Wealth Taxes: Stories, Metaphors and Public Attitudes

Wealth taxes are currently high on the policy agenda in Britain. These taxes will not be political sustainable without public support. However, evidence exists that indicates substantial public opposition to wealth taxes. For example, inheritance tax appears to provoke hostility among the public. Some observers have suggested that the way that wealth taxes are presented - particularly using stories and narratives - could enhance public support. This paper summarises focus group evidence on this suggestion. I report that using narratives and stories can have an impact, although this should not be overstated and much depends on how the narratives are shaped.     

Do Accrual Numbers Really Affect the Financial Market? An Empirical Analysis of ESA Accounts Across the EU

The adoption of a full accrual framework in the public sector is differentiated country by country both for budgeting and for reporting phases. The purpose of this article is to address the following broader research question: How do accrual numbers affect the financial markets? The 10-year average interest rate on sovereign bonds across the European Union is used as a dependent variable. The results of the research show an unclear relation among the variables investigated. Given this evidence, an alignment between micro- and macroaccounting rules could be pursued. We argue the suitability of the Australian experience in this sense.     

对社区侵财型案件多发现象的分析

城市社区侵财型案件呈现出多发态势,成为影响社会治安秩序的一个突出问题。导致此类案件多发的原因主要包括社会原因、群众自身防范能力不足以及公安机关在实施社区警务战略方面存在着一定问题等。公安机关只有发挥主观能动性,通过提高群众的防范意识、转变打防观念、创新警务模式等措施,才能最大限度地减少社区侵财型案件的发生。     

Crises and unpredictability in developing countries

Developing countries have suffered most of the financial crises in the context of the process of economic and financial globalisation. Both current and previous crises have revealed that unpredictability is a feature common to all the episodes which occurred during the process of globalisation. Although certain alarms went off, any of those external financial crises were actually predicted by the advanced methods in use for prediction and country risk analysis. Taking into consideration the information above, the aim of this paper is to check the ability to foresee external financial crises in developing countries of both the country risk index published by Euromoney and the Credit Ratings variable included therein. We have focused on the external financial crises that took place between 1992 and 2011, that is, in a full globalisation era. The results are negative. It appears that neither the index nor the sovereign ratings are able to reflect early enough the vulnerabilities that arise previously to the setting off the crisis episodes. This leads us to conclude that the existing models of country risk have limits. Thus, it would necessary to develop new instruments to measure this risk, considering uncertainty as an essential feature of the current economic and financial environment.     

Fund Accounting from the Italian Early Tradition to the U.S. GAAP for Governments

Surprising correspondences emerge from the parallel investigation of fund accounting practices in Italian entities until the late nineteenth century and in the contemporary U.S. public sector. The analysis attempts to interpret similarities and differences in light of dissimilar environmental features, and wonders if the Italian tradition could have some explanatory capability on the U.S. present standards. The “fund” concept and its use are strictly similar; they are founded on information needs for governance and internal control. Contemporary requirements for democracy and transparency, and opportunities coming from modern ICT tools bring U.S. organizations to be accountable to the citizenry.     

论建立和完善我国有关船舶油污损害赔偿责任限制程序的必要性

《海事诉讼特别程序法》第 9章仅对于海事赔偿责任限制基金设立程序做出规定 ,并没有明确规定油污损害赔偿责任限制程序问题 ,基于此 ,本文通过比较油污损害赔偿责任限制与海事赔偿责任限制的异同 ,初步提出建立和完善我国油污损害赔偿责任限制程序的立法建议。     

退休政策的经济学分析及调整

退休政策通过影响劳动力的投入和养老负担对社会产出和就业人口、退休人口的福利水平产生影响，因此要对退休政策进行调整须进行较为充分的经济论证。研究对单人经济的退休年龄分析显示：存在一个基于个人一生效用最大化的“最佳”退休年龄，可合理平衡一生总产出和退休后的休闲。同理，一个多人经济社会也存在一个平均的“最佳”退休年龄。研究的结论如下：现有的退休年龄政策背景下，中国将面临日益沉重的养老负担，说明中国的退休年龄政策亟须调整；延迟退休年龄至少在长期对就业无负面影响，且可增加GDP:将暂时多余的社保基金用于金融投资无助于社会养老负担的缓解，养老金空账运行并无问题。为完善中国的退休政策，研究提出适时延长退休年龄、提高养老金标准和降低养老保险费率、对职工上缴的养老保险实施记账等建议。     

论我国住房保障立法的必要性和可行性

我国房改已历经近30年来，取得了重大成就，也存在明显的问题。我国住房保障立法具有必要性和可行性。就其必要性而言，住房保障是由本身的属性决定的；住宅权是人类基本人权，也是我国宪法规定的基本权利；住房保障立法有助于我国社会保障法律体系完善；同时也是我国房改以来政策法律化的必然要求。就其可行性而言，我国住房保障立法已具备了基本的理论依据、政策支持和现实基础。     

我国证券投资资基金法理模式之选择

世界各国的证券投资基金分为公司型和契约型 ,而契约型又有分离式和非分离式之别。无论哪种模式 ,证券投资基金在法理上均存在双层信托关系。在模式的选择上 ,各国注重本国的法律文化特别是公司制度、行政监管与之密切配合。很难单纯对公司型和契约型的优劣作出评判。我国应当允许两种类型同时并存、同步竞争。在契约型中 ,为便于一般投资者理解和有利于行政监管 ,我们应采取非分离模式。     

中国保险基金的困境及其出路

当前，我国保险业又一次面临着巨大危机和困境，保险资金投资渠道狭窄，投资方式、投资工具单一，难以支持我国保险业全面应对加入WTO后年资保险公司纷至沓来的局面。中国保险基金必须加快和更大规模地进入资本市场，这既是保险业摆脱困境的必然选择和唯一出路，更是中国金融市场体系得以完善的必然要求和客观规律。中国证券市场、特别是股票市场当前还存在严重缺陷，保险基金大规模贸然入市风险很大。中国保险基金进入资本市场的途径主要有：成立各种形式的投资基金，大规模增加购买企业债券，提高购买金融债券和国债的比重等。