EMERGENCE AND PERSISTENCE OF INEFFICIENT STATES

We present a theory of the emergence and persistence of inefficient states based on patronage politics. The society consists of rich and poor. The rich are initially in power, but expect to transition to democracy, which will choose redistributive policies. Taxation requires the employment of bureaucrats. By choosing an inefficient state structure, the rich may be able to use patronage and capture democratic politics, so reducing the amount of redistribution in democracy. Moreover, the inefficient state creates its own constituency and tends to persist over time. Intuitively, an inefficient state structure creates more rents for bureaucrats than would an efficient one. When the poor come to power in democracy, they will reform the structure of the state to make it more efficient so that higher taxes can be collected at lower cost and with lower rents for bureaucrats. Anticipating this, when the society starts out with an inefficient organization of the state, bureaucrats support the rich, who set lower taxes but also provide rents to bureaucrats. We obtain that the rich–bureaucrats coalition may also expand the size of bureaucracy excessively so as to generate enough political support. The model shows that an equilibrium with an inefficient state is more likely to arise when there is greater income inequality, when bureaucratic rents take intermediate values, and when individuals are sufficiently forward‐looking.     

Financial Globalization and the Governance of Domestic Financial Intermediaries

We model a small open economy in which both domestic financial intermediaries and entrepreneurs face incentive constraints, as in Holmstrom and Tirole (1997) , to study the general equilibrium impact of various types of capital inflows on the efficiency and governance of domestic banks. Banks have an advantage in monitoring firms, but the latter can collude with banks and offer side‐payments to reduce the intensity of monitoring. Opening up to international capital flows makes domestic banks’ capital scarcer relative to uninformed capital, thus increasing the relative cost of monitoring. We show that capital account liberalization has ambiguous effects on the governance of the domestic financial system by sometimes increasing firms’ incentives to collude with banks. We characterize the conditions under which governance is more likely to deteriorate after opening up the capital account, and discuss the effects on investment, productivity and output. We also analyze the effects of foreign direct investment in the corporate and banking sectors. Stylized facts are consistent with the predictions of the model.     

党的十六大对所有制理论的创新与发展

党的十六大在深化对社会主义认识的基础上 ,承继了多年来我党对传统所有制的理论突破和实践创新 ,进一步丰富和发展了马克思主义关于所有制问题的理论。提出理顺收入分配关系 ,“完善保护私人财产的法律制度” ,并强调要把坚持公有制的主体地位和促进非公有制经济的发展统一于社会主义现代化建设的进程中。显示了党和政府坚持现阶段基本经济制度这一政策的长期性、连续性和稳定性。对引导我国多种所有制经济的健康发展 ,必然产生深远影响     

民族院校大学生人格特征分析——以云南民族大学2005级学生调查为例

为了准确掌握民族院校大学生的人格特征,探讨不同群体大学生人格特征的共性和差异性,有针对性地做好学生的思想政治教育、心理健康教育工作,对2005级参加军训的1534名学生进行测量,结果发现:不同性别、不同生源、不同地区、不同家庭经济状况、不同民族、独生子女与非独生子女学生的人格特征在不同方面存在差异,针对差异可用其所长、避其所短,因材施教,促使学生健康成长、顺利成才。     

新世纪思想解放和理论创新的里程碑、宣言书——学习党的十六大报告

十六大报告不仅是中国共产党人新世纪思想解放和理论创新的一个重要里程碑,而且是中国共产党人新世纪思想解放和理论创新的一份重要的宣言书.深入学习贯彻十六大精神,一项十分重要的任务是,要以"思想无禁区、创新无止境"的巨大理论勇气,坚持"三个代表"重要思想为指导思想和根本标尺,坚持中华民族伟大复兴的时代主题,坚持"立足中国实际"和"放眼世界大势"相统一,坚持理论联系实际的马克思主义学风,大力推进思想解放和理论创新,不断深化对中国共产党执政规律、社会主义建设规律和人类社会发展规律的认识.     

