发挥马克思主义科学理论对实践的指导作用

理论与实践的统一,是马克思主义的一个最基本的原则。这里,在把握“理论”与“实际”的关系时,一方面,要牢牢把握住理论来源于实践,必须经受实践的检验,并不断与时俱进的方面;另一方面,也要注重从实践中得来,经过实践的不断检验证明正确的理论对实践的指导和预测意义。这包括：一、理论来源于实践,又反过来指导实践;二、理论具有社会发展的规律性把握和可预测力;三、理论都是有期效的,但在特定时间段内相对稳定,不能轻言过时;四、坚持马克思主义立场观点方法,发挥马克思主义科学理论对实践的指导作用,等等。在当代中国,坚持马克思主义科学理论对实践的指导作用,就必须坚持中国特色社会主义理论对当代中国实践的指导作用。     

Governing criminal markets: The role of private insurers in kidnap for ransom

The intersection between the formal and criminal economies presents a range of intractable coordination and enforcement problems. Who orders and facilitates the interactions between private, legal entities, and criminals (potentially) engaged in kidnap for ransom? I analyze the contracts, protocols, norms, and agencies created by insurers to govern this unusual market. Stringent insurance contracts, effective security measures, and orderly resolutions create a profitable market for kidnap insurance. Underwriters manage moral hazard and adverse selection. Business risk consultancies minimize the kidnapping of insured workers, high‐net‐worth individuals, and travellers. Crisis responders ensure that hostages are treated well, keep ransoms moderate and stable, and discourage kidnappers from reneging on agreed ransoms. The state, private sector, and mafias incentivize cooperation and enforce contracts. Understanding this complex polycentric governance architecture is crucial for remedying current trends in “terrorist” kidnap for ransom.     

新形势下主流媒体的导向作用

新形势要主流媒体唱响主旋律,坚持正确的舆论导向。办好新闻事业;要有一支高素质的新闻队伍,要扩大主流媒体的规律,同时也要树立阵地意识,抢占制高点,打好主动仗     

Prison labor markets: The supply issue

Putting prisoners to work has widespread appeal, but the nature of prison labor markets suggests that prisoners may have little incentive to work. The inmate population exhibits sociodemographic and psychological characteristics that correlate highly with labor market difficulties. Moreover, work incentives are bounded by both a guaranteed minimum standard of living and severe restrictions on the uses of earnings; prison is essentially a ration regime The impact of these institutional arrangements also depends upon the duration of the prisoner's remaining sentence and expected remaining lifetime. Unfortunately, there is little evidence bearing on these concerns, and experimental analysis is proposed.     

The impact of welfare reform on local labor markets

We develop a local labor market information system to assess the labor market effects of recently adopted welfare reform laws. Using the Cleveland-Akron metropolitan area as a prototype, we develop an occupationally and geographically specific inventory of projected job openings and measure the skill mismatch between projected job openings and the welfare population likely to enter the labor market. We find the skill mismatches are quite large: Following implementation of reform, welfare recipients entering the labor force would initially have to claim anywhere from 34 to 61 percent of expected low-skill job openings in order to become fully employed. Labor market opportunities are further diminished if one takes into account the effect of gender and space in limiting job accessibility. Welfare recipients entering the labor market as a result of reform would require from 40 to 75 percent of jobs remaining if predominately male occupations are removed from consideration. The AFDC recipients who depend on public transportation, even in extraordinarily long commutes, can access only 40 to 44 percent of entry-level job openings. © 1998 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management     

Public choice in private markets

He has written widely on social and economic issues.     

