Did financial deregulation help consumers? Access to market-yield instruments

The maturity effect (ME) of futures prices postulated by Samuelson (1965) is re-examined using three nonparametric tests. The consistent entropy asymmetry test by Racine and Maasoumi (2007) indicates that variance is an appropriate risk or uncertainty measure for ME, and value-at-risk and expected shortfall are also adopted. The Kolmogorov–Smirnov dominance test and Wilcoxon rank sum and signed rank test are employed to rank the estimates of the three risk measures under a moving-window framework. The testing outcomes are contingent on futures type, testing method and risk measures. The testing outcomes show mild support for ME.     

A maximum entropy approach to the specification of distributed lags

The maximum entropy (ME) criterion is used to justify three different specifications of distributed lags. For lag distributions in several dimensions, the ME criterion yields a considerable simplification.     

Maximum entropy regressions

Maximum entropy (ME) regression is compared to ordinary regression in the case of two observations on two normally distributed variables (one dependent and one explanatory) with correlation coefficient ρ. ME regressions have the smaller risk under quadratic loss if ? lies in the interval ±0.95. In the case of two explanatory variables and two observations, ordinary regression is not possible but ME regressions do exist and have finite risk.     

The symmetric maximum entropy distribution

The symmetric maximum entropy (ME) distribution is introduced based on symmetrized order statistics. Its properties (including higher-order moments) are compared with those of the non-symmetric ME distribution.     

The Effects of Marginal Employment on Subsequent Labour Market Outcomes

Abstract. Unemployed workers in Austria do not lose their unemployment benefits (UI) if they work in a job where their earnings are below a certain threshold [‘marginal employment’ (ME)]. ME might improve their labour market status by signalling effort, or worsen it through reduced job‐search effort. Those who work in ME while claiming UI have less employment and lower earnings afterwards than those who do not. The penalty lessens over time but is still present after three years.     

The positive maximum entropy distribution

The maximum entropy (ME) principle is applied to samples from a positive population, yielding a positive ME distribution with one truncated exponential component distribution. This approach is easily extended to double-constrained variables such as proportions (e.g., market shares and budget shares).     

The maximum entropy moment matrix with missing values

The occurrence of missing values for one or several variables has the effect of adding a ridge along the diagonal of their maximum entropy (ME) covariance matrix. This is a second ridge in addition to the usual ridge of the ME covariance matrix.     

Further evidence on LIML/ME estimates

A simulation experiment suggests that LIML based on maximum entropy (ME) moments performs well in the case of correlated exogenous variables even when the sample is undersized. The asymptotic standard errors of LIML/ME are evaluated for the first time and appear to be accurate even in moderate sized samples.     

The quartiles of the maximum entropy distribution

The quartile points and interquartile range of the maximum entropy (ME) distribution and sample distribution are compared, using expected values for sampling from a standard normal population. For sample sizes n?20 such that the sample quartile points are uniquely defined, the ME quartile points and interquartile range are found to have lower mean-squared error (MSE).     

Profitability efficiency,marketability efficiency and technology gaps in Taiwan’s banking industry: meta-frontier network data envelopment analysis

The aim of this article is to measure the profitability efficiency (PE) and marketability efficiency (ME) of non-homogenous Taiwanese banks after the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards by using the convex meta-frontier data envelopment analysis model. The model is applied to simultaneously estimate PE and ME of the banks in financial holding companies (FHCs) and the banks not in FHCs. The meta-inefficiencies in individual processes are further decomposed into group inefficiencies and technology gap inefficiencies to explore the sources of inefficiency. The empirical results indicate that the banks in FHCs can reduce more costs than the banks not in FHCs, whereas the banks not in FHCs can create greater market value than the banks in FHCs. For the banks joining and not in FHCs, technology gap inefficiency is the main source of inefficiencies in both profitability and marketability processes.     

Is Russian Energy Policy towards the EU Only about Geopolitics? The Case of the Third Liberalisation Package

Russian external energy policy is frequently described as geopolitical (as opposed to EU energy policy, which is often characterised as market-based). This article reviews geopolitical and market approaches in existing studies and identifies paradigmatic and instrumental levels in each of them. It then proceeds to demonstrate that although the geopolitical paradigm dominates in Russia, Russia has also reacted to the EU’s third liberalisation package, using legal and technocratic instruments, which are parts of the market approach. Each set of instruments has its institutional basis in Russia: the President, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and Gazprom work in geopolitical ways but with frequent recourse to legal instruments, the Ministry of Economic Development (MED) promotes legal instruments and the Ministry of Energy (ME) is the centre of the technocratic activities, which Gazprom also frequently applies at present. This study therefore provides a more complex picture of Russian external energy policy. Moreover, it reveals a potential opening for a degree of policy convergence between the EU and Russia. In this context it is regrettable that legal and technocratic instruments were compromised as a result of the 2014 worsening in EU-Russian relations.     

