Losers and losers: Some demographics of medical malpractice tort reforms

Our research examines how recent reforms have affected a key aspect of patients?? implicit insurance present in medical malpractice torts. Specifically, we estimate how non-economic damages caps affected pre-trial settlement speed and settlement amounts. Maximum entropy (most likely) quantile regressions emphasize that the post-reform settlement effects most informative for policy evaluation differ greatly from OLS (mean) estimates and clarify the conclusion emerging. In particular, the effect of the tort reform here can best be thought of as a 25% tax on the asset value of settlements that exempts settlements involving infants. The social welfare effects of tort reform are less clear than the asset reduction effects due to likely health state dependent utility.     

Workers' Compensation and Family and Medical Leave Act Claim Contagion

At $60 billion per year, the workers' compensation system has come under increased scrutiny as firms, insurers, and researchers study the dynamics of claim filing. The Family and Medical Leave Act also covers most workers, and there has been very little research concerning the effects of FMLA legislation on employment. One hitherto neglected research area in both workers' compensation and FMLA is claim contagion. That is, as a claim is filed within a workgroup, does this increase the likelihood that others within the same workgroup will also file claims? We find the answer to be yes. We also find that this contagion effect is subject to diminishing returns to scale, however, in the sense that the claims probability increases at a decreasing rate as fellow employees' claims frequency increases. We argue that this is consistent with a model in which workers learn about filing a workers' compensation or FMLA claim from other workers.     

The effect of 1980s tort reform legislation on general liability and medical malpractice insurance

A large number of states adopted tort reforms in the mid-1980s to limit the dramatic surge in insurance losses and premiums. Evidence based on liability insurance data by state indicates that these reforms substantially influenced general liability insurance. The levels of losses, premiums, and loss ratios (a measure of insurance profitability) all reflected the impact of the reforms. The large-scale reform efforts in 1986 were particularly influential. Medical malpractice insurance was much less sensitive to the reform efforts.     

Decentralization and growth: Do informal institutions and rule of law matter?

We develop a model of the interactions among decentralization, informal institutions and the rule of law. The model sheds light on the ambiguous empirical results reported in the literature regarding the growth effects of the policy of devolving fiscal responsibility to local governments. We find that the distribution of civicness within a country determines the magnitude of the effects of decentralization on its regional convergence, as well as whether decentralization fosters or dampens the country’s national growth. We perform a series of simulated “reforms” using Monte Carlo methods parameterized using OECD countries data set. We then test our findings using a panel data set of 23 OECD countries covering the period 1975–2010. We find that the short and the long run growth effect of decentralization policy depends on the size of the policy reform and can range from extremely negative to positive depending on the rule of law, the level of social capital and its regional dispersion, in line with the model predictions.     

Welfare reform and future challenges in the Republic of Korea: Beyond the developmental welfare state?

Since the economic crisis of 1997–98, the Republic of Korea has carried out vigorous social policy initiatives including the reform of the National Pension Programme and National Health Insurance. This paper seeks to answer whether the country's welfare state has moved beyond welfare developmentalism, by examining the cases of those two programmes. By the reform, the coverage of the National Pension Programme was extended to the whole population; and its financial sustainability and accountability were enhanced. Regarding National Health Insurance, efficiency reform was carried out on the management structure, while reform regarding financing was put on hold. These reforms were in clear contrast to the welfare developmentalism that used to place overwhelming emphasis on economic considerations. Despite these reforms, however, the Republic of Korea's welfare state faces the issues of ineffectual implementation and lack of financial sustainability of social policy. The National Pension Programme has failed to cover the majority of irregular workers, whose numbers are on the increase, and National Health Insurance needs to find a way to meet increasing health expenditure.     

Asymmetric price rigidity and the optimal interest rate defense of the exchange rate: Some evidence for the US

This paper analyses the optimal monetary policy under incomplete exchange rate pass-through and asymmetric price rigidity. In a general equilibrium sticky price model of an open economy we find that the optimal interest rate rule is to respond to all types of shocks in an economy: real exchange rate shocks, supply shocks and demand shocks. We concentrate our analysis on the interest rate defense of the currency. We claim that the extent of the optimal response of the interest rate to exchange rate shocks depends positively on the degree of pass-through and negatively on price rigidity. Therefore, in the presence of asymmetric price rigidity, the optimal monetary policy should be non-linear, and the interest rate should be adjusted more in case of depreciation of the domestic currency than in case of its appreciation by the same magnitude due to higher downward price rigidity and lower downward pass-through, which are observed empirically. We test this prediction for the US economy and find that the US monetary policy is asymmetric indeed with higher reaction of the interest rate to depreciations of US dollar than to appreciations of the same size.     

