中国与拉美社会保障比较:传统文化与制度安排——提高覆盖率的角度

欧洲、拉丁美洲和中国的文化与社会保障改革取向存在差异性.与西欧相比,拉美和中国之间的相似性更多一些,例如低收入的经济背景、积累性质的融资模式、个人账户的引入等,其改革效果也存在一些相似性.例如覆盖面狭小等.中国和拉美社保覆盖面狭小的原因在于传统文化存在较大差异性,即拉美缺乏储蓄文化,其社保改革之后"对等原则"的引入并没有为提高覆盖率和遵缴率作出很大贡献,但对中国住房公积金制度进行分析和对比之后发现,在浓厚的储蓄文化背景之下,中国社保覆盖率狭小的原因正是由于缺乏"对等原则"因素所致.不同文化背景下,社保制度中"对等原则"效果截然相反.鉴于此,本文认为,如果将目前统账结合制度改造为大账户制或名义账户制,将个人和单位缴费完全划入个人账户,覆盖率和遵缴率就会像住房公积金那样立即提高,实现应保尽保.     

Fear of terrorism: media exposure and subjective fear of attack

In many Western countries, citizen knowledge of terrorist events is intrinsically shaped by the style of broadcasted messages published by the media. Media discourses regarding terrorist acts raise questions about how such rhetoric elicits fear in people who typically experience such events through news reports. However, we do not fully understand the impact of the media on perceptions of terrorism as clearly as we understand the relationship between the media and fear of crime. This study examines how media sources accessed actively (e.g. through newspapers; Internet) or passively (e.g. through television; radio) influence knowledge and fear of terrorism. We find receiving information about terrorism from multiple media sources increases fear of terrorism, but media sources accessed passively are not as influential as media sources accessed more actively. These results highlight how media consumption from various sources may affect one’s fear of terrorism, and further illustrates how the role of perceived knowledge may exacerbate or mitigate fear. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.     

Understanding Culture in Kentucky's Courtrooms: An Essential Tool for Management and Long‐Range Planning

Though the “old conventional wisdom” explained delay as the product of too few resources and staff, the “new conventional wisdom” posits court efficiency is largely due to the cultural makeup of the court. Adapting the Court Culture Assessment Instrument developed by Dr. Ostrom and colleagues at the National Center for State Courts, this research study examines judicial perceptions of culture in the Kentucky Court of Justice general and family circuit court. Results indicate circuit courts are predominantly autonomous but desire to be more structured (hierarchical). In addition, bivariate analyses showed a significant, but weak, inverse relationship exists between perceptions of a predominantly hierarchical culture orientation and the presence of delay. In other words, judges who perceived their circuit to be predominantly hierarchical in nature were less likely to perceive delay as a problem.     

Economic freedom, culture, and growth

How do economic freedom and culture impact economic growth? This paper argues that culture, as measured by the World Values Surveys, and economic institutions associated with economic freedom are both independently important for economic prosperity, but the strength of their impact can be better understood only when both are included in the growth regression. Our results indicate that economic freedom is more important than culture for growth outcomes, suggesting substitutability between the two. We posit that culture is important for growth when economic freedom is absent, diminishing in significance once economic freedom is established.     

Real Estate Markets Are Informationally Efficient: Evidence from Buyer and Agent/Broker Surveys

This article presents new evidence based on unpublished buyer surveys and real estate agent and broker surveys supporting the consensus in the published literature that real estate markets are informationally efficient. This evidence is drawn from expert reports submitted in litigation involving claims that contamination caused property value diminution, and presents a new hedonic regression model of residential sales prices that includes as an independent variable the state of knowledge of the buyer regarding a contamination event. In this model the state of knowledge of the buyer has no statistically significant effect on the sales price. The article also discusses standards for the use of buyer and agent/broker surveys in litigation.     

Review Essay

Energy, Economics, and the Environment: Toward a Comprehensive Perspective, edited by Gregory A. Daneke. Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath, 1982.

Nuclear Power: Both Sides. The Best Arguments For and Against the Most Controversial Technology, edited by Michio Kaku and Jennifer Trainer. New York: W. W. Norton, 1982.     

Stewardship and health systems strengthening: An overview

The World Health Organization (WHO) introduced the concept of stewardship to clarify the practical components of governance in the health sector. For the WHO, stewardship concentrated on how government actors take responsibility for the health system and the wellbeing of the population, fulfill health system functions, assure equity, and coordinate interaction with government and society. This article overviews the contents of this special issue, which offers examples of how health stewards in a variety of countries have addressed issues of health security, primary care expansion, family planning, and quality of care. The contributors' articles draw lessons for policy, programs, and management useful for practitioners and scholars. Our overview identifies several themes emerging from the articles: the foundational role of legal frameworks for effective stewardship, the importance of institutional arrangements as enablers, the influence of regional and global entities on national stewardship, the connection between credible decision‐making structures and stewardship, and pathways to sustainable financing and domestic resource mobilization. The discussion concludes with highlighting several gaps in knowledge and practice related to health stewardship.