Divided we fall? The effect of manufacturing decline on the social capital of US communities

What happens to local communities when manufacturing disappears? I examine changes in associational density over nearly two decades as a proxy for social capital in US labor markets. Exploiting plausibly exogenous trade-induced shocks to local manufacturing activity, I test whether deindustrialization is associated with greater or lower organizational membership. I uncover a robust negative relationship between the two variables, particularly acute in rural and mostly-White areas. My findings, however, are sensitive to measurement: There are no clearly discernible effects of deindustrialization on social capital when I consider alternative proxies for the outcome. To reconcile these results, I present evidence suggesting that economic adversity may induce a qualitative, rather than quantitative, change in social capital.     

Crying on Lombard Street: fixing sovereign defaults in the 1890s

The wave of sovereign defaults in the 1890s was one of the worst ever remembered in the history of finance. From Argentina in 1890 to Brazil in 1898, countries in Latin America and Southern Europe defaulted on their external debt, inflicting investors with huge losses. However, this was the last cluster of defaults of the gold standard era. At the beginning of the 20th century and until the outbreak of World War I, defaults were less frequent despite the continuous increase in foreign government borrowing. The literature has provided several explanations on this apparent success all relative to improvements introduced in the market. This paper argues that the fall in the number of defaults is more related to a more favorable world macroeconomic environment and to an increased liquidity available in international financial markets than to an abrupt shift in the manner in which defaults were handled. I show that settlements were more correlated with the relative facility to re-access foreign capital markets than to changes in the financial architecture.     

Bank Liquidity Creation in Russia

Two EU-based senior economists analyze the contribution of bank liquidity creation to the Russian economy, as well as changes in creation of liquidity occurring during the global financial crisis. Applying the methodology of Berger and Bouwman's (2009) study of U.S. banking to a rich panel dataset for Russian banks for the period 1999-2009, the authors compute three alternative measures of bank liquidity creation. They find evidence of increased creation of liquidity in real terms over the period and also determine that state-controlled (versus private) banks and Russia's largest banks (versus intermediate-size and small banks) contributed most to liquidity creation (lower in Russia than in the U.S.). Their findings suggest that consolidation of the Russian banking sector may prove more instrumental in increasing liquidity creation than privatization per se.     

1930年代中国农村合作运动讨论中的“商资归农”问题——以《大公报》社评及其所刊文章为素材的一个考察

20世纪30年代,随着中国农村复兴运动的高涨,农村合作实践中出现大量商资归农现象,并由此推动中国农村合作运动进入“极盛时期”或“农业合作社数量猛进和性质有所变更时期”。这一现象不仅为中国合作运动史上之新鲜事物。亦为“中国独有之现象”,故在社会各界特别是知识界引发了一场关于“商资流入农村问题”或商资归农利弊关系的讨论。而当时重要的新闻媒体天津《大公报》或发表社论及报道或刊发有关人士对这一问题的评论文章,积极参与了这一理论与实践问题的探讨。其讨论的目的在于为中国农村合作事业寻找一条可行之路,并以此复兴农村、振兴民族。不过,由于这场讨论本身是“社会失序时期”理论界的一种反映,所以有时人曾讥讽其为“合作者不合作”。     

中国旅游业资本流动与生产率演化——基于DSSA方法的结构效应分析

在中国旅游业转型升级的重要时期,开展全国及31个省份旅游产业结构变动与生产率演化的研究具有显著的理论与现实意义。鉴于结构变动是影响生产率增长的一个重要因素,本文运用DSSA方法对全国及31个省份2000年—2016年旅游业资本生产率增长率进行分解,测度产业结构变动的生产率增长效应。结果发现,不同地区或省份之间表现出较大差异。在年度静态结构效应上,东部地区开放型旅游经济较为发达,各省份总体发展态势较为稳定,伴有阶段性波动;中部地区旅游经济相对闭塞,各省份总体发展的平稳性最差,波动性介于东部地区与西部地区之间;西部地区在大开发背景下旅游经济增长较快,各省份总体发展的平稳性介于东部地区与中部地区之间,波动性最大。在年度动态结构效应上,全国大部分省份在大部分年份都出现“结构负利”,动态结构能力亟须改善。尽管各省份表现出差异化的静态结构能力和动态结构能力,但是我国整体旅游产业结构升级与旅游经济增长的发展态势相耦合。本文的结构效应分析结果可为东部、中部和西部地区及不同省份旅游业转型升级提供理论依据和决策参考。     

