On the origin of the WTA–WTP divergence in public good valuation

This paper tests whether individual perceptions of markets as good or bad for a public good is correlated with the propensity to report gaps in willingness to pay and willingness to accept revealed within an incentive compatible mechanism. Identifying people based on a notion of market affinity, we find a substantial part of the gap can be explained by controlling for some variables that were not controlled for before. This result suggests the valuation gap for public goods can be reduced through well-defined variables.     

Cultural deficiencies in ＂second-hand reading＂ of the classics and the reconstruction of the public intellectual sphere

基于以央视《百家讲坛》为代表的学者以个体阅读取代大众阅读的文化传播现象,本文率先提出“经典代读”这一核心概念。“经典代读”的文化缺失主要表现为三方面：受众出于对文化的渴求,被动地接受学者对经典的解读,导致自主阅读的角色缺位;媒体受商业利益驱动,以至于文化策略运用失当,文化角色定位偏移,因而出现角色越位;学者受制于大众媒体的强势导控与“受众为王”的商业逻辑,由文化理想的导航者蜕变为大众趣味的迎合者,导致角色错位。面对以上缺失,相应的对策是：聚合大学、公共图书馆、媒体等诸多社会公共资源,一同促使由媒体主导的经典“代读”向公众自身主导的“自读”转变,以此重建公共知识空间。     

The origins of the public debt of Italy: Geographically dispersed interests?

In this paper we reconstruct the macro regional government deficits of Italy and find that the aggregate deficit resulting from our estimates captures quite well the entire dynamics of the Italian national public deficit. This new data set shows that the ultimate cause of the accumulation of public debt of Italy lies in the extraordinary fiscal imbalance of the Southern regions. The new data allow us to test empirically a simple Common Pool model, augmented by a variable measuring the political influence of each macro region in the Government, to verify the existence of a geographically dispersed interests issue for the Italian case. Our measure of political influence turns out to significantly explain the regions’ deficits also when controlling for population and income gaps. In addition, using a J-test approach, we find that including the predictions of the Common Pool–Pork Barrel regional model into a general model of the Italian national deficit turns out to greatly increase its explanatory power. The results call for deep institutional reforms of the fiscal decentralization so far implemented in Italy.     

From administering administrative divisions to regional public administration： a game analysis of evolution in the pattern of governance by the government

区域公共管理实质上是政府治理方式上的制度变迁,即打破原有行政区行政的制度安排,重塑利益格局的制度演变过程。在这一过程中,始终贯穿着不同利益主体的博弈,从而最终形成新的制度——相关因素充分博弈后的契约格局。这些博弈关系主要包括中央政府与地方政府的博弈、地方政府之间的博弈等。对可能出现的博弈困境提出树立合作的“重复博弈”思维,建立良好的信息沟通以及双边或多边协商机制,进一步转变政府职能、斩断地方政府与社会经济主体的利益连带关系,强化中央政府的宏观调控职能,是建立区域公共管理制度、实现政府治理形态嬗变的有效引导性对策。     

Can a ‘veil of ignorance’ reduce the impact of distortionary taxation on public good valuations?

Journal of Risk and Uncertainty - Monetary valuations for mortality and health risk reductions, elicited through stated preference surveys, have been shown to include values placed on others’...     

The “ugly” face of social investment? The politics of childcare in Central and Eastern Europe

In this article, we aim to understand the development dynamics of a specific area of social investment (SI), that is, childcare policies, in the context of postcommunist politics and the recent right-wing turn that took place in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. This article identifies varieties of channels for promoting SI. First, in taking the perspective of the “mixed economy of welfare,” we argue that attempts made to introduce elements of SI to the childcare policies involved various leading roles available for either the private sector or state/public domain. Second, it is important to distinguish between implicit/unintended and explicit/intended projects both in relation to cases in which SI strategy is applied via marketization/privatization and when it involves a government-led project. Third, we take into account the politics of SI implementation that might involve applying certain principles central to policy concepts (such as “investment”) in justifying policy instruments incompatible with original ideas. Although arguments about SI have been extensively used by Eastern European leaders, their goal has been to justify welfare reforms that were implicitly or explicitly directed towards the middle class while excluding the “nondeserving” often based on ethnic identity. We characterize Poland as a case of “implicit marketization,” the Czech Republic as a case of “explicit privatization,” and the Hungarian version of SI as a case of “explicit public dualization.” In this, we show that in some cases, the implementation of SI approaches by right-wing populist parties might rear its “ugly” head.     

