The expected impact of the 2019 Brazilian pension reform on survivors’ pensions

This study analyses the expected changes in survivors’ pensions resulting from the permanent rules of the 2019 pension reform in Brazil. Actuarial annuities are used for representative worker profiles. The dispersion in the replacement rate values decreases, except for the highest income level. The rates needed to finance survivors’ pensions decrease relatively more than do the rates for old-age pensions. The internal rates of return significantly decrease. There is a heterogeneous change in the distributive aspects of the pension system. The reform shall affect the adequacy and intragenerational equity of old-age and survivors’ pensions.     

The impact of India’s food security policy on domestic and international rice market

Food security policy making in India is at crossroads. India has emerged as a leading rice exporter. The Government of India has introduced the National Food Security Act which requires 33.6 million tons of rice per year for its public food distribution system. In this study, we modeled India’s rice market and analyzed policy implications of the long-term impact of India’s food security act on domestic and international rice market. We developed a structural economic demand and supply model for India’s rice market and further added subsidy equations to trace the consequence of National Food Security Act on domestic rice consumption and on the international market. We specifically focus on three different scenarios: subsidy as price effect, subsidy as inelastic income effect, and subsidy as elastic income effect under the broader framework of National Food Security Act. We found that at the end of the projection period (2024–2025), as a result of rice subsidy program, the consumption of rice increases significantly in the case of price effect while the inelastic income effect has no or less impact on production, consumption, and export of rice. Hence, the policy implication of our study is that if the objective of the National Food Security Act is to increase consumption then it needs to be implemented as price effect.     

The impact of de-globalization on China’s economic transformation: Evidence from manufacturing export

The economic transformation is an important policy practice of economic development in China. In the context of “deglobalization”, it is critically important to better understand the impacts of increasing trade costs on China’s economic transformation from the perspective of firms’ exports. In this study, we measure the trade costs of specific manufacturing sectors and provinces. We employ Heckman (1979) two-stage method and the data from China’s manufacturing firms to investigate the impacts of trade costs on heterogeneous firms’ exports. Based on these results, we further explore the impacts of trade costs on China’s economic transformation and discuss policy advisories. Our results indicate that the increase in trade costs have adverse impacts on China’s economic transformation. Specifically, increasing trade costs hinder firms’ export behaviors and export scales. However, these impacts are heterogeneous on different types of firms, which refers to the ownership reforms, manufacturing sector upgrades and coordinated regional development. In particular, increasing trade costs do not affect coordinated regional development in China, but they are not conducive to ownership reforms and manufacturing sector upgrades. Altogether, our findings provide the first evidence on the impacts of trade costs on China’s economic transformation from the perspective of firms’ exports, and also shed light on policy implications for promoting firms’ exports and economic transformation in the “deglobalization” period.     

Partisan effects and policy entrepreneurs. New Labour’s impact on British law and order policy

Under successive New Labour administrations British law and order policy experienced a significant shift. The literature, however, falls short to empirically substantiate whether this change can be attributed to the ideological preferences of the party in power – neither on the aggregate-level nor in terms of a causal mechanism. This study develops a novel partisan effects mechanism linking the notion of policy-seeking party elites with the notion of policy entrepreneurship. The applied mixed-method research design confirms a partisan link in two ways: On the aggregate-level, the first systematic analysis of the complete law and order legislation from 1990 to 2014 allows to assess the significant policy change as well as its correlation with partisan effects. On the micro-level, a qualitative analysis traces these effects within the political process of a single piece of legislation highlighting policy entrepreneurs as a causal mechanism of partisan effects.     

America’s policy thinking in the age of Trump

What is striking in Trumpian economics – supply-side economics too – is the omission of economic growth. There is no awareness that nations at the frontier need indigenous innovation to have ample growth. The take-offs into sustained growth in 19th century Britain and America were fueled by dynamism from the grassroots up. Moreover, this stunted economics has no room for the rewards from participating in the economy besides the market wage – for the satisfaction of succeeding at what one is doing, the sense of flourishing as one’s career unfolds, and the thrill of venturing into the unknown.     

