金融危机下政府财政对就业的影响及作用研究——以印度与俄罗斯两国的做法为启示

就业不仅是经济问题,还是政治问题和社会问题。尽管各国具体国情不同,但在解决就业问题上都采取了相似的财政支出措施。当前的世界性金融危机无疑给各国的就业带来了巨大的冲击。我国解决就业问题时,应对比和借鉴各国在就业财政支出上的成功做法和经验,从加大投入,增加就业岗位,完善就业服务,强化职业培训等方面入手,以期实现充分就业。     

Recurrent explosive public debts and the long-run fiscal sustainability

In this paper, the dynamics of debt-to-GDP ratio is analyzed for three countries with long fiscal records: Sweden, the UK and the US. A novel procedure of testing for recurrent explosive behavior is implemented in order to identify episodes of explosive debt dynamics. The detected periods of explosive debt growth can be attributed to changes in economic, political and institutional environment which required active policy responses subsequently followed by fiscal adjustments. The results of the study indicate that the long-run sustainability found for these countries in other studies can be interpreted as the outcome of fluctuating fiscal policies, some of which were unsustainable.     

中美会计诚信缺失现象的比较分析

会计诚信缺失是个世界性问题。导致这种诚信缺失的具体原因互有异同。本文结合美国安然、世通公司的破产案例,就会计诚信缺失现象的“作弊”动机、外部环境、制度制约进行分析。     

《湖南省宪法》述评——以地方宪政主义为视角

《湖南省宪法》是近代中国联邦主义运动的产物,它的产生反映了地方宪政主义希望转变中国政治体制,以联邦体制替代中央集权体制的思想。它制订的程序和结构完全符合宪法基本原理,彰显了对民权的特别保护,划分省之事权也是地方分权的实际要求。但直接民主制的运用也从另一方面显示了其内在的深刻矛盾。尽管湖南省宪运动最后以失败告终,但其仍有时代的进步意义。     

中国城镇化进程中财政金融政策支持效率研究

中国的城镇化发展存在着人口城镇化明显滞后于空间城镇化的问题,这与现行的财政金融政策相关。基于DEA的Malmquist指数方法,可测算2005-2011年中国31个省份的财政金融政策支持城镇化效率指数,研究发现,从整体发展趋势来看,大部分年份财政金融政策效率呈下滑态势,财政金融政策并没有很好地支持城镇化建设,这突出表现为财政金融政策偏向于空间城镇化而忽视人口城镇化。这主要是受现行地方官员考核机制制约,地方政府在"政治锦标赛"中,倾向于积极推动空间城镇化,消极应对人口城镇化。所以,应建立正确的地方政府考核导向和考核指标体系,引导地方政府行为;合理划分中央与地方政府财政权利,增强地方政府财政的可持续能力;建立合理的金融资源供给模式,通过金融扶持推进农村居民进入城市创业和就业。     

论内战以前美国联邦政府在州公共管理中的作用

美国是实行联邦制的国家,联邦制主要是由《联邦宪法》确立的。根据《联邦宪法》,州应该负责处理本州内部事务,但是联邦政府通过赠送土地、拨款等方式,促进州内交通、教育、福利和卫生等方面的发展,也涉足州内事务。内战之前州权相对强大,但是联邦政府仍然在各方面影响州的政策。     

Public expenditure in the UK: how measures matter

Summary.  Studying spending over time requires reliable data. It is not clear that such data exist in the UK, however. The two published sources of functional spending numbers—the Office for National Statistics's 'blue book' and Her Majesty's Treasury's Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses (PESA)—rely on estimates of past spending, using a link year method, rather than recalculating actual spending figures when functional definitions change. We assess the various measures of spending in the UK. Specifically, we do two things. First, we present a new, third, set of spending numbers applying temporally consistent functional definitions to PESA microdata. Second, we compare the three measures. Our analyses indicate that the Office for National Statistics and PESA data differ quite markedly, especially for certain functions, i.e. in some cases the two measures imply completely different histories. The differences between the original PESA data and our new measures are less pronounced on average, though significant differences are evident, especially year by year.     

Restoring Law and (Racial) Order to the Old Dominion

In 2006, cities and counties across the USA began adopting ‘Illegal Immigration Relief Acts’ to relieve themselves of the economic and social burden that undocumented immigrants were allegedly presenting. By restricting the access of undocumented residents to housing, jobs and social services, local ordinances would encourage undocumented residents to ‘self-deport’ from the locality if not from the nation. Highly contentious, politically and juridically, local anti-illegal immigration laws have divided communities. Proponents maintain that such laws merely uphold the ‘rule of law’, while opponents see them as thinly veiled efforts to drive out Latin American residents, with immigration status serving as a proxy for race. A growing body of scholarship examines local anti-immigrant law and offers significant insights into the causes and undeniably racialized effects of these laws. Yet the issue of racism requires more scholarly attention. Critical race theory holds that all racisms are historically particular and must be examined as expressive of particular conjunctures. To that end, this essay develops a theoretically informed and historically grounded analysis of local anti-immigration law. It establishes local and national interests in local anti-immigrant law and explains how these interests converge. Through a case study of Prince William County (PWC), Virginia, I examine local anti-immigrant activism and connect them to larger political shifts in the contemporary USA. I argue that local white propertied interests converge with national conservative and federalist interests in the county's anti-illegal immigrant law. The essay seeks to demonstrate the value of bringing cultural studies methodology to bear on (local) immigration law.     

Debt threshold for fiscal sustainability assessment in emerging economies

This paper explores the debt threshold for fiscal sustainability assessment for 14 emerging economies during the period 1999–2016. The threshold point is identified as the level which, if exceeded, promptly raises sovereign risk to an unsustainable level. As such, we employ a panel threshold analysis to the determination of debt limit, which can serve as a distinctive feature from other studies on fiscal sustainability. Our results demonstrate that non-Latin American economies are considered to be sustainable in the short run, as their debts remain below the threshold bounds of 40–55% of GDP. However, the long-run sustainability risk may emerge from a continuous upward trend in debt paths, implying the need for rebuilding fiscal buffers. It is important to emphasize that fiscal sustainability is far more challenging for most Latin-American economies. This is indicated by their debt accumulation beyond the threshold level of roughly 35% of GDP which is relatively lower than that estimated for the other countries. Indeed, during times of high debt, emerging countries in Latin America also face higher default risk since their sovereign risk premium respond more strongly to debt rise. Their paths toward fiscal sustainability, hence, requires an immediate imposition of strict fiscal discipline to relieve the debt pressure.     

State Discretion and Medicaid Program Variation in Long-Term Care

Summary

Although federal statutes and regulations establish the broad parameters within which state Medicaid programs operate, the federal government grants states substantial discretion over Medicaid and Medicaid-funded long-term care. An appreciation of resulting cross-state variation in Medicaid program characteristics, however, has been lacking in the ongoing debate over whether the federal government should further devolve responsibility for caring for the poor and disabled elderly to the states. To better inform this discussion, therefore, this article documents considerable variation, not only in terms of Medicaid program spending and recipients, but also in terms of strategies chosen to reform long-term care services and financing. Since there is little doubt that states take full advantage of current levels of discretion, advocates of devolution may want to reassess their views to consider whether existing variation has resulted in inequities addressable only through more, not less, federal involvement.