国家综合配套改革试验区——区域经济发展的新模式探索

经过28年的改革开放,我国的经济体制改革已经进入攻坚阶段,改革的复杂性、艰巨性和风险性大大增强.经济领域内部各项改革的推进需要其他各项改革相配套,因此,改革的路径需要从单方面改革向综合配套改革转变。在这种形势下,国家综合配套改革试验区应运而生。这就需要从国家综合配套改革试验区的内涵和特征以及对区域经济发展的作用、机理以及政策建议等问题展开探讨。     

首都会展业与区域经济的互动关系

会展业作为"城市经济的助推器",在扩大经济规模、带动相关投资、平衡产业结构等各个方面能产生广泛的经济效应。同时,会展经济在推动地区基础设施建设、增加就业、提高城市影响力等非经济效益方面也做出了很大的贡献。本文通过对首都会展业与区域经济的相关分析,发现首都会展业对区域经济有明显的推动作用,对北京地区生产总值、旅游业、零售业和就业有明显的驱动效应。同时,区域经济发展也为会展业的兴起提供了物质基础,影响着会展业的规模和发展速度。     

国家行政赔偿救济额度的立法完善

对国家行政赔偿救济额度 ,我国的国家赔偿立法采用了“半免责”的法律机制设置 ,而明显低于民事侵权赔偿救济 ,在某种程度上已限制了我国行政诉讼的发展并形成掣肘。文章认为 ,行政侵权赔偿 ,不仅应赔偿直接损害 ,而且对间接损害也应救济 ;不仅应赔偿客观的物质损害 ,对精神损害也应赔偿 ,考虑到行政侵权客观的表现形式 ,对于因限制人身自由的间接受害者的精神损害如已造成严重后果的 ,应考虑予以赔偿     

Some thoughts on the restructuring of North-South interaction

The theory of international trade presents trade as a positive-sum game for all participants. Yet, most of the negotiations between the developed and the developing countries seem to have been conducted under a perception of reality that views North-South relations as a zero-sum game. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a general framework for institutional and structural changes to benefit all participants. A number of original proposals for international reforms to support equitable development in developing countries are presented. The major element of the proposals include a Land Reform Fund, a rural and industrial development package for LDCs, support for trade liberalization of impacts from land reform countries, and an industrial Assistance Fund to help industrial countries to restructure production pattern.The proposals contain obviously far reaching national and international political implications whose impact is assessed in the concluding part of the paper. There the claim is made that unless both sets of countries find cooperation mutually attractive, they will be unable to embark in development strategies characterized by the highest chance of success and with the fewest economic and social disruptions.     

论我国生态侵权损害的司法救济

生态侵权突破了传统法学理论对生态损害的研究,它将权利救济对象延伸至基于生态环境的损害而遭受不利影响的其他法律主体。生态侵权损害司法救济理论研究发端于生态侵权损害救济的实践困境,致力于司法实践中生态侵权损害受害人的权利救济,构筑于无过错责任原则理论根基之上。在无过错责任原则指导下,盖然性因果关系学说在生态侵权责任构成理论中具有不可替代的作用,具体表现在原告对两个因果关系的相当程度盖然性标准的肯定性举证,以及被告对两个因果关系的高度盖然性标准的否定性举证,二者构成了生态侵权责任构成理论的核心。     

Private Passions, the Public Good and Public Service Reform

There has been considerable recent discussion of the impact of public service reforms on the work ethics and motivations of public service workers. In this article we draw upon recent research on the ethical dilemmas facing regeneration workers in order to look more closely at the role of values in the working lives of public service professionals. Focusing on the commitment to social justice, we argue that such values find expression in two interlinked ways, as something workers have and as a process of giving value to different goods. Our research reveals that while both aspects of values are rooted in people's life experiences the second dimension is more contingent and relational. While public service reforms appear to have less impact upon workers’ pregiven values, they can and do have an impact on the way in which these values find expression in attachment to different goods. To understand the effect of such reform processes on workers’ motivations we therefore need a more complex conceptual framework than that provided by either simple public sector ethos/private sector ethos distinctions or by models of economic individualism offered by writers such as Julian Le Grand.     

A Review of Institutional Reform over the Past 30 Years from the Perspective of Change Management

The Leading Group for Deepening Reform Comprehensively has been set up on the decision of the CPC Central Committee to be in charge of the overall planning of reform, taking a balanced and coordinated approach, advancing reform as a whole and supervising its implementation. This means that change management has become an important item on the agenda. Systematically reviewing and examining the course of the seven rounds of institutional reform introduced by the State Council since 1978 from the perspective of change management, we find that the reforms have advanced gradually and steadily, with functional transformation as the core feature and key to each round of reform. The transformation of government functions exhibits a marked two-phase character. The first phase focuses on change in government functions relating to economic management, while the second focuses on enhancing and improving macro-control systems to strengthen social management and public service functions. However, in terms of program design, the goals and measures of the past 10 years’ functional transformation have clearly not been specific enough to establish a clear relationship between the three rounds of institutional reform programs and the concrete measures and their effects. Therefore, the question of whether institutional reform itself needs reform has become a new proposition for practice, one that needs to be reviewed in terms of strategic orientation, mode of implementation, public responsibilities and overall design.     

