Socio-demographics,political attitudes and informal sector employment: A cross-country analysis

In this paper, we empirically investigate the relationship between informal sector employment and micro-level socio-demographic characteristics, political acts and attitudes, and individual norms. Using self-reported individual micro-level data from the World Values Survey for seven developing countries (China, Ecuador, Egypt, Mexico, Peru, South Africa and Yemen), our cross-country regressions and principal component analysis reveal that socio-demographic characteristics of individuals are strong predictors of their informal sector employment. Our estimations further document that individual preferences for an economically strong, interventionist and egalitarian state and confidence in state and political institutions are positively and significantly correlated with informal sector employment, whereas variables associated with confidence in free market institutions and support for competition are negatively and significantly correlated with informal sector employment. We also show that individuals who participate either actively or inactively in peaceful and lawful political processes are significantly less likely to work in the informal sector. Finally, we document that individual norms, such as religiosity and tax morale, are negatively correlated with informal sector employment. Throughout our analysis, instead of having to rely on ad-hoc informality categorizations of third parties, we base our measurement of informal sector employment directly on the self-evaluation of individuals, who have the best information on the degree of their informality.     

Domestic political connections and international expansion: It's not only ‘who you know’ that matters

Former politicians on the board of directors bring to the firm domestic political connections and political knowledge. Previous research has mainly highlighted the role of contacts, without fully recognizing the role of political knowledge accumulated at home. By focusing on the effect of domestic political connections on foreign direct investment, we show that domestic political knowledge also shapes foreign expansion. We argue that contacts provided by former politicians may not be useful for foreign expansion whilst their political knowledge can be of help in countries with discretionary governments and with similar institutional environments to the one of the home country.     

以企业文化为切入点加强和改进企业思想政治工作

企业为了搞好经营，都十分重视提高员工的工作积极性，而提高员工的工作积极性往往采取增加薪酬、改善福利的方式，当然，这种方式的运用无可厚非，也比较见效，但随着企业各项制度的不断完善和员工构成的高学历化，单纯的经济刺激已不足以应对员工的多元化需求；因此重新审视我党的思想政治工作，将它与企业文化建设有机结合，在提高员工经济收入的同时，努力提高员工的“精神收入”，成为企业提升管理品质、吸引人才、锻造内力的有效途径。     

绿色壁垒对我国纺织服装业的影响研究

为了避免绿色壁垒对我国纺织服装业造成更大的经济损失,保持行业的持续健康发展,本文分析了绿色壁垒对我国纺织服装业带来的积极影响和消极影响,进而提出应对绿色壁垒消极影响的措施。     

湖南农产品如何跨越绿色壁垒

湖南省作为农业大省,农产品的出口受到日益兴起的绿色壁垒的挑战。文章论述了湖南省农产品出口遭遇绿色壁垒的状况及原因,提出了湖南省农产品跨越绿色壁垒的对策。     

论多边贸易体制下的绿色壁垒

该文首先分析绿色壁垒的成因、特点及表现形式,接着指出了WTO中涉及到绿色壁垒问题的相关规定,最后指出我国面对绿色壁垒的应对措施.     

民营旅行社在中国的发展

通过民营企业东星旅行社借助汉口国旅的“壳资源”进军出境旅游业务的事例，探讨民营资本向旅行社行业扩张时，面临的各种制度壁垒和其他困难，并联系中国加入世贸带来的机遇和挑战，对民营旅行社的发展和扩张提出了系列想法和建议。     

西部农村市场发育滞后的三大障碍

当前,彻底解决西部的"三农"问题和西部农村的发展,需要开拓我国西部农村市场.研究发现,西部农村市场的发育滞后主要是由构成西部农村市场的供给和农村市场的需求不够完善,以及西部农村市场发展的外部渠道不够畅通等因素共同作用的结果.因此,开拓我国西部农村市场是一个长期而复杂的系统工程.     

思想政治课教学改革应着力于"新、活、多"

思想政治课教学，是强化青年学生德育素质的重要环节和基本渠道，当前改革的重点应着力于内容上求“新”，方法上求“活”，手段上求“多”。     

Delegation and polarization of platforms in political competition

Summary. We consider a model of political competition among two ideological parties who are uncertain about the distribution of voters. The distinguishing feature of the model is that parties can delegate electoral decisions to candidates by nomination. It is shown that if the credible platform commitments of the candidates is feasible, then at least one of the parties nominates in equilibrium to a candidate who has an ideology that is more radical than the delegating party's ideology. In a variety of circumstances, this, in turn, yields a polarization of equilibrium policy choices of the candidates. It is thus argued formally here that strategic nomination of the candidates may well be one of the major reasons behind the well documented observation that the platforms associated with the political parties in two-party democracies are often surprisingly polarized. Received: January 10, 2002; revised version: May 8, 2002 RID="*" ID="*" We thank Alberto Alesina, Levent Ko?kesen, Antonio Merlo, Ronny Razin, Vijay Krishna, Alessandro Lizzeri, and seminar participants at Alicante, Columbia, Copenhagen, and NYU for helpful comments. We also thank an anonymous referee for its useful suggestions. A good fraction of this research was conducted while Ok was a visitor in the Department of Economics at University of Alicante; he thanks for the kind hospitality of this institution. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Education through grant CICYT BEC2001-0535 (Faulí-Oller) and BEC2001-0980 (Ortu?o-Ortín). Correspondence to:I. Ortu?o-Ortin