开设师范生教育名著阅读课程的必要性研究

学生对名著的阅读需要教师的指导和帮助,对准教师阅读的指导和训练就显得尤为重要。借鉴美国青少年名著计划经验,指导师范生阅读名著应注重培养专门教师队伍,开发相应的教学资源。     

The participation of women in urban labor markets in Mexico: 1970-1980

This article analyzes the presence of women in urban labor markets in Mexico during the 1970s in terms of the regional location of the city and the type and diversity of employment opportunities for women. 49 cities with over 100,000 inhabitants in 1980 were grouped into 3 regions, the relatively urban and industrial north, the heterogeneous center, and the less developed south. Census data for 1970 and 1980 on male and female labor force participation in the municipios containing the 49 cities were analyzed to assess urban labor markets. The cities were grouped according to whether they had higher or lower than average rates of labor force participation in the 2 study years. The cities of the north included the greatest relative number of cases of low female and male labor force participation in 1970 and 1980 and a declining trend for the 1970s. Cities of the center had the highest levels of male and female labor force participation in both 1970 and 1980 and showed a trend toward increasing female participation in the 1970s. Cities in the south were in an intermediate position, but during the 1970s a high percentage showed a trend toward increase in male participation and decrease in female participation. Typologies of the cities were then constructed based on female age specific participation rates and female occupational distribution. Urban areas with high rates of participation among young women aged 15-24 years were distinguished from those with high participation rates for younger and older women, and those with less diversified employment opportunities for women were distinguished from those with more diversity. Female participation presented marked variations between regions. In general, women participated to a greater degree in diversified labor markets that absorbed workers of different ages and degrees of qualification. There were not necessarily more female workers in cities that were more dynamic in terms of economy and male participation. Cities of 100,000 or more inhabitants in the center were characterized by a high proportion of women of different ages in the labor market. Cities in the north had lower average levels of female participation although those on the northern border had a high participation of young women in manufactures and assembly. Southern cities employed women in manual occupations, especially in commerce and services. Primarily adolescents under 15 and women over 25 were employed. Apart from the regional variations there were variations in female employment within regions. An annex discusses the study methodology in greater detail.     

Reexamining efficient rent-seeking in laboratory markets

Given Millner and Pratt's (1989) finding of behavior inconsistent with theory, we reexamine efficient rent-seeking in experimental markets. We show that (a) when r = 3, no Nash equilibrium exists and therefore behavior has no theoretical benchmark to judge consistency, and (b) when r = 1, with a new experimental design utilizing an explicit expected payoff matrix, rent-seeking behavior is consistent with both Nash equilibrium and dissipation hypotheses.The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of The John A. Walker College of Business, Appalachian State University. Cliff Nowell provided generous advice. John Willingham supplied valuable research assistance. Michael Pratt and Gordon Tullock provided helpful comments on an earlier version of the paper.     

Competition in political and economic markets

Prepared as a response to Frey and Eichenberger's Anomalies in Political Economy. We thank Gordon Tullock for helpful discussions. This work was partially supported by the Taylor Experimental Laboratory at Washington University.     

The nonprofit advantage: Producing quality in thick and thin child care markets

Nonprofit child care centers are frequently observed to produce child care which is, on average, of higher quality than care provided in commercial child care centers. In part, this nonprofit advantage is due to different input choices made by nonprofit centers—lower child‐staff ratios, better‐educated staff and directors, higher rates of professional development for staff. Nonprofit centers may have an additional productivity advantage, due to unmeasured staff motivation and abilities or to better management of the production of good‐quality child care. However, where nonprofit and for‐profit child care firms compete in the same local markets, we speculate that this extra advantage should only appear where demand is sufficiently “thick” to permit a quality differentiation strategy to be financially viable for nonprofits. We estimate the effect of nonprofit status on quality, controlling for differences in financial resources available to the center, differences in the clientele served, and differences in staff and center inputs. In this conventional examination, nonprofit status has a moderately positive impact on quality. However, when we account for the unobserved heterogeneity and separate markets into “thick” and “thin,” a particularly strong nonprofit advantage is found in thick markets, but no productivity advantage for nonprofits is found in thin markets. This finding suggests a clear role for nonprofit organizations in improving the cost‐quality trade‐off faced by parents, but also identifies the market conditions that affect the ability of nonprofit managers to employ this advantage. © 2009 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Property and markets in Elmer Kelton novels

