Condition-Based Depreciation — The Engineering Perspective

Condition-based depreciation (CBD) is a method of accounting for the combined maintenance and renewal effort required to ensure infrastructure asset networks retain their service potential. CBD methods entail the calculation of an annuity based on detailed asset management plans, which forecast works programs over the foreseeable lifecycle of the network and link them to service need projections. CBD has not gained wide acceptance by the accounting profession, because of concerns about the methos underlying assumptions and potential problems with its application. These concerns are analysed from the perspective of the engineering profession (which is frequently the custodian of such assets), and the feasibility of the method demonstrated in a number of case studies.     

论知识经济学的一个重要基本原理——消费决定生产原理

一、马克思主义的“生产决定消费”原理模型与知识经济学的“消费决定生产”原理模型生产是社会再生产过程诸环节中的决定性环节,对交换、分配和消费各环节起主要的决定的作用,没有生产就没有交换、分配和消费;交换、分配和消费反过来又影响生产。这是马克思主义的一个基本原理     

行为金融学理论综述

证券市场上的种种异象使得人们对主流金融学产生了质疑，行为金融学应运而生。投资者心理和套利限制构成了行为金融学的两大支柱。行为金融学所提出的观点更加切合现实，而且对很多异象都做出了合理的解释。另外行为金融学还建立了自己的模型——行为组合模型与行为资产定价模型，从而成为挑战主流金融学的最大力量。     

Statistical Decision Problems and Bayesian Nonparametric Methods

This paper considers parametric statistical decision problems conducted within a Bayesian nonparametric context. Our work was motivated by the realisation that typical parametric model selection procedures are essentially incoherent. We argue that one solution to this problem is to use a flexible enough model in the first place, a model that will not be checked no matter what data arrive. Ideally, one would use a nonparametric model to describe all the uncertainty about the density function generating the data. However, parametric models are the preferred choice for many statisticians, despite the incoherence involved in model checking, incoherence that is quite often ignored for pragmatic reasons. In this paper we show how coherent parametric inference can be carried out via decision theory and Bayesian nonparametrics. None of the ingredients discussed here are new, but our main point only becomes evident when one sees all priors—even parametric ones—as measures on sets of densities as opposed to measures on finite-dimensional parameter spaces.     

Initial public offerings in the gaming industry: an empirical study

The fastest growing segment of the hospitality industry is gaming-related business. This industry has experienced record numbers of companies going public, and their stocks are considered favorable long-term investments. Research in the initial public offering (IPO) area suggests that investors acquiring stock at the initial offering price earn large returns. The purpose of this study was to determine if large returns are being experienced for IPOs in the gaming segment of the hospitality industry, and if these large returns were limited to investors who purchased the stock at the initial offer price. There were 14 gaming-related companies selected for the study. The conclusions supported research reporting that the highest returns from IPO investments are made when the stock is purchased at the initial offer price. This study concludes that returns based on the initial offer price were greater than the casino index and the IPO index. When the investor purchased the stock at the first day's closing price, however, returns compared to the two indices were surpassed only after holding the stock for 8 weeks.     

Integration in the mortgage market

The deregulatory trend and advances in technology during the 1980s removed many restrictions on the ability of U.S. depository financial institutions to obtain and redistribute funds across diverse geographical markets. This pervasive deregulation and innovation should have increased the degree of integration between different geographical financial markets. Yet there is little empirical evidence available on the validity of this expectation. It is important to provide such evidence since much of the U.S. depository institution regulatory policy is predicated on the assumption of highly localized, segmented financial markets. Considering alternative breakpoints at 1980 (DIDMCA) and at 1982 (Garn-St Germain), the current study tests the hypothesis that the degree of geographical financial integration after this period exceeded that prior to this period. Mortgage markets are focused on due to their historical importance in the regulation of funds flows. The study finds a significant increase in the mean contemporaneous correlation among FHLB districts' mortagage rate residuals in a vector-autoregressive system between two test periods. Further analysis shows that the distance between FHLB districts' headquarters and their respective pairwise interdistrict correlation coefficients are negatively related in the prior period but not significantly related in the later period. Economic booms and busts alternated among the districts over the two sample periods in a manner consistent with the reallocation of capital among more integrated financial markets. Individual districts' mortgage rates have been more sensitive to variations in national credit market conditions since deregulation was legally recognized by DIDMCA in 1980. Thus, the collective empirical evidence found in this study indicates that mortgage markets have responded to deregulation and marked technological advances by moving toward a national, highly integrated market. Regulators' preoccupation with highly localized, segmented markets must consequently be reexamined.     

Canadian and American Reactions to Drug and Alcohol Testing Programs in the Workplace

We investigated U.S. and Canadian reactions to workplace drug and alcohol testing programs. Canadian truck drivers (n = 183) deemed drug and alcohol testing policies less fair, and were less accepting of these policies, than their American counterparts (n = 153). We also compared the perspectives of recipients versus third-party observers with regard to their reactions to a drug testing program. Unlike the pattern observed among American observers, the responses by Canadian observers were highly similar to those of the recipients. Canadian observers were more inclined to file a formal protest regarding the implementation of a drug and alcohol testing program than were U.S. observers. The results also showed that procedural and interactional justice principles contributed to the program's fairness, acceptance, and lower levels of protest intentions in both Canada and the United States. We propose that scholars and practitioners can gain a better understanding of multinational reactions to drug and alcohol testing by considering not only cultural but also historical, social, political, and other environmental factors that can shape reactions to personnel practices.     

江苏高等教育对经济的间接拉动效应研究

基于长期投资的角度，从高等教育三大传统功能出发，对江苏高等教育发展过程中间接的经济拉动作用做了实证分析。结论是：高等教育刺激其他产业增长而拉动经济增长和增加就业；高等教育提高社会劳动等产率；高校科研成果促进社会经济发展；高等教育对经济的作用应主要通过人才培养和科学研究（即间接作用）来体现。