An Experimental Analysis of Rent Seeking Under Varying Competitive Conditions

We test several predictions of Gradstein's(1995) rent seeking model using anexperimental design that includes avariable number of participants, costheterogeneity, and an entry fee. Consistentwith theoretical predictions, costheterogeneity and the entry fee decreasethe number of participants. Overall,participation is much lower than predicted. Also consistent with Gradstein's model, wefind that rent seeking expendituresincrease with the number of competitors anddecrease with the addition of an entry fee. Experimental results do not support theprediction that cost heterogeneitygenerally decreases expenditures in rentseeking contests.     

Institutions and Market Reform in Emerging Economies: A Rent Seeking Perspective

The role of institutions as determinants ofrent seeking success is well established. In this paper, we focus on institutionsthat have received little attention in theliterature, namely electoral institutions. We examine three measures of electoralinstitutional structure that arehypothesized to be instrumental indetermining the level of rent seekingsuccess. These are the type of electoralsystem, pluralistic or proportional; methodof selection of the chief executive,presidential or parliamentary; and thenumber of electoral districts. An index ofeconomic freedom is used as the metric forrent seeking opportunities created bygovernments. Theoretical implications ofvariation in these electoral institutionsare developed. These implications areempirically tested employing data from 29countries classified as having emergingmarket economies. Countries with emergingeconomies are expected to exhibit moreinstitutional flexibility that moredeveloped countries whose property rightsare well established and defended. Theempirical results are controlled fordifferences in a number of demographic andhistorical factors. Plurality electoralsystems are more resistant to the politicaldemands of rent seeking than proportionalsystems. Fewer election districts seem toreduce rent seeking opportunities. However, conditional on the type ofelectoral system, presidential systems arefound to be no more resistant to rentseeking than parliamentary systems. Finally, we find strong control effects. Literacy increases a country's resistanceto rent seeking while military spending andyears of institutional entrenchment reduceit.     

在完善社会管理体制中降低行政成本

行政成本的问题是政府行政管理过程中必须考虑的一个重要问题。在我国,经历了一次大规模的机构改革,行政成本不降反升,居高不下。在这种情况下,必须通过完善社会管理体制去实现降低行政成本的目标。其中,通过培育非政府组织并以此为起点去促进社会自治力量的成熟,是完善社会管理体制的基本方向。就政府自身而言,也需要根据全球化以及社会复杂性迅速增长的现实,作出行政自治的制度安排。     

权力寻租性腐败的危害及其治理

我国改革开放20多年来,随着社会经济的巨大发展,社会主义市场经济体制的建立,由于寻求财富的利益心理驱使、法律的不健全、制度的不规范,导致了寻租性腐败的客观存在,其危害极大,解决之道在于:一是制度治理,即加入WTO后,政府应加大政策障碍的治理力度;政府应加快机构改革,朝着精简、放权、廉洁、高效的方向发展;政府应加速产权制度的改革,明确真正独立经营的市场主体,维护市场秩序;政府应建立并完善更加符合市场规律的管理机制。二是权力管理,即建立高效的权力管理制约机制,提高权力者寻租的机会成本;建立有效的监督管理机制,惩治寻租性腐败;加强权力者的教育,构筑权力者抵御寻租欲望的心理防线。     

The Effect of Number and Size of Interest Groups on Social Rent Dissipation

This paper develops two models of the lobbying of interest groups to examine the effect of the number and size of interest groups on rent dissipation. In cases where individuals ignore the effect of the lobbying activities on the rent size, the number of groups is negatively related to rent dissipation and there exists an inverse relation between the extent of egalitarianism of within-group rent sharing rules and the total rent dissipation in the symmetric setting. Model two examines the case where each individual in each group takes into account the effect of lobbying activities on the total “pie”, of which she/he competes for a share through within-group and between-group interaction. The relation between the number of symmetric groups and the total rent dissipation is shown to be an inverted “U”-shape, contrary to the conventional wisdom that holds a monotonous relation between the two variables.     

邓小平社会发展机遇思想述论

邓小平的社会发展机遇思想,是建设有中国特色社会主义理论的重要组成部分。研究这一问题,不仅有助于我们在理论上正确认识社会发展机遇的本质,而且有助于我们在实践中抓住社会发展的机遇,加快步伐,发展自己。虽然邓小平没有系统地、专门地论述过社会发展机遇问题,但是透过邓小平关于中国发展诸问题的阐述,我们可以清楚地发现邓小平对这个问题确有很深入的研究和精辟的见解。本文试对此作一梳理和探讨。(一)列宁指出：只有“首先考虑到各个‘时代’的不同的基本特征(而不是个别国家的个别历史事件),我们才能够正确地制定自己的策略;…     

Rent seeking and the decline of the Florentine school

Public Choice - Economists have claimed that the invisible hand of competition is behind the historical episodes of outstanding artistic achievement, from Shakespearean theater to musical...     

社会发展代价问题研究综述

社会发展过程中代价问题的凸现,人们对传统发展观的反思,促使代价问题研究兴起。代价问题研究具有丰富的思想资源,古今中外许多思想家都对此作过有益的探索。当前,学术界对代价的内涵、代价产生的根源及分类、代价与发展的关系等问题进行了比较广泛的研究,既取得了共识,也存在着分歧。构建健全的代价思维,有助于推进当代中国社会的和谐发展。我们应在现有研究的基础上,进一步深化和拓展代价问题研究。     

社会所有制--未来企业制度模式探索

人类办企业的历史十分悠久,从个人业主制企业到合伙(合作)制企业,再到公司制企业,是人类从事经济活动已采用过的几种基本形式.社会所有制是我们所构造的未来企业制度,它的制度特征同现存的企业制度有着本质差别,这种制度形式的实现条件除经典作家对未来社会的要求外,还要将全球化作为载体,跨国公司成为中间环节,网络化是它的技术基础.未来企业制度仍然有一个演变与不断成熟的过程.     

