Do Institutions Cause Growth?

We revisit the debate over whether political institutions cause economic growth, or whether, alternatively, growth and human capital accumulation lead to institutional improvement. We find that most indicators of institutional quality used to establish the proposition that institutions cause growth are constructed to be conceptually unsuitable for that purpose. We also find that some of the instrumental variable techniques used in the literature are flawed. Basic OLS results, as well as a variety of additional evidence, suggest that (a) human capital is a more basic source of growth than are the institutions, (b) poor countries get out of poverty through good policies, often pursued by dictators, and (c) subsequently improve their political institutions.     

Persistence of Shocks to Output in Austria and Theories of Economic Growth

The paper analyzes the degree of output persistence in GDP in order toempirically discriminate between the Solow growth model, the perfect competition endogenous growth model and the imperfect competition endogenous growth model for the case of Austria. Wefind that a shock in the growth rate of output induces a permanent and larger effect on the level of GDP. This leads us to refute the Solow growth model and the perfect competition model of endogenous growth.We may not reject the imperfect competition growth model.     

Why England? Demographic factors, structural change and physical capital accumulation during the Industrial Revolution

Why did England industrialize first? And why was Europe ahead of the rest of the world? Unified growth theory in the tradition of Galor and Weil (2000, American Economic Review, 89, 806–828) and Galor and Moav (2002, Quartely Journal of Economics, 177(4), 1133–1191) captures the key features of the transition from stagnation to growth over time. Yet we know remarkably little about why industrialization occurred much earlier in some parts of the world than in others. To answer this question, we present a probabilistic two-sector model where the initial escape from Malthusian constraints depends on the demographic regime, capital deepening and the use of more differentiated capital equipment. Weather-induced shocks to agricultural productivity cause changes in prices and quantities, and affect wages. In a standard model with capital externalities, these fluctuations interact with the demographic regime and affect the speed of growth. Our model is calibrated to match the main characteristics of the English economy in 1700 and the observed transition until 1850. We capture one of the key features of the British Industrial Revolution emphasized by economic historians — slow growth of output and productivity. Fertility limitation is responsible for higher per capita incomes, and these in turn increase industrialization probabilities. The paper also explores the availability of nutrition for poorer segments of society. We examine the influence of redistributive institutions such as the Old Poor Law, and find they were not decisive in fostering industrialization. Simulations using parameter values for other countries show that Britain’s early escape was only partly due to chance. France could have moved out of agriculture and into manufacturing faster than Britain, but the probability was less than 25%. Contrary to recent claims in the literature, 18th century China had only a minimal chance to escape from Malthusian constraints.     

外商直接投资与安徽经济增长关系的实证分析

通过运用协整检验和格兰杰因果检验对外商直接投资与安徽经济增长之间的关系进行实证分析,结果表明:外商直接投资流入对促进安徽经济增长有促进作用,但安徽经济增长对吸引外商直接投资的作用是不显著的.安徽应积极采取相应措施,改善投资环境,吸引更多的外商直接投资.     

新疆城市居民收入不平等现状分析

本文采用基尼系数及其分解公式对新疆2003年城市居民收入调查的2828个样本数据进行分析，根据新疆的地理特征将基尼系数按南疆与北疆进行分解计算，并按收入来源对基尼系数进行集中度分解分析，结果表明新疆的收入不平等状况并不严重，南疆的收入差距大于北疆，工资收入和转移收入是收入差距增大的主要原因。     

企业平衡增长管理策略研究

企业平衡增长作为一种超越增长不足或增长过度的理想增长状态,几乎是所有企业追求的目标。然而,企业能否平衡增长不仅受企业经营和财务两方面诸多因素的制约,同时还与企业所处的发展阶段密不可分。根据平衡增长理论模型,结合企业不同发展阶段的特征,企业可以通过提高资产报酬率,改变企业的目标资本结构或股利政策,调整实际增长率等策略解决企业成长和成熟阶段平衡增长的矛盾。     

新型工业化与城乡二元工业化的协调发展

由于我国严重的“二元经济结构”和“双重演进”的制度变迁特征,形成了农村工业化和城市工业化同时并存的城乡二元工业化格局。城乡二元工业化格局在促进经济发展的同时,也形成了对经济发展的延迟效应。在新型工业化的实现过程中,既要实现以信息化带动工业化,又要推进城乡工业的协调发展,促进农业工业化的发展,加速完成经典工业化的任务。     

城市生活垃圾堆肥化的农业生态经济效益

利用城市生活垃圾沤制堆肥，施于农田，对于消纳城市垃圾，美化城市环境以及改良农田土壤性状，增加土壤肥力，增强作物抗病能力，提高作物产量都有显著的作用。     

Bayesian assessment of dimensionality in reduced rank regression

We consider Bayesian inference about the dimensionality in the multivariate reduced rank regression framework, which encompasses several models such as MANOVA, factor analysis and cointegration models for multiple time series. The fractional Bayes approach is used to derive a closed form approximation to the posterior distribution of the dimensionality and some asymptotic properties of the approximation are proved. Finite sample properties are studied by simulation and the method is applied to growth curve data and cointegrated multivariate time series.     

城市空间扩展与"精明增长"中国化

阐述了美国城市蔓延及“精明增长”对策,综合国内外学者对“精明增长”中国化的观点,指出我国城市空间扩展借鉴“精明增长”理念应注意三个问题,并据此提出“精明增长”中国化的相关建议。