INSTITUTIONS AND PERFORMANCE IN EUROPEAN LABOUR MARKETS: TAKING A FRESH LOOK AT EVIDENCE

Abstract This paper presents a selective survey of the recent literature on labour market institutions and offers new empirical EU‐based evidence on the impact of labour market reforms on employment and labour market adjustment. Although the literature traditionally treats labour market institutions as exogenous, attention shifted recently towards understanding the underlying causes of specific institutional arrangements. As a consequence, the literature highlights the great importance of an efficient policy design exploiting these interactions wisely and identifies general principles for achieving an efficient policy design at both macro and micro levels. Although empirical evidence does not show a major change in terms of intensity of labour market reform after the setting of the Economic and Monetary Union and the creation of the euro, the reforms aiming at strengthening the labour market attachment of vulnerable groups tend to have been successful both in raising their employment and increasing labour market adjustment.     

JUSTIFYING A POLICY MIX FOR POLLUTION CONTROL: A REVIEW OF ECONOMIC LITERATURE

Abstract This paper provides a review of economic studies analysing the use of multiple policies – a so‐called policy mix – to cope with single pollution problems. To guide and structure the review, an analytical framework is developed and applied. The framework integrates transaction costs into the analysis of pollution problems and policies to overcome them. Moreover, it understands a pollution externality not only as a market failure but more generally as the failure of private governance structures. Based on this insight, two rationales for using a policy mix are identified. First, a policy mix may help to correct for multiple reinforcing failures of private governance structures, such as pollution externalities and technological spillovers. Second, a policy mix can be employed if the implementation of single first‐best policies brings about high transaction costs, e.g. when marginal pollution damages are heterogeneous or polluters are unlikely to comply with the policy. For each rationale, the relevant literature is presented. Based on the review, avenues for future research are identified.     

CHILD LABOUR: A REVIEW OF RECENT THEORY AND EVIDENCE WITH POLICY IMPLICATIONS

In recent years, a growing number of authors have turned their attention to the question of why children work. The purpose of this paper is to review some of the more recent theoretical and empirical research into the topic of child labour, and to illustrate the fact that no one factor on its own can account for the phenomenon of child labour. Therefore, policies aimed at eradicating child labour will need to address the broad range of underlying factors that contribute to the incidence of child labour, such as poverty, market imperfections and access to education.     

Was there policy “reform”? Evolution of EU domestic support for processed fruits and vegetables

Policy “reform” in agricultural markets is often associated with less government regulation and expenditures, or a shift towards more efficient interventions. The European Union (EU) adopted major policy changes for processed fruits and vegetables in 2001 and again in 2008, and we employ a simulation model to examine the effects of the three policy regimes in place before and after each of the changes. Our analysis incorporates the heterogeneity of processing firms in the EU and considers how they responded to the different policy regimes. Simulation results indicate that the EU subsidies increased EU tomato production by 3.8% for the regime that began in 2008 and 9.1% for the regime that began in 2001 compared to no subsidies. The policy regime that was in place from 2001 through 2007 led to the greatest distortions in global processing tomato markets, in part because it directed more of the benefits to EU growers and less to EU processors and consumers. Thus changes in 2001 “reformed” policy by redistributing gains within the EU, while changes in 2008 “reformed” policy by reducing distortions in global markets.     

Economy size and performance: An efficiency analysis in the telecommunications sector

The existing empirical evidence on the relationship between economy size and performance has been inconclusive. This paper employs stochastic frontier analysis to estimate economic measures of efficiency for the telecommunications sectors of 139 economies and examine their relationship with economy size. Simultaneously, it controls for the effects of competition in telecommunications, privatization of state-owned providers, independent regulators, and the quality of political institutions on sector performance. The findings suggest that economy size has a positive but decreasing impact on sector performance. Small economies have an incentive to grow to improve sector performance, though larger size is not a sufficient condition for efficiency. Sector policy and the quality of polity may contribute significantly to sector performance.     

科技人才政策的阶段性特征

以“九五”时期以来浙江省颁布的119份科技人才政策为研究样本,采用“政策年度”、“适用对象”、“政策类别”和“政策文种”四维度对政策文本进行计量分析。研究发现,不同时期浙江省科技人才政策与该时期的浙江省经济和社会发展战略导向密切相关,但是政策有明显的阶段性特征,其连续性和稳定性亟待提高;有关人才评价、人才激励以及人才保障类型的政策需进一步完善;已颁布政策有较强规范性和约束性,而指导性与可操作性不强。     

欧盟大型科研基础设施概述及政策走向

欧盟研究区建设的主要目标是统筹科技优势资源,集中一切力量为当今世界面临的经济社会挑战提供科技与创新解决方案。科研基础设施是其重要组成部分,为跨成员国和跨不同区域的科技人员提供高效的联合研究平台,创造研发创新机遇,促进知识积累与经验共享。本文对欧盟及其成员国科研基础设施建设状况及其未来发展路线图进行总体研究,就其建设与运行的管理结构、资金投入、法律安排、程序运作、评估方式、国际合作,以及未来政策走向进行系统分析,为我国的大型科研基础设施和创新体系建设提供有益的线索和经验借鉴。     

产业集群的驱动因素分析及政策建议

产业集群是一种世界性的经济现象。中国产业集群发展还在起步阶段,对产业集群驱动因素的分析,有助于发展、提升产业集群的竞争优势,加快区域经济的发展。     

我国货币政策的透明度及效应分析

本文在评估了目前我国货币政策透明度现状的基础上，分析了提高透明度所产生的正效应，同时也指出我国央行透明度的制度建设还根不完善，尤其是决策透明度较低，产生了一些负效应，影响了政策的执行效果，最后提出了进一步提高透明度的建议。     

转贷政策下政府信用异化研究

表面上看,中央财政实行国债转贷,似乎仅仅是国债投资资金运作方式的改变,但是,只要对这一政策作理论和实践上的深入分析,就会发现:转贷政策在改变政府信用资金运作方式的同时,还引发了一些值得深入研究和讨论的制度性异化问题。