论社会主义与民主政治之间的包涵关系

马克思主义基本理论与基本实践确认了社会主义与民主政治之间的包涵关系,进而从历史与现实的结合上证明了民主政治是社会主义的题中应有之义.也就是说,民主政治不仅是社会主义运动的本质规定,是社会主义制度的内在属性,是社会主义社会的基本特征,而且也是社会主义运动兴起以来所始终追求的远大目标,是确定人民当家作主地位的国家形式,是社会主义制度下发展市场经济的必然要求,是社会主义建设事业中一项重要的战略任务.因此,根据党的十六大做出的战略部署,必须在发展市场经济的同时加强民主政治建设,才能使社会主义建设事业获得全面进步,更好地贯彻与体现"三个代表"的重要思想,逐渐地接近与达到科学社会主义的理想境界.     

由新《民事诉讼法》第55条反思检察机关公益诉讼的法律保障

《民事诉讼法》第二次修正案第55条规定,“法律规定的机关”可以向人民法院提起公益诉讼,仍未明确检察机关的原告主体资格.依据法理分析,在国家利益、社会公共利益遭受侵犯却乏有救济时,人民检察院为维护公益代表国家支持起诉或提起诉讼,是其行使法定职能的表现.基于宪法、人民检察院组织法的立法精神和司法实践,有理由也有必要对人民检察院的公益诉讼起诉权予以肯定.我国检察机关提起环境公益诉讼的原告主体资格、受案范围、环境损害评估及其举证责任、法律程序、诉讼费用承担和案件执行等问题存在法律适用上的模糊或空白,这些为进一步完善法律规定提出任务.     

北魏统一中原前十六国政权的汉化先声

北魏统一中原前十六国政权的汉化先声,是魏晋南北朝民族大融合的重要组成部分。在十六国前后135年间,匈奴、羯、氐、羌、鲜卑先后建立的诸胡族政权,通过民族族源上的寻根认同、政治制度上的华夷互化、统治思想上的德天相辅、经济领域中的以农为本、文化领域中的尊儒重教,推动本民族的汉化与封建化进程,并初步完成这一历史使命。十六国政权的汉化成就不仅为北魏统一中原奠定了基础,也为后来隋文帝统一天下,开创隋唐两代民族和睦国家强盛的新局面做出了贡献。十六国统治者大都是一些汉化颇深的胡族首领,他们步中原秦、汉、魏、晋历代汉族统治者之后尘,推行汉化和封建化新政。正是因为十六国胡族政权的汉化特征较为平淡,故这一段民族融合的重要史实很少引起后世史学家们的重视和注意。     

Leadership selection: Can changing the default break the glass ceiling?

Leadership selection often requires candidates to actively choose to express their interest. Using a series of incentivized experiments with more than 1000 participants, we compare such an Opt-in mechanism with an Opt-out mechanism where everyone qualified for the position is in the candidate pool by default, but individuals can choose to opt out of the selection process. The results reveal a gender gap in participation decisions under the Opt-in mechanism. The gender gap exists even when individuals know they are the top performers, suggesting helping women improve their performance may not necessarily reduce gender gaps. Importantly, women are more likely to participate under the Opt-out mechanism and gender gaps in leadership selection are reduced.     

CREDIT CONSTRAINTS AND THE CYCLICALITY OF R&D INVESTMENT: EVIDENCE FROM FRANCE

We use a French firm‐level data set containing 13,000 firms over the period 1994–2004 to analyze the relationship between credit constraints and firms’ R&D behavior over the business cycle. Our main results can be summarized as follows: (i) R&D investment is countercyclical without credit constraints, but it becomes procyclical as firms face tighter credit constraints; (ii) this result is only observed for firms in sectors that depend more heavily upon external finance, or that are characterized by a low degree of asset tangibility; (iii) in more credit‐constrained firms, R&D investment plummets during recessions but does not increase proportionally during upturns.