future appropriations which could signal an incentive strategy.     

Biotechnology as a Technological Paradigm in the Global Knowledge Structure

The aim of this study is to analyse whether the receipt of public R&D funding determines firm's R&D strategy selection. This issue is crucial, as previous studies have shown that each R&D strategy is associated to a higher, or lower, innovation performance. We consider three R&D strategies – make, buy, make–buy – and three different sources of public funding – regional, state and other (such as EU). The model estimation is performed through a multinomial logit model with random effects with a sample of 457 large firms for the period 1992–2005, taken from the Spanish Survey of Business Strategies. The main finding is that the source of the funding influences whether firms select the make, buy or make–buy strategy. Additionally, because of the panel structure of the sample, we observe that the effect of public funding on the R&D strategy selection lasts longer for state and regional funds than for other funds.