The White House and public relations: Examining the linkages between presidential communications and public opinion

This study investigates the linkages between presidential public relations activities—speeches and press conferences—and public opinion towards the presidency from 1961 to 1997. The results show that there is a positive linkage between presidential news conferences and foreign policy job approval, and between presidential speeches and general as well as foreign policy job approval. Overall, the findings reveal stronger linkages between presidential news conferences and job approval than between presidential speeches and job approval, but also that the topic of the information subsidies and the specific type of job approval matters.     

Journalists’ assessments of public relations subsidies and contact preferences: Exploring the situation in Spain

The aim of this article is to offer journalists’ assessment of their relationships with public relations professionals in the Autonomous Community of Catalonia (Spain). We analyzed quantitative interviews (questionnaires) and in-depth interviews conducted with 68 Catalan journalists regarding their relationship with public relations practitioners and investigated their assessments of public relations subsidies and contact preferences. An explanatory view is offered.     

坚持粮食流通市场化改革方向，完善粮食最低收购价政策

粮食最低收购价政策在执行过程中，发挥了政策优势，也面临一些问题。必须坚持粮食流通市场化改革方向，建立以直接补贴为核心的粮食最低收购价政策，以更好地发挥粮食最低收购价政策的效力。     

WTO《农业协议》下的粮食安全——基于发达与发展中国家博弈的思考

国家粮食安全的本质要素决定了发达与发展中国家的博弈,但两者实力的悬殊导致WTO《农业协议》对粮食安全作出了不平衡的规定,这严重限制了发展中国家粮食安全的政策空间。多哈农业谈判也不能根本改变这一现状。因此,对于发展中国家而言,保障粮食安全不能仅依赖于贸易,而应从两方面着手:一是从公平贸易出发,争取农业发展的有利外部环境;二是从开放与保护相结合出发,加强国内政策对粮食生产的支持。     

Policy Incentives for Dangerous (But Necessary) Operations

In industries where firms perform dangerous (but necessary) operations, liability costs—due to potential harm to third parties—can be significant. Firms may therefore find it optimal to exit the market, and this may lead to an inefficiently low number of incumbents. A social planner can discourage exit by offering appropriately designed subsidies. Ex ante subsidies defray the costs associated with making operations safer (e.g., funds to subsidize the purchase of safety equipment). Ex post subsidies mitigate the financial damages caused by an accident (e.g., funds to defray the cost of cleaning up a toxic spill). We consider a model where (i) firms have private information about their ability to improve reliability and (ii) reliability investments are unobservable. We demonstrate that when the social value of reliability outweighs the benefit of increased competition, it is optimal to offer ex ante subsidies alone (i.e., to subsidize the cost of making operations safer). Conversely, when the benefits of competition outweigh the benefits of reliability, a combination of ex ante and ex post subsidies is optimal (i.e., not only to subsidize safer operations, but also to share the costs of a potential accident).     

新型农村社会养老保险制度的缺陷与完善

国家新型农村社会养老保险制度具有明显的优越性,但其实施方案也存在政策的缺陷:中央财政按东部和中西部划分的财政补助方式虽有一定依据,但并不合理,尤其是对东部地区部分省份不公平.应通过构建地区"农村养老负担能力指数",科学地对各省、市、自治区予以分档补助.新农保制度的账户设计,在缴费环节、基金管理以及待遇给付等方面也存在一些问题,应进行相应的政策改进.     

体育产业上市公司政府补助与经营绩效关系研究——基于股权集中度的调节效应检验

体育产业作为我国支柱产业之一,在提升经济总量、改善经济质量和促进社会就业等方面地位极其重要。以48家体育产业上市公司2011—2018年面板数据作为研究对象,运用固定效应回归方法及调节效应检验研究政府补助与经营绩效之间的关系及股权集中度对上述关系的调节作用。研究结果表明：政府补助与经营绩效显著正相关且存在一定的滞后效应,政府补助对企业绩效的影响随着时间的积累逐渐增强;股权集中度与经营绩效显著正相关,股权集中度可正向调节政府补助对企业经营绩效的影响。体育产业上市公司应合理利用政府补助的经营绩效提升作用,利用自身资源优势及投资机会以实现健康可持续发展。     

Study on a resource allocation formula for social services in Finland

This article considers how a specific need-based resource allocation formula for children's day care, income support, child welfare and other social services was developed. The formula is needed for the municipal allocation of state subsidies for social services, and the work was performed for the Ministry of Social Welfare and Health. Cross-sectional data were collected from the 436 Finnish municipalities and 37 small areas within the six largest cities. Because of the simultaneous relationship between supply and demand of services, two-stage least-square estimation and structural equations models were used in the analysis. After the effect of supply was removed from the service utilisation data, group-need factors (municipal variables) were found for these services. The new formula is financially and administratively feasible, transparent and reasonably simple.     

Environmental Taxes and the Choice of Green Technology

We study several important aspects of using environmental taxes to motivate the choice of innovative and “green" emissions‐reducing technologies as well as the role of fixed cost subsidies and consumer rebates in this process. In our model, a profit‐maximizing monopolistic firm facing price‐dependent demand selects emissions control technology, production quantity, and price in response to the tax, subsidy, and rebate levels set by the regulator. The available technologies vary in environmental efficiency as well as in the fixed and variable costs. Both the optimal policy for the firm and the social‐welfare maximizing policy for the regulator are analyzed. We find that the firm's reaction to an increase in taxes may be non‐monotone: while an initial increase in taxes may motivate a switch to a greener technology, further tax increases may motivate a reverse switch. For the regulator, we compare the social welfare achievable in the centralized system (which serves as an upper bound) to the highest level achievable under different classes of environmental policies. If the regulator is limited to a tax‐only policy, then when the regulator is moderately concerned with environmental impacts, the tax level that maximizes social welfare simultaneously motivates the choice of clean technology and closes the gap to the upper bound; however, both low and high levels of societal environmental concerns may lead to the choice of dirty technology and significant welfare losses as compared to the centralized case. Supplementing the environmental taxation with fixed cost subsidies and consumer rebates can eliminate this effect, expanding the range of parameters over which the green technology is chosen and often closing the welfare gap to the centralized solution.     

粮食直补对农户种粮积极性的影响

通过农户模型进行分析,理论推导的结论表明：在国内农业生产成本上升的背景下粮食补贴依然有效;运用2003-2010年全国农村固定观察点数据,使用面板Tobit模型以及面板数据分位数估计的方法证实了理论推导的结论。研究进一步表明,与粮食种植面积相挂钩的补贴方式对农户种粮积极性的激励作用要明显大于脱钩的补贴方式;此外,种粮成本对农户种粮积极性的抑制作用要远大于粮食直补的促进作用。