Health Insurance, Liquidity and Growth

Within the context of an endogenous growth model, it is shown that in the presence of health risks which influence household income, the introduction of a private insurance company increases the long-term economic growth rate. The introduction of such an institution has two effects on savings: a level effect and a composition effect. Although the presence of this risk-reducing institution induces a decrease in the level of total savings, as suggested in earlier papers, the rate of illiquid savings, which contribute to growth, increases.
JEL Classification E 1; G 2; O 1; O 4     

中国城市经济增长的特征分析

与传统的城市经济增长模式相比,当前中国城市经济增长呈现出一系列新特点.运用截面数据回归对影响中国城市经济增长的因素进行分析的结论显示:不同行政级别城市具有不同的增长水平,城市经济增长也存在"中部塌陷"问题.城市内部的产业结构、人力资本密集度、对外开放程度是促进城市经济增长的关键因素.     

自主创新理论溯源及现实分析

自主创新是我国面向未来的重大战略选择。作者在本文中通过人力资本理论及内生经济增长理论尝试自主创新的理论溯源,并着力从宏观和微观层面探讨我国当前提升自主创新能力的必要性和可行性,指出唯有走自主创新之路方可实现社会经济的可持续发展。     

The equipment hypothesis and US economic growth

In several articles published in the 1990s, de Long and Summers argued that investment in producer durables had a high propensity to generate externalities in using industries, resulting in a systematic and substantial divergence between its social and private return. They maintained, moreover, that this was not the case for structures investment. Together, these claims constitute the equipment hypothesis. This paper explores the degree to which the history of US economic growth in the 20th century supports it.     

Going Alone: The Case for Relaxed Reciprocity in Freeing Trade

We examine the output elasticity of infrastructure for four South Asian countries viz., India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka using panel cointegration techniques for the period 1980–2005. In this context, we develop an index of infrastructure stocks and investigate the impact of infrastructure on output. The study finds a long-run equilibrium relationship between output and infrastructure along with other relevant variables, such as gross domestic capital formation (GDCF), labor force, international trade and human capital. The results reveal that GDCF, labor force, export and expenditure on human capital exhibit a positive contribution to output. More importantly, infrastructure development contributes significantly to output growth in South Asia. Further, the panel causality analysis shows that there is mutual feedback between total output and infrastructure development.     

AN ATTEMPT TO EXPLAIN DIFFERENCES IN ECONOMIC GROWTH: A STOCHASTIC FRONTIER APPROACH

Total factor productivity (TFP), factor accumulation, and growth are analysed for a panel of 40 countries in 2001–11. TFP growth and technical inefficiency are estimated using a stochastic frontier model. Environmental variables are found to have an important role in explaining differences in inefficiency across countries. Over 2001–11, the general improvement in technical efficiency of countries is almost outweighed by technological regress. Results indicate that differences in factor accumulation between OECD and emerging economies are more important than differences in TFP change to explain differences in economic growth. Results also indicate negative and significant random shocks for the OECD countries.     

内蒙古财政支出结构的分析及其对经济增长影响的研究

对财政支出结构的研究是当前我国的一个热门课题,它既可以帮助财政支出目标的实现,又可以考察财政支出结构是否促进经济增长。文章首先对财政支出的相关指标测算内蒙古财政支出的规模,其次根据财政支出职能划分内蒙古财政支出结构进行分析,然后应用回归模型分析内蒙古财政支出结构对经济增长的影响,最后根据以上分析的结论,提出优化内蒙古财政支出结构的相关建议。     

Productivity growth decomposition with FE-IV approach: Rethinking Thai commercial banks after the financial crisis

To cope with the Asian Financial Crisis, Thai commercial banks have gone through a reconstructing period. This study aims to decompose the Total Factor Productivity growth (TFP) for Thai commercial banking industry with an output distance function. With an unbalanced panel dataset, we used the Fixed Effect (FE) model with Instrumental Variables (IV) to estimate the TFP growth empirically. We found the technical inefficiency change and scale effects were the two major contributors to the recent growth, while the input price effect of the premises and equipment was the major preventer of the growth. Moreover, the Thai commercial banking industry produced in decreasing return to scale, and the input–output allocation was not at the profit maximization optimum under the exogenous prices.     

中间产品、工业化转型与中国经济增长

文章认为，最终需求和出口需求对我国工业化与经济增长的推动作用逐渐减弱，中间产品对工业化和经济增长可发挥积极作用，收入效应、分配效应、降低最低有效规模和提高生产率是中间产品影响工业化的主要途径，而规模、技术、人力资源和一些其它条件是制约中间产品生产扩张的主要因素。中间产品生产发展不足和我国存在的就业不足、技术进步缓慢、收入分配不公与工业化趋缓和经济增长放慢等问题密切相关，我国已具备大力发展中间产品生产、以中间产品生产扩张促进工业化转型、推动中国经济增长的基础。文章提出了采取大推进策略、延伸产业链和加强制度建设等对策以加快发展中间产品。