Class,Politics and the Progressive Dilemma

This article considers contemporary class inequalities and how they might shape a progressive politics in the UK. Drawing on findings from the BBC Class Survey, it outlines changes in the class structure, class mobility and class identities. It is argued that the class structure is increasingly polarised and fragmented, with a wealthy elite, a vulnerable precariat and fragmented middle and working classes in between. Declining upward social mobility is a source of anxiety for middle‐class and working‐class parents alike. Class identification, especially working‐class identification, has weakened over time, although class snobbery is far from dead. Class has changed and the class basis of politics is changing now too. A progressive politics is possible if the political parties of the centre‐left appeal to the majority of the electorate rather than one class, acknowledge common concerns and worries and appeal to shared hopes and dreams that straddle class boundaries.     

Do Local Economic Conditions Affect Homelessness? Impact of Area Housing Market Factors,Unemployment, and Poverty on Community Homeless Rates

This article estimates the impact of local housing and labor market conditions on area homelessness using the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD’s) annual point-in-time counts of homelessness from 2007 to 2014. In cross-sectional models, the median rent, the share of households in rental housing, and the poverty rate have strong positive impacts on homelessness. Once area-fixed effects are included, only the median rent remains positive and significant. However, fixed-effect models find a positive relationship between poverty and homelessness in communities that maintain right-to-shelter policies, suggesting constraints in shelter bed supply may limit responses of homelessness to changes in economic conditions.     

The grey area between nationality and citizenship: an analysis of external citizenship policies in Latin America and the Caribbean

Literature on diaspora engagement policies, transnational and extra-territorial citizenship has painted the increasing recognition of dual nationality and the extension of state policies to the diaspora as a signal of states leaving behind the paradigms of exclusive nationality and residence as conditions to exercise citizenship. In doing this, this literature tends to treat citizenship and nationality as synonyms. By analysing the citizenship policies of 22 Latin American and Caribbean states towards their nationals who reside abroad and/or acquire another nationality, we add key nuances to such consideration: nationality and citizenship may relate to different legal statuses – with important consequences for migrants – and there might be differences also between the citizen rights of nationals by origin and of nationals by naturalization. In particular, we show that citizenship and nationality interact in different ways when it comes to the preservation of rights for emigrants: the distinctions allow restricting the portability of citizenship rights for nationals by birth, and other groups of nationals, depending on the exclusivity, and origin, of their national belonging. These distinctions tell a potentially different story of how citizenship is conceived of by states as they approach the challenges of membership and participation posed by emigration, and paint a less rosy picture with regard to the demise of exclusive nationality.     

Transfer Pricing in BEPS Project and China's Response

A major concern on base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) is transfer pricing, which is discussed in BEPS Action Items 8–10 and 13. Actions 8–10 contain revised guidance, which ensures that transfer pricing rules secure outcomes that better align operational profits with the economic activities that generate them, as well as guidance on transactions involving cross-border commodity transactions and on low value-adding intra-group services. Action 13 contains a three-tiered standardized approach to transfer pricing documentation, including a minimum standard on country-by-country reports (CbCRs). However, the approach of Actions 8–10 still focuses on the restoration of the dysfunctional rules built on the arm’s length principle, which is rooted in the principle of separate independent entity. The threshold of Action 13 excludes many large multinational enterprises (MNEs) from the CbCR requirement and deprives developing countries access to the information of MNEs below the threshold. Chapter 6 of the Chinese Corporate Income Tax Law, under the title “Special Tax Adjustments,” provided the legal foundations of transfer pricing and transfer pricing documentation in China. To effectively implement the BEPS package in China and to comprehensively update the existing Circular 2, the State Taxation Administration (STA) released a Discussion Draft of a Circular on Implementation Measures for Special Tax Adjustments in September 2015, ranging from Action 3 (controlled foreign company rules), Action 8–10 (aligning transfer pricing outcomes with value creation) to Action 13 (transfer pricing documentation and country-by-country reporting) in details. Right now, a series of patches, such as the STA Bulletins 45, 42, 64, and 6, have been made to replace a substantial part of Circular 2.     

Education and economic growth in the United States: cross-national applications for an intra-national path analysis

Do the leading predictors of economic growth found in the cross-national research have a capacity to predict economic growth at the state level in the United States (US)? Are the effects of education spending on economic growth underestimated because research fails to examine the indirect effects of spending on economic growth? This article presents the findings from a study investigating the relationship between education and economic growth in US states while controlling for the effects of the leading predictors of economic growth from the cross-national research. It also utilizes a path model to examine direct and indirect relationships between education spending and economic growth measured as per capita income growth. The results indicate that spending on higher education and highway expenditures demonstrate a positive association with growth in per capita income, while K12 (kindergarten through 12th grade) spending and K12 pupil–teacher ratios demonstrate a negative association with income growth from 1988 to 2005. Moreover, K12 spending and population growth indirectly affect income growth through their relationship with K12 pupil–teacher ratios, and spending on higher education indirectly affects income growth through college attainment rates. Overall, all but one variable from the cross-national research demonstrates a significant direct or indirect relationship with income growth during at least one time-period investigated. Treating K12 pupil–teacher ratios and college attainment as mediating variables also enhances our understanding of the dynamics that explain growth in per capita income at the sub-national level in the US. However, some unexpected findings emerge when the data are analyzed on the basis of two eight-year sub-periods.     

对增加农民收入的思考

进入21世纪,增加农民收入成为人们关注的热点。随着经济的发展,农产品供求关系的变化、农民纯收入增幅缓慢、城镇化滞后等因素制约了农民收入的增长。土地承包责任制中产权不清晰以农业为主的产业结构农户分散经营农业剩余劳动力难以转移农业生态环境恶化是影响农民增收的主要问题。因此,走农业可持续发展的道路应从国民经济全局出发,重新思考农民收入的增长,将农业结构战略性调整同城乡社会结构的调整结合起来,实现农业规模经营,实现农业产业化经营,发展农产品多样化、优质化、深加工,转移农村人口,加快城镇化步伐,保护生态环境。     

非营利组织所得税优惠制度比较与借鉴

非营利组织在提供公共物品、保障社会公益方面有弥补政府缺陷的"替代效益",许多国家或地区为了鼓励和促进公益事业,均从所得税法方面对捐赠人和非营利组织自身作了税收优惠的制度安排。我国应进一步提高对捐赠人的税前扣除额,区分非营利组织收入的不同性质给予不同的税收优惠待遇,加强对非营利组织的税收监管。     

刑事侦查的成本收益分析及其理论应用

成本收益分析是法律经济学的主要研究方法,它不仅涉及到关法律价值等具有法哲学意义上的法学理论问题,而且涉及到具体的法律问题和几乎所有的部门法领域,刑事侦查领域亦不例外。我国侦查部门的办案资源严重缺乏且存在资源配置不合理、利用不充分的情况,由此导致侦查工作的低效益。目前的侦查现状对经济分析方法的运用提出了现实性的要求。本文借助于微观经学的分析工具,分析了刑事侦查学的成本与收益并构建理性犯罪人模型与刑事侦查边际收益递减模型,以此为基础指出我国目前刑事侦查活动的低效益现象并提出若干建议。