The Politics of Inequality as Organised Spectacle: Why the Swiss Do Not Want to Tax the Rich

In 2015, Swiss voters had the opportunity to impose a tax on the super rich in a popular vote and thereby fund a redistributive policy. However, a large majority voted against its seemingly obvious self-interest and rejected the tax. We propose an explanation for this puzzling outcome, bridging the usually separate behavioralist and institutionalist perspectives on the politics of inequality. We start from the observation that political economy tends to neglect processes of preference formation. Theorising preferences as socially constructed, we show that interest groups played a major role in shaping the outcome of the vote. Business frames were multiplied through allied parties and the media and had a major impact on individual voting behaviour. In addition, we demonstrate that interest groups representing business interests derive the content of their communication from business’s structurally privileged position in the capitalist economy. Specifically, creating uncertainty about possible perverse effects of government policies on jobs and growth is a powerful tool to undermine popular support. Frames based on this structural power ultimately explain why the Swiss refrained from ‘soaking the rich.’     

Addressing the sustainable development through sustainable procurement: What factors resist the implementation of sustainable procurement in Pakistan?

Sustainable Public Procurement is an integral part of sustainable development because of ever increasing government expenditures. Most of the developing countries lack the required infrastructure which may support public sector sustainability. The aim of this study is to assess the critical factors which resist the implementation of sustainable procurement in public sector of Pakistan. We used Interpretive Structural Model to investigate and rank the interrelationships among different factors of sustainable procurement. With the help of literature and Likert scale instrument, we found twelve key barriers that resist sustainable procurement implementation. We also examined tender documents of 75 different public sector universities of Pakistan but found absence of sustainability element in the documents. External factors namely government legislation and stakeholders' pressure are found most critical barriers as compared to inter organizational factors. The study is also important to highlight the hurdles in the way of sustainable development. First, the government must introduce rules and regulations to implement the sustainable procurement. Stakeholders and donors must put pressure on organizations for adopting sustainable procurement. Sustainability education should be made mandatory part of curriculum and employees should be given regular training on sustainability. Further, public procurement policies at government and institutional levels are required to be revisited towards a circular economy.     

A hybrid information approach to predict corporate credit risk

This study proposes a hybrid information approach to predict corporate credit risk. In contrast to the previous literature that debates which credit risk model is the best, we pool information from a diverse set of structural and reduced‐form models to produce a model combination based on credit risk prediction. Compared with each single model, the pooled strategies yield consistently lower average risk prediction errors over time. We also find that while the reduced‐form models contribute more in the pooled strategies for speculative‐grade names and longer maturities, the structural models have higher weights for shorter maturities and investment grade names.     

Relative risk aversion, relative prudence and comparative statics under uncertainty: The case of (μ, σ)‐preferences

From the expected‐utility approach, relative risk aversion being smaller than one and relative prudence being smaller than two emerge as preference restrictions that fully determine the optimal responses of decisions under uncertainty to certain shifts in probability distributions. We characterize the magnitudes of relative risk aversion and relative prudence in terms of the two‐parameter, mean‐standard deviation approach. We demonstrate that this characterization is instrumental in obtaining comparative static results in the two‐parameter setting. We further relate our findings to the results in the expected‐utility framework.     

考虑供给与需求波动性的安全库存定量研究

本文以商业企业和MTS模式下生产企业的安全库存为研究对象,将供给与需求的变动程度作为两个动态指标研究四种不同战略与运营环境下的安全库存模型,并进一步分析了降低安全库存所需的管理杠杆.     

浅谈企业房地产价值信息的背离与披露

房地产交易中企业财务报告反映的房地产账面价值与实际市场价值的背离程度大,造成了企业资产价值的“低估”。该文试图分析引起企业房地产账面价值与实际市场价值背离的原因,提出了财务报告使用者了解企业房地产实际价值的几种可操作方法。     

试论新制度经济学与中国体制改革的契合

中国正在经历一个制度变迁的时代。新制度经济学对中国体制改革实践有很强的解释力和指导性，它与马克思主义经济学在机理上的相通及其与中国的传统政治文化的契合促进了它在中国的进一步发展。中国正处于一个制度变迁的时代，新旧体制转轨使中国有了对新的经济制度变革理论的强烈需要。新制度经济学适应了这种需求，对中国体制改革实践有很强的解释力和指导性。新制度经济学与马克思主义政治经济学有相通之处，这有利于发展新制度经济学，也有利于中国经济理论的衔接和发展。中国的传统政治文化与新制度经济学理论的契合，既有利于新制度经济学的传播，也有利于中国体制改革的进一步发展。     

日本经济长期萧条的根本原因--在于"政府为特殊利益集团俘虏"吗?

从日本泡沫经济产生的根源、不良债权难以有效解决的原因、结构性经济改革难以推进的制约因素等方面分析，认为“政府为特殊利益访华团俘虏”是造成日本经济长期萧条的根本原因缺乏坚实的现实依据。仅从金融业的层面思考和解决不良债权问题不会从根本上解决该问题，仅从利益再调整的角度分析结构性改革的难度也没有完全理解改革的复杂性。