Policy matters. The long run effects of aggregate demand and mark-up shocks on the Italian unemployment rate

This paper estimates a VAR including labor productivity, real wage and unemployment rate, to identify the dynamic effects of technology, demand, and mark-up shocks, respectively, on the Italian labor market. Identification is achieved by imposing recursive restrictions on the matrix of long run multipliers. Our results show that both mark up and aggregate demand shocks permanently reduce the unemployment rate. Finally, technology shocks do not significantly affect the unemployment rate in the long run. These findings convey important policy implications: expansionary aggregate demand and deregulation policies reducing the mark up permanently decrease the Italian unemployment rate.Jel classification: C32, E32, J29This paper has been produced as part of a CEPR Research Network on New Approaches to the Study of Economic Fluctuations. We would like to thank Marcello DAmato, Mario Forni, Marco Lippi and Antonio Ribba for useful comments. We are also grateful to Bernd Sussmuth for pointing out to us several significant improvements to the paper.First version received: November 2001/Final version received: October 2002     

企业购并行为中的税收政策效应

本主要分析所得税对企业市场购并行为的影响。国外学所分析企业购并时,通常假设市场完全竞争,企业的决策不受非市场因素的干扰。他们认为,企业购并中,购并方的收益率只受两个因素的影响,即企业已分配股息的纳税比率和资本利得税率。笔从两方面对以上模型进行了修正：一是修正了其中“债务利息可以全部税前扣除”的假设前提,二是修正了被购并方在交易中的交易条件。以上修正使模型能够更加准确地描述中国的现实经济环境,也得出了完全不同的结论。     

Innovation and growth: supply and demand factors in the recent US expansion

It is widely held that the social-economic context of the US,characterised by labour market flexibility and deregulationof product and capital markets, lies at the basis of the innovativecapacity displayed by the country's productive system in the1990s, thus accounting for the growth differential with Europe.Starting from a different interpretative model of innovationand growth, the paper focuses on both supply (institutionaland technological) and demand factors. It is argued that, whentheir interaction is taken into account, there is no strongevidence that more deregulated labour and product markets areamong the factors allowing for US growth. In accordance withthe view that there is no single road to innovation and growth,this leaves room for the exploration and implementation of policiesthat might reconcile innovation and growth with safeguards suchas those provided by Europe's social institutions.     

Financing enterprise development in sub-Saharan Africa

This paper examines some critical gaps in the financial infrastructurein sub-Saharan Africa, which have contributed to the poor performanceof productive investment by private agents. It first analysesthe performance of financial systems, encompassing both formaland informal financial sectors, in relation to the changingpolicy environment, and key features of the financial marketstructure. It then identifies those gaps in financial servicesthat have been particularly detrimental to private investment,enterprise growth and transformation. Finally, the paper considerspolicy implications drawn from East Asian experiences with respectto financial policies, institutional arrangements and marketintegration measures for financing enterprise development.     

基于理性预期条件下的宏观经济政策有效性分析

理性预期理论是最近二十几年在西方发展起来的一个新兴学派,它的发展在一定程度上改变了现代西方经济学的分析方法和理论结构。本文从理性预期学派的起源和理论基础出发,以理性预期的视角探讨现代宏观经济体系中微观层面上个体行为与宏观层面上经济行为之间的内在联系,认为政府在微观经济主体具备良好理性预期能力的前提下,宏观经济政策对经济的调节是有限的,政府必须充分尊重并合理引导微观经济主体的预期,才能不断提高宏观经济政策的效用。     

新旧企业所得税税收优惠政策比较

《中华人民共和国企业所得税法》将内、外资企业的企业所得税征缴放在了同一条起跑线上。此项税制改革最重要的意义就是统一了内、外资企业的税前扣除办法、标准及税收优惠政策。本文侧重从税收优惠政策的角度,对新旧企业所得税制度做一个系统的比较。     

