集体行动、财政激励与村级公共产品自主供给

利用农村“一事一议”制度变迁作为研究对象，从影响农村居民集体行动的社会因素与财政因素两个维度，对农村公共产品自主供给进行实证分析，研究证实：“一事一议”制度有利于农村公共产品的结构优化，其显著提升了村级公共服务的供给绩效。农村传统的“宗族”社会结构有利于克服集体行动中的“自利行为”和“搭便车”倾向，促进了“一事一议”的开展，而当前逐步扩大的收入差距形成了公共产品的偏好差异，提高了“一事一议”的交易成本，但是有效率的村级治理体制对村庄开展“一事一议”具有促进作用。“一事一议”挂钩的财政补助，具有显著的“激励效应”。实证研究结论对于创新农村公共产品供给方式，培育内生性的公共产品自主供给机制，提供了决策依据。     

“省直管县”改革能否提升县级财力水平?

将“省直管县”财政体制改革作为拟自然实验，基于全国县级面板数据，利用可有效校正选择偏差问题的 PSM-DID 方法构造“反事实”状态，估计改革对县级财力水平的平均处理效应。结果显示: 改革增加了人均本级财政收入，却减少了人均转移支付水平，且下降幅度较大，致使人均财政总收入减少，表明“省直管县”改革不但无法提升，甚至会在一定程度上恶化县级财政状况。东、中部地区的平均处理效应与全国类似，上述结论具有比较好的稳健性。此外，还进行了影响机制检验，地级市与县、县与县之间的财政竞争以及省对各市、县的协调机制会在一定程度上影响财政体制改革的效果。     

Transparency in Europe: A Quantitative Study

In recent years, European pharmaceutical regulators have increasingly committed to heightening access to raw safety‐related data as part of a wave of transparency initiatives (e.g., providing public Internet‐mediated access to clinical trials data). Yet, the regulators—who are under significant pressure—have not yet benefited from a systematic review of this new policy. In seeking to inject much needed evidence, this article explores the effects of new transparency policies designed to promote meaningful communication of risks and benefits to patients. Results of a cross‐national European survey with respondents from Great Britain, the Netherlands, Spain, France, Germany, and Sweden (N = 5,648) shed light on how patients and the public are likely to react to the regulators’ new transparency policies. The findings demonstrate clear national variations in how European citizens are likely to react and emphasize the need to develop evidence‐based, reasoned transparency policies that integrate benefit‐risk communication. The authors conclude by providing six specific recommendations, informed by the study, that seek to improve the European transparency model both within the medical field and across health, safety, and environmental policy domains.     

财税政策促进中小微企业发展的有效性分析--以绍兴市为例

中小微企业的发展不管是对就业、创新，还是对经济发展都非常重要，但中小微企业的健康发展也需要政府财税政策的支持。以员工增长率、总资产增长率、销售收入增长率、息税前利润率等四项指标作为财税政策支持中小微企业发展效果的检验变量，以绍兴市的中小微企业为观测样本，通过非参数检验方法论证并证实了不同组别四个检验变量的分布存在显著差异，说明财税政策有效地促进中小微企业发展。     

Fiscal transparency and tax ethics: does better information lead to greater compliance?

By relying on WVS data and using multilevel mixed modeling, the paper tests the hypothesis that access to larger flows of information about government fiscal accounts and financial transactions increases citizens’ willingness to pay taxes. By supporting such an hypothesis, our analysis suggests that in the presence of more information, the implicit contract between the government and taxpayers displays less stringent incentives and participation constraints and causes part of the contract, namely tax morale, to be enhanced. This finding supports the implementation of fiscal transparency policies, whose possible design is discussed.     

Improving and measuring transparency in NGOs: A disclosure index for activities and projects

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are established not with the aim of making profits but rather to provide social values by implementing different projects and activities. Transmitting complete information about these projects to society is a key element of transparency, as they operate within an atmosphere of public trust. Although there is a large body of literature on transparency in NGOs from a global perspective, very little research has been conducted on transparency within the area of projects and activities. This study takes a deeper look at this line and contributes to the literature on transparency in NGOs by proposing an index to measure the information transparency of the projects implemented by these organizations. The index captures three dimensions of the information about the projects (technical, financial, and scope) and makes it possible to: analyze the level of transparency of the portfolio of projects, detect the specific aspects that could be improved in each organization, and carry out comparisons among organizations.     

Open Data on a Closed Shop? Assessing the potential of transparency initiatives with a focus on efforts to strengthen capacity development support

Despite strong political commitment, actual gains in improving accountability in development co‐operation have been limited. Main reasons for this include the low level of transparency and high number of actors, as well as the limitations of the self‐reported and input‐oriented OECD reporting system. Efforts through the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) and related transparency initiatives are ill‐equipped to change this given their decision to adhere to the same system. This article uses the specific area of support to capacity development to illustrate this. While further disaggregation of reporting on technical co‐operation could respond to a transparency gap, overcoming the accountability gap requires moving beyond promoting ‘supply‐side’ reform and re‐engaging in efforts to promote collective action.     

Revisiting the effectiveness of the employment‐oriented welfare state: Considering the quality of employment achievement

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of an employment‐oriented welfare state. While previous studies have focused on employment growth, this study considers the quality of employment, especially its mediating impact between public social expenditure and fiscal soundness. Three‐step mediated regression analysis was conducted on a data sample from 19 developed countries from 1991 to 2013. The results show that while public social expenditure negatively affects fiscal soundness, if it promotes total and part‐time employment, it can positively affect fiscal soundness. However, when the incidence of involuntary part‐time employment is high, public social expenditure and its impact on employment performance no longer guarantee fiscal soundness. This study addresses the importance of promoting not only employment growth but also employment quality to secure fiscal soundness.