大力发展农村合作组织 提高农村公共物品供给能力

随着农业税的取消,作为农村公共物品主要供给者的乡(镇)、村两级组织的收入大大减少,极大地影响了公共物品供给,严重制约了我国农村经济的发展和农民社会福祉的提高,成为构建社会主义新农村的一大瓶颈。文章认为,在新形势下,应充分认识到农村合作组织对缓解农村公共物品供给不足问题的重要作用,及时调整农村公共事业发展的思路,通过配套政策支持,大力发展农村合作组织,提高农村公共物品供给能力,以适应农村公共事业发展的需要。     

中国农村金融发展的困境、成因及其破解

长期以来我国农村金融市场的发展受到不同程度上的抑制,农村金融功能难以得到有效发挥,致使金融支农绩效水平低下,影响了新农村建设的加速进程。与已有较多文献不同的是,本文将分别从金融发展规模、结构和效率三个层面对改革开放以来我国农村金融发展困境进行统计描述,结果显示我国农村金融支持的规模、结构及效率与同期全国和城镇水平相比都较为滞后。同时,本文认为导致农村金融发展滞后成因主要有长期的“二元”经济结构、“一刀切”式的金融政策、农村金融机构不良贷款率偏高以及现有农村金融供给体系不断萎缩,最后在此基础之上寻求了四点破解途径,即逐步提高农村劳动生产率水平、实行有差别的金融政策、积极发展农业保险和不断提高自身经营绩效并加强金融监管。     

地方政府财政支农支出与农村居民消费——来自中国29个省市面板数据的经验证据

本文在消费者最优消费路径选择的基本框架下,构建了一个政府财政支农与农村居民消费的动态最优化模型,理论分析表明:地方政府财政支农支出的增加,对于农村居民消费水平的提高具有促进作用。基于1995-2008年的省际面板数据,采用工具变量GMM方法对该结论进行的实证检验发现:在通过多工具变量克服变量内生性之后,地方政府财政支农支出对农村居民消费具有显著的促进作用,地方政府财政支农支出每增加1%,我国农村居民消费将增加0.1367%;进一步的因素分解显示,地方政府财政支农支出对农村居民消费的平均贡献度为8.72%,且有逐年增大的趋势。此外,财政支农支出对农村居民消费的影响存在区域差异性,即财政支农支出对我国中西部地区农村居民消费的影响程度大于东部地区。     

城乡收入差距、民工失业与中国犯罪率的上升

本文利用1988—2008年省级面板数据研究后发现:首先,没有明显的证据表明省内城乡收入差距的扩大必然增加各省的犯罪率。其次,中国犯罪率的上升和"第五次犯罪高峰"的产生与城市登记失业率有关:一方面,它意味着民工失业率也可能在上升,城市居民和民工失业的增加都会直接推动犯罪率上升,而由于失业的民工缺乏最低生活保障和社会保险,他们会更加脆弱并更容易走向犯罪,因此会更容易推动犯罪率的上升;另一方面,城市失业率的上升还会推动地方政府采取更加歧视民工的就业政策来保护城市居民的就业,因而在犯罪率上升和犯罪高峰持续的过程中起到了推波助澜的作用。本文的解释对于理解中国经济社会的发展及制定降低犯罪率的公共政策提供了重要启示。     

农村工业化还能走多远?

基于1987年到2008年28个省的面板数据,本文发现:无论是以就业人数还是以总产值来度量,乡镇企业规模的扩大都显著地缩小了城乡收入差距。通过雇佣农村富余劳动力以及生产的工业品在城乡间的自由流动,乡镇企业的发展抵补了一部分由于劳动力流动限制而造成的社会福利的损失。然而,本文更为重要的发现是:与其利润率的变化趋势一致,乡镇企业缩小城乡收入差距的年度作用递减;并且,在1998年之后,其作用的估计值在零附近一个很小的区域内摆动。这说明城乡间的产品流动对于生产要素流动不充分的补偿作用可能已经发挥到了极致——在我国高度竞争的工业品市场上,位于农村的工业企业是没有优势的,因为它们缺乏城市工业的规模经济与集聚效应。本文的政策含义是:只有改革现有户籍制度、加强劳动力在城乡间的流动、培育完善的要素市场,而非继续鼓励农村工业化,才能进一步缩小城乡收入差距,并最终消除城乡二元结构。     

The economic and environmental performances of rural districts in Italy: Are competitiveness and sustainability compatible targets?