电子政务的行政成本及其社会视野

电子政务一方面增加了某些行政成本,另一方面又具有多方面节约行政成本的潜力。电子政务能否从整体上节约行政成本,取决于增加的成本与减少的成本之间的比较。一般而言,电子政务之初行政总成本会增加,只有到电子政务发展到一定的时候,行政总成本才会降低。从长时期看,电子政务的行政成本可能是一条先升后降的曲线。电子政务能否真正节约行政成本,有待实践的长期检验。当今需要超越单纯的行政成本,以更广阔的视野全面理解电子政务。     

Rent seeking and the welfare cost of trade barriers

This paper estimates the potential social cost of trade barriers using the Harberger and the Tullock/Posner approaches for a sample of U.S. food and tobacco manufacturing industries. In addition, it tests the relationship between the computed welfare losses and special-interest political activity (PAC contributions). If all rents were dissipated through rent seeking, the social cost of trade barriers would be about 12.5 percent of domestic consumption and would be particularly large for sugar and milk products where quotas are the main instrument of protection. Furthermore, the results indicate that welfare losses are positively associated with industry lobbying but the strength of such association is strongly dependent on industry concentration.     

论行政效率的测定

把握行政效率的科学涵义就是要对行政效率进行测定.进行行政效率的测定,应以对影响行政效率的相关因素的分析为测定的基础,以社会公众为测定的主体,以生产力和交易费用相结合为测定的标准.     

Large‐Scale Social Protest: A Business Risk and a Bureaucratic Opportunity

The public versus private nature of organizations influences their goals, processes, and employee values. However, existing studies have not analyzed whether and how the public nature of organizations shapes their responses to concrete social pressures. This article takes a first step toward addressing this gap by comparing the communication strategies of public organizations and businesses in response to large‐scale social protests. Specifically, we conceptualize, theorize, and empirically analyze the communication strategies of 100 organizations in response to large‐scale social protests that took place in Israel during 2011. We find that in response to these protests, public organizations tended to employ a “positive‐visibility” strategy, whereas businesses were inclined to keep a “low public profile.” We associate these different communication strategies with the relatively benign consequences of large‐scale social protests for public organizations compared with their high costs for businesses.     

Social Context and Information Seeking: Examining the Effects of Network Attitudinal Composition on Engagement with Political Information

The people we associate with everyday have an important influence on our exposure and reactions to political stimuli. Social network members in particular can have a dramatic impact on our political views and behavior. Prior research suggests that these attitudinal differences may reflect the information available in a social network: attitudinally congruent networks expose individuals to supporting positions, bolstering their views, while heterogeneous networks provide information on both sides of an issue, generating doubt and ambivalence. In contrast, the current studies examine the effects of individuals’ networks in motivating them to find and engage with new political information on their own. Using ANES panel data, a laboratory-based information board session that examines behavior in detail, and an experimental design that manipulates network composition, we find that individuals in attitudinally heterogeneous social networks are more likely to seek out and attend to political information. They spend more time looking for political information, and then (having found it) spend more time reviewing that new information compared to those whose network members are more like-minded. An experimental study further demonstrates that network composition causally determines these information-seeking preferences. Implications for democratic citizenship in light of these findings are discussed.     

论社会主义社会文明

作为现代文明大潮重要组成部分的社会主义社会文明,尤其是中国特色社会主义文明,既深受着人类现代文明之风的滋润,又经受着人类文明大趋势的冲击。如何在适应人类文明发展规律中拓展中国社会主义文明道路,成为21世纪我国现代化进程中亟有意义、亟需回答的话题。     

“社会问题”的性质——“问题”与“主义”之争中的“问题意识”

问题意识不仅面向问题的提出,还面向问题的分析和解决。社会是一个有机体,不是个人的机械总和,因此,社会问题的提出、分析和解决过程既不同于个人问题,也不等于个人问题的机械总和。在问题与主义之争中,五四先贤对社会问题的性质存在观念分歧,但都反对偏废问题和主义,达到了一个后人难以企及的高度。     

论农地社会价值及其核算

文章首先分析了农地社会价值存在的客观依据和现实意义,其次再分析了当前我国农村土地社会价值的实现存在不少障碍。基于上述分析,文章认为农地的社会价值是一个历史现象,随着生产力水平的提高会逐步弱化,在目前我国社会生产力水平低、人多地少和国家经济安全等多重的社会约束条件下,必须正确认识、反映和科学计算农地的社会价值。     

服务型政府的社会定位、职责和依托

在和谐社会建设框架内,服务型政府是全社会层面的服务中心。服务型政府履行秩序维护和给付式公共服务两大基本职能,追求全社会和公民满意目标,实行回应服务、公平服务、全面服务、及时服务、廉价服务和协商服务。多中心网络式公共服务结构是服务型政府的社会依托,因此,服务型政府需要培育发展各类社会组织,规范公共服务程序,建设电子化政府。