'Sharing the Proceeds of Growth': Conservative Economic Policy under David Cameron

Upon becoming Conservative leader, David Cameron, and his Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne, initially sought to compete with Labour by pledging increased expenditure on education and the NHS, and thereby insisting that tax cuts would have to wait. Rather than cutting taxation overall, the emphasis was on restructuring and simplifying Britain's tax system, and shifting the burden towards the better off, mainly thorough promoting environmental taxes. However, the economic collapse at the end of 2008 has prompted the Conservatives to modify this new economic stance, by insisting that they will no longer match Labour's planned increases in public expenditure, but, instead, will increase it at a lower rate. This is intended to reduce the need to increase government borrowing during the recession, and thereby ensure that when the economy recovers, the proceeds of economic growth can be shared between higher public expenditure and lower taxation, rather than being spent on repaying government debt for many years ahead.     

优化规制:中国政府规制改革的现实选择

在西方放松规制的潮流下,中国政府规制改革应何去何从?本文首先对规制的意义进行区分和界定,并追溯美国政府规制的发展轨迹,然后结合我国的情况,提出了中国规制改革的取向--优化规制.     

Richard Layard's Happiness: Worn Philosophy, Weak Psychology, Wrong Method and Just Plain Bad Economics!

Richard Layard believes that he has discovered the roots of happiness. He posits that: those in the West have been duped into playing the zero-sum game of trying to outdo everyone else; that unhappiness is associated with all forms of rivalry; that happiness is located in the socialist ethos; and that pubic policy should be set to inhibit activities that bring extra income without extra happiness. When the salient features of the analysis are examined, they are found to be seriously flawed. Although Layard might be applauded for seeking to broaden the remit of economics, a narrow utilitarian preoccupation with activities that make life better or worse against a linear scale delivers an analysis of an amoral and self-contained agency that reveals virtually nothing of the socio-psychology of the human condition.     

Carbon Taxation and Policy Labeling: Experience from American States and Canadian Provinces

A vast economics literature embraces taxation of the carbon content of fossil fuels as the superior policy approach for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, experience around the world suggests that carbon taxes face exceedingly difficult political hurdles. Federal experience in the United States and in Canada confirms this pattern. This article reviews sub‐federal policy development among American states and Canadian provinces, a great many of which have pursued climate policy development. With one major exception, explicit carbon taxation appears to remain a political nonstarter. At the same time, states and provinces have been placing indirect carbon prices on fossil fuel use through a wide range of policies. These tend to strategically alter labeling, avoiding the terms of “tax” and “carbon” in imposing costs. The article offers a framework for considering such strategies and examines common design features, including direct linkage between cost imposition and fund usage to build political support.     

国际金融监管的新趋势及其对我国的启示

随着金融全球化、网络化、集团化的发展,国际金融监管在监管目标、监管内容、监管重心、监管技术和监管的国际合作方面出现了一些新的趋势,对我国金融监管体系的构建具有重要的参考价值。     

The Environment: A Winner for the Liberal Democrats?

While the Liberal Democrats have a long-standing commitment to environmental sustainability and have over the years developed a range of policies acclaimed by the green NGOs, there remain doubts about the depth of that commitment. In particular, the party's local government environmental record is not notably better than its rivals. With the Conservatives and others now heavily promoting their green credentials, the Liberal Democrats face the dilemma of either being outflanked on the green reputation front or having to adopt much tougher policies that some in the party believe will lose votes. The author argues that one course of action would be to seek cross-party support for achieving agreed environmental targets supported by a menu of tough policies to be introduced if those targets are missed.     

The early modern origins of contemporary European tax outcomes

What explains variation in tax outcomes between European states? Previous studies emphasise the role played by political institutions, but focus mostly on the input side of politics – how access to power and policy making is structured – and the institutions of relatively recent times. It is argued in this article that output‐side institutions related to the implementation of political decisions also matter and have deep institutional origins. As the classic literature has argued, the early modern period from 1450 to 1800 was formative for the development of fiscal capacity, but European states diverged in the stock of capacity they acquired. This article tests whether these differences still affect contemporary tax outcomes using a novel measure of fiscal capacity, based on the age, extent and quality of state‐administered cadastral records. The empirical analysis shows that, on average, countries with higher early modern fiscal capacity have higher tax revenue today, compared to countries with lower early modern fiscal capacity. This association is robust to different model specifications and alternative measurements. The findings have important policy implications as they indicate how deeply the current fiscal problems of the continent are entrenched, but also point to what needs to be prioritised within ongoing tax reforms.     

西部地区运用财税政策吸引FDI效果的实证研究

90年代中后期国家陆续给予了西部地区一系列优惠政策,但从西部地区吸引FDI的总量和质量来看,都远远低于全国水平。本文对西部地区财税政策吸引FDI的效果进行分析,观察外商投资者对于财税政策的敏感程度,提出吸引FDI的相应对策。