Implementing organizational change in supply towards decentralization

This paper presents the findings from research in large companies investigating implementation issues faced by chief purchasing officers as their supply organization changed to greater decentralization. Once the decision was made to decentralize, responsibility for implementation was given to the chief purchasing officer (CPO). Firms changing their supply organization to a more decentralized structure faced a number of implementation issues, including the business unit concerns, role of the chief purchasing officer, top management involvement, changes to existing purchasing staff and the involvement of consultants. In the nine changes studied across seven companies, the decentralization process also required the CPO to address a number of simultaneous activities, including cost reduction objectives and implementation of information technology systems. A surprising “purchasing paradox” was also uncovered as top management still expected decentralized supply units to provide additional savings.     

分权体制下的民主参与、政府响应程度和公共品供需偏差

文章考察了当前背景下政府对地方民众公共品需求偏好的响应能力,利用1998～2008年期间的公共支出样本值测算了中国地方公共支出偏差指数,并引入不同选区人大代表指标作为民主参与的工具变量,以此体现政府响应能力。实证结果发现,财政分权、民主参与和公共品供需偏差三个变量之间存在着显著的内生关联;分权体制导致了政府公共品供给扭曲,而民主参与则部分抵消了公共品供需偏差。     

财政分权、地方财政赤字与土地财政——来自中部欠发达地区J省的经验证据

现行的财政支出式分权导致地方财政收支不平衡状况日益严重,而地方政府在收入自主能力受约束的条件下,只能依赖土地财政来缓解地方财政赤字压力。现行的政绩考评体系、预算制度不完善是造成土地财政的重要根源。本文以中部欠发达地区J省为例,验证了地方财政赤字对土地财政的正向影响效应,建议通过完善现行的财政分权体制,赋予地方政府更多的财权,完善预算管理制度、强化预算的归一性,同时构建以人为本、促进科学发展的政绩考评机制来根治土地财政问题。     

资本性支出分权、公共资本投资构成与经济增长

本文建立一个财政分权框架下的两部门内生增长模型,从理论上分析最优公共资本投资配置及其对经济增长的影响,并以我国全国和省份经济数据为基础对本文理论分析进行实证检验。分析表明,我国公共资本投资构成不尽合理,全国和地方公共物质资本投资比重明显偏低;中央和地方政府间公共资本投资事权划分也欠妥,资本性支出分权水平明显过高。这些结论对于我国今后财政政策的合理调整、政府间事权的科学划分具有重要意义。     

论对外开放与分权改革的互动

已有的研究认为,中国改革开放30年来之所以能够在经济转型和增长方面创造出"中国奇迹",是由于分权改革发挥了重要的作用.本文认为,分权改革自身并不一定产生出"趋好的竞争","中国奇迹"的取得是对外开放与分权改革形成良性互动的结果.但是对外开放并不能从根本上消除分权改革所造成的负面影响,因而调整分权改革政策,重构中央政府和地方政府之间的关系是延续"中国奇迹"的必然举措.     

财政分权与经济增长可持续性——基于情势转换与聚类视角的分析

经济增长可持续性不仅取决于增长速度还取决于增长稳定性。本文利用我国245个地级市1978—2014年间面板数据和马尔科夫情势转换聚类面板模型,从情势转换与聚类视角考察了地级市经济增长动态特征,识别出不同的动态增长模式及其可持续性,进而剖析了财政分权的影响。研究表明,地级市经济增长呈现出三种动态增长模式,这三种模式在平均增速、增长状态及其持续期、增长波动性进而在增长可持续性方面存在明显差异。支出分权显著增加了地级市归属为低增长、高波动模式的概率,不利于经济可持续增长,而在1994年分税制改革后则产生了较积极的作用。收入分权总体有利于增强经济增长可持续性,1994年分税制改革后,受地方纵向财政失衡加剧的不利影响,这一积极作用有所减弱。增加地方财政自给度(即增加地方收支分权匹配度、减小地方纵向财政失衡)有利于增强经济增长可持续性,这一作用在1994年分税制改革后表现得更为突出。本文研究结论对优化完善财税体制以有效促进经济可持续增长具有良好启示。     

商业银行代理模式与上市公司治理结构模式选择

中国上市公司股权分置改革后面临的主要治理问题是，如何解决股权分散后，有效监督公司经理人员的经营行为。商业银行代理模式是解决这一问题的较好方案。     

Local flexibility in wage setting: evidence from the Norwegian local public sector

The public sectors in the Scandinavian countries have been prominent examples of centralized wage-setting systems. In Norway, more room for local flexibility was implemented by a wage frame system introduced in 1990 in which the national wage scale system merely works like a minimum wage system. We analyze the effect of this reform using a unique database where we can track employees and their local government over time and explore the consequences of controlling for fixed individual effects and fixed employer effects. We find that the wage dispersion increased across local governments after 1990, and that wages to some extent became more responsive to local government income, monopsony power and other local government characteristics after the reform. However, the numerical effects of the reform are estimated to be quite small.     

Economic integration and fiscal devolution

In this paper we investigate how economic integration influences the political decision of integration and separation of jurisdictions. In a model with (imperfect) capital mobility, we consider that, not only the redistributive policy itself, but also the level of policy centralization is decided by a majority vote. We find that the net benefit from integration is not monotonic with the level of world capital market integration and present a case where integration of two regions occurs only for intermediate levels of mobility. This conclusion relies on the comparison of the regional majorities’ utility under the various regimes. The benefits from integration arise from the elimination of tax competition across jurisdictions, which allows for more income redistribution, whereas the costs are linked to the diversity of preferences across regions, namely that of the decisive voters. We also show that a federal regime is better than complete centralization in keeping a nation united.     

Determinants of audit report modifications in Finnish municipalities

Although municipalities are major economic and social actors in most countries, remarkably little is known about their audits, particularly the determinants of their audit report modifications. The existing evidence is ambiguous at best and scarce, which provides opportunities for further accounting studies in this area. Therefore, based on an agency theory framework, we fill this important research gap by exploring three determinants of audit report modifications in municipalities: (1) economic performance, (2) decentralization of decision-making across different decision-making bodies, and (3) political competition between political parties in local councils. These determinants are examined based on a large panel of data on Finnish municipalities for the period from 2009 to 2013, covering virtually all of the country’s municipalities. We find that a striking 33 percent of audit reports had modifications during this period, which raises serious concerns about the state of municipal management, accounting, and auditing in Finland. Regarding the above determinants, the following conclusions can be made based on our analyses. First, we find partial evidence that weak economic performance increases the likelihood of audit report modifications. Second, the lower the competition among political parties in a local council, the lower the likelihood of audit report modifications. Finally, the more decentralized decision making is across the different decision-making bodies under the local council, the higher the probability of audit report modifications. These results are consistent with agency theory’s explanations regarding the value of auditing.