The Chinese Banking System: Economic Performance and Prospects for Future Development

This paper examines the main characteristics of the Chinese banking industry. In particular, it analyses the main performance indicators of the system together with some prospects of future development. The paper also considers the problems related to high levels of non-performing loans and the internationalization paths of the Chinese banking market. In spite of some recent reforms, further legislative improvements are required to develop the system and to allow a gradual opening to foreign competition.

The Structure of the Chinese Banking System and Credit Access Problems for SMEs

This paper examines the structure and the main characteristics of the Chinese banking industry. In particular, the paper analyses the problematic aspects of credit relations of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The SMEs are facing several problems in accessing the bank loans market, dominated by the political and contractual weight of state-owned enterprises. However, some recent reforms have improved the situation, a fundamental condition for additional positive results. Nevertheless, further and more pervasive modernization efforts are needed to consolidate these results and to develop the relationships between banks and SMEs.

Evaluating the Move to a Linear Tax System in Germany and Other European Countries

This paper proposes a comparison of the results of tax policy analysis obtained on the basis of unitary and collective representations of the household. We first generate labour supplies consistent with the collective rationality, by use of a model calibrated on microdata as described in Vermeulen et al. [Collective Models of Household Labor Supply with Nonconvex Budget Sets and Nonparticipation: A Calibration Approach (2006)]. A unitary model is then estimated on these collective data and unitary and collective responses to a tax reform are compared. We focus on the introduction of linear taxation in Germany. The exercise is replicated for other European countries and other topical reforms. Distortions due to the use of a unitary model turn out to be important in predicting labour supply adjustments, in the design of tax revenue neutral reforms, and in predicting a reform’s welfare implications.

Different Paths to Similar Outcomes? Industrial Relations Reform and Public Policy in Australia and New Zealand

In recent years, both Australia and New Zealand have embarked on significant labor market reforms which have resulted in more decentralized and individualized systems of industrial relations. Although both countries share a common heritage of state-sponsored conciliation and arbitration, which fostered a centralized approach to labor market regulation, each has responded in its own way to economic and political pressures to reform its long-established industrial relations system. Despite differences in the process of indusrial relations reform, both countries now have industrial relations systems which are more individualistic and in which unions play a less significant role than in the past.

Modeling Unemployment Duration in Slovenia using Cox Regression Models

This paper applies the semi-parametric Cox regression approach to model unemployment duration in Slovenia. The empirical analysis is based on a comprehensive dataset that consists of all unemployment spells in Slovenia from 2002 to 2005. The impact of the variables age, gender, level of education, and region on the hazard ratio is discussed. It takes longer for female and older unemployed persons to find a job and on average the duration of unemployment decreases with increasing level of education. Surprisingly, unemployed persons with a professional college degree or a bachelor’s degree are better off than unemployed persons with a master’s degree. A comparison of the Cox proportional hazards model and the Cox regression model with a time-dependent covariate reveals that the more appropriate model with a time-dependent covariate places greater emphasis on higher levels of education.

The Portuguese Disinflation Process: Analysis of Some Costs and Benefits

This study aims to analyse the Portuguese economic policy of disinflation through a nominal stabilization policy of the Portuguese escudo. We study the pegging of the Portuguese escudo to the deutschmark knowing the reputation of the Bundesbank for its anti-inflationary record. The acceptance of German monetary policy allowed the Portuguese economy to achieve its primary goal of price stability. The nominal stability policy of the escudo may serve as an example for other small economies that may be presently involved in the European integration process such as the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia.

Chinese Contract Law and the Economic Reform

China’s previous contract laws had many contradictions and failed to meet the needs of China’s developing market economy. Although some problems still need to be dealt with, the unified contract law is more advanced, systematic and plays an important role in fostering and encouraging transactions.

The scoring rules in an endogenous election

Plurality rule is mostly criticized from being capable of choosing an alternative considered as worst by a strict majority. This paper considers elections in which the agenda consists of potential candidates strategically choosing whether or not to enter the election. In this context, we examine the ability of scoring rules to fulfil the Condorcet criterion. We show for the case of three potential candidates that Plurality rule is the only scoring rule that satisfies a version of the Condorcet criterion in two cases: 1) when preferences are single-peaked and, 2) when preferences are single-dipped.

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The Non-Existence of the Labor Demand/Supply Diagram,and other Theorems of Institutional Economics

The most famous and influential diagram in modern (neoclassical) labor economics is the model of wage determination by supply and demand. Using concepts and ideas from institutional economics, I argue that the theory of a perfectly competitive labor market is logically contradictory and, hence, the demand/supply diagram cannot exist on the plane of pure theory. Four other fundamental theorems concerning labor markets are also derived, as are implications about the theoretical foundation of the field of industrial relations and the economic evaluation of labor and employment policy.

Do Professional Sports Unions Fit the Standard Model of Traditional Unionism?

Current literature generally highlights the unique differences between sports and traditional unions. In particular, the contrast between the two types of unions’ approaches to the free market when it comes to wage determination—sports unions fought the “reserve clause” to obtain free market outcomes while traditional unions fought to circumvent the market for wages—has been widely cited. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the hitherto neglected comparisons between sports and traditional unions. With respect to both economic and non-economic issues, professional sports unions share far more in common with their traditional counterparts than the labor and sports economics literatures would lead one to believe.