Localization of Marxism in China and the Construc-tion of China’s Modernity

现代性在中国的生成与建构,是与马克思主义中国化历史地联系在一起的;中国现代性的建构,也历史地确定了马克思主义中国化的起点、任务与方向。马克思主义中国化的理论任务就是要求确立以建设为核心的观念、以促进人与社会的全面发展为主旨的马克思主义理论话语系统,构造一套符合全球化时代要求、有利于中华民族复兴及长治久安、并具有自检与防御机制及能力的开放性的社会、政治与文化体系。     

Social protection for happiness? The impact of social pension reform on subjective well-being of the Korean elderly

Expanding the scope of the traditional indicators used to assess economic progress with measures of subjective well-being has been of growing importance in policy modeling. A recent Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi report argued that policy decisions and welfare evaluations should be approached from a broader perspective on well-being and take into account metrics derived from self-reports of living conditions. To this end, we evaluate the efficacy of the 2014 social pension reform in South Korea using various measures of subjective well-being. The South Korean government introduced a basic old-age pension in 2008 and doubled its monthly benefits in 2014. The reform in 2014 represents one of the largest social welfare expansions in South Korean history, with an aim to improve seniors’ quality of life. Using data from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging, we estimate a matched difference-in-differences model that isolates the causal effects of the benefit increase attributable to the reform. Results show that the reform was associated with an average of 4.8–5.7% increase in financial satisfaction among beneficiaries, and that this correlation was more pronounced for retirees, seniors above age 70, and those at the bottom of wealth distribution. However, there is insufficient evidence to conclude that satisfaction with health status, parent-child relationship, and overall quality of life has improved in response. Our findings are in contrast to the past evidence on objective welfare gains associated with pension expansion. Taken together this study calls for the use of self-reported well-being data in policy evaluation.     

The economic effects of carbon tax on China’s provinces

The responsibility for carbon emissions tends to be different under different emission accounting principles. By applying the latest 2012 Chinese multi-regional input–output table, this study evaluated the impacts of carbon tax on tax burdens and sectoral competitiveness in Chinese provinces when considering either production-based or consumption-based emissions. Our results indicated that, in the scenario of cutting production tax for carbon tax, the developed provinces, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu, who are much bigger payers of production tax, are net beneficiaries of carbon tax. In contrast, recycling the tax revenues to low-income households makes the less-developed provinces in the central and western China become net revenue receivers. Furthermore, for competitiveness effects, the emission intensive sectors, such as Electricity and hot water production and supply, Petroleum and gas, and Metal products, are impacted vitally under both accounting principles in all provinces. Nevertheless, compared with the production-based principle, a consumption-based carbon tax could reduce the unfavorable competitiveness effects of most affected sectors in the less-developed provinces, while slightly increasing those effects in the developed provinces. Our results provide new information on the regional impacts of carbon tax based two different accounting principles with different tax revenue recycling scenarios.     

On the Basic Characteristics of China’s Classical Management Science

Ever since the pre-Qin period, almost all scholars, thinkers and philosophers in all dynasties have thought about and studied the issue of “how to run the country well” in varying ways and have put forward a vari- ety of different views and theories. We may use a cover-all term for their exploratory work and its intellectual results: “China’s clas- sical management science.” The philosophers and thinkers of the pre-Qin period did not concern themselves with political institutions. They n…     

The impact of globalization and financial development on India’s income inequality

This paper empirically examines the combined effects of globalization and financial development on income inequality in a unified framework for an emerging economy. Using annual data for the Indian economy over the period 1980–2014, we show that the perceived benefits of globalization and financial development have not trickled down; rather, has aggravated income inequality. Our results also indicate that while inflation aggravates income inequality, education seems to alleviate the differential effect. Proactive measures in providing access to financial services, creating equitable employment opportunities, and improving the quality of education are required to offset the negative impacts of globalization and financial development on income disparity.     

China’s Anti-corruption Strategies from the Viewpoint of Criminal Justice

腐败案件的高发案率是中国当前所处的社会转型期的突出特点。为了适应治理腐 败犯罪的需要, 中国刑事司法形成了一整套独具特色的侦查体制、办案原则, 并且注 重依靠群众查办腐败案件, 注重打击重点的随时调整。中国刑事司法注重提高腐败案 件的侦查能力和加强反腐败刑事司法的规范化建设等, 这是中国反腐败策略在刑事司 法领域的具体体现。同时, 中国在反腐败刑事程序如何与国际公约对接等方面面临着 一些挑战, 这也指引着中国刑事司法改进的方向。