外资流动的动力学研究——以广东省为例

资本流动受推力、引力和阻力作用,在空间上先向中心城市和交通干线集聚,然后沿城市体系和交通干线作\"蛙跳\"式、点线式推进,最后向乡村面状扩散。资本流动对流入地区产生正负两方面的影响。投资环境建设和引资工作应针对不同阶段资本流动的特点和驱动因素,采取相应的政策,调控外资流动,减少负面影响,使利用结构合理化。     

Bridging and Bonding Capital in Two‐Mode Collaboration Networks

Public management and policy scholars have empirically demonstrated that in complex policy arenas, governments depend on the collaboration of policy actors outside their direct control to produce needed goods and services. Government‐sponsored shared‐cost programs are one of the premier mechanisms to foster such cooperation, yet little is known about the inner patterns of participation in such programs and whether they are conditional on specific resource needs that partners may have. In this article, I study the participation of organizations in projects seeking funds from the Cooperative Funding Initiative, a program sponsored by the Southwest Florida Water Management District that finances projects dealing with the management of water resources. Through the estimation of a series of Exponential Random Graph Models in the networks that form when organizations participate in projects (two‐mode networks), I show that centralization around popular organizations results in greater bridging network capital, which facilitates the flow of nonoverlapping information from project to project. I analyze the implications of these findings and discuss how the formation of these bridging structures may enhance the capacity of the program to find innovative solutions to the problems the projects are designed to deal with.     

我国目前不宜废除经济犯罪死刑

死刑问题是现代刑法理论研究和国际刑法所关注的一个热点和焦点问题。从我国目前的现实情况来看,暂不宜废除经济犯罪死刑,主要原因有:重刑思想的深远影响、人权观念还比较淡薄、政治制度尚不完善、法律制度仍有缺陷、经济犯罪形势严峻。     

The Contribution of Volunteering, Trust, and Networks to Educational Performance

Social capital can have a beneficial effect on public policy outcomes by helping to solve collective action problems and by providing individuals and communities with efficient social networks. In education, it also assists students' self-confidence, which can foster motivation and academic success. To investigate the social capital-outcome link, this article analyzes a panel survey of 15–16 and 16–17 year olds in 27 English schools, testing whether social capital, both at the individual and at the school levels, tends to increase grades and examination performance. The analysis concludes that individual-level trust and voluntary action improve pupil performance, but that the parental networks of some young people, particularly those from low socioeconomic status families, have negative rather than positive consequences. The findings add to a debate about the differential impact of social capital and the relative importance of its bridging and its bonding elements.     

北洋政府的侨资政策及其评价

民国北洋政府时期是华侨回国投资兴办实业蓬勃发展的阶段。这与海外华侨资本的迅猛增强密切相关 ,同时也与这一时期积极的工商政策与侨资政策有着直接的联系。北洋政府的侨资政策不仅继承了晚清积极引进侨资的政策 ,而且有所发展 ,有所创新 ,并收到了一定的成效     

SOCIAL CAPITAL AND WORK AMONG RURAL-TO-URBAN MIGRANTS IN CHINA

This research provides a fine-grained analysis of the link between social capital and work-related outcomes among rural-to-urban migrants in China. Using data from the Shanghai Rural-to-Urban Migrant Worker Survey, the authors examine various kinds of social networks, the types of social capital they produce and their effects on migrant workers. While kinship networks and pre-existing social capital tend to provide migrants with job security and stability, they are negatively associated with migrants’ earnings and work satisfaction. By contrast, newly established friendship networks with local urbanites indicate new forms of social capital from the destination city, which are positively associated with higher satisfaction with income and work environment, and a higher likelihood of landing a permanent job.