A 50-year history of “zombie firms” in Japan: How banks and shareholders have been involved in corporate bailouts?

We review long-term changes in “zombie firms” in Japan over this half-century using listed firm data with a framework in which the concept of “zombie firms” includes possible efficient bailouts. The first wave of zombie firms occurred during the period of main banks (hereinafter MBs). MBs were able to actively choose which firms would receive bailouts at the time. However, commonly held beliefs about MBs’ monitoring power and the special role of corporate groups and long-term credit banks for bailouts are not supported. In the largest wave of the lost decade, we find the zombie firm problem in the manufacturing sector was just as serious as the non-manufacturing in terms of firm count. Moreover, the pathological phenomena such as unwilling concentration of loans to MBs were also rather typical in the manufacturing. Soft budget constraints have continued in the manufacturing even after the resolution of banks’ non-performing loans since the bubble burst came to an end, leading to the manufacturing-centered third wave of zombie firms following the Global Financial Crisis.     

《立法法》修改： 理念原则、机制创新与完善建议

《立法法》再次修改是新时代立法工作的一件大事。经过全国人大常委会两次审议的《立法法（修正草案）》,贯彻落实习近平法治思想和党的二十大报告精神,对标第五次宪法修正案和法治国家建设的立法要求,科学回答了新时代新征程“为什么立”“立什么”和“怎么立”的问题,体现出坚持以习近平法治思想为指导、坚持党对立法工作的全面领导、坚持人民主体地位、坚持倡导和弘扬社会主义核心价值观、坚持改革和立法的辩证统一等理念原则,已经具备了很好的理论与实践基础。但要进一步健全立法体制、完善立法程序、提高立法效能,还需推进夯实优化科学、民主和依法立法,切实发挥人大主导立法的作用,建立高效的立法工作协调机制,建立系统的立法论证咨询机制,建立智能化的立法信息技术支撑体系。在此基础上,贯彻吸收党的二十大报告精神和最新立法成果,完善全国人大及其常委会的专属立法权,完善授权立法制度,确立设区的市的立法主体地位,完善区域协同立法工作机制,完善备案审查衔接联动机制。     

我国粮食主产区农业高质量发展的区域差异及收敛性分析

全面认识粮食主产区农业高质量发展差异的空间特性，为推动粮食主产区农业高质量的协调发展提供有益启示。本文从新发展理念出发，构建农业高质量发展综合评价指标体系，运用加入时间变量的熵值法测度2003-2018年我国粮食主产区农业高质量发展水平，利用Dagum基尼系数揭示其发展的区域差异大小及其来源，并采用多种收敛方法考察其收敛性特征。结果显示：粮食主产区农业高质量发展水平较低，在波动中呈总体上升趋势；粮食主产区农业高质量发展存在显著的区域差异，其差异在波动中呈总体下降趋势，区域内差异与区域间差异交替成为区域差异的主要来源；粮食主产区农业高质量发展具备典型的收敛和收敛特征，分区域和分时期的收敛性具有明显的异质性特征。因此为提升农业高质量发展水平和缩小区域差距，需要进一步深化农业供给侧结构性改革，积极发展农业新业态和新模式，并通过“追赶效应”和“以高带低”拉动机制，推动粮食主产区农业高质量发展的跨区域协同提升。