Calculable Power: A Case Study of IMF Quotas and Voting Rights Reform*

Voting procedure is an important mechanism for public choice in collective bodies such as international organizations. This paper measures and compares IMF member countries’ voting power before the 2008 reform and after the 2010 reform on the basis of datasets on IMF quotas and voting rights distribution provided by IMF. Our study verifies that IMF’s quotas and voting rights reforms do help to reduce the voting power gap among member countries. The 2008 and 2010 reforms produce a greater improvement in emerging members’ voting power under the 70 percent majority rule than the 85 percent rule; the 70 percent majority rule means the United States would lose its absolute veto. Moreover, the paper disproves the underlying assumption that regards a member’s voting power as proportional to its voting rights. Countries with different amounts of voting rights can still have the same voting power.     

Economic reform when institutional quality is weak: The case of the Maghreb

Institutional improvement can be a very slow and uncertain process when institutional quality is weak. In the meantime, countries have launched far-reaching economic reforms whose success is predicated on a large investment response. However, the uncertainties attending institutional reform can raise perceptions of risk, thereby muting investment responses. Using new values of institutional quality for three Maghreb countries (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia), which we derive from fuzzy-set based transformations on freedom indices, we show that moving from low institutional quality to a stage of ‘partial improvement’ may reduce income per capita, with financial and trade reforms having unintended negative effects.     

政府经济职能的变迁——基于理论和实践的视角

政府的经济职能问题是政治经济学中极为重要的问题。经济理论来源于经济实践,任何经济理论的政策主张都是针对一定的经济任务而提出的,政府的经济职能并不是一成不变的,而是随着社会发展的目标、人们对经济发展规律认识的深化和具体经济形势而变化的。中国政府经济职能的改革也必须立足于中国的经济发展实际,认真研究政府职能变迁的理论和历史,强化对现代经济发展阶段和发展任务的认识,改变政府发挥作用的范围和方式,提高政府工作效率和经济运行效率。由于制度发育的落后性和中国经济改革的复杂性、艰巨性,仍需要政府在经济发展中发挥重要作用。     

Does financial development cause economic growth? Implication for policy in Korea

The causal relationship between financial development and economic growth is examined, utilizing the superexogeneity methodology. We use annual data for Korea during 1971–2002, during which Korea has experienced both phenomenal economic growth and a variety of financial liberalization and reforms. In our tests for superexogeneity, we find that financial development control causes economic growth, but the reverse is not true. Our empirical results provide evidence in favor of the ‘finance causes growth’ view for the case of Korea while rejecting the ‘growth causes finance’ view. The policy implication is that Korea should give policy priority to financial reform rather than economic growth, because only a decisive and accelerated pace of financial restructuring can ensure a sustainable growth in the medium or long term.     

岛屿在海洋划界中的效力问题研究——从国际法理论与实践看钓鱼岛与中日东海划界

岛屿被认为是近年来国家间海洋争议中最为棘手的问题之一,不仅表现在相关国家对于岛屿主权的争夺,还表现在海洋划界时有关岛屿划界效力的激烈争辩。1982年《联合国海洋法公约》赋予岛屿同陆地领土一样的延展领海、毗连区、专属经济区和大陆架的功能,因此岛屿对于海洋划界会产生重要影响。鉴于岛屿在海洋划界时的重要意义,我国必须在东海划界问题上争取钓鱼岛主权,并利用钓鱼岛提出有利于我国海岸基线确立、大陆架划界、海域划界的主张。     

Are VAT reforms an effective tool for promoting culture? A quasi-experiment in Spain

Sponsoring culture is a long-term profit-generating investment that public policy makers can achieve by means of Pigouvian subsidy or tax schemes. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of the three VAT reforms implemented between 2012 and 2018 (one tax raise reform and two tax cut reforms) in the cultural sector in Spain. We first provide visual evidence and empirical estimates of the tax shifting and the distribution of the VAT burden between consumers and producers. We then use a regression discontinuity design to assess the causal effects of these VAT reforms on performing acts and cinema consumption (both in the extensive and the intensive margin). Several interesting findings arise from our results. First, we find that producers only passed through 45% of the VAT cut to consumer prices. Second, the effect of the 2017 VAT reduction on performing arts slightly increased the number of households consuming these cultural services, whereas the 2018 tax cut on cinema had no significant effect in the number of moviegoers (extensive margin). Third, the cultural spending per household conditional on participation (intensive margin) increased after the two VAT rate reductions. Finally, we test for asymmetries in pass-through with respect to the 2012 tax raise and we find (i) no evidence of prices responding more strongly to increases than to decreases in VAT, (ii) a symmetric response of the number of households consuming these cultural services, and (iii) an asymmetric response of the average cultural spending conditional on participation.     

论1949-1957年北京市劳动就业制度变革

建国初期的失业压力引发了北京市劳动就业制度的变革,并最终建立起统一的劳动力介绍和招聘制度,从根本上解决了失业问题,提高了私营企业职工的政治和经济地位。这一变革在客观上推动了私营工商业社会主义改造的实现,但也对后来的经济发展产生了不利影响。