Horizontal and Vertical Equity Objectives of Child Benefit Systems: An Empirical Assessment for European Countries

The present study investigates the determinants of life expectancy in the presence of economic misery using Pakistan’s time series data over the period of 1972–2012. The stationary properties of the variables are examined by applying unit root test accommodating structural breaks. The ARDL bounds testing approach to cointegration is applied to examine the long run relationship between the variables. Our findings show that cointegration between the variables is confirmed. Moreover, health spending improves life expectancy. Food supply contributes to life expectancy. A rise in economic misery deteriorates life expectancy. Urbanization enhances life expectancy while illiteracy declines it. The causality analysis reveals that life expectancy is Granger cause of health spending, food supply, economic misery, urbanization and illiteracy. This paper opens up new insights for policy making authorities to consider the role of economic misery while formulating comprehensive economic policy to improve life expectancy in Pakistan.     

Dynamic Reflections of Crimes,Quasi Democracy and Misery Index in Pakistan

Massive increase in crimes has coexisted with rising inflation and high unemployment for the last couple of decades especially during democratic governments in Pakistan. In this paper, we explore the relationship between crime rate, misery index and democracy in Pakistan from 1975 to 2013. Granger causality test proposed the unidirectional causality running from misery index to crime rate in Pakistan. Estimating the crime function via Pasaran’s conditional error correction model, we found the significant long run equilibrium relationship between Okun’s misery index and crime rate which implies that rising inflation and unemployment rate are the major driving forces towards increasing crime rates in Pakistan. Finally, empirical evidence from Okun’s misery index suggested that people are three times more miserable in quasi democratic periods than that of dictatorship. The Barrow’s misery index model verifies that people are twice worsening in quasi democratic periods. Likewise, reported crimes are nearly twice during quasi democracy than quasi dictatorship. The crime model provided the evidence that people during quasi democratic governments are more likely tending towards crime as compared to quasi dictatorship during the study period in Pakistan. This implicitly advocates the fact that half hearted efforts and ill structured apparatus of democracy can augment the tendency of crime and misery rather than solution of such concerns of the economy.     

自然资源、人力资本异质性与区域经济增长——基于省际面板数据的经验分析

本文以1990～2008年我国29个省域面板数据为对象,采用分位数计量回归模型重点考察省际区域自然资源的能源开发和人力资本分布的异质性对经济发展的影响,并进一步协整检验能源开发与异质性人力资本之间的关系。结果表明:只有经济增长低分位点处的地区(如山西、黑龙江、四川、云南、贵州、青海等)发展才对自然资源有一定的依赖,其他地区并未受到资源开发显著地影响;尽管人力资本总量的提升对经济发展有明显推动作用,但不同类型的教育对经济增长各分位点处的影响各异;资源开发短期内对较高教育层次(高中、大专及以上)的人力资本有挤出效应,但长期来看最终将会促进人力资本的提高。     

Is There a Link Between Poverty and Food Security?

The study examines cointegration and causal relationship between FDI, terrorism and economic growth in Pakistan using quarterly frequencies for the period 1988–2010. For empirical analysis data is divided into two sub-periods i.e. pre 9/11 (1988–2001) and post 9/11 (2002–2010) periods. The results show that long run cointegration holds between FDI, terrorism and economic growth. Granger causality results indicate that there is bidirectional short and long run causality between economic growth and FDI for both sub-samples. These findings are supported by variance decomposition and impulse response analysis. The findings suggest applicability of modernization theory to explain FDI and economic growth relationship. The results also reveal that terrorism has a deteriorating impact on FDI.     

Linking LGBT inclusion and national innovative capacity

This paper investigates the relationship between the social inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, and technological innovation. It empirically establishes that LGBT inclusion helps foster human capital skills, thus strengthening national innovative capacity. Exploiting cross-country data, this research provides suggestive evidence that social tolerance towards homosexuality is positively correlated with the economic complexity index, a novel measure of cross-country differences in innovative capabilities. Individual-level analyses, based on data from the World Values Survey, reveal that surveyed respondents who self-report tolerance towards homosexual acts tend to have positive attitudes towards technological innovation, ceteris paribus. This lends credence to the international evidence. Further analyses indicate that the link between LGBT inclusion and innovation is partially mediated through the accumulation of human capital. The main findings suggest that the social exclusion of LGBT people, at least to some extent, impedes long-run economic development by hindering innovative activities.