Do administrators have the same priorities for risk reductions as the general public?

A stated preference survey was used to investigate the potential discrepancy between the priorities of public administrators and the general public regarding risk reductions. Both groups of respondents were asked to assume the role of a public policy-maker and choose between different public safety projects. We investigate differences in three areas: (i) large vs. small accidents, (ii) actual vs. subjective risk, and (iii) the trade-off between avoiding fatalities and serious injuries for different age groups and accidents. We find only minor differences between the responses of administrators and the general public, the most important of which is the difference in priorities between reducing the risk of many small or one large accident. In this area the most common response from the general public is that they prefer avoiding many small accidents rather than one large accident while among the administrators there is almost an equal split between the two options.     

Revisiting the guns vs butter dilemma. Was Spain different in the implementation of public policies? Defence,growth and education

Over the past few decades, numerous studies have been conducted on the trade-off between guns and butter, namely defence spending versus social sector expenditure. It is striking that none has examined the situation in Spain. Previous research on other countries has not provided strong and unambiguous evidence of either positive or negative effects for military expenditure on social spending. We test whether government expenditure on defence contributed positively or negatively to education spending in twentieth-century Spain, attempting to identify policy-making processes within a historical framework. The results show both direct and indirect effects and bring to light the negative consequences of military spending on education expenditure, in particular between the second and fifth year after the military expenditure increases.     

On the Historic Evolution of the Tibetan Policy of the American Government

The Tibet policy of the American government is part of its China policy.From     

On the Theoretical Positioning of the Philosophy of Culture

The philosophy of culture became aprominent school of thought in Chinese philo-sophical circles in the 1980s and 1990s.However, one of the major problems con-fronted by studies of the philosophy of cul-ture is its indistinct theoretical boundaries,largely due to the uncertainty of the categoryof culture.     

On the Globalization of the Economy

Somepeopletracetheglobalizationoftheeconomybacktothe15thcentury,whencapitalismwasinitsembryonicstageinEuropeandEuropeanmerchantsbegantodobusinesswithothercontinents.However,thistradeofapIunderingnaturewasonlyapreludetomoderncapitalistlarge-scaleproductionandworldmarkets,apreparationforthelaterinternationalizationofproductionandtheglobalizationoftheeconomyweseetoday.Inthemid-l8thcentury,thefirstscientificandtechnologicalandindustrialrevolutionsoccurred,resultinginthetransformationofhandicraftp…     

The Formation and Main Breakthroughs of the Theory of a Socialist Market Economy-In Celebration of the Twentieth Anniversary of the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China

Withoutacorrectreformtheorytherewouldbenosuccessfulreformpractice.ThebasicreasonforthetremendousachievementsinChina'sreformandopening-upsincetheThirdPlenarySessionoftheEleventhCentralCommitteeinDecember1978isthattheyhavebeencarriedoutundertheguidanceofDengXiaopingtheory.DengXiaopingtheoryincorporatesextensiveknowledgeandprofoundscholarshipandconstitutesascientificsystem.DengXiaoping'seconomictheoryisaveryimportantcomponentofthisscientificsystemandthesocialistpoliticaleconomicsincontempora…     

