A Tale of Two Cities: Bureaucratisation in Mayor-Council and Council-Manager Municipalities

This paper presents a theory that predicts under what circumstances self-interested politicians ‘bureaucratise’ their administrations, in the sense that they delegate the powers to hire, fire and promote public employees to autonomous bodies (like civil service commissions). The main testable proposition is that, in polities with a higher concentration of powers, politicians will bureaucratise their administrations to overcome time inconsistency problems in their relationships with public employees. This prediction is tested with data drawn from US municipalities, where two main types of local governments co-exist: mayor-council and council-manager. Results show that municipal governments with a higher concentration of powers (i.e. mayor-council) tend to have more bureaucratised administrations.     

“交易成本”概念的历史

文章回顾了“交易成本”概念的历史。这个概念从20世纪30年代科斯等人提出开始,经历了60年代含义的扩张,70－80年代运用于经济组织的分析和制度演化的分析,终于成为经济学理论中的一个基本的概念。     

公司董事表见代表制度之我见

本文从公司角度阐述了表见代表制度的成因及其意义 ,分析了该制度的适用范围 ,并运用经济分析的方法 ,重点分析了公司章程公示力的规定同公司董事表见代表制度之间的冲突问题 ,认为后者应优于前者适用 ,同时认为公司章程不应就公司的经营范围作出规定。最后 ,分析指明了公司董事表见代表的构成要件。     

物权行为理论辩析

物权行为是交易双方基于变动物权的合意,以交付或登记为表现形式的民事行为,它具有物权变动同时消灭相关债权的效力;整个交易过程中双方都有权作出相应的意思表示,物权合意是完成交易的最终的意思表示;物权行为的独立性源于其不同于债权行为的法律效力,选择履约与否的自由和正当性决定了物权行为独立性的本质,否定物权行为的独立性就是否定交易双方在特定情形下毁约的权利;物权行为的无因性是其独立性的合理延伸,交易双方的利益并不会因之而失衡,认为无因性会损害出卖人的利益的看法是片面的。     

Wasting innovation: barriers to entry and European regulation on waste electronic equipment

The European Directive on Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment 2002/96/EC distorts incentives in regulated markets. Treatment of ‘historical waste’—i.e. products sold prior to 13 August 2005—is financed by all firms in the market at the time of disposal. This stimulates excessive pre-regulation output by incumbents for two reasons: a costs sharing effect and entry deterrence. Entry deterrence is achieved by raising the common costs of waste disposal. Entry is a main driver of innovation in the affected industries. The feasibility of a first best policy is discussed and an alternative rule superior to the status quo is presented.

Costs and recovery rates in the Dutch liquidation-based bankruptcy system

We present evidence on the efficiency of the resolution of financial distress in bankruptcy in The Netherlands. Direct costs average 16%, firm recovery 37% and bank debt recovery 80%. The direct costs are lower in larger firms and in firms with more bank debt. Costs increase with the time it takes to sell assets. Firm recovery is influenced by asset structure, capital structure and to a lesser extent Dutch legal variables. However, the opportunity to continue operations in bankruptcy is chosen by about half the firms and this has a positive effect on recoveries.

Deregulation,property rights,and legal system

During regulation the regulator carries out an intermediary role between shareholders and managers, consequently affecting property rights and the agency relation between the two. Deregulation implies that this intermediary role ceases to exist. This article analyses how government deregulation changes property rights, differentiating between firms of network and non-network structures. Changes in property rights affect the agency relation between shareholders and managers, increasing information asymmetry and agency costs. I argue that the way to reduce agency costs depend to a great extent on the country’s legal system classified as of common or civil law tradition.

业主委员会机会主义行为制度分析

业主与业主委员会之间就维权问题经常产生矛盾．由于业主掌握的信息不充分和搭便车行为导致了内部监督的缺失,而正向激励不足的业主委员会本身就存在着发生道德风险的可能．再加上政府在有效监督制度供给上的严重不足使得业主的实际监督行为面临着过高的交易费用,加剧了业主委员会机会主义行为发生的风险。因此,必须提高政府的制度供给能力,完善内外部监督机制,推进业主委员会服务的市场化和职业化,从而降低监督制度的运行成本,增加有效监督行为的供给。     

新制度经济学发展观透视

新制度经济学是现代经济学最重要的发展。新制度经济学以现实的人的行为假定为基础,以制度为研究对象,在新古典经济学分析框架中引入交易成本和产权这两个重要范畴,建立了将制度内生化的经济发展理论。新制度经济学发展观的主要贡献在于提出制度结构、制度安排、制度变迁等制度因素是经济和社会发展的重要源泉。     

Helpful local surtaxes? Florida and disadvantaged families

Well-intended tax policy often produces unintended consequences. In this article, we look at one such tax policy, specialised surtaxes in the State of Florida. Surtaxes are frequently adopted to provide financial assistance to poverty-based local programmes and services. Despite the intended benefits, we show that the contributors of the tax have been able to capitalise the cost into the residential property market, ultimately placing the burden of the surtax upon the population its revenue intends to help.