关键词: 反腐败 社会转型 刑事司法 司法改革

A high incidence of corruption cases is a conspicuous feature of China’s present stage of social transition. Responding to the demands of combating corruption, Chinese criminal justice has developed a unique set of investigative methods and principles for handling of such cases, placing a high value on relying on the masses to find and act on cases of corruption and promptly adjusting its focus to the key areas of such crimes. It concentrates on enhancing investigative capacity and strengthening the standardization of anti-corruption criminal justice. These practices represent the concrete embodiment in the field of criminal justice of the government’s anti-corruption strategies. At the same time, China also faces some challenges in adjusting these procedures to accord with international practice. This is one of the aims of the judicial reform in China.     

On the Two Main Lines of China’s Economic Reform

In the autumn of 1987, the State Commission for Restructuring the Economic System organized eight units including the Research Group of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) to submit reports providing an outline economic reform plan for China for 1988-1995. The CASS Research Group recommended that enterprise reform and pricing and ownership reforms and their operational mechanisms should be carried out alongside each other in a two main lines approach. China’s deepening economic reforms have adhered to these two main lines throughout the last forty years. The first main line includes the revival and development of the individual economy, followed by the private economy, the introduction and utilization of foreign capital, and the reform of public ownership, including the state-owned system. In 1997, the 15th National Congress of the Party proposed the establishment of a socialist basic economic system with public ownership as the main body and simultaneous development of multiple forms of ownership. “Public ownership as the main body” is reflected in the dominance of public assets among total social assets and the fact that the state-owned economy controls the lifeline of the national economy and plays a leading role in economic development. The dominant role of public ownership has not changed in the forty years of reform and opening up. The second main line covers price reform, building a modern market system, reforming macro-control mechanisms and perfecting the macro-control and regulation system. From 1979 to 2017, our GDP grew at an average annual rate of 9.5 percent, while the CPI grew at an average annual rate of less than 5 percent: a perfect match. The two main line approach is in line with the provisions of economic reform in the new era proposed in the report at the 19th National Party Congress, which focuses on improving the property rights system and market-oriented factor allocation. There is no distinction of primary or secondary in the role of the two main lines; both are equally important. They are united in the establishment and improvement of the socialist market economic system.     

Implementing Working for Families: the impact of the policy on selected Māori whānau

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of the qualitative data collected for a study investigating the effect of the Working for Families policy on Māori families’ self-reported whānau ora (family wellbeing). Data are drawn from a discrete set of 30 qualitative interviews undertaken with Māori whānau involved in the Te Hoe Nuku Roa Longitudinal Study. Whānau perceptions about how the Working for Families policy has impacted on their lives and the contribution the policy has made towards their family's wellbeing is presented. The paper discusses how the Working for Families policy appears to have become an integral component of household income for many low-to-middle-income whānau and reflects on how this policy, conceived and designed (amongst other things) to alleviate and redress child poverty, is contributing towards supporting family wellbeing or ‘whānau ora’.     

Evolution of the Gender Wage Gap among China’s Urban Employees

本文利用1995年、2002年和2007年的数据, 分析了城镇工资的性别差距的演变特 点和影响因素。研究结果表明, 1995—2007年特别是2002—2007年期间工资的性别差 距显著扩大, 其中不可解释部分的比例也越来越大, 显示了性别歧视的严重化问题。 年纪轻、学历低、职业差、行业差的女性职工在劳动力市场中受到更为严重的歧视, 导致了低收入群体性别工资差距的迅速扩大。

关键词: 城镇 性别歧视 工资差距

Using data from the 1995, 2002 and 2007 surveys, the paper attempts to investigate whether the gender wage gap has continued to widen during the period under study. To answer the question, this paper utilizes decomposition methodology to decompose the wage difference between male and female employees into explained and unexplained components. The results of decomposition for 1995, 2002 and 2007 indicate that the gender wage gap increased significantly, particularly in the period 2002-2007, and that an increasing part of the gap was due to unexplained components. This implies rising discrimination against female employees in China’s urban labor market. Decomposition results based on quantile regression analysis indicate the gender wage gap is greater for low wage groups, as is the share of unexplained components in the gap.     

Cultural policy and investment in China: Do they realize the government’s cultural objectives?

