Price-wage dynamics in a transition economy: The case of Poland

In this paper we analyse the wage-price relationship of an economy in transition characterized by important structural changes. It is known (see Perron, 1989) that structural breaks in stationary time series can induce apparent unit roots. The stationarity analysis of the series employed in the present model is conducted jointly with the assumption that the breakpoint location is unknown. We follow a testing procedure recently proposed by Zivot and Andrews (1992). Cointegration analysis of wages and prices in the presence of structural breaks finds empirical evidence in favour of two cointegrating vectors involving prices and wages. Our analysis focuses on the different structural behaviour of the price-wage dynamic relationship in the short and long term; we also demonstrate the relative importance of import prices as a source of wage-price fluctuations.     

The public health implications of United Kingdom offender healthcare policy: a holistic approach to achieve individual and societal gains

In 2009, two seminal documents were published by the United Kingdom (UK) government concerning healthcare services for offenders. The Bradley review into diversion for people with mental health problems and learning disabilities emphasised a need to improve offender health, not least because of the high economic costs to society as a whole resulting from unresolved mental illness, physical ill-health and substance abuse problems commonly experienced by offenders. The Bradley review made wide-reaching recommendations for change, requiring strong partnership between health and justice agencies at both central government and local levels. A framework for the delivery of Bradley's recommendations has been set out in Improving health, supporting justice, the Department of Health's offender health strategy which sets out the direction of travel for the next 10 years.This paper discusses the reality of working toward improving health services for this marginalised group in the context of the influence of the current straitened financial climate on the allocation of resources to publically funded healthcare in the UK; it examines the historically based, and widely held, belief in the principle of “less eligibility” within our society, whereby there is much public and media resistance to allocating resources to improving care for offenders when other, more “deserving”, groups are perceived to be in continuing need.     

Reducing public expenditures for physician services: the price of paying less

The purpose of this paper is to examine how physicians respond to changes in payment levels from government insurers. Our analysis focuses on two issues: controlling overall program expenditures, and assuring full access to care for program clients. We review evidence from natural experiments in which payment levels were increased, frozen, or decreased. These studies show that freezing or reducing payment levels is not effective in controlling program expenditures, because physicians responded by increasing the quantity and complexity of services provided. Furthermore, when government programs freeze or reduce their payment levels, physicians are less likely to treat the clients of these programs. We conclude that policymakers must seek alternative strategies for controlling program expenditures.     

The role of interest rates during the transition to a market economy

We construct a simple two period model of an economy in transition from being centrally planned to being market oriented. Using this model, we draw certain positive conclusions about economic policies that reduce distortions during the transition period. In particular, we focus on the role of interest rates, a market parameter that has previously been almost entirely ignored in planned economies. Using stylized data derived from Czechoslovakia, we show that increase in nominal interest rates can actually be welfare-improving by partially compensating for the distortions induced by the transition process. The model is sufficiently general to be applied to a number of transition economies, and we use the cases of Czechoslovakia, the USSR, and China as examples of some of the phenomena that we are trying to explain. We show that the model generates a constrained, suboptimal equilibrium. In particular, we see that raising interest rates during the transition period reduces repressed savings, brought about by shortages in the controlled market. An improvement in consumer utility can therefore be brought about.     

The transition from central planning to a market economy: A computable general equilibrium model

This paper develops a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the transition from a central planned economy to a market economy. The model is an extension of Wellisz and Findlay's (1986) model of the Soviet ‘second economy.’ By distinguishing alternative assumptions about the disposition of the government budget, two model variants — the ‘activist’ and ‘non-activist’ — are analyzed. Equilibria of these model variants are computed for various parameter specifications of the Kantorovich ray, which represents the stringency of central planners' direction of the economy. The paper shows that increasing efficiency of the private sector, while it reduces the size of government subsidies to the state sector, does not necessarily increase the net government budget.     