     

跨国人才外流与中国人力资本积累--基于出国留学的视角

人才的跨国外流,究竟是促进了本国的人力资本积累,还是导致了本国人力资本的净损失？回答该问题,对中国在开放经济条件下实施合理的人才开放政策以推动经济增长具有重要意义。本文在开放经济框架内,将人才外流引入人力资本积累的内生决定模型,从理论上探讨了人才外流与本国人力资本积累的关系。在理论分析的基础上,本文进一步使用世界上60个国家和地区2000－2010年的面板数据进行了计量估计。实证结果表明：人才外流与中低收入国家和地区的人力资本积累呈倒“U”型关系,但与高收入国家和地区的人力资本积累线性负相关;人才外流对本国人力资本积累的影响受到本国技能劳动占比和其所生产产品替代弹性的影响。进一步鼓励和合理引导人才尤其是高层次人才的国际流动对提升中国的人力资本水平意义重大。     

Economic Theory and Subjective Well-being: Mexico

Several studies have been conducted on the topic of well-being. Most of them, however, have been done in industrialized countries where income is distributed relatively more equitatively and the population tends to be more homogeneous. This paper studies the relationship between subjective and economic well-being in Mexico, a country where the economic differences among the population are more clearly marked.

According to the economic definition of well-being, higher levels of income are associated with higher levels of well-being through greater levels of material consumption. Taking into consideration this definition, it is worth asking just how important income is for an individual's happiness?Existing studies in psychology have found a positive correlation between economic well-being (socioeconomic status) and subjective well-being (happiness). However, this positive relationship is weak and a large percentage of human happiness remains unexplained.

Although the mentioned studies make a good approximation of the existing relationship between income and happiness, the characteristics or specification of the function that generates the relationship between these two variables is often assumed to be linear and positive. The main objective of this paper is to investigate further the relationship between subjective and economic well-being. In this study different specifications and approaches are used to approximate the relationship between these variables.

An empirical analysis is made from the results of a survey conducted in two Mexican cities. The investigation studies the impact of demographic, social, and economic variables on subjective well-being in Mexico. Several hypotheses are tested to identify the relationship between household income and individual well-being. It is found that income does not have a strong influence on neither well-being nor on the probability of happiness. However, people tend to overstress the impact that additional income would have on their subjective well-being. This fact could explain the importance that people place on increasing their income level, and it could possibly explain the relative sense of dissatisfaction once a higher income level is achieved.

The relationship between income and the sense of basic need satisfaction is also explored. A main assumption in economic theory suggests the existence of a direct relationship between these variables; however, empirical results show this relationship to be extremely weak. Results indicate that subjective well-being is positively related to the sense of basic need satisfaction but not to income.

     

Human capital,technological progress and the demographic transition*

We emphasize the importance to consider components of population growth — fertility and mortality ‐ separately, when modeling the mutual interaction between population and economic growth. Our model implies that two countries with the same population growth will not converge towards the same level of per capita income. The country with the lower level of birth and death rates will be better off in the long run. Introducing a spill over effect of average human capital on total productivity our model implies multiple equilibria as illustrated in Becker el al. (1990) and Strulik (1999). Besides the existence of a low and high level equilibrium ‐ as characterized by low and high levels of per capita output respectively ‐ we show the existence of multiple low level (Malthusian) equilibria. Initial conditions and parameters of technological progress and human capital investment determine whether an economy is capable to escape the low level equilibrium trap and to enjoy sustained economic growth.     