Cultural policy in China has both economic and cultural objectives. In this paper we consider how these two objectives are linked through increases in cultural output. We use a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the Chinese economy to analyse the impact of cultural investment on the output of cultural goods and services between 2009 and 2015, and we carry forward the simulations to 2030. Our results show that this cultural policy instrument has had a positive impact on the output of cultural goods and services in a manner that also underpins the purely cultural objectives of government.     

Distorted policy transfer? South Korea’s adaptation of UK social enterprise policy

This study draws upon communicative processes in policy transfer to consider the ways in which policy may be adapted to context or distorted. The theoretical framework is used to investigate exactly what the South Korean government borrowed from UK social enterprise policy. Despite claims that the UK was the source of both the general policy direction and the particular regulatory device, the Korean government did not learn about the specific contexts of the British policy, nor attempt two-way communication with domestic stakeholders. Rather, the UK policy was interpreted in accordance with the Korean government’s own ideas about how to utilize social enterprise. Historical legacies of top-down decision-making played an important role in this process, as did the state’s role as a regulator which mobilizes the private sector to achieve policy goals. The consequences have been negative for those organizations refused social enterprise status under the Ministry of Labor’s strict approval system, as well as for the original target population: the socially disadvantaged and vulnerable. It is suggested that the model advanced may help to illuminate the reasons why some borrowed policies differ considerably from the originals, and the use of policy transfer as a means of legitimization.     

China’s Industrial Efficiency: An Empirical Analysis based on the Macro Level

After comparing ten company technical economic indicators, this paper selected the value-added rate of industry, overall labor productivity, the total asset contribution rate, the ratio of profit to industrial costs and the debt-to-asset ratio as the basis for a study of industrial efficiency.     

Ideology and America’s China Policy at the Time of the Founding of New China: A Reexamination of Acheson and the Question of Recognition

杜鲁门政府未能承认新中国的根本原因并非是国会和舆论的压力,而在于那个时期由反共主义和中美关系神话构成的独特的对华意识形态。正是这一意识形态使杜鲁门政府无论在信仰上还是在情感上都无法接受新中国,对新中国表现出异乎寻常的愤怒和远远超出其他国家的敌意。艾奇逊在这种意识形态的影响下,根本没有考虑承认新中国,他并非过去学者所认为的灵活的现实主义者,所谓的“失去的机会”说是建立在错误的前提和错误的逻辑之上的。     

Experiential Logic in the Transformation of Contemporary China’s Social Governance*

How does Chinese society maintain its orderly operation and show stability and harmony to the utmost while China rapidly transforms its economic system and international circumstances become increasingly complicated? This is an important question that this essay tries to answer, and the analysis mainly involves the exploratory practice of the transformation of Chinese social governance. This exploratory practice is a process through which China constantly breaks through the traditional blockades of vested interests, overcomes newly formed challenges, and forms a new Chinese-style “one axis and multiple components” pattern of social governance during its rapid re-establishment of both social relationship structure and social psychology order on the unbalanced and insufficient conditions of development within its vast territory. During this process, the constant return to the CPC’s mass line, as well as the “mechanism of reversed transmission of pressure,” the “anticipation-led mechanism” and the “mechanism of turning crisis into opportunity” that the CPC has improved during its long-term revolutionary struggles and its deepening of reform and opening-up, has played an important part. The simplistic duplication of Western theoretical analytic paradigms cannot explain the experiential mechanism for the transformation of social governance, which is peculiar to China. The creation of research framework of “system and life” is just an effort for comparison and dialogues with Western classical theories. It is not only helpful for the development of sociology about Chinese transformation, but will provide new knowledge for worldwide social transformation.     

An Analysis of the Determinants of the Changes in China’s Foreign Exchange Reserves’ Nominal and Real Rates of Return

We use decomposition and regression to examine the reasons for the changes in nominal and real rates of return of China’s foreign exchange reserves between 2002 and 2009. The results show that the US financial market risk premium is the most important determinant of changes in the nominal rate of return, while the US dollar exchange rate and the bulk commodity price are the two key determinants of changes in the real rate of return. From empirically based research, one may conclude that the loose monetary policy of the US Federal Reserve increases China’s foreign exchange reserves’ nominal rate of return but decreases the real rate of return and that the European debt crisis has an uncertain impact on China’s foreign exchange reserves’ nominal rate of return but may well raise the real rate of return.