Business reform outcomes: Why so different?

Post-crisis policy making increasingly focuses on doing business reforms. We argue that the effects of those reforms will be different across countries. To understand the reasons for the reform outcome divergence, we advance a novel firm-size distribution (FSDs) argument. At the center of the argument is the fact that FSDs are different across countries and stable over time. Then, if a given doing business reform induces firms of different size to grow differently, this will produce a variety of reform outcomes across countries. To advance the argument, we set up a tractable general equilibrium (GE) model and study how firms of different size grow after a doing business reform. The model predicts that larger firms will grow faster than smaller firms after the reform. The model predictions are tested on the Enterprise Surveys (ES) data, merged with the Doing Business indicators. We confirm that firms of different size grow differently after a Doing Business reform. Thus, based on the notable differences of firm size distributions across countries, identical reforms to start, operate and close a business will produce a variety of reform outcomes across countries.     

The myth of price convergence under economic integration: A proposed explanation for the difference in food prices across European countries

Conventional globalization theory states that regional economic integration will precede price standardization across participating countries due to the increased buying power of large retail groups and parallel imports. The resulting price corridor should merely reflect differences in logistic costs and short-term, local competitive actions. Yet, this study uses panel data from 25 European countries to examine how hefty food and beverage price differentials between regions remained constant over the last decade. Income, store productivity, and market concentration all contribute to the explanation for regional price differences. These findings suggest that, contrary to straight-line globalization theory, large European retailers’ decisions can influence price convergence and maintain important price dispersion between economically integrated countries. We provide recommendations to enhance market integration.     

数字经济供给使用表:概念架构与编制实践研究

数字经济供给使用表是数字经济卫星账户的核心表式,具有统计协调和分析工具的双重作用,能够准确监测数字经济产业发展规模及传统产业与数字经济的融合程度。目前,国际上对数字经济供给使用表的研究尚处于初期探索阶段,还未有国家编制出基于实际数据的数字经济供给使用表,经济合作与发展组织(OECD)对数字经济供给使用表的理论框架进行了前瞻性探索,但系统的数字经济供给使用表构建指南还亟待完善。本文首先从供给和使用层面构建数字经济供给使用表概念框架,界定数字经济特征活动的概念和范围,梳理OECD 划分的数字经济供给使用表中的产品清单和数字经济产业分类;阐释数字经济最终消费、固定资本形成、贸易活动的内涵和种类。其次,围绕“产品×产业×特征活动”三重维度,设计数字经济供给使用表整体架构、阐明其核心指标。再次,编制数字经济供给使用表实例,剖析编制流程、总结编制要点。最后,提出结论和建议。本文尝试完善数字经济统计核算体系,为提出促进我国数字经济高质量发展的政策建议提供核算方法参考。     

论现代经济预测方法的分类原理

分析了现代经济预测的定化、面对数据流、灰色、非线性、动态和智能化等主要特征。简要回顾了经济预测的传统分类方法，认为它己不能很好地满足现代经济预测的要求。然后，根据现代经济的预测特征，结合现代数学、计算机技术和信息技术等的发展，提出了一种新的经济预测分类方法。并阐述了这种分类方法在现代经济预测中所适用的范围。由于现代经济的变化是复杂多变的，在预测时为了准确、真买、迅速地反映其运行规律，有时采用多种预测方法组合预测，有时采用动态仿真预测。     

The politics of the Digital Single Market: culture vs. competition vs. copyright

This paper examines the implications for European music culture of the European Union’s (EU) Digital Single Market strategy. It focuses on the regulatory framework being created for the management of copyright policy, and in particular the role played by collective management organisations (CMOs or collecting societies). One of the many new opportunities created by digitalisation has been the music streaming services. These depend on consumers being able to access music wherever they are, but such a system runs counter to the management of rights on a national basis and through collecting organisations which act as monopolies within their own territories. The result has been ‘geo-blocking’. The EU has attempted to resolve this problem in a variety of ways, most recently in a Directive designed to reform the CMOs. In this paper, we document these various efforts, showing them to be motivated by a deep-seated and persisting belief in the capacity of ‘competition’ to resolve problems that, we argue, actually lie elsewhere – in copyright policy itself. The result is that the EU’s intervention fails to address its core concern and threatens the diversity of European music culture by rewarding those who are already commercially successful.     

Public housing into private assets: Wealth creation in urban China

State socialist economies provided public housing to urban citizens at nominal cost, while allocating larger and better quality apartments to individuals in elite occupations. In transitions to a market economy, ownership is typically transferred to existing occupants at deeply discounted prices, making home equity the largest component of household wealth. Housing privatization is therefore a potentially important avenue for the conversion of bureaucratic privilege into private wealth. We estimate the resulting inequalities with data from successive waves of a Chinese national income survey that details household assets and participation in housing programs. Access to privatization programs was relatively equal across urban residents in state sector occupations. Elite occupations had substantially greater wealth in the form of home equity shortly after privatization, due primarily to their prior allocations of newer and higher quality apartments. The resulting gaps in private wealth were nonetheless small by the standards of established market economies, and despite the inherent biases in the process, housing privatization distributed home equity widely across those who were resident in public housing immediately prior to privatization.     

The Politics of Conversion: Religious Change,Materiality and Social Hierarchy in Central Upland Borneo

Contrary to the assumption that religious conversion is strongly influenced by the hegemony of global forces (colonialism and modern state formation) over local communities, this paper argues that internal class antagonisms and material conditions also play an important role in the dynamics of adoption of or resistance to Christianity. By taking narratives of inter-class contestation between aristocrats (paren) and commoners (panyin) and ritual changes among the Kayan-Kenyah in upland Central Borneo during periods of religious conversion, this paper shows the significance of social hierarchy on people’s decisions to change or retain their religious practices.     

朝鲜家训中的经济思想

朝鲜家训深受儒家思想的影响。从家训中的经济内容中可见朝鲜士大夫在治产上讲究以农为本;治家则追求勤俭节约,凡事统筹安排,量入为出;对日常生活原则的规定中则透露出崇尚美德,救济同族,安贫乐道的士人精神。     

影响我国都市圈经济总量的因素分析——基于12大都市圈的面板数据

借助当前我国发展较成熟的12个都市圈的相关数据，通过建立多元回归模型，考察分析都市圈经济发展背后的影响因素，研究表明：都市圈中心城市辐射力、都市圈联系力和设施水平等因素对经济发展较快的都市圈经济总量有显著影响；经济发展较慢的都市圈的经济总量则主要受到都市圈消费能力和教育水平的影响，还受到一些都市圈软实力因素的影响。