A tragedy of the anticommons: local option taxation and cell phone tax bills

When multiple taxing jurisdictions overlap and fail to account for one another’s actions, they over-tax the common base. This is a prediction of the anticommons model, in which numerous parties have authority to exclude others from using a resource. This model further predicts that when governments over-tax the base, private parties will underutilize the resource, and underutilization will be greater as the number of parties with exclusion rights rises. We test these predictions by studying cell phone taxation and local option tax authority, which allows some cities, counties, and special-purpose districts to levy taxes on cell phone use. Consistent with theory, we find that the tax rate on cell phone service is higher when local governments have the option to tax. Further, the percentage of households owning cell phones is lower when there is the local option to tax, and ownership rates fall with the number of taxes levied.     

Seeing Like an Orientalist State: The Three Deaths of Neda Agha-Soltan

On June 20, 2009 one image became a symbol of violence, as well as a rallying cry for a movement that contested the disputed election of hardline Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The image captured the murder of a 26 year old protester named Neda Agha-Soltan, and showed a first-hand account, in bloody detail, of the savagery of state killing. With the help of social media, the video received mass attention from news organizations in the United States by June 22, 2009. Cursory analysis of the New York Times and The Washington Post, representation of Neda’s death, reveals an Iranian government that was unafraid to violently repress a democratic movement. It is my contention here that such a construction was framed by an Orientalist discourse which helped to fabricate three distinct deaths of this murdered protester. First the lasting images of death became a symbol of freedom; Neda’s second death showed a grievable life, one that provided an emotional space for a US audience; and finally her third death which became a means of defining and (re)stabilizing Orientalized perceptions of Iran as violent and barbaric. Ultimately, these three deaths became an instrument that would help justify the call for US intervention on behalf of Western morality and humanitarian aid.     

两岸农产品贸易动态比较优势实证分析

基于2001—2012数据和显示性对称比较优势指数(RSCA),运用散点图和非参数核密度估计统计方法,实证分析两岸农产品贸易比较优势的动态变化。结果显示:大陆农产品的比较优势在恶化,农产品出口贸易越来越集中在少数具有比较优势的产品上;台湾农产品基本上不具有比较优势,但是2007年以来比较优势有改善趋势;在双边贸易中,大陆对台湾出口农产品的比较优势总体上呈上升趋势,具有比较优势的产品在增加,而台湾对大陆农产品贸易则不具有比较优势,但是在统计期间出口专业化程度明显下降,比较优势趋于改善。     

Ökonomisches Kapital der Eltern und Medizinstudium im Ausland. Wie Europäisierungs- und Globalisierungsprozesse die Reproduktion sozialer Ungleichheiten verändern

The fact that university degrees are accepted throughout Europe has led to the founding of medical faculties, especially in Central and Eastern Europe, that offer medical studies in German or English and thus attracting students from richer Western European countries like Germany. Unlike medical studies in Germany, access to these foreign universities is not dependent on the final school exam grade, but on the ability to pay high tuition fees. The article compares the social class background of medicine students in Germany with German medicine students in Hungary. The analysis shows that the percentage of medicine students who come from higher social classes is even higher in Hungary than it already is in Germany. Studying medicine in Hungary primarily serves as an immediate reproduction of the parents’ profession as many of German medicine students in Hungary have a parent who belongs to the medical profession. The case of German students studying medicine abroad illustrates how Europeanization and Globalization have changed the reproduction of social inequalities; upper classes profit most from the new opportunities.     

Konsekrationsinstanzen im digitalen Wandel – Beiträge zur Erweiterung des feldanalytischen Forschungsprogramms am Beispiel populärer Musik

The article has two objectives: First, pursuant to the recent papers on a “sociology of (e)valuation,” an extension of Bourdieusian field theory will be presented, which reacts to three problems with this theory that were expressed in the critical reception: the immanent tendency to emphasize reproduction more strongly than transformation; the disregarding of technology; and the simple dualism of cultural and economic logic. To begin with, a dynamization of the research program will be undertaken, in that fault lines and transformation dynamics will be revealed that could lead to the invalidation of Pierre Bourdieu’s strict homological assumptions. Following up on that, it will be shown how technology, which was neglected by Bourdieu, can become an (external) factor that causes fundamental changes in fields. Finally, in connection with Jörn Lamla’s reflections on “cultural capitalism” and through a differentiation of the concept of the instance of consecration, a level of analysis will be specified on which the transformation dynamics under discussion can be observed. Secondly, the successful integration of technology in new forms of consecration in the field of pop music will be examined. On the basis of the reaction of classical pop-music journalism to the new value assignment instances that have arisen through digitalization, it can be shown that the challenge arising from new forms of consecration results in negotiatory processes in the field of pop music journalism in which various repositionings in the relationship of cultural and economic logics appear.     

投资文化产业,凸显金矿价值

目前,中国文化产业在发展中所面临的一系列重大课题,如城市建设与产业集聚的关系问题,文化体制改革和机制创新的问题,建立多元的文化投资机制问题,开发新的文化产业商业模式问题,以文兴农推动城乡一体化的建设问题,推动中国文化产业"走出去"参与全球文化市场竞争的问题等,都是历史上从未遇到的,也是没有现成的经验可以照搬的。中国文化产业的建设者、投资者和研究者,应立足于中国的国情,吸取国际文化产业的发展经验,以创新的思维来探索中国文化产业发展的道路。有鉴于此,我们邀请了深圳、北京、香港、上海等地的专家学者对这些问题发表高见。     

物权法在构建和谐社会中的意义

本文从物权法在维护社会基本经济制度、维护社会经济秩序、维护社会的安定团结、维护社会公正等方面的作用,阐述了物权法在构建社会主义和谐社会中的重要意义。