Informal Property Rights as Relational and Functional: Unravelling the Relational Contract in China's Informal Housing Market

In the face of state-led land grabs, enterprising Chinese peasants have started a revolution in the ambiguous and insecure rural tenure system by developing an extralegal property system known as the small property right (SPR). Using the SPR, peasants are able to capitalize on their property through the sale of houses built on collectively owned land. Little is known, however, about the specific process behind the development of the SPR by the peasants, or how this extralegal property system functions in terms of securing the use and transfer of property without the backing of law. This article aims to clarify the situation through the lenses of the Endogenous Nature of Institutions and Relational Contract Theory, aiming to understand the socially constructed, endogenous and relational nature of the property rights that make SPR functional. Based on an ethnographic investigation of Beijing's largest SPR housing settlement, we show how enterprising peasants develop long-term relational contracts with urban households for the provision of housing services, secured on the basis of the common interests and symbiosis of the two parties and a reputation system that serves to deter defaults. The discretionary treatment of SPR housing by local states serves as a further motivation for the village and the informal homeowners to preserve a stable property arrangement, with such a specific institutional setting being an exemplar of China's pragmatic state entrepreneurialism.     

Managing Technological,Sociopolitical, and Institutional Change in the New Normal

A New Normal environment for business has emerged in the years after the 2008 financial crisis based on numerous changes in the world's economic, technological, demographic, and sociopolitical factors. This combination of changes has created a New Normal environment for firms with major implications for managers, strategists, and entrepreneurs alike. It has resulted in an environment with new challenges and opportunities that are considerably different from what firms had to contend with in the years previous. In this paper, we present the main changes that characterize the current New Normal business environment and highlight some key implications for strategy and management. Then, we present the nine articles in this special issue dealing with different dimensions of this new environment for firms. Subsequently, we outline some future research questions that could help to advance our knowledge of the New Normal environment and its implications for firms and management theories. In examining the New Normal, it is important to be reminded that the world is indeed round and even small actions on one side of the globe can have a major impact on organizations on the other side of the globe.     

State appropriations and undergraduate borrowing: more debt,less money

When state appropriations decrease, public universities respond by raising tuition. Students borrow more in response to both tuition increases and appropriation cuts. This article investigates the feedback of how borrowing and tuition influence state appropriations. Using a panel data set of 450 four-year public universities from 1999 to 2012, we employ three-stage least squares techniques to control for the endogeneity between state appropriations, tuition and student borrowing. There is evidence that state policy-makers respond to increases in university tuition and student borrowing by decreasing future appropriation levels. After controlling for the effect of appropriations on tuition and borrowing, a one-dollar increase in student borrowing reduces state appropriations per student by $0.06, and a one-dollar increase in tuition results in a decrease of $0.45 in state appropriations per student. When universities increase tuition for reasons other than a reduction in state appropriations, policy-makers respond with a significant cut in future appropriations which could signal an incentive strategy.     

To defer or not defer? UK state pension and work decisions in a lifecycle model

The UK state pension (which depends only on age) includes an option to defer take up which yields either a subsequent lump sum or higher weekly pension. We analyse the joint decisions on pension deferral and intertemporal labour supply/participation in a lifecycle setting. We show that deferral is purely a financial decision, but the impact of deferral on work decisions depends on preferences, wage rates, non-labour income and initial wealth. To exactly characterize this, we use a quasilinear utility function and provide calibrated simulations. We also discuss the choice between a lump sum or increased weekly pension.     

经济法框架下的国家权力 社会经济权力 社会经济权利

人类社会从野蛮时代向国家社会的发展中伴随着社会权力向国家权力的演变。但是,在国家权力取代社会权力而对社会发展起主导性作用的同时,社会权力又有很大保留。作为社会权力中的社会经济权力在法律层面上就独立于国家权力而存在。社会经济权力存在的基础是社会公共利益的独立性及其与国家利益不同质性。国家在保护阶级利益的同时,维护确认了部分社会利益,在此基础上才形成了社会经济权利。     

国、地税机构合并:税收征管的现实选择

国、地税机构分设对于组织税收收入,进行宏观调控,促进市场经济体系培育发挥了重要作用,但也存在着征管效率低、征税成本高、难以规范执法等弊端。目前实行机构合并的条件已经成熟,应从节约税收成本、完善转移支付制度、规范税收权力运作等方面入手操作。     

国家助学贷款制度的困境分析

我国的国家助学贷款制度在实施中屡屡陷入困境,已无法适应经济形势变化和高等教育的发展,本文试图对国家助学贷款制度的困境原因作一分析。     

塑造新型广东国资监管体制

广东国有资产管理已进入制度创新的深化阶段。在国有资产发生脱胎换骨的变化的同时，广东国资管理仍然面临着巨大的挑战。为了确保广东国有资产的保值增值，防止国有资产流失，创新企业法人治理结构，必须对广东国资监管体制进行创新。而建立“所有者监督为重点，国有资产出资者监督为主体”的政府监督体系和完善企业自我监督体系是塑造新型广东国资监管体制的重点。     

网络:大学生人文精神培养的广阔平台

随着网络的普及和发展,网络越来越成为大学生学习、生活中重要的一部分。网络时代大学生人文精神状态成为人们关注的热点。分析了网络时代大学生入文精神的状态,提出了对大学生进行人文精神教育的途径。     

道格拉斯·C·诺思的国家理论述评

道格拉斯.C.诺思的制度分析框架有三大基石:国家理论、产权理论和意识形态理论。其中,国家理论处于核心位置。它规定了具有根本性激励功能的产权结构,塑造或影响意识形态,从而在经济盛衰中起着关键作用。国家理论把经济组织理论引入政治学领域,形成了国家起源、国家基本职能和目的、国家模型以及国家悖论等一系列理论主张。