Contemporary Economic Policy articles from January 1999

Contemporary Economic Policy archives from January 1999

Power markets: restructuring electricity.(Transcript)
January 1, 1999... Editor's Note: This is an edited transcription from the general session of the 73rd Annual Conference of the Western Economic Association International, held in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Richard A. Bilas, Moderator: This year I happen to be...

Marginal cost pricing for utilities: a digest of the California experience.
January 1, 1999... I. INTRODUCTION California has been a bellweather state in inaugurating regulatory pricing techniques,(1) and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has moved marginal cost pricing from crude to refined. The dollars at stake...

Money aggregates management: problems and prospects in China's economic transition.
January 1, 1999... I. INTRODUCTION Over the past two decades, monetary policy has been a major macro management method of stabilizing the economy in China's market-oriented transition. During the post-reform cyclical episodes in particular, the government...

A cooperative perspective on sovereign debt: past and present.
January 1, 1999... I. INTRODUCTION The current Asian financial crisis reminds us of analogous situations occurring not long ago. In the 19th and the early 20th centuries, the sovereign debt issue was a destabilizing factor in the international financial...

Are wage increases in Chinese state industry efficient? Productivity in Nanjing's machine-building industry.
January 1, 1999... I. INTRODUCTION Do real wage increases in Chinese stateowned industrial enterprises simply reflect productivity improvements, or are other factors at work? Recently published data for 1997 (SSB, 1998), show that since 1978, during the...

Much ado about nothing? Demographic bulges, the productivity puzzle, and CPP reform.(Canada Pension Plan; economic reform)
January 1, 1999... I. INTRODUCTION The future of the Canada Pension Plan, financed on pay-as-you-go principles, is far from certain. Policymakers often express the opinion that as members of the baby boom generation approach retirement, the CPP will not be...

Communal duality: agricultural subsidies from TVEs.(township and village enterprises in China)
January 1, 1999... I. INTRODUCTION Recently, China's township and village enterprises (TVEs) have been receiving increasing attention in academic discussion (Byrd and Lin, 1990). The gross value of output by TVEs has been growing at an annual rate of around...

The determinants of Japanese local-benefit seeking.
January 1, 1999... I. INTRODUCTION The issue of whether institutions affect political outcomes has drawn considerable debate. For example, Becker (1983) argues that institutions may not matter because maximizing interest groups fully exploit any possible...

Export-linked employment in Southern California.
January 1, 1999... I. INTRODUCTION Due to the tremendous growth in the volume of international trade in recent years, there is growing interest in the relationship between trade (exports, in particular), and domestic employment. However, relatively little is...

Role of market institutions in Pacific Rim development and transition.
January 1, 1999... Editor's Note: This is a collection of papers and edited transcription from a general session of the January 1998 Pacific Rim Allied Economic Organizations 3rd Biennial Conference, held in Bangkok, Thailand. Michael D. Intriligator: This...

The hearty and cheery state.
January 1, 1999... "The progressive state is really the hearty and cheery state of all the different orders of society, the stationery is dull, the declining melancholy." (Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, p. 91) Two countries, the Philippines and South Korea,...