Think Globally,Teach Locally: Experiencing the Foreign Aid Debate Through Service Learning

Abstract

Novel curricular strategies are required if institutions want all students to actively experience the benefits of global knowledge and civic engagement, as financial and practical commitments frequently make study abroad inaccessible to many students. In this paper, we outline an innovative service-learning course, where local action coupled with an international target, offered a parallel and novel learning strategy that capitalized on the strengths of experiential education, while providing a practical and more inclusive student engagement opportunity available to a larger subset of students. We also describe our teaching strategy, which emphasizes the social context of the classroom: discovery, self-exploration, and shared learning. Together, service learning and a critical pedagogy can better help students relate to the otherwise abstract processes of foreign aid. In 2013 and 2014, approximately 30 undergraduate students participated in a student-led outreach project soliciting bicycle donations to support human development efforts in Uganda and Ghana. In addition to making reasonable progress toward learning outcomes during the two-year pilot, we found that the everyday challenges our students encountered in their service-learning project were microcosms for some of the large-scale, global challenges that foreign aid delivery faces.     

The Real Cost of Financial Capital in the United States,Japan and Korea: Comparison and Convergence Tests

This paper presents alternative measures of the real cost of financial capital in the United States, Japan, and Korea over the 1975-90 period. Japan's cost of financial capital was the lowest among the three countries studied. The U.S. real cost of financial capital was higher than the Korean real cost. Our statistical analyses provide some evidence for shrinking the gap in the real financial costs of Japan and Korea vis a vis the United States. This is the reflection of increasing goods market integration and financial liberalization occurring in Japan and Korea. [F36, G15]     

劳动力规模、组织成本与农业生产合作组织演变——基于民国以来的历史分析

中国农业生产合作组织的演变具有显著的周期性特征和地域性差异,但是已有研究只是选择性地关注短期内农业生产合作组织的效率问题及其影响下的去集体化过程,或者只是简单地强调国家强制性制度安排下的合作化过程。本文认为,不同社会经济条件下的劳动监督成本和协调成本差异决定组织成本差异,组织成本差异决定各种农业经济组织的相对效率结构,因而决定农业经济组织的周期性演变及其多样化特征。进一步的研究表明:战争、气候灾难等消极性因素和人口死亡率下降、人口寿命延长等积极性因素是劳动力规模及其劳动监督成本波动的诱因,因而是农业经济组织长期性演变的终极决定因素。利用1911-2011年中国省级、县级的各类人口和合作社数据,本文从宏观层面初步验证了这种观点。     

The empirical validity of the New Keynesian Phillips curve using survey forecasts of inflation

This paper investigates the performance of the New Keynesian Phillips curve when survey forecasts of inflation are used to proxy for inflation expectations. Previous authors such as Brissimis and Magginas (2008) have applied survey measures of inflation expectations to the NKPC, and have concluded that these estimates are superior to those estimated using actual data on future inflation. However this approach employs the use of the labor income share as the proxy for real marginal cost, something which is highly problematic once we consider the countercyclicality of this variable. This paper develops and tests a procyclical marginal cost variable alongside various survey measures of inflation forecasts in the NKPC, while recognizing the problem of weak instruments that occurs when estimating the model using conventional GMM. We find that the NKPC produces a counter-intuitive negative and significant coefficient on procyclical marginal cost when surveys of inflation forecasts are used, which casts serious doubt on the empirical viability of the NKPC model, even when estimated with survey inflation forecasts.     

Budget Standards and the Poverty Line

This article reports some of the results from a recent study which, among other things, developed and costed low cost budgets for a range of Australian households. A budget standard represents what is needed, in terms of goods, services and activities, to achieve a particular standard of living and what that costs in a particular place and time. A low cost budget standard is one designed to meet basic needs at a frugal level while still allowing social and economic participation consistent with community expectations. The low cost budget standard estimates for households living in Sydney in February 1997 are somewhat higher than the Henderson poverty line, partly a reflection of the high cost of housing in Sydney, but also a consequence of the low cost standard itself being above a poverty standard. In spite of this, the budget standard relativities for different households provide an estimate of the relative needs of Australian households in the 1990s which could replace the current much-criticised equivalence scale.     

