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.     

Instrumental client relationship development among top-ranking service professionals

Informal client contact forms a crucial part of the daily routine of service professionals, in particular among top-ranking professionals working for consultancy and accountancy firms. In this paper, we investigate how 34 service professionals develop informal client contact, by studying their networking styles. Our study shows many similarities in informal client contact between two groups of service professionals grouped by gender, but we also found subtle differences in what we coin instrumental and expressive relations. Contrary to gender stereotypes, we found that female service professionals tended toward instrumental networking styles, using professionalism and distance and allowing the high quality of their work compensate for network deficits, contingent upon their clients’ gender. Male service professionals drew on expressive relations to develop emotional bonding with their male clients in particular, but nonetheless toward instrumental purposes. Our study contributes to service industries literature by theoretically and empirically establishing the different informal networking styles between top-ranking service professionals, and the role of emotional bonding in particular. In doing so, the paper helps to better understand the intricacies of informal client contact as a critical dimension of the professional services industry.     

农村小企业融资实证分析——以江苏为例

本文通过对无锡、扬州两地37家农村企业调查,分析了无锡和扬州两地农村小企业融资存在的一些共性:正规金融市场贷款与企业规模、地域有关;民间金融市场贷款与“血缘”有关;抵押担保成为企业从正规金融市场贷款的主要方式;两地企业都存在融资瓶颈,主要体现在贷款审批程序的复杂性、严格的抵押规定或个人担保要求;企业主个人背景对借贷渠道存在相关性。     

中国非正规部门指数的设计与测算——兼论非正规部门与经济增长关系

文章基于2008版国民经济核算体系新框架,利用统计指数理论和综合评价技术从投资、消费、就业、金融四个方面设计并测算我国非正规部门指数。在此基础上,探讨了非正规部门与经济增长的内在联系。研究结果显示,我国非正规部门年均增长快于同期经济增长;非正规部门的"低抗风险性、低政府规制"的特征增加了非正规部门增长的不稳定性;非正规部门与经济增长之间存在协整关系,不论从长期还是短期看,当期非正规部门与经济增长均存在正向关系,但影响程度较弱。     

和谐视野下我国小产权房的困境及其对策研究

小产权房问题是当今社会关注的焦点之一,涉及我国敏感的土地问题和住房问题,牵涉政府、地产商、城镇居民、农民等多方利益,实质为我国城乡二元土地制度。在国外,因为土地私有化,不存在小产权房的概念。小产权房成为了一个中国特色的问题,由此所引发的一系列法律制度问题也颇具理论研究价值。本文拟从和谐视野下探析小产权房存在的风险,剖析其产生原因,从而提出解决小产权房困境的对策。     

当前我国农村民间金融发展现状、问题及对策

我国农村普遍存在供给型金融压抑,农村经济主体资金需求得不到有效满足,只能转而求助于民间非正规金融。本文在对农村民间金融的基本状况进行分析的基础上,继续探讨了民间金融所存在的问题,并提出了相关的对策。本文认为考虑我国农村地区的金融发展现状,民间金融的存在是必要的,但是必须加以规范和引导。     

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS ON THE URBAN–RURAL DISPARITY IN HUMAN CAPITAL IN CHINA

With China's economic development and capital accumulation in the industrial sectors, the human capital level of the labours moving from the rural areas could no longer meet the demand of the industrial sectors. Therefore, “structural shortage of technical labour” emerged in the labour market as a result of excess of demand for high‐skilled workers. Previous literature mostly focused on the relationship between rural human‐capital level and labour movement, income change and economic growth, but in this article, the authors focus on the study of the relative disparity of urban and rural human capital and labour movement, as well as the effect of the change of urban–rural human capital gap on industrial output, profit and social welfare. This article shows that bridging the urban–rural gap in respect of human capital level could not only improve the situation of the “structural shortage of technical labour,” but also have a positive effect on the general social welfare.     

元明古籍讹误的类型

许多由著名学者整理、著名出版社出版的元明古籍的今人点校本存在为数不少的错误,归纳起来大致有八种：1）因俗字而误;2）因形近而误;3）因音近而误;4）句读有误;5）不明词义而误;6）不了解传统文化;7）史实考察不严谨;8）不明诗词格律。运用俗字学、词汇学、训诂学、文献学、校勘学、音韵学、历史学等方面的知识可以纠正这些错误。     

失地农民中特殊群体非正规就业问题实证研究——以成都市郊两镇为例

通过对成都市郊弥牟镇和大弯镇的特殊群体——大龄、文化程度低失地农民非正规就业选择问题的实证案例及其理论分析,揭示了非正规就业是大龄、文化程度低失地农民人力资本合理的再配置形式;城市政府现行相关政策导向和制度安排导致非正规就业制度成本上升,无助于这一群体生计的可持续性。城市政府应积极看待非正规就业的正面功能,以新的制度安排促进非正规就业市场的健康发展,从而为社会弱势群体创造实现可持续生计的公平机会。