Literature is not for clear answers. Literature is for complicated questions. There is vital empirical data in literary texts—not data about economic fact, though there is some of that as well, but data about how people felt and thought and wrote about economic and market issues. If we care about that, if that is as important as Deirdre McCloskey has argued, we have a responsibility to find that data, to write about it, to share it, and to teach it (Skwire in Cato Unbound, 2012. http://www.cato-unbound.org/2012/07/02/sarah-skwire/bonfire-cliches).     

The impact of RTC dispositions on local housing and real estate markets

Abstract

This article examines the critical question of whether disposition activity of the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) will disrupt local real estate markets by driving values down and encouraging additional defaults. The question is approached by identifying key characteristics of local economies and real estate markets that could be associated with adverse market responses and then examining 12 individual metropolitan areas in this context. A survey of metropolitan areas with high RTC concentrations finds varying potential for adverse impact. Detailed case studies in three metropolitan areas—Dallas, Denver, and Oklahoma City—find the potential to vary widely by property type, quality level, and geographic location. By and large, commercial markets are expected to be less affected because of (1) the already depressed condition of most markets, (2) market segmentation that would insulate investment grade submarkets, (3) capitalization of expectations about disposition, and (4) political constraints on the rate of RTC activity. However, the geographic concentration of inventory that is combined with potential tipping dynamics associated with neighborhood change could render certain affordable housing markets vulnerable to adverse market responses. Policy recommendations to mitigate such impacts are suggested.     

Markets beyond politics? The state and the internationalisation of financial markets

Abstract. The role of politics is particularly difficult to discern in the domain of international financial markets, where the state's capacity to control or direct capital flows, without incurring considerable opportunity (and political) costs, appears so limited. In addressing this question, this paper argues that the process of internationalisation is first and foremost the consequence of political decision-making (to create open markets) and that many domestic interests linked to the international market have promoted internationalisation both through their policy preferences and economic activity. The paper will then go on to argue that the threat of financial instability and crisis, a consequence of the increased volatility of relatively unregulated capital flows, has prompted political demands for more concerted inter-state co-operation to maintain stability. Much of this takes place through transnational agreements among state agencies, such as the central banks, and much through 'reregulation' in the guise of 'harmonisation' of regulatory and prudential supervisory policies.
Some of this process has received considerable publicity, such as the harmonisation of EEC regulations to facilitate freer trade in banking and financial services as part of the preparation for the Single European Market in 1992. Likewise, the current Uruguay Round of GATT trade talks has the liberalisation of trade in financial services on its agenda. Other aspects of the process have been carried on quietly, far from public view, in such forums as the Bank for International Settlements. Such is the case of a recent agreement to harmonise minimum capital adequacy requirements for banks operating in international markets. The paper uses these three cases to support the argument about the role of politics and the state in international finance.     

The role of intermediaries in corruption

The aim of the article is to examine a briber initiated corrupt transaction and the role of intermediaries in such a transaction, using a game theoretical model. Clients applying the intermediaries do so to be able to get rid of high red tape applied by the officers. They prefer using intermediary instead of offering a bribe to the officers directly since they do not know which officers are corrupt (accepts a bribe offer) and how much bribe should be given to the corrupt officers. In our model, the client wants to offer a bribe to get rid of red tape, however, she hesitates due to the possibility of offering a bribe to an honest public officer and as a result getting a penalty. Client also hesitates due to the possibility of offering an amount of bribe lower than the reservation price of the corrupt officer; thus being rejected. Intermediaries, knowing which officers are corrupt and the reservation prices of those corrupt officers, decrease the risk of offering a bribe. Two cases; one with intermediary, the other without, in such a scenario is examined and the results of the two are compared.