控制权、代理成本与公司财务结构——谈企业理论对公司财务结构的影响

控制权理论及代理成本理论会对公司财务结构产生影响。企业无论选择何种融资方式均不会影响企业的市场价值,但是企业理论却揭示了一个重要的问题,就是融资结构会影响控制权,也会影响代理成本,从而对公司市场价值产生影响。研究这一理论对于解决当前国有企业代理成本过高、证券监管等问题具有重要意义。     

Policy implications of potential conflicts between short-term and long-term efficiency in CO2 emissions abatement

This paper shows that, under certain conditions (including path dependence and lock-in), policies and measures leading to a cost-effective GHG emissions mitigation in the short term may not allow reaching long-term emissions targets at the lowest possible cost, that is, they might not be cost-effective in the long term. The reason is that, in a situation where currently expensive technologies have a large potential for cost reductions through learning effects and R&D investments, the implementation of incentive-based mitigation policies such as taxes or tradable permits will encourage the adoption and diffusion of currently low-cost abatement technologies, but might not be enough to make attractive the diffusion of expensive ones, which is a necessary condition for these technologies to realise their cost-reduction potential through the aforementioned effects. A simple model and a numerical simulation are provided to show this possible conflict between static and dynamic efficiency, which points out to the need to combine different instruments, some aiming at short-term cost-efficiency (such as incentive-based environmental policy) and others at encouraging dynamic cost reductions (such as technology/innovation policy).     

Average cost and marginal cost pricing in Marshall: Textual analysis and interpretation

Abstract

This paper proposes a textual analysis of Marshall's theory of firm pricing behavior under competitive conditions. Average cost and marginal cost pricing theories have very distinct origins as they are rooted, respectively, in the classical and marginalistic theory of competition. I analyze to what extent and under which circumstances the two theories joined in the work of Alfred Marshall; and I argue that, even though only partial evidence can be found to support the adoption of the notion of marginal cost pricing by Marshall, he developed some concepts, such as the distinction between short and long periods and the notion of quasi-rents, which turned out to be fundamental for the joint acceptance of marginal cost and average cost pricing principles by the Marshallian school.     

The size of public employment: An empirical study

Previous empirical studies of government have focused primarily on aggregate financial measures of size. This analysis examines a different measure: the share of public employment in total employment. In empirical tests on OECD countries for 1970 and 1980, the level of public employment is shown to be a clear reflection of voter demand for public goods, electoral support for socialist parties, and political response to the problems of unemployment. In contrast, variables that measure characteristics of the political process, such as degree of government decentralization, strength of interest groups, and voter participation in elections, are not statistically significant.     

基于效用成本风险异质性的消费资本资产定价模型

资产定价既是现代金融的核心,也是许多困惑之所在,其中最著名的就是股权溢价之谜和无风险利率之谜。本文对消费资本资产定价模型中的效用成本做了重新思考,引入"效用成本风险异质性"的概念,并将效用成本区分为"消费效用成本"和"风险效用成本"。在此基础上,本文提出了消费资本资产定价模型的新形式,并对股权溢价之谜和无风险利率之谜进行解释。     

融资成本、寻租行为和企业内部资本配置

本文构造了一个两层次委托代理模型,强调了外部资本市场和内部资本市场之间的相互作用,分析表明,资本配置扭曲和资本使用效率低下的关键是外部资本市场运作不完善对企业内部管理者的寻租行为的影响。本文的分析表明,融资成本偏低的外部资本市场不仅会促使企业CEO过分扩大融资规模,而且会加剧企业内部管理者的寻租行为,导致资本配置不当、投资缺乏效率的不良后果。本文的政策含义是,必须改变融资成本偏低的现状,并加强公司治理结构建设,才能解决我国企业融资过热、资本使用效率低下等一系列问题。     

The entanglement of time and cost deviations in public projects

There is growing concern regarding cost and time overruns in public projects. However, despite the extensive literature on the subject, there is relatively little research on the impact of time overruns on cost overruns. This study assesses whether larger time deviations can lead to larger cost deviations. Our hypothesis is that a project with a time overrun is more likely to also have a cost overrun. The authors used a sample of 208 projects in Portugal, with data collected from the Portuguese Court of Auditors. Using the data, a number of econometric models were developed: Ordinary Least Squares, Generalized Linear Model, Tobit, and Probit. The instrumented variables and structural equation modelling techniques were applied to address potential endogeneity in the data. The analysis was controlled for factors such as political, governance, economic, and project variables. The results suggest that larger time deviations are associated with larger cost deviations. The inference is that projects that take longer to complete also tend to suffer from cost overruns.     

Cost of Road Accident Fatalities to the Economy

Road accidents have a major impact on the economy as well as society. In other words, such an event also has an impact on the affected individuals’ contribution back to society and state. The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of traffic accidents on the economy. We evaluate the value or cost of a human life in traffic accidents. To estimate the cost, we need to know the income contribution of each individual via his or her employment or other earnings, i.e. his or her income-generating capacity for the remainder of his or her life, had the incident not occurred. Then we find the “present value” of such income, adjusted for the probability of such an event (fatality) happening. This is similar to the calculation of a pure insurance premium. Assessment of the economic impact caused by human life loss is dealt with using insurance-based methods. We calculate the burning cost of an insurance policy that provides coverage for the risk under investigation. It is of interest to the state and the family of the deceased to recover as much of this lost income as possible.     