台湾经济增长中人力资本作用的实证研究

在现代经济中,人力资本已成为经济增长的内生要素和重要源泉。本文以人力资本相关理论为基础,通过合理地选取和度量有关变量数据,构建台湾人力资本外部性增长模型,并对模型进行计量检验和要素分析,从而揭示台湾人力资本投资与经济增长的关系,以及人力资本要素在经济增长中的作用。     

Measuring Community Economic Resilience in Australia: Estimates of Recent Levels and Trends

We measure changes in community economic resilience (CER) across geo-locations in Australia between 2006 and 2011, a time span characterised by major natural and economic shocks. We build an index of potential CER that captures communities’ stocks of human, social, natural, physical and financial capitals, levels of economic diversity and accessibility to service centres. Using Census data and the ARIA index, we resort to principal component analysis to generate CER indexes at statistical area level 1, which is our community proxy. Our analysis of index values provides a number of useful insights. First, there was a statistically significant improvement over time in the overall CER index in all states and regions. Second, our CER measures improved at a different pace across regions and states while their rank remained mostly unchanged. Third, CER improved over time in social and physical capital and accessibility terms, but declined in human, natural, financial capital and diversity terms. Fourth, communities with a high economic diversity level reported higher capital stock except for natural capital, and communities with a low accessibility level had lower capital stock except for social and natural capital. Finally, CER has a long-term positive association with household income.     

Multidimensional Wellbeing: An Index of Quality of Life in a Developing Economy

Human wellbeing indices can shed light on a society’s quality of life. This study ranks human wellbeing by employing objective and subjective indicators of quality of life for hundred districts of Pakistan. Households level data used for the analysis includes ‘The Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey’ for the year 2006–2007. The human wellbeing is examined in four domains: education, health, living conditions and economic situation. Principal component analysis is employed for indexing human wellbeing, rated in five quintiles are generated. The paper demonstrates the importance of education, health and living condition domains in determining the human wellbeing. Objective indicators of education i.e., adult literacy rate, net primary enrolment and gender equality in education are important variables in ranking of districts. Economic status of the households and communities are important variables in subjective perception of wellbeing. The results indicate substantial variation in human wellbeing among districts of Pakistan It may be considered that disparity in objective condition and in subjective perceptions are adequately depicting wellbeing differences. Finally, it is argued that objective indicators and subjective wellbeing measures are needed in unison to understand human quality of life and to make informed policy decisions.     

经济增长、医疗保健体系与国民健康——基于1991--2006年中国数据的分析

中国存在经济快速增长与国民医疗保健状况改善缓慢的矛盾,甚至出现了“看病贵”、“看病难”的公共难题。在梳理已有相关研究成果的基础上．选定5岁以下婴儿死亡率等代理变量来分析国民健康、经济增长和医疗保健体系建设的关系,发现三个变量存在一个协整,长期关系稳定,脉冲分析发现经济增长在长期对国民健康水平有显著的正向作用．但在初期却存在恶化国民健康的可能。个人付费为主的医疗保健体系对国民健康水平有显著的促进作用．但医疗保健体系的不完善一定程度上降低了卫生支出对健康的促进作用。稳健性检验进一步证明了结论的正确性．而且发现单纯依靠增加卫生资源消费并无法增进国民健康。在分析结论的基础上,本文提出了促进经济发展、保护环境、完善城乡公共卫生保健等建议。     

制约西部经济增长的人力资本“瓶颈”及对策

国民收入的某些重要增长是由于增加了教育投资这种人力资本而造成的,经济增长主要来源于人力资本储量的增长。在阐述了人力资本投资与经济增长的关系后,以数据分析了西部资本结构与人力资本问题,最后给出了加速西部人力资本积累,促进西部经济增长的对策。     

20世纪90年代东北地区省际间人口迁移的人力资本考察

人力资本的流动与人口迁移是两个相关但又不同的概念。区域间人力资本的流动情况更能反映人口迁移对区域发展的影响。采用教育年限来计量东北地区及其各省迁移所造成的人力资本的得失,结果表明,东北地区在1995-2000年间经历了较严重的人口流失和人力资本流失。但东北地区内部又表现为辽宁省人力资本大比率的流入和吉林省、黑龙江省人力资本大比率的流出。东北地区省份间出现的两种完全不同的情况反映了东北三省对人口与劳动力吸引的不同的社会与经济条件。     

