The paradox of illicit economies: survival,resilience, and the limits of development and drug policy orthodoxy

ABSTRACT

The illicit drug crops opium and coca are conventionally regarded as sources of instability, an ‘evil’ that breeds fragility and violence. Fragile states are supposed to be most vulnerable to their production and consequent harms. Yet by looking into the local contexts of the world’s leading opium and coca producers – Afghanistan, Myanmar, Colombia and Bolivia – these illicit crops are found to also be sources of stability, even drivers of economic growth. They enable marginalized communities and territories abandoned by the state to be reinserted into national and global markets. Within so-called ‘fragile’ and conflict-affected areas are displaced and dispossessed households adopting innovative and unorthodox strategies for coping and survival in changing and insecure environments. This paper maps out an approach, useful for examining the resilience that has emerged amidst violence and uncertainty in illicit-crop-producing territories, and which can hopefully tackle the continuing disconnect between drugs and development policy.     

Crisis of Natural Building Materials and Institutionalised Self-Help Housing: The Case of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh

Traditional rural housing is largely based on the use of locally available natural resources as prime building materials, usually in a process of self-help building undertaken by the community. Such housing is well adapted to a natural environment with widely available resources, and supports people's direct involvement in the construction of their dwellings. However, the advent of a cash economy and current scarcity of natural resources has greatly affected the self-help building process. In rural Bangladesh, affluent households are shifting to manufactured materials and skilled builders, and the quality of housing of low-income households is declining. For the latter, self-help is the only option, and recognition of this fact and of the increasing decline in the quality of their housing has prompted institutional intervention. This paper discusses the Grameen Bank's rural housing programme in Bangladesh which provides loans for manufactured building components for low-income rural households to build houses on a self-help basis. A review of this programme indicates some of its strengths and shortcomings in the context of scarcity of natural building materials and widespread poverty.     

分题选择完型填空与集库式完型填空的对比实验

完型填空是一种被许多大规模考试所广泛采用的题型,但对于这种题型的研究在国内却很少。本文在对完型填空进行综合概述的基础上,对两种操作性很强的完型填空形式,即分题选择完型填空与集库式完型填空,作了对比研究,结果表明前者与词汇语法测试的相关较高,而后者与阅读理解测试的相关很高,从而证明集库式完型填空是一种具有较高效率的阅读理解测试方式。     

1949年国民党上海市银行的接收清理与结束

上海市银行于1929年由上海市政府设立,是国民党政府时期的一家典型地方政府银行。上海解放后,根据新民主主义经济政策的规定,被新中国政府列入接管的范围。1949年原国民党上海市银行被接收、清理和结束表明,原上海市银行的体制、机制、组织人事,更多地带有政府机关的特征,其业务经营也主要服务于原上海地方政府的财政收支及日常运作,这是该银行的基本属性使然。上海市银行与四行二局往来联系较密切,是整个官僚资本金融体系的重要组成部分。     

Deregulation,bank efficiency and economic cooperation across China–Taiwan Strait

This study investigates whether deregulation has affected bank efficiency in the ‘cross-strait’ relationship between China and Taiwan. I measure bank efficiency across three periods – after Taiwan and China joined the World Trade Organization, the global financial crisis, and the signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) – and show that Taiwanese banks were significantly more efficient than their Chinese counterparts. These results show that the ECFA platform has not improved bank efficiency and thus has failed to function effectively. This finding suggests that China and Taiwan should continue negotiating within the ECFA context to enhance cross-strait financial cooperation.     