Modernizing small manufacturers in Japan: The role of local public technology centers

Japan's hundreds of thousands of small manufacturing enterprises not only provide high-quality inputs to large Japanese companies, but also are becoming innovators and growth generators in their own right. In addition to help from larger customers, small Japanese companies can call upon an array of public support mechanisms, including about 170 local Kohsetsushi examination and technology centers which provide research, testing, training, and guidance for firms with under 300 employees. With their intensive geographical coverage, broad range of technical services, and nominal fees, these centers offer small Japanese firms a readily available and effective source of assistance to improve their manufacturing operations, technology, and products. After reviewing the changing context for small manufacturers in Japan, the article examines the role of local Kohsetsushi centers in small firm modernization. This article considers the history, organization, and services of the Kohsetsushi system, explores the operation of five case study centers, and discusses how small Japanese firms benefit from Kohsetsushi services. Finally, there is an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the Kohsetsushi system.     

Inflation and the transition to a mixed economy: Can it work?

This paper reviews a number of possible scenarios for introducing a market element into a centrally planned economy, and analyses the financial relationships between the planned and the market sectors of the resulting mixed economy. It is argued that repressed inflation with some degree of excess demand and administrative price-control, is not neutral, but has distribution effects which greatly ameliorate the financial position of the state in a mixed economy in which the banking sector is still part of the state-controlled sector.     

Lawyers,public relations and the media: a changing barter economy within a community of practice

We set out to explore the consequences of a new encounter between Israeli lawyers and PR people. This encounter occurred within a pre-existing barter economy between lawyers and legal journalists, composed of embedded and direct social ties. Using in-depth interviews and extensive archival research we analyse three strategies used by PR people to position themselves as brokers between lawyers and journalists: (1) commercialising social ties; (2) becoming translators; and (3) presentation of self as media advisors. Discussion centres on the consequences of the emerging barter economy to law and related occupations.     

The size of the underground economy in Germany: a correction of the record and new evidence from the modified-cash-deposit-ratio approach

Based on the Ahumada et al. (Rev Income Wealth 53(2):363–371, 2007) critique we revise existing estimates of the size of the German underground economy. Among other things, it turns out that most of these estimates are untenable and that the tax pressure induced size of the German underground economy may be much lower than previously thought. To this extent, German policy and law makers have been misguided during the last three decades. Therefore, we introduce the Modified-Cash-Deposit-Ratio approach, which is not subject to the recent critique and apply it to Germany for the period 1960–2008.     

On the criminal policy of China in regulating economy in transition

While detailing the emergence of such issues as problem-plutocrats, original sin, forced rule-or law-breakings during the transitional period (from a command economy to a market economy), the author of this article analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of rigid regulations as well as lax regulations which involve criminal policy in China. On that basis, the writer probes into the laws and overall criminal policy orientation that regulates the economy during our current transitional period (from command economy to the market economy). He argues that certain leniencies may be appropriate to lesser crimes, since in fact developing the economy depends upon the success of entrepreneurial businesses throughout the nation.     

Determinants and public policy implications of academic-industry knowledge transfer in life sciences: a review and a conceptual framework

There is a considerable interest of scholars in benefits and challenges arising from involvement of academic researchers and their institutions in knowledge transfer activities with the business sector. The emerging questions have resulted in a number of studies, yielding rich but mixed findings. The purpose of this paper is to systematically review this body of investigative work, with a particular emphasis on life sciences. Based on the systematic analysis and synthesis of 135 articles published between 1980 and 2014, we discuss the most interesting findings for each of the six identified principal academic-industry research topics: involvement predictors and motivators, role of incentives, institutional performance determinants, knowledge transfer institutionalization, relationship with scientific output and impact on open science. Whereas many studies reach consensus regarding the particular personal and contextual predictors of researchers’ knowledge transfer involvement, we also find substantial evidence that depending on empirical setting, variables such as scientific productivity and institutional technology transfer support policies can act both as enablers and inhibitors in the process. We find no straightforward evidence regarding the role of the size, age and structure of technology transfer offices in the knowledge transfer performance of academic institutions. We also show that most studies agree that engagement in knowledge transfer activities does not negatively affect the researchers’ scientific output. Yet, it is less clear to what extent university-industry interactions can be detrimental for the norms of open science. We draw several policy implications for academic settings and emphasize interesting avenues for further research in this field.     

