Measuring the efficiency of health systems of OECD countries by data envelopment analysis

This study aims to assess the efficiency of health sectors of 34 OECD countries by employing input-oriented data envelopment analysis (DEA) method both under constant and variable returns to scale assumptions. In the analysis, the number of doctors, number of patient beds and health expenditure per capita were used as input variables and life expectancy at birth and infant mortality rate were used as outputs. At the first stage, DEA analysis was performed for 34 countries, and at the second stage outlier 8 countries were eliminated to form a more homogeneous group and to achieve more accurate results. 11 of the 26 countries were found to have efficient health systems, and there is room for efficiency improvements in health sector in the remaining 15 countries.     

Entrepreneurship,innovation and competitiveness: A public institution love triangle

Diverse and different research studies have approached the impact of the quality of public institutions on entrepreneurship, innovation and competitiveness. However, this relationship has not hitherto been subject to simultaneous study but rather only separately. In turn, our research thus holds the objective of simultaneously evaluating the impact of the quality of public institutions on entrepreneurship, innovation and competitiveness based on data aggregated at the OECD member state level. We therefore seek to demonstrate how the higher the perceptions of public institution quality held by individuals, the higher the indices of entrepreneurship, innovation and competitiveness. To this end, we deploy data collected from various sources, specifically the United Nations (UN), the World Bank (WB), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), World Economic Forum (WEF), International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and Freedom House (FH), for the years between 2006 and 2018 (13 years). For the analysis of this data, we apply an econometric methodology based on multiple regression models for unbalanced panel data. We may thus report that the higher the perception of quality of public institutions, the greater the level of the variables applied for entrepreneurship, innovation and competitiveness. We believe our empirical results contain important implications whether for researchers, politicians and decision-makers involved in drafting public policies.     

借鉴OECD国家税制，构建有利于经济发展方式转变的中国税制结构

党的十七大提出了“转变经济发展方式”的战略任务。经济决定税收,税收反作用于经济。一个良好的税制结构能够促进经济的发展,税制结构必须适应经济发展方式的转变而不断优化。借鉴OECD国家税制．必须对我国现行税制进行改革,构建有利于经济发展方式转变的中国税制结构。     

New international evidence on the cyclical behaviour of output: Kuznets swings reconsidered

Spectral analysis is a particularly valuable method for seeking dependences expressed as lags between different magnitudes. Its use in this article was first determined by the search for maximum objectivity in the observation of time series. The possibility of applying it to a large number of series was then examined. This twin requirement resulted from a desire to avoid the criticism generally levelled at statistical studies concerning cyclical movements of the economy. Spectral analysis is based on the theory of stochastic processes. It starts with the core hypothesis that a given time series consists of a large number of sinusoidal components with different frequencies (univariate spectral analysis). It makes it possible to divide a particular category of records into a set of oscillations of different frequencies and then to show the links between the components with the same frequency in the various series examined (cross-spectral or bivariate spectral analysis). It has had limited applications in cliometrics to date. It is used here to determine the frequency of GDP series of several OECD countries. A reminder of the method Sect. 2 is followed by successive examination of the various series chosen, the treatment of these series and the results of spectral analysis Sect. 3. It is then possible as a conclusion to show the prospects of this type of approach and to synthesise a completely new major result for understanding economic dynamics in nineteenth and twentieth centuries, that is to say the existence of a single intermediate cycle with 15–20-year frequency that calls into question or even partially contradicts previous work on economic cycles.      

Making a difference — how environmental economists can influence the policy process — a case study of David W Pearce

Can environmental economists influence policy? If so, how? This paper addresses these two questions using the late David Pearce’s career as a case study. Influence can be exercised, but Pearce’s career shows that certain conditions must be met. The first is desire: he wanted to influence policy, and directed a high proportion of his efforts to doing so. He focused particular attention on the power centres of his time — the OECD, World Bank, European Commission, UN, UK government; his influence was aided by his status and location as a professor in a prestige university (UCL) in a major global city (London). His messages were consistent and clear: theory is important, and can be used to frame most environmental challenges as regards both explanation and solution; externalities can be valued; assessing benefits and costs of options is important; market signals (taxes etc) and incentives generally are powerful shapers of behaviour; stock of capital (human, built, natural) is a key measure of sustainability. He communicated simply and clearly, in words and phrases that Ministers for Finance and journalists could understand. All of the broadsheet newspapers in England (Financial Times, Guardian, Independent, Telegraph, Times) were grist to Pearce’s mill of advocacy for environmental economics. He provided the Blueprint books that could be read on a commute and summaries to the media that they could fit into a 1,000 word piece. He didn’t seek out, but neither did he shirk controversy. He worked with various interest groups and politicians, but never to the point were he was co-opted. He initiated and directed the MSc in Environmental and Resource Economics that created an ever-widening and influential pool of advocates for his ideas. Finally, he achieved a prodigious academic output that ensures a sort of immortality, and provided the intellectual ballast the enabled his policy influence.     

Liquidity constraints, precautionary saving and aggregate consumption: an international comparison

This paper has three objectives. First, to expand Hall's [J. Polit. Econ. 86 (1978) 971] rational expectations permanent income/life cycle hypotheses (REPIH/RELCH) representative agent model to allow for current income consumers, the durable component of total consumer expenditures and for intertemporal substitution, which are often cited as the main reasons for the rejection of Hall's model. Second, to apply this modified model to 20 OECD countries over the post-World War II period. The GMM estimation method is employed. Third, to examine the relative influence of liquidity constraints and precautionary saving on the cross-country variation in the proportion of current income consumers, using cross-country regressions and a non-linear model of panel data. The presence of current income consumers, which is primarily due to liquidity constraints and to a lesser extent to precautionary saving, is the major factor for the rejection of the basic REPIH/RELCH model in all OECD countries.     

Exports and growth: Granger causality analysis on OECD countries with a panel data approach

This paper investigates the possibility of Granger causality between the logarithms of real exports and real GDP in twenty-four OECD countries from 1960 to 1997. A new panel data approach is applied which is based on SUR systems and Wald tests with country specific bootstrap critical values. Two different models are used. A bivariate (GDP–exports) model and a trivariate (GDP–exports–openness) model, both without and with a linear time trend. In each case the analysis focusses on direct, one-period-ahead causality between exports and GDP. The results indicate one-way causality from exports to GDP in Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Spain and Sweden, one-way causality from GDP to exports in Austria, France, Greece, Japan, Mexico, Norway and Portugal, two-way causality between exports and growth in Canada, Finland and the Netherlands, while in the case of Australia, Korea, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the UK and the USA there is no evidence of causality in either direction.     

2008年OECD税收协定范本新规解析

作为国际税收规则的重要组成部分,OECD税收协定范本的修订反映了国际税收的最新变化和发展趋势。本文立足2008年OECD税收协定范本的最新变动,对国际税收领域中的几大热点问题进行深入剖析,并对我国谈签税收协定的立场选择与利益权衡进行了探讨。     

“天使投资”在OECD国家的运作——兼论“天使投资”在我国的发展前景

一个健康的非正式的天使投资市场对风险资本市场的繁荣至关重要。我国在天使投资部分几乎陷于空白的现状业已成为我国风险资本市场正常发展的掣肘。本文以天使资本发展较为先进的OECD国家为例,论述了天使资本在OECD国家运作的特征及经验。并借此对天使投资在我国的发展前景作了初步的探讨。