Minimum income in the Western Balkans: From socialism to the European Pillar of Social Rights

In this article, we examine the evolution of minimum income programmes in the Western Balkans (comprising Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia). During socialism, Yugoslavia developed a rudimentary minimum income protection programme, while Albania did not have one. As countries moved towards a market economy, socialism's legacy remained relevant, but especially since 2000, governments have taken more direct responsibility for the minimum income schemes—typically under the influence of the World Bank. The attention was paid to strict targeting accuracy rather than to adequacy or sufficient coverage of the lowest deciles. In essence, neither socialist nor neoliberal policymakers ever recognised anything but the poverty relief function of the minimum income. Both ideologies were hostile, or at best indifferent, to increasing the adequacy and generosity of minimum income programmes, perceiving them as impediments and distractions that slowed socialist and neoliberal transformations. Despite some reform initiatives supported by the World Bank and, more recently, the European Union, the generosity and adequacy of minimum income programmes remain low, and coverage keeps declining. There have been very few efforts to develop inclusion function of the minimum income, while the activation aspect has achieved very little, sometimes degrading into punitive programmes of unpaid community work. In this dismal picture, the European Pillar of Social Rights action framework could serve as a guide for a long overdue third phase in the Western Balkans' minimum income policy evolution.     

金融要素扭曲与企业创新活动

本文利用世界银行的企业调查数据并将四大国有商业银行的市场份额作为金融要素市场化的代理指标,分析了金融要素扭曲对企业创新活动的影响。实证研究发现：金融要素扭曲对企业的研发投入和创新成果都具有抑制作用,这种抑制作用在不同所有制企业间具有异质性,相比国有企业,私营企业的创新活动受金融要素扭曲的抑制作用更大。中小企业的研发投入对金融要素的扭曲的敏感性要高于大型企业,在过程创新中,金融要素扭曲对中小型企业的影响更大,但在产品创新过程中,金融要素的扭曲的对大型企业的影响则更强。本文的研究提供了金融要素扭曲对经济增长有负面的影响的来自企业创新的微观证据。因此,全面推进的金融要素市场化改革有助于企业的创新活动,从而为国家经济转型提供持续创新与发展的动力。     

陕西长篇小说难于结缘影视剧的原因分析——兼谈司南长篇小说《民国银号》所具备的电视剧创作因素

陕西号称文学大省,长篇小说创作曾出现过极度繁荣的景象。近30多年来长篇小说的创作出版量堪称丰富,在读者界、批评界产生较为广泛影响的作品也有一些。遗憾的是,陕西长篇小说走向电影和电视剧的作品却屈指可数。影视剧的商业属性和国家相关政策特殊规定,要求长篇小说从主题、人物和情节必须具备符合改编影视剧的基本要素。陕西长篇小说与影视剧创作难于结缘的最主要原因,就是创作者普遍缺乏发现挖掘一个具有影视商业价值同时有深刻主题的能力,在人物创造与整体结构方面也普遍存在松散问题。司南创作的长篇小说《民国银号》以独特罕见的视角为读者完整打开了清末至建国前民间金融家生存发展的这样一个世界,人物命运紧贴复杂动荡的政治时局而变迁沉浮,明显具备改编为一部优秀电视剧的要素。     

基于关系型贷款的城市商业银行小企业贷款定价研究

城市商业银行与小企业有着天然的、共生共荣的联系。如何制定一个科学合理的小企业贷款利率定价机制,是城市商业银行经营决策中的重要课题。通过对某城市商业银行的小企业贷款定价现状进行的实证分析,发现银行主要侧重于风险的考虑,忽略了银企之间的“关系”因素,没有借助“关系”收集并利用“软”信息进行准确定价。在此基础上,以关系型贷款作为小企业贷款定价的指导思想,研究设计了基于关系型贷款的定价思路。     

Jean Valjean Bank in Korea: an innovative approach to poor defendants sentenced to pay fines

ABSTRACT

This study aims to introduce Jean Valjean Bank in South Korea which is an innovative approach supporting poor defendants who cannot pay fines and accordingly are imprisoned. In Korea, it is reported that we have more than 40,000 Jean Valjeans annually. As a civil movement against the unfair criminal justice system, a non-governmental organisation Human Rights Solidarity (Inkwon Yondae in Korean) opened Jean Valjean Bank in 2015. Jean Valjean Bank targets poor defendants who are not able to pay fines and who are confined to prison because of non-payment of fines. As of December 2017, the Bank has loaned KRW1,024 million to 545 persons with an average loan per participant of KRW1,879,700. The Bank reported that, among the receivers, 84 persons completed redemption and 277 persons are redeeming loans to the Bank. This study concludes with implications for reforms in criminal justice system in Korea.