Declaration of the Aesthetics of Comedy

当前中国的美学研究是在传统的知识论哲学的基础上进行的,因而"什么是美?"就成了美学研究的根本问题。本文认为,应当从生存论哲学的立场出发去研究美学。这样一来,美学研究的根本问题就转换成"为什么人类需要美?"在人类发展的历史上,之所以会产生美的意识,并逐步形成一门相对独立的学科,是因为美学对人类的生存是有意义的。谁都不会否认,异化、紧张和冲突构成了当代人的生存状态,因而当代人的主导性的审美需要不再是加剧这一状态的悲剧美学,而是喜剧美学。喜剧美学的核心是通过喜剧性(轻松、俏皮、滑稽和幽默)消解异化、紧张和冲突得以形成的不切实际的理想,从而激发当代人的生命力和创造性,使他们从精神上逐步摆脱并超越这一生存状态。     

Who uses public childcare for 2‐year‐old children? Coherent family policies and usage patterns in Sweden,Finland and Western Germany

European countries have increased their public childcare provision for children under age 3. However, it is unclear if and how usage patterns differ across countries. This study examined the relationship between the socio‐economic characteristics of mothers and the use of childcare for 2‐year‐old children. Using European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions data for the years 2005–2008, we analysed the characteristics of mothers and usage patterns in Sweden, Finland and Western Germany. To single out the effect of maternal employment, working and non‐working mothers were investigated separately. Our findings showed that, in Sweden, a country with strong support for dual‐earner families, usage was largely independent of mothers' characteristics. However, in Western Germany, where more support is given to male breadwinner families, and in Finland, a country with pluralistic family support, highly educated mothers were found to be more likely to use childcare than were mothers with lower levels of education.     

A Collectionof Discourseson Philosophy of the Economy TheRise of Philosophy of the Economyin China

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The Sociology of Practice and the Analysis of the Practical Process of Market Transition

“市场转型理论”有四个特点:第一,所关心的主要是正式组织和制度等结构性特征。第二,对于结构性特征的关注,主要是通过大规模问卷调查的方式进行的。第三,基本的理论视角是自上而下的。第四,布达佩斯学派所研究的市场转型国家,主要是东欧,特别是中欧的匈牙利。在这些社会中,市场转型伴随着政体的断裂。本文以对中国市场转型的经验性研究为基础,提出一种“对市场转型实践过程的分析”的研究路径。这种研究路径强调面对市场转型的具体实践过程,通过对市场转型中的过程、机制、技术和逻辑的关注,来实现对市场转型的新的理解。这种路径在方法上更加重视深度的个案研究,并通过将“日常生活”看作是“上”“下”两种力量互动的舞台,来综合“自上而下”和“自下而上”两种互相对立的视角。     

On the Character of Universality:A Comparative Study on the Mor-phology of the Traditional Phi-losophies of China and the West

Since the era of Plato and Aristotle,Western philosophy has defined the pursuitof universal knowledge as its final goal, lead-ing to the rise of the absolute concept ofuniversality and the world of absolute prin-ciples composed of universal concepts. Tra-ditional philosophy in the West is a learningin search of universal knowledge while thehighest aim for traditional Chinese philoso-phy is to acquire the realm of Tao. This isthe demarcation line dividing the morphol-ogy of the traditional ph…     

Viewing the Socialist Market Economy in the Light of the Dual Nature of Labor

Thesocialistmarketeconomyisaneweconomicforminthehistoryofmankind.Inordertounderstandthecomplexrelationshipswithinthesocialistmarketeconomy,IbelieveonemustgraspthemostbasicandimPortantprincipleofhistoricalmaterialism,thatis,Marx'sconceptofthedualnatureoflabor.Anydiscussionofthistopicmuststartwiththesocializationofman'slabor.Inthedifferenthistoricalstagesofthedevelopmentofsocialproductionforces,thesocialnatureoflabormanifestsindifferentforms.Inanaturaleconomy,sociallaboristobefoundwithinthenar…     

The Shun Culture Is the Origin of the Moral Culture of the Chinese Nation

According to the 1atest findings of the“Xia—Shang—Zhou Dynasties Dating Project,