This paper analyses the economic performances of the rural system and the level of land sensitivity to degradation in Italy. Three indicators (district value added, share of agriculture on total product, and a composite index of land sensitivity) were used to classify 784 Italian local districts into eight performance classes. Four classes share a combination of high environmental quality (in terms of land degradation), high (or low) economic performances, and high (or low) productivity of the primary sector. The remaining four are characterised by a combination of low (and declining) environmental quality, high (or low) economic performances, and high (or low) productivity of the primary sector. The eight classes were grouped into four ‘environmental quality’ types and four ‘target performance’ categories to discriminate among high- and low-performance districts by considering twelve additional variables within a Discriminant Function Analysis (DFA). 148 high environmental performance districts (18% of total) were identified mainly across the Alps and Apennine while 314 districts (41%) were classified in the lowest performance class and concentrated in flat areas of southern Italy. The districts with high environmental performances were characterised, on average, by medium to low district value added, moderately low economic weight of the primary sector, and tourism specialisation. Districts with high economic performances and low environmental performances were characterised by high sensitivity to LD, low district value added, high share of agriculture in total product, and the lowest productivity of labour in all economic sectors. In these districts the risk of entering a downward spiral of rural poverty and environmental degradation is potentially high.     

生产性服务业发展、制造业升级与就业结构优化——“民工荒与大学生就业难”的解释与出路

近年来出现的"民工荒与大学生就业难"并存现象,从表面上体现了我国就业市场上供求结构的失衡,但从本质上反映了我国产业结构不合理、制造业处于全球价值链低端环节、增值能力不强的困境.加快发展生产性服务业,促进制造业转型升级,并以生产性服务业发展和制造业转型升级"双轮驱动",优化就业市场结构,是解决"民工荒与大学生就业难"悖论的有效途径.     

社会资本、扶贫政策与贫困家庭福利——基于贵州贫困地区农村家户调查的分层线性回归分析

根据社会资本分层、数据嵌套的特征,采用分层线性模型,利用贵州省贫困地区农村家户的调查数据,分析不同层级的社会资本影响包括扶贫政策在内的中间变量、进而对家庭福利产生的不同效应及其交互作用。研究表明,在物质资本和人力资本都比较贫瘠的农村贫困地区,社会资本在一定程度上发挥了"穷人资本"的功能,其减轻贫困、改善家庭福利的作用不仅显著,而且还存在进一步发挥的空间。     

我国财政分权体制下农民工公共服务权利的缺失

农民工权利的保证包括诸多方面,其中很重要的一个方面就是其社会保障和公共服务权利的获得。社会保障和公共服务的提供主要依靠政府,但目前我国财政分权体制的现状导致中央和地方政府的权责存在一定程度的不一致性,地方政府在为农民工提供社会保障和公共服务上缺乏主动性、积极性。本文对此进行了分析并提出相应的政策建议。     

Participation index: a measure to identify rural transport disadvantage?

This paper develops a composite participation index (PI) to identify patterns of transport disadvantage in space and time. It is operationalised using 157 weekly activity-travel diaries data collected from three case study areas in rural Northern Ireland. A review of activity space and travel behaviour research found that six dimensional indicators of activity spaces were typically used including the number of unique locations visited, distance travelled, area of activity spaces, frequency of activity participation, types of activity participated in, and duration of participation in order to identify transport disadvantage. A combined measure using six individual indices were developed based on the six dimensional indicators of activity spaces, by taking into account the relativity of the measures for weekdays, weekends, and for a week. Factor analyses were conducted to derive weights of these indices to form the PI measure. Multivariate analysis using general linear models of the different indicators/indices identified new patterns of transport disadvantage. The research found that: indicator based measures and index based measures are complement each other; interactions between different factors generated new patterns of transport disadvantage; and that these patterns vary in space and time. The analysis also indicates that the transport needs of different disadvantaged groups are varied.