Poverty and its persistence: a comparison of natives and immigrants in Sweden

This paper analyzes poverty and its persistence in Sweden using a large panel with detailed income information obtained from tax registers. As opposed to many commonly used household panels, the features of the data utilized in this paper allow us to study native-immigrant differences in poverty. We use a hazard rate model based on multiple spells that accounts for unobserved heterogeneity and endogenous initial conditions. The empirical results suggest that there is negative duration dependence in both exit and entry hazard rates. Moreover, the transition rates are significantly affected by immigrant status, educational attainment, labor market conditions, age, and family status.

Educational Attainment and the Lesbian Wage Premium

This paper provides insight into the wage gap between lesbians and heterosexual women. Using data from the 2000 Decennial Census, we find a lesbian premium that equals approximately 10% for women without a bachelor’s degree, and is nearly non-existent for women with higher levels of education. These findings are consistent with proposition that the gap between lesbians’ and heterosexual women’s commitment to the labor market narrows at higher levels of education. We also find that controls for industry and occupation exert only a small effect on the gap between lesbian and heterosexual women’s wages.

Reduced prizes and increased effort in contests

We study the general class of two-player public-policy contests and specify the asymmetry condition under which a more restrained government intervention that reduces the contestants’ prizes has the “perverse” effect of increasing their aggregate lobbying efforts.

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Return to Education and the Changing Role of Credentials in the Croatian Labor Market

The countries of Central and Eastern Europe experienced a rapid increase of return to education with the advent of the transition. We look at the dynamics of wage premiums in Croatia and estimate how much the return to education has changed between 1996 and 2004 on the basis of labor force survey data. We also extend the paper in order to address additional features of the wage structure, such as non-linearities in the return to education associated with attainment of credentials. We find that contrary to most transition countries, premiums for education in Croatia began to grow only after the mid 1990s. However, by 2004, they reached the levels of premiums found in other transition countries and advanced market economies, thus creating market incentives for investment in education. We also find that major part of this higher rate of return came through higher return to credentials.

On the influence of extreme parties in electoral competition with policy-motivated candidates

We study and compare equilibrium platforms in models of unidimensional electoral competition with two and four policy motivated parties. We first analyze the plurality game, where the party getting the most votes is elected and implements its proposed platform. Restrictions on the set of credible announcements are needed to get existence of equilibria. Comparing equilibria with two and four parties, we obtain that moderate parties react to the introduction of extreme parties by proposing the same or more extreme equilibrium platforms. We then study the proportional system, where the policy implemented is a weighted sum of the proposals, with the voting shares as weights. Here, the existence of extreme parties leads moderate ones to choose more centrist platforms. We finally test the robustness of our results with respect to, first, the enlargement of the strategy space to entry decisions and, second, to asymmetric distributions of voters' blisspoints.

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Sustained Empathic Focus and its Application in the Treatment of Couples

Although all psychoanalytically informed approaches to couples therapy recognize the importance of underlying dynamics, there are important differences in the focus of the treatment. This paper suggests a focus that is based on a self-psychological/intersubjective viewpoint. Two concepts that exemplify this model, a sustained empathic focus and an appreciation of the experience of vulnerability, are discussed and applied to a couples session. What is emphasized in this material is a process of focusing on underlying vulnerability, affect and subjective experience.

Toward an Integration of Ideas About the Self for the Practice of Clinical Social Work

This paper presents ideas for understanding the self that is responsive to contemporary trends in professional practice. In addition to psychosocial factors, which have been associated historically with the practice of clinical social work, the paper integrates neurobiological factors into the discussion. The intent of the paper is to offer practitioners a conceptual framework for thinking biopsychosocially about clients. The framework underscores diagnostic understanding as the basis for the choice of specific interventive modes and techniques, and the centrality of a therapeutic relationship as the vehicle through which a new sense of self may emerge for clients.

The distribution of financial well-being and income within the household

In this paper we consider the issue of the intra-household distribution of welfare directly using a survey measure of self-perceived economic well-being. We develop a theoretical model of satisfaction within the household for couples. In the empirical analysis we find that husbands and wives often report different levels of financial satisfaction. The most important correlate of relative satisfaction within the household is found to be relative income. This is a direct confirmation of the previously implicit findings and is predicted by our theoretical model.

Antecedents of Total Factor Productivity Change: Empirical Evidence from the Chinese Banking Sector

By applying the non-parametric Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) method, this paper attempts to investigate the sources of productivity changes of China’s State Owned Commercial Banks (SOCBs) and Joint Stock Commercial Banks (JSCBs) during the period 2000–2005. The empirical findings suggest that the China banking sector has exhibited productivity progress attributed to the increase in efficiency. The empirical findings suggest that the SOCBs and the JSCBs have exhibited productivity progress of 0.2 and 1.3%, respectively.

Nonprofit Isomorphism: An Australia–United States Comparison

This paper examines the organizational structures of nonprofit organizations in Australia and the United States. Using random samples of nonprofits drawn from the two organizational populations, the analysis compares the extent of structural resemblance or isomorphism in each. It detects similar levels of isomorphism for several structural characteristics. The paper interprets this finding as reflecting expectations for nonprofit organizations that stretch worldwide.