民众参与法治建设的途径

社会主义法治建设的过程是广大人民充分参与的过程。本文对我国民众参与人大、行政、司法等工作的意义和途径进行了探索。认为我国民众在参与法治建设过程中创造了许多丰富的经验,但仍然存在民众参与不足的问题,因而应当采取多种措施促进民众广泛和深入参与法治建设。     

The Chinese mafia: private protection in a socialist market economy

Gambetta's theoretical framework focuses on two important aspects directly relating to the birth and development of mafias, namely a demand for private protection and a supply of the same. In the Post-Mao era, China started its transition from a centrally controlled economy to a market-directed economy by adopting reform and opening-up policies. The widespread creation of property rights has exponentially enlarged the demand for protection. However, property rights are ambiguously defined in the Chinese legal system, and the state is unable and unwilling to provide efficient and sufficient law enforcement mechanisms for needy people because of the rampant corruption of government officials and the weak judicial system. In this case, the mafia that is interested in the private provision of protection developed into an alternative enforcement mechanism for ‘securing’ property rights in China's economic transition. The most important service offered by the mafia in China is not only to assist business enterprises in monopolising the market, but also to assist local government in China's economic reform.     

The political economy of international environmental agreements: a survey

This paper surveys the recent literature on the political economy of the formation of international environmental agreements. The survey covers theoretical modelling approaches and empirical studies including experimental work. Central to our survey is the question how the political process impacts different stages of agreement formation and stability. We distinguish the rules defined during pre-negotiations that govern negotiations, ratification and implementation. Strategic delegation and lobbying are directly relevant during the negotiation and ratification phases. Implementation, the choice of policy instruments at the national level, will also be impacted by lobbying and indirectly influence negotiations. We find that the basic theoretical framework for the analysis of international environmental agreements is largely unrelated to empirical approaches. Furthermore, we observe that models of the political process of agreement formation, like for example sequential game models, are yet to be developed.     

Assessing the performance of public enterprises: A public-choice approach

Recent advances in the theory of public enterprises have led to the development of criteria for assessing their performance. The underlying idea is to determine the best practice of a particular enterprise and assess other public enterprises in the same industry against that best practice. This article is critical of the best-practice-approach and offers an alternative public-choice-based procedure.The objectives assigned to the operation of public enterprises in the best-practice approach do not reflect the specific functions of public enterprises. On the contrary, they are general economic policy objectives derived from a general theory of economic policy based on normative welfare economics. The efficiency of public enterprises is then considered a policy objective. In terms of a public-choice perspective, however, efficiency is almost never in itself a policy objective of a public enterprise. It is unlikely (but not impossible) that we may find a public enterprise with essentially the same production function as an efficiently operated private enterprise. By their very nature, public enterprises are diverse and suited for the most diverse policy objectives. Therefore, performance indicators of a general kind (based on welfare economics) do not reflect the purpose of running a particular public enterprise. The best-practice approach is based on the attribution of policy objectives. A more satisfying analytical approach derives the policy objectives of a particular enterpise by means of a public-choice analysis of its observable behavior. This positive and empirical analysis can then yield those policy objectives against which the performance of the public institution can be assessed.The article has three main sections. The first offers a critical discussion of the existing literature on performance measurements, in particular the best-practice approach. The second suggests an alternative public choice theory of public enterprise behavior, and the third develops a stepwise procedure for assessing the performance of public enterprises in a public-choice analytical framework.