IS THERE A ROLE FOR TRANSACTION COST ECONOMICS IF WE VIEW FIRMS AS COMPLEX ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS?

This article assesses the usefulness of transaction cost economics when we view economic organizations, such as firms, as complex adaptive systems. Modern complexity science is radically different in orientation to neoclassical economics, which deals with decision making in contexts that are presumed to be simple and, therefore, disconnected from complex reality. However, transaction cost economics can be related to aspects of modern complexity science: bounded rationality, opportunism, and asset specificity are all associated with behavioral complexity. Furthermore, the emphasis of transaction cost economics on hierarchy and organizational rather than technological considerations is also consistent with complexity science. Drawing on literature in psychological economics, this article synthesizes transaction cost economics with aspects of complexity science in a manner that offers a new research agenda, not only in the context of the organization of production but in economics generally. Such theoretical developments are vital if policy makers are to have at their disposal analytical perspectives that are coherent and applicable in complex historical settings.     

The Efficient and Fair Approval of "Multiple-Cost-Single-Benefit" Projects under Unilateral Information

This paper focuses on indivisible " multiple-cost-single-benefit " projects that must be approved by the government. A simple mechanism is proposed that ensures an efficient and fair implementation of such projects. The proposed mechanism is appropriate for a unilateral information structure: the single beneficiary has complete information on the cost and benefit of the project while the government official has no such information and the cost bearers have information only on each other's costs.     

Are costs really sticky? Evidence from publicly listed companies in the UAE

This article measures the degree of adjustment between operating revenues and costs for publicly listed companies in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Traditional cost models assume that variable costs change proportionally in response to an upward or downward fluctuation in demand. However, in recent years, such an assumption has been questioned by a variety of papers from the economics and accounting fields. Typically, cost stickiness is defined as costs decreasing by less than 1% when sales decrease by 1%, while reacting closer to the proportion of change when sales increase. This study, unlike the vast majority of the literature, did not find cost stickiness in the UAE after using panel data regression analysis. The main explanation is that UAE has mostly expatriate labour force that does not have the typical benefits of employment protection legislation (EPL) available in other national jurisdictions. EPL is a main reason that costs adjustments during decreasing sales is curbed due to the associated costs of firing employees.     

A LESSON LEARNED? PRE‐ AND POSTCRISIS ENTRY DECISIONS IN TURKISH BANKING

This study looks at the determinants of entry by Turkish banks into local markets during the periods before and after the crisis of 2000–2001. Motivated by a theoretical model of entry, results of fixed-effects logit regressions suggest that there has been a change in the geographical diversification strategies of Turkish banks. It appears that the dominance of strategic concerns, such as competing with banks of similar size, has diminished, while economic concerns, such as incumbent characteristics and cost considerations, have become more important. Overall, the postcrisis restructuring policies seem to have led to improved decision making in the sector. ( JEL G21, L22, R30)     

基于面板数据的西江流域经济发展成本差异分析

成本最小化选择是经济决策的基本规则之一,在区域发展布局上亦然。这就需要对不同类型区域的发展成本做比较分析。横贯我国西中东部、跨越南方四省(区)的西江流域在地理环境、发展成本及发展绩效上均呈现出较大的差异性,是进行此类分析的典型样域。基于面板数据的DEA和综合评价分析表明,西江流域不同域段单位产出的内部、外部和综合成本均与其地理梯度成正向关系,亦即流域发展成本大致呈上游>中游>下游的空间差异性和梯度性。此差异可能意味着需重新审视区域协调发展与均衡发展的关系、战略及政策。     

Using the cost function to generate Marshallian demand systems

Limited data means that prior structure is needed when working with large demand systems. The cost function is a convenient vehicle for generating demand systems incorporating such structure. While the cost function directly yields Hicksian demand functions they will not usually have an explicit representation as Marshallian demand equations i.e. in terms of the observable variables. With fast hardware and modern software, however, this need not hinder the estimation of the (implied) Marshallian demand equations. This paper develops the formal theory for using cost functions in this context, and reports on initial trials on the operational feasibility of the method. First version received: September 1997/final version accepted: July 1999     

交易者行为因素对市场效率的影响——实验经济学的视角

本文通过理论和经济学实验方法证明,市场机制本身不能保证资源配置效率,行为因素会对市场效率产生负面影响。如果高保留价格的买者和低成本的卖者根据市场行情确定最优报价的能力或意愿较其他交易者更弱,市场效率将会受损。中国市场中既有由于激励机制完善、在市场中锱铢必较的交易者,例如私营企业,又存在激励体制不健全、领导和员工均不愿为扩大企业利润工作的企业,例如一些改制不成功的国有企业。本研究表明中国市场效率可能因交易者行为因素受损。