Public Insurance against Idiosyncratic and Aggregate Risk: The Case of Social Security and Progressive Income Taxation

In this article, I discuss the role a progressive income taxsystem and a redistributive pay as you go (PAYGO) social securitysystem can play in insuring and reallocating idiosyncratic aswell as aggregate risk. I also argue that the underlying sourceof market failures generating such a role for government interventionmay be crucial when determining the normative consequences ofsuch social insurance. (JEL Classifications: E62, H21, H24,H55).     

The Local Economy Movement: An Alternative to Neoliberalism?

The economic turmoil of the last 2 years has shown that hyper-globalized capitalism is inherently crisis prone, and that it has been unable to create sustainable prosperity. Unfortunately, the left has failed to convincingly refute Margaret Thatcher’s assertion that “there is no alternative.” There is, however, a growing social movement that aims to promote small, locally-scaled enterprises. This essay argues that the local economy movement can potentially provide a unifying principle for a new progressive agenda. However, localizers must take seriously the possible loss of gains from trade. In addition, it is important to resist a naive localism that romanticizes the local while ignoring action at other scales.     

我国出口影响因素的实证分析

出口的影响因素众多,但在我国起到决定性作用的主要是累计FDI、出口退税额、贸易环境等因素.本文通过建立出口影响因素的计量模型,来实证分析这些因素对我国出口的影响.并进一步分析这些因素对出口增长的贡献率.     

Can progressive taxation account for cross-country variation in labor supply?

The difference between average hours worked in the US and average hours worked in Continental European countries has been increasing since the early 1970s. To explain this phenomenon, this paper develops an endogenous growth model with two key properties: agents are heterogeneous in their rates of time preference and labor skills, and the model incorporates progressive income taxes. The model is calibrated to US and German data for the periods 1971-1974 and 1986-1989. Our findings suggest that the degree of progressivity is a major factor in explaining the patterns of the US and German labor supply over time. Predictions of the model also match the distributional trends in both countries during this time period.     

Genes and Social Mobility: A Case for Progressive Income Tax

Abstract

The effect of ability inheritance on income distribution and social mobility is analyzed with an emphsis on the role of progressive income tax. Epstein–Zin style utility function is used to highlight the role of risk aversion. The result shows that higher genetic inheritability leads to lower per capita income, higher income variance and lower aggregate welfare at the steady state. This tendency is intensified when the elasticity of a child's income to parent's educational investment is higher. In this setup, it is shown that progressive income tax can be a welfare-enhancing tool by increasing social mobility. The optimal progressive income tax rate is obtained in the benchmark model and its positive effect is discussed in the context of “Veil of ignorance”, a concept proposed by Rawls (A Theory of Justice (Cambridge, MA: Harvard, University Press), 1971).     

A hybrid decomposition algorithm for designing a multi-modal transportation network under biomass supply uncertainty

This study presents a two-stage stochastic programming model for the design and management of a biomass co-firing supply chain network under feedstock supply uncertainty. To represent a more realistic case, we generate scenarios from prediction errors of the historical and forecasted biomass supply availabilities. We solve the model using a hybrid decomposition algorithm that combines Sample average approximation with an enhanced Progressive hedging algorithm. The proposed algorithm is validated via a real-world case study using data from Mississippi and Alabama. Computational results indicate that the proposed algorithm is capable of producing high quality solutions in a reasonable amount of time.     

On the optimal provision of social insurance: Progressive taxation versus education subsidies in general equilibrium

In this paper we compute the optimal tax and education policy transition in an economy where progressive taxes provide social insurance against idiosyncratic wage risk, but distort the education decision of households. Optimally chosen tertiary education subsidies mitigate these distortions. We highlight the quantitative importance of general equilibrium feedback effects from policies to relative wages of skilled and unskilled workers: subsidizing higher education increases the share of workers with a college degree thereby reducing the college wage premium which has important redistributive benefits. We also argue that a full characterization of the transition path is crucial for policy evaluation. We find that optimal education policies are always characterized by generous tuition subsidies, but the optimal degree of income tax progressivity depends crucially on whether transitional costs of policies are explicitly taken into account and how strongly the college premium responds to policy changes in general equilibrium.     

Mind the gap: Disparity in redistributive preference between political elites and the public in China

In this research, we emphasize the importance of studying the gap in redistributive preference between political elites and the public because of the strategic roles played by the former in policy processes. We use China as a case study, wherein the fulfillment of surging demands for redistribution is largely dependent on whether or not the political elites will advocate for redistribution. Using data from the Chinese General Social Survey, we find that the political elites prefer significantly less progressive taxation and less redistributive expenditure than the public. The gap in redistributive preference is larger on the expenditure side than on the taxation side. Moreover, the causes of the gap appear to vary by the measures for redistribution. Accounting for covariate differences fully explains the gap in preference for progressive taxation, but not the gap in preference for redistributive expenditure.     

音乐课堂中的人文精神植入

音乐欣赏课程不仅是综合类大学中所要提供的必要教学内容,而且是提高学生的音乐鉴赏能力、艺术精神追求,加强他们知识储备中人文涵养的重要途径.文章以人文精神的递进式植入为切入点,对音乐欣赏课程的教学观念进行探讨,以求在教学实践中达到更好的课堂效果.