AN ANALYSIS OF THE WELFARE CUTS IN THE COMPREHENSIVE SPENDING REVIEW AND THE BUDGET 2010

In the Comprehensive Spending Review and in the Budget 2010, the Liberal–Conservative coalition has announced cost‐cutting measures in the benefit system. Some of these measures can be interpreted as ‘random cuts’, where the given scope and structure of a spending programme is retained, while bits and pieces are chopped off here and there. Others can be interpreted as more strategic measures, or reconsiderations of the proper role of government in the respective area. However, where the coalition has pursued a more strategic approach, it has not followed it through consistently. The coalition's consolidation strategy relies too much on temporary caps and freezes, which will eventually expire and give way to renewed spending pressures.     

Governing the Palm-Oil Sector through Finance: The Changing Roles of the Indonesian State

By analysing the different roles of the Indonesian state in arranging finance schemes for palm-oil development since 1945, this article aims to answer two questions: What are these roles? And to what extent have they prioritised or balanced economic growth, social equity, and environmental protection? We conclude that the state has never been absent from the palm-oil industry but has had different and changing financing roles that are historically contingent and shaped by the evolving economic and political landscape. Furthermore, these roles reflect Indonesia’s priorities of achieving economic growth through palm-oil development, furthering social equity, and, recently, promoting environmental sustainability.     

Tradable travel credits for congestion management with heterogeneous users

This paper carries on the recent work of Yang and Wang (2011) on tradable credit schemes by considering heterogeneous users with different value of time (VOT). Given a tradable credit scheme, the user equilibrium (UE) and market equilibrium (ME) conditions with heterogeneous users are formulated into a variational inequalities (VI) problem. Sufficient conditions for uniqueness of the aggregate UE link flows and then the ME credit price are established. Appropriate tradable credit schemes are developed to decentralize system optimal and Pareto-improving network flow patterns. Extension is made to the elastic demand case.     

Stochastic optimization of sustainable hybrid generation bioethanol supply chains

This paper focuses on designing a hybrid generation bioethanol supply chain (HGBSC) that will account for economic, environmental and social aspects of sustainability under various uncertainties. A stochastic mixed integer linear programming model is proposed to design an optimal HGBSC. A case study set in the state of North Dakota in the United States is used as an application of the proposed model. The results suggest that the designs of optimal HGBSC change when different sustainability standards are applied. In addition, sensitivity analysis is conducted to provide deeper understanding of the proposed model.     

The Dividend Substitution Hypothesis: Australian Evidence

In a perfect capital market firms are indifferent to either dividends or repurchases as payout mechanisms, suggesting that the two payout methods should be perfect substitutes. Empirical research at the single country level, as well as cross country studies, provide evidence that dividends and repurchases act as substitutes (the dividend substitution hypothesis), and that the tax treatment of dividends versus capital gains affects this relation. Australia, which operates under a full dividend imputation system, has two types of repurchases: on‐ and off‐market. On‐market repurchases are taxed as capital gains while off‐market repurchases comprise a large dividend component carrying valuable tax credits. Australia thus provides a natural setting to investigate how the tax treatment of proceeds affects the dividend substitution hypothesis. Dividend substitution is found to exist for on‐market repurchases but not for off‐market repurchases, thus providing further support for the idea that the tax treatment of proceeds affects the substitutability of repurchases and dividends.     

美国延迟退休激励机制分析——兼论对中国延迟退休年龄改革的启示

美国社会保障法案的颁布标志着现代社会保障制度的建立。在人口老龄化的背景下,美国对法定退休年龄和养老金领取年龄进行改革,逐步废除法定退休年龄,提高正常退休年龄,同时对养老保险制度中的退休收入核查制度进行调整,建立延迟退休补助制度,由此增强延迟退休对老年劳动力延迟退休的激励。美国废除法定退休年龄和延迟正常退休年龄的改革对中国延迟退休年龄改革提供了有益借鉴。     

关于高等学校学分置换的几点思考

高校实施学分置换,是高等教育主动适应知识经济时代对应用型人才需求的积极回应,也是高校人才培养模式改革不断深化的过程。它在理论上丰富了我国学分制改革的内容,在实践上推进了高等教育"以人为本、个性发展"的改革宗旨。为进一步推进高校学分置换的实施,提高人才的培养质量,笔者从四个方面提出了推进学分置换的措施。     

Corporate Financing Decisions and Non-Debt Tax Shields: Evidence from Italian Experiences in the 1990s

Between 1995 and 1999, Italy experienced three episodes of fiscal reform during which different categories of non-debt tax shields were introduced, including a classical investment tax credit, a system of dual income taxation, and an investment tax credit restricted to equity financed investments. Using the balance sheets of a large sample of Italian companies, we construct a data set which allows us to evaluate the impact of the different fiscal interventions. We apply MacKie-Mason's (1990) method to study incremental financing decisions using discrete choice analysis. The analysis shows that the measures introduced were successful in reducing the advantage of debt financing relative to equity financing. We relate the findings to the current literature on the determinants of capital structure. JEL Code: G32, H25     

Does the US EXIM Bank really promote US exports?

This paper investigates the impact of US Export‐Import Bank (EXIM ) on US exports particularly in the wake of international competition from foreign national export credit agencies (ECA s). We employ a gravity framework on a country‐industry‐year‐level panel data set that matches EXIM authorisations with US bilateral exports. Our results depict the general ineffectiveness of the Bank in promoting exports within and across industries. Some heterogeneities behind the general finding are also uncovered: industries other than aerospace parts and products are more likely to benefit from EXIM authorisations, and EXIM authorisations to larger businesses seem to be more effective in encouraging exports. Furthermore, we find no evidence that EXIM encourages US exports by offsetting foreign ECA competition. These results are neither affected by competing countries’ membership to the OECD Arrangement nor by the size of American firms that received EXIM support. Our results cast doubt on the ubiquitously positive claims made by the Bank and its supporters, yet also provide policy lessons for countries that are either in the inception stages of establishing their own ECA s or are now placing greater importance on ECA financing in encouraging exports.     

碳排放交易的经济学分析及应对思路

在全球范围内,碳排放交易日益活跃。碳排放交易有着深刻的产权经济学内涵,是一种交易成本最小化的制度安排,是市场化的减污手段。在碳排放问题上,西方国家经历了从行政手段的庇古税到经济手段的排放权交易的演变过程。碳排放交易品种较多,构成了一个较为完整的产品体系。金融危机后,碳排放交易呈现出特定的发展趋势。我国需要进一步探索和发展碳排放交易市场,走好低碳经济时代的增长之路。