Optimal age‐dependent income taxation in a dynamic extensive model: The case for negative participation tax on young people

We consider optimal age‐dependent income taxation in a dynamic model where the labor‐leisure choice is the extensive margin, each household faces idiosyncratic shocks to labor productivity and a pecuniary cost to work, and there is no insurance market against the shocks. We show that the well‐known property of the optimal participation tax rate in the static model continues to hold in our dynamic economy, that is, the participation tax rates for some income groups with low consumption are likely negative. In dynamic models, the optimal participation tax rate depends on age and on labor income. Our numerical simulations suggest that a negative participation tax should be restricted to young households.     

Expenditure Inequality in Indonesia, 2008–2010: A Spatial Decomposition Analysis and the Role of Education

Based on the 2008–2010 Susenas panel data, this study examines expenditure inequality from spatial perspectives in Indonesia, using three decomposition methods: (i) a conventional Theil index decomposition; (ii) an alternative Theil index decomposition proposed by Elbers et al. (2008); and (iii) the Blinder?Oaxaca decomposition. Our results show that overall inequality in per capita expenditure increases between 2008 and 2010, which coincides with a rising trend in the official Gini coefficient. The contribution of inequality within urban and rural areas to total inequality is larger than that of inequality between urban and rural areas. Looking within urban and rural areas, urban inequality is significantly higher than rural inequality. Java‐Bali in particular records very high urban inequality. Overall, urban inequality increases, urban–rural inequality remains stable, rural inequality decreases, and inequality at the national level increases. Although urban–rural inequality has a relatively low share in overall inequality, the share is not small enough to ignore its impact. Furthermore, when using the alternative decomposition method, the contribution of urban–rural inequality increases substantially. The present study also found that educational differences appear to have played an important role in expenditure inequality within urban areas and between urban and rural areas.     

日本的河川水权、用水顺序及水环境保护简述

简介日本的2种水权(许可水权和惯例水权),日本的用水状况,日本农业用水的特点。在日本农村,用水顺序是生活优先,农业生产次之。简介日本农业用水存在的环境问题以及有助于解决这些问题的、规定流域管理与环境保护要相互协调的2部涉及水环境保护的法律修正案：《河川法》修正案和《土地改良法》修正案。     

Market discipline and bank efficiency

This paper investigates whether depositors and market investors exert disciplinary pressure on bank management in terms of efficiency improvement. We find that banks with more outstanding deposits are more cost-efficient, although little effect is found with respect to profit efficiency. This implies that depositors, the primary providers of funds to banks, likely play an important role in disciplining bank management, at least in terms of enforcing efficient use of inputs. Market discipline has garnered increasing attention as a mechanism to ensure bank soundness. Our results imply that depositors, the largest creditors to banks, may be of primary importance in this mechanism.     

Capital Stock Estimates by Province and Interprovincial Distribution in Indonesia

We use the perpetual inventory method to estimate gross fixed capital stock at the provincial level in Indonesia. We employ a relatively long series of past annual investments at constant prices for 1983–2007 and a province‐specific survival function for capital. For this purpose, we use published data on provincial income accounts, input–output tables, and surveys from existing studies. Capital was found to be over‐concentrated in the Java‐Bali region and inefficiently distributed among provinces. This distribution contributed to national growth in the majority of the sample years.     

EFFECT OF PUBLIC INVESTMENT ON THE REGIONAL ECONOMIES IN POSTWAR JAPAN

This paper examines the effect of public investment on the regional economies of postwar Japan. It evaluates the effects of efficiency-verses-equity-oriented allocation policies by estimating the aggregate regional production function and calculating the marginal productivity of public capital for each region, using panel data covering the 47 prefectures over the period from 1955 to 2000. The empirical results show that public capital investment has alternated between an allocation policy based on efficiency and one that is based on equity, and, in fact, such investment was used as a policy tool for adjusting income distribution and accelerating economic growth. Numerical simulations are used to analyze the trade-offs between economic efficiency and inter-prefectural equity. The results indicate that in the case of income-elastic labor mobility, an efficiency-oriented allocation policy leads to larger aggregate gross domestic product by promoting both growth and equity simultaneously.     

From fascism to communism: continuity and development of collectivist economic policy in North Korea

On the basis of new archival evidence and a reading of other materials, this article demonstrates that economic policies in North Korea after 1945 very closely resembled those implemented by the Japanese towards the end of their colonial rule. This resemblance was a natural consequence of the collectivist spirit dominating both regimes. This conclusion challenges the standard interpretation of formation of the North Korean regime, which asserts discontinuity of the regime with the colonial one.     

The Neoclassical Investment Model and a New Conservation Law

q ratio is derived. We also show that, along the quasi-turnpike path, Tobin's marginal q is equal to the maximum value of average q. But along the turnpike path, marginal q becomes equal to the limiting value of average q. Received September 15, 1999; revised version received January 25, 2001     

Commentary on Politics of Urbanism: Seeing Like a City by Warren Magnusson

Politics of Urbanism: Seeing Like a City is Warren Magnusson's most recent book. It will find a permanent place as a key contribution in the annals of urban studies, urban politics, political and state theory and international relations, marking a turning point in the way scholars, activists and policymakers see the world. In particular, Magnusson fundamentally questions how we understand and analyse our world from the perspective of the state (the illusion of the sovereign), suggesting we shift instead to the perspective of the city (with its multiplicity of authorities). ‘How welcome should this be?’ is the question that I put to three Canadian colleagues — Roger Keil, Andrew Sancton and Zack Taylor — at the 2011 meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association in Waterloo, ON, Canada. Their answers follow a summary of this rather concise and very readable book that Serena Kataoka and I prepared to introduce those commentaries.