世界経済・社会統計 = World development indicators

计量经济分析 = Econometric analysis

The author systematically examines one of the important issues of information — establishing the market price. He introduces the concept of «search» — where a buyer wanting to get a better price, is forced to question sellers. The article deals with various aspects of finding the necessary information.

Economics of Information

NUDGE: IMPROVING DECISIONS ABOUT HEALTH, WEALTH, AND HAPPINESS by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein Penguin Books, 2009, 312 pp, ISBN 978-0-14-311526-7This book is best described formally as a general explanation of and advocacy for libertarian paternalism, a term coined by the authors in earlier publications. Informally, it is about how leaders, systems, organizations, and governments can nudge people to do the things the nudgers want and need done for the betterment of the nudgees, or of society. It is paternalism in the sense that "it is legitimate for choice architects to try to influence people's behavior in order to make their lives longer, healthier, and better", (p. 5) It is libertarian in that "people should be free to do what they like - and to opt out of undesirable arrangements if they want to do so", (p. 5) The built-in possibility of opting out or making a different choice preserves freedom of choice even though people's behavior has been influenced by the nature of the presentation of the information or by the structure of the decisionmaking system. I had never heard of libertarian paternalism before reading this book, and I now find it fascinating.Written for a general audience, this book contains mostly social and behavioral science theory and models, but there is considerable discussion of structure and process that has roots in mathematical and quantitative modeling. One of the main applications of this social system is economic choice in investing, selecting and purchasing products and services, systems of taxes, banking (mortgages, borrowing, savings), and retirement systems. Other quantitative social choice systems discussed include environmental effects, health care plans, gambling, and organ donations. Softer issues that are also subject to a nudge-based approach are marriage, education, eating, drinking, smoking, influence, spread of information, and politics. There is something in this book for everyone.The basis for this libertarian paternalism concept is in the social theory called "science of choice", the study of the design and implementation of influence systems on various kinds of people. The terms Econs and Humans, are used to refer to people with either considerable or little rational decision-making talent, respectively. The various libertarian paternalism concepts and systems presented are tested and compared in light of these two types of people. Two foundational issues that this book has in common with another book, Network of Echoes: Imitation, Innovation and Invisible Leaders, that was also reviewed for this issue of the Journal are that 1 ) there are two modes of thinking (or components of the brain) - an automatic (intuitive) process and a reflective (rational) process and 2) the need for conformity and the desire for imitation are powerful forces in human behavior. …

Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness

HERE is a long-standing interest in the effects of entry, which are widely recognized as major drivers of economic growth. Entry can induce reallocation of inputs and outputs, trigger knowledge spillovers, and affect innovation incentives in incumbent firms. The desire to induce entry by foreign firms has spurred widespread policy reforms, particularly in countries or industries behind the technology frontier. However, empirical studies of the effects of market liberalizations and inward direct investment from foreign firms provide mixed results on incumbent reactions. 1 In this paper we explore systematic variation in the response of incumbent firms to entry. We are motivated by the following empirical regularity—we see substantial heterogeneity in the correlation between greenfield foreign firm entry and incumbent productivity growth when we look across industries in the United Kingdom. In industries close to the technology frontier there is a strong and positive correlation, while a weak or even negative one is found in industries that lag behind. This is illustrated in figure 1, where we plot the annual rate of greenfield foreign firm entry in each industry-year against the respective average of subsequent total factor productivity growth in incumbent establishments. The sample is split at the median distance to the technology frontier, as measured by a labor productivity index that relates incumbents in U.K. industries to their U.S. industry equivalent. Our explanation for this variation follows from Schumpeterian growth theory—threat from frontier entrants induces incumbents in sectors that are initially close to the technology frontier to innovate more, and this triggers productivity growth, but entry threat reduces the expected rents from doing R&D for incumbents in sectors further from the frontier. In the former case, incumbent firms close to the frontier know that they can escape and survive entry by innovating successfully, and so they react with more intensive innovation activities aimed at escaping the threat.

/pdf/the-effects-of-entry-on-incumbent-innovation-and-3x394ntvay.pdf

The effects of entry on incumbent innovation and productivity

We analyze the effects of corruption and institutional quality on the quality of business regulation. Our key findings indicate that corruption negatively affects the quality of regulation and that general institutional quality is insignificant once corruption is controlled for. These findings hold over a number of specifications which include additional exogenous historical and geographic controls. The findings imply that policy makers can focus on curbing corruption to improve regulation, over wider institutional reform.

/pdf/corruption-institutions-and-regulation-5fxfnmpshx.pdf

Corruption, institutions and regulation

This article tests systematically the effect of political structures on the credibility of sovereign debtors in advanced economies. It argues that power-sharing and party system polarization have important effects on long-term interest rates. Where collective responsibility is high and polarization is low, the market perceives a more credible commitment on the part of sovereign debtors. These arguments derived from the theory of credible commitments perform much better than alternative accounts of the politics of sovereign debt, namely a market preference for right-wing governments and more flexible polities. The principal data consist of a panel of 23 rich countries between 1970 and 2009. There are tests for robustness to a wider sample and a variety of different measurements.

/pdf/political-institutions-credible-commitment-and-sovereign-3q7k7vb2a6.pdf

Political institutions, credible commitment, and sovereign debt in advanced economies

Are women less corrupt in business? We revisit this question using firm-level data from the World Bank’s Enterprise Surveys, which measure firms’ experience of corruption and the gender of their owners and top managers. We find that women in positions of influence are associated with less corruption: female-owned businesses pay less in bribes and corruption is seen as less of an obstacle in companies where women are represented in top management. By providing evidence that women are, ethically at least, good for business our research contributes to the literature on development, gender equality, and corruption more generally.

Gender and corruption in business

/pdf/gender-and-corruption-in-business-1ntczamwt1.pdf

There is substantial evidence that International Monetary Fund policies are driven by the powerful states which intervene to align policy with their preferences. In particular, many have argued that the United States uses its position as the Fund’s largest shareholder to achieve its foreign policy objectives. As a result, a substantial volume of literature argues and presents evidence to support the claim that International Monetary Fund decisions faithfully reflect US interests. My findings extend these claims. Using a new dataset on the presence in International Monetary Fund agreements of binding conditions, which cause the agreement to be suspended or terminated if they are not met, I demonstrate that International Monetary Fund agreements contain fewer binding conditions when a suspension of International Monetary Fund lending plausibly would impose greater hardship on creditor country banks and exporters.

/pdf/imf-conditionality-and-the-economic-exposure-of-its-wyy0wiahse.pdf

Michael Breen

Papers

Corruption, institutions and regulation

Political institutions, credible commitment, and sovereign debt in advanced economies

Gender and corruption in business

Gender and corruption in business

IMF conditionality and the economic exposure of its shareholders