乡村人的交流平台——由阎连科的小说解析河南饭场习俗

饭场作为河南农村一种普遍存在的民俗现象,是乡土社会人们独特的＂聚餐方式＂,也是人们独特的生存方式。它是人们分享丰收的果实,交流劳动成果的平台,是人们进行信息交流的平台,也是人们精神诉求和感情表达的平台,蕴涵着乡土社会人们特殊的交流方式和独特的文化生活。     

对打造中国西南地区生态第一县的战略构想——洪雅建设全国生态农业先进县的进一步思考

洪雅得天独厚的地理位置、适宜的气候,丰富的资源、独特的环境奠定了打造生态农业的基础条件;也是整合资源优势,在更大范围内提高洪雅知名度,创建县域经济特色品牌的基础。本文探讨了将洪雅县打造成中国西南地区生态农业之乡的构想,认为生态农业是一种新型产业,应充分利用洪雅自身优势和国家建设社会主义新农村的优惠政策,高起点谋划,细致运作,以实现洪雅县社会经济发展的历史性跨越。     

Efficient strategy-proof allocation functions in linear production economies

Summary. In a linear production model, we characterize the class of efficient and strategy-proof allocation functions, and the class of efficient and coalition strategy-proof allocation functions. In the former class, requiring equal treatment of equals allows us to identify a unique allocation function. This function is also the unique member of the latter class which satisfies uniform treatment of uniforms. Received: July 10, 1997 / Revised version: November 24, 1997     

略论两个空间经济研究范式

自新经济地理革命以来,空间经济日益受到主流经济学界的重视.他们的研究思路可以分为互补的新经济地理与马歇尔外部性分析传统两个类型.新经济地理范式给我们提供了一个将地理空间纳入新古典经济分析的框架,但由于其假设前提比较苛刻而备受指责.从传统的马歇尔外部性分析下进行的研究,虽然受到广大学者的青睐,却缺乏一个相对统一的分析框架.近年来的研究尝试表明,这两个范式正呈现出不断融合的新趋势.     

The behaviour of a dual economy under different ‘closing rules’

A subsistence sector which produces output without reproducible capital and is also the only source of labour in the economy opens up the possibility that profit maximisation does not rule everywhere. If, in this context, there is one good and savings determine investment, then equilibrium is unique whether the labour market works classically or neoclassically. If, however, investment determines savings in neo-Keynesian fashion, equilibrium may no longer be unique. These results suggest that the importance of different behavioral specifications cannot be determined independently of how markets get cleared.     

The Castle on the Hill

A simple example of a stochastic game with irreversibility is studied and it is shown that the folk theorem fails in a robust way. In this game of Castle on the Hill, for a broad range of discount factors, including those close to one, equilibrium is unique. Moreover, the equilibrium for large discount factors is Pareto dominated by the equilibrium for low discount factors. A unique cyclic equilibrium is also possible for intermediate ranges of discount factors. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: C7, C6.     

Asymmetric information and rationalizability

We study how asymmetric information affects the set of rationalizable solutions in a linear setup where the outcome is determined by forecasts about this same outcome. The unique rational expectations equilibrium is also the unique rationalizable solution when the sensitivity of the outcome to agents’ forecasts is less than one, provided that this sensitivity is common knowledge. Relaxing this common knowledge assumption, multiple rationalizable solutions arise when the proportion of agents who know the sensitivity is large, and the uninformed agents believe it is possible that the sensitivity is greater than one. Instability is equivalent to existence of some kind of sunspot equilibria.     

Trend-reverting fluctuations in the life-cycle model

Aggregate time series provide evidence of short-term dynamic adjustment that appears to be governed by complex or negative real eigenvalues. This finding is at odds with the predictions of reasonably parameterized, convex one-sector growth models with complete markets. We study life-cycle economies in which aggregate saving depends non-trivially on the distribution of wealth among cohorts. If consumption goods are weak gross substitutes near the steady-state price vector, we prove that the unique equilibrium of a life-cycle exchange economy converges to the unique non-monetary steady state via damped oscillations. We also discuss examples and extensions.     

Unique non-boundary equilibria in the Morishima system

In the extensive literature on the Morishima system, the issue of the uniqueness and positiveness of equilibria has been neglected. It is shown that three conditions known to be sufficient for local stability also imply unique, non-boundary equilibria. Other implications of these three conditions such as numeraire independence and global stability are also discussed.