Social Capital Inequality and Subjective Wellbeing of Older Chinese

Using longitudinal data from the China Family Panel Studies, this study provides insights on comparative wellbeing outcomes for older people who are institutionally segregated into clusters that produce uneven social capital. We present the first study that examines how institutionalized social capital inequality, measured by the social capital gap generated by hukou (household registration) status in China, affects the wellbeing of older people. Our results show that high levels of social capital inequality are associated with lower subjective wellbeing, measured by life satisfaction. This general conclusion is robust to a number of sensitivity checks including alternative ways of measuring subjective wellbeing and inequality. We also find that the negative relationship between social capital inequality and subjective wellbeing is strongest for people with a non-urban hukou living in urban areas. Our findings highlight the need for policies aimed at narrowing the social capital gap and the dismantling of institutional structures that hinder upward social capital mobility.

     

基于卢卡斯模型的人力资本外溢效应研究——对重庆的实证检验

人力资本作为经济内生增长的重要因素，一方面直接参与到经济生产过程。对经济增长有直接作用．另一方面，还通过影响其他生产要素的生产率，对经济增长有间接作用。本文基于卢卡斯的人力资本外溢效应模型．实证检验了1990—2011年重庆人力资本的外溢效应。研究结果显示．样本期间重庆人力资本外溢效应的产出弹性十分显著，但由于人力资本自身的增长过于缓慢，其对经济增长的实际推动作用偏小：重庆经济增长主要依靠物质资本的推动，经济增长表现出典型的粗放型特征。为此，论文从人力资本开发、教育投入和劳动市场开拓等方面．提出了加强人力资本投资和积累以促进经济增长的对策建议．     

Political Regime and Human Capital: A Cross-Country Analysis

We examine the relationship between different dimensions of the political regime in place and human capital using a two-step structural equation model. In the first step, we employ factor analysis on 16 human capital indicators to construct two new human capital measures (basic and advanced human capital). In the second step, we estimate the impact of our political variables on human capital, using a cross-sectional structural model for some 100 countries. We conclude that democracy is positively related to basic human capital, while regime instability has a negative link with basic human capital. Governance has a positive relationship with advanced human capital, while government instability has a negative link with advanced human capital. Finally, we also find an indirect positive effect of governance and democracy on both types of human capital through their effect on income.     

人力资本梯度升级的经济增长效应

人力资本梯度升级是指人力资本由低至高逐步跃迁的高级化过程,其可能通过促进产业结构升级、技术创新作用于经济增长。利用2000—2015年全国30个省级行政区面板数据,实证分析了人力资本梯度升级的经济增长效应。研究发现:人力资本梯度升级对经济增长有显著的促进效应,第三梯度人力资本对经济增长促进效应最强。人力资本梯度升级的经济增长效应存在时间和地区异质性:随时间的推进,人力资本梯度升级对经济增长的促进效应逐渐增强;东部和高经济发展地区人力资本梯度升级的经济增长效应要高于西部和低经济发展地区。基于以上结论,为推动经济长期增长进一步提出可行的对策建议。     

An Empirical Analysis of Social Capital and Economic Growth in Europe (1980–2000)

It is of paramount concern for economists to uncover the factors that determine economic growth and social development. In recent years a new field of investigation has come to the fore in which social capital is analysed in order to determine its effect on economic growth. Along these lines the work presented here examines the relationships that exist between human and social capital and economic growth. The applied part of the analysis is performed using a panel data model for 14 economically developed countries (OEDC) and by using a series of chronological periods that fall within the 1980–2000 time-frame. A revision of the social capital literature was first carried out and the potential links between social and human capital discussed. The study begins by assessing the way in which the two types of capital interact, how they should be measured and the best way of quantifying their importance within applied models. The econometric model uses panel data, and this enables the analysis to obtain robust results with respect to the role of different types of capital i.e. human physical and social.