中国——东盟区域经济合作与广西边贸发展

目前,中国与东盟的双边贸易增长速度很快,广西作为中国参与东盟区域经济合作的核心地带之一,极具发展潜力。本文分析了广西边贸发展拥有的区位、政策优势和面临的边境贸易地位弱化、跨国物流缺乏产业依托、边贸收费过重等问题,提出了促进广西边贸发展的几点建议。     

Implications of rice policies for farmers: Selected South East Asian countries

Varying levels of rice selfsufficiency have been reached by the agriculture-based economies of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. The author reviews the major agricultural policies adopted by these countries to provide adequate rice for their domestic populations. While rice production has increased, the distribution of its benefits has been poor. The need to continue rice consumption subsidies is questioned, particularly in cases when they do not benefit the target groups of poor for which they were originally intended. The author proposes a re-examination of policies, emphasizing the need to strengthen development efforts to promote both the production and consumption of other staple food crops.     

Towards regional food security in southern Africa: a (new) policy framework for the agricultural sector

In the southern African Region (SAR) large populations, mainly concentrated in rural areas, face food insecurity and poverty. Food insecurity is intensified by adverse weather conditions and droughts which impact negatively on farm level food production throughout the region. Agriculture constitutes an important economic sector in the majority of countries in the region. This is measured as share of agricultural value added to the GDP and as agriculture's share in employment. Based on these facts alone, it must be obvious that sustained agricultural performance will play a significant role in the improvement of food security and livelihoods in the region. However, food security is not only attained in rural areas and by the consumption of home produced food stuffs. Urbanisation is expected to increase dramatically over the next few decades and feeding the urban masses, at affordable prices, must be considered to be a high future priority for governments in the region. Food security must not be viewed as an agricultural issue per se. The drive to food self sufficiency through domestic agriculture production in many countries in the region did not enable these countries to feed their own population. Food security should rather be defined as the acquirement of sufficient and nutritious quantities of food (Sen, 1981, Poverty and Famines: An essay on Entitlement and Deprivation). An approach, whereby attention is given to the macro level availability of food, access to income streams as well as improved production capacity to acquire food at a household level and the utilisation of nutritious food, should therefore be guiding food security policies (SADC: FSTAU, 1997, A Strategic Framework for Food Security in the Region). This broader view emphasises household level poverty reduction, economic development and growth as important components of a food security strategy (World Food Summit, Rome, 1996). An important issue which therefore needs to be explored is whether agriculture does have the potential to contribute to economic processes, which will support broad based development and food security. This paper is intended to argue the importance of agricultural development for food security in the region and to develop a diverse policy framework to strengthen this new, more comprehensive role of agriculture in the region.     

Farmland prices and land-use changes in periurban protected natural areas

This paper provides empirical and conceptual insights in analysing the factors that determine the prices of farmland within Protected Natural Areas that are close to densely populated urban areas, the changes in land use experiences as well as the additional control policies needed to curb this unsustainable trend.The Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve nearby the metropolitan area of Bilbao (Basque Country, Spain) is the case study considered and its bordering non-protected rural area is used as a reference for comparison. A spatial hedonic farmland price model is estimated and the willingness of land purchasers to pay for different farmland characteristics quantified both inside and outside the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve. The main results are that: (1) residential development is taking place in all categories of farmland, (2) aside from neighbouring prices, farmland prices depend on different factors depending on whether the marketed plots stand inside or outside the Protected Natural Area, (3) the “reserve effect” on land prices is less powerful than the “proximity to the metropolitan area (and motorway) effect” observed from villages of the non-protected area located in the 3rd crown of Bilbao, (4) the reasons for farmers non-compliance with policy regulations is the necessary knowledge base for the farmland conservation policy design and (5) in the light of the results, three development-control policy instruments such as Payments for Ecosystem Services, Tradable Planning Permits and development-taxes are discussed considering the factors that could improve compliance.