Chinese capital flows and offshore financial centers

Abstract

Why is the British Virgin Islands a bigger source of foreign direct investment into China than the USA, the European Union and Japan combined? Why is there 10 times more investment from China in the Caymans Islands than there is in the USA? This paper argues that these flows represent the efforts of Chinese and foreign investors to reduce governance and measurement transaction costs. Investors avail themselves of efficient institutions in offshore centers that are absent locally. These institutional attractions include the ease of raising capital on foreign stock markets, access to reliable courts, and more flexible and sophisticated financial products. Existing explanations of these capital movements, characterizing them as criminal money or tax arbitrage, are insufficient. Evidence is drawn from government statistics, private legal advice and interviews in offshore financial centers.     

Capitalizing on Contention: Issue Agendas in U.S. Senate Campaigns

This abstract addresses the divergent views that political scientists and members of Congress have about the role of issues in congressional campaigns. The scholarly perspective is based on the assumption that issues and policy are relatively unimportant in the relationship between members and their constituents. In contrast, the political parties in Congress devote a substantial amount of time and attention to developing an effective issue agenda for the campaign season. The research presented in this article is a systematic study of U.S. Senate candidates' campaign messages that assesses the impact of the parties' agenda setting efforts during the election year session. The parties' efforts are compared with mass media, major legislative accomplishments, and party issue ownership as alternative sources of agenda setting in campaigns. The results of this study indicate that Senate candidates do emphasize certain issues in their campaigns and that the contentious election year issues associated with party strategy along with major legislative accomplishments are the issues that the candidates are likely to discuss.     

节约型机关建设研究之文献检视——基于CiteSpace的可视化分析

节约型机关建设是推进机关事务管理现代化和落实政府"过紧日子"要求的重要举措.本文以中国知网(CNKI)收录的关于节约型机关建设研究的644篇期刊文献为样本,以CitrSpacr软件为分析工具,从年度发文量、研究力量、高被引文献、高频关键词等方面对节约型机关建设研究的现状进行文献计量及可视化分析.既有研究成果主要聚焦于节...     

Environmental effectiveness and economic consequences of fragmented versus universal regimes: what can we learn from model studies?

A post-2012 regime aimed at reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions could develop towards a universal or fragmented regime. The fundamental difference between a universal and a fragmented regime is that the first involves a single comprehensive climate regime in which all countries participate, whereas the second involves either multiple treaties or a single treaty in which not all countries participate. This study assesses the literature on a wide range of different model studies concerning the environmental effectiveness and economic consequences of various universal and fragmented climate regimes. The most important conclusions (e.g. relative position of regions in terms of costs) are generally consistent across different studies, despite the differences in methodology. We conclude that stabilising GHG concentrations at low levels is more costly with a fragmented regime than with a universal regime, because reduction targets must be achieved by a smaller number of countries or because fragmented treaties may prevent reducing GHGs where it is cheapest to do so. However, establishing a universal regime will be challenging due to cost differences between regions if emissions are allocated based on specific allocation rules and incentives to free-ride on a universal regime. Even though alternative behaviours such as responsibility, the implementation of transfer schemes or exclusive membership can increase the likelihood of achieving a universal regime, a fragmented regime seems more feasible. Therefore, a transitional fragmented ‘coalition of the willing’ could be established first, which could provide the basis for a larger, universal regime in the long term.

贝勒斯法律程序分析之方法评析

贝勒斯首先将道德成本和程序利益引入法律程序的分析当中,这不仅在方法上给人耳目一新的感觉,而且将道德成本、程序利益和经济成本综合地运用于分析法律程序,拓展了程序的内涵。然而,这一方法也存在着缺陷——法律程序分析失去确定性和直观性。     

委托代理分析:对警务人员有效管理的新理念

警察机构作为政府的组成部分具有典型的科层制结构。由此产生了大量的委托代理关系并带来了管理上的低效率。其主要原因是不对称信息的存在 ,机会成本的增加 ,规则制度的失灵。解放这一问题的管理新理念是 :一要正视下属人员的正当利益要求 ,在设计组织目标时力图协调好组织整体目标与个人目标的关系 ,使下属人员在追求自身利益最大化的同时客观上也能促进组织目标的实现 ;二要创建“合作型”的组织文化 ,在和谐合作的组织文化氛围中促进组织目标的实现。     

近代中国社会地方民主政治实践的历史考察——以民初湖南省地方议员选举为例

民主所具有的普世价值,历来为人们所重视并进而成为整个人类孜孜以求的价值目标。理想的民主政治,不但需要民主的"民"具有"众"的属性,而且需要民众具有丰富的民主政治经验和较高的民主政治素养。然而"民"的范围是随着民众的逐渐觉醒而不断增大的,民众的民主政治经验和素养也不是与生俱来的,需要民众在社会政治实践中不断地参与,持续地积累和提高。民主是理想与经验的统一。     

香港民事诉讼中的诉讼费担保制度

诉讼费担保制度是普通法系国家的一项民事诉讼规则和制度,它能够解决一些因诉讼费而产生的不公平问题。在诉讼费担保制度的适用情形、担保金命令的申请程序、担保金命令的发出程序、担保金命令的法律效力、担保金的取回程序方面,香港都有比较完善的规定,但也存在一些需要解决的问题。香港诉讼费担保制度的成功之处对于阻止内地民事诉讼中的当事人滥诉行为,会有一定的借鉴意义。     

Taxes,Tradable Rights and Transaction Costs

With respect to market-based policy approaches, it is a widely held view that corrective taxation entails substantial, though far fewer transaction costs than tradable permit systems. This conclusion only holds if set-up costs are singled out. This paper explores all relevant market, managerial and political transaction costs associated with environmental taxes and tradable emission rights. It is argued that the prevalence of transaction costs is largely dependent on the design of the policy instrument, respectively the tax base or the trading regime chosen. Comparative analysis further shows that a cap-and-trade program of emission permits distributed for free, traded on a brokered market and monitored upstream is not only more effective, but also likely to entail fewer transaction costs than environmental taxes. Any attempt, in turn, to save the huge information, enforcement and compliance costs incurred by corrective taxation impairs its efficacy by severing the link between the environmental externality and the tax base.JEL Classification: K32, K34     

The Narrow Margins of the Dutch Drug Policy: A Cost-Benefit Analysis

In order to introduce more structure to the debate it seems worthwhile to make a rough cost-benefit analysis of the probable effects of the Dutch drug policy in various areas. A multi-disciplinary analysis of this nature makes it possible to bring together the arguments put forward by the protagonists from various perspectives and to some extent balance them against each other. In a traditional cost-benefit analysis the anticipated effects are assessed in financial terms. This is only possible to a very limited extent when it comes to drug policy. The article is limited to cataloguing as fully as possible the most significant pros and cons of the Dutch drug policy found in the literature on the subject. As a conclusion attention is paid to whether changes such as decriminalisation or re-criminalisation of drug use will yield a better cost-benefit analysis against the background of this overview.