基于协同规划的步行城市建设策略——以墨尔本为例

对步行城市思想的产生背景做了概括总结,对国内外相关研究实践做了梳理分析,进而从内涵、价值两个层面对步行城市及其与步行系统的关系做了阐述,以上述理解为基础,结合研究方法提出了基于协同规划的步行城市建设策略,对步行系统与机动车交通、公共交通、公共空间、公共建筑以及骑行系统的协同规划意义做了论述,结合墨尔本步行城市建设实践总结并提出了上述五个纬度的协同规划实施途径。     

On the Inverse of the Covariance Matrix in Portfolio Analysis

The goal of this paper is the derivation and application of a direct characterization of the inverse of the covariance matrix central to portfolio analysis. Such a characterization, in terms of a few primitive constructs, provides the basis for new and illuminating expressions for key concepts as the optimal holding of a given risky asset and the slope of the risk-return efficiency frontier faced by the individual investor. The building blocks of the inverse turn out to be the regression coefficients and residual variance obtained by regressing the asset's excess return on the set of excess returns for all other risky assets.     

How Ethical are U.S. Business Executives? A Study of Perceptions

Not much has been written about how the ethics of U.S. business executives are perceived by the American public, yet the perception of integrity is important to both businesses and their investors. This study examines the U.S. public’s perceptions of the ethics of American business executives using Gallup Poll data for the past thirty years. Organizations with unethical executives have trouble attracting investors, customers, and new managerial talent. They suffer lawsuits, market share deterioration, and often prison time for the once-revered leaders. This study also looked at the U.S.’s relative standing on the Corruption Perceptions Index and the Edelman Trust Barometer. Confidence in the ethics of the U.S. business executive remains fairly low on the Gallup Poll surveys and the U.S. has declined on the CPI and Edelman Trust Barometer.     

The need for speed: impacts of internet connectivity on firm productivity

Broadband access is widely considered to be a productivity-enhancing factor, but there are few firm-level estimates of its benefits. We use a large micro-survey of firms linked to longitudinal firm financial data to determine the impact that broadband access has on firm productivity. Propensity score matching is used to control for factors, including the firm’s own lagged productivity, that determine a firm’s internet access choice. Instrumental variables estimates are employed as a robustness check. Results indicate that broadband adoption boosts firm productivity by 7–10%; effects are consistent across urban versus rural locations and across high versus low knowledge intensive sectors.     

Corporate debt and financial balance sheet adjustment: a comparison of the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany

The level of UK corporate debt directly affects financial stability in the United Kingdom because a significant amount of the exposure of the UK financial system is to UK corporates. Our paper provides a comparison of the determinants of corporate debt in the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. The comparison serves to benchmark our findings about the determinants of UK corporate debt. In addition, the UK financial sector is significantly exposed to the corporate sectors in the United States, Germany and France. The model assesses the contribution of investment, acquisitions, cash flows and market-to-book values to the determination of debt, and also the tendency of debt to revert to its optimum level. Debt was found to be positively related to the financing needs of the firm, and the optimum level of debt to be negatively related to the market-to-book ratio. This casts some light on the procyclicality of debt.     

Frontier Technology and Absorptive Capacity: Evidence from OECD Manufacturing Industries*

In this paper, we examine the three facets of technology: its creation, dispersion and absorption. We investigate whether differences in absorptive capacity help to explain cross‐country differences in the level of productivity. We utilize stochastic frontier analysis to investigate two potential sources of this inefficiency – differences in human capital and R&D – for nine industries in 12 Organization for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) countries over the period 1973–91. We find that inefficiency in production does indeed exist and it depends upon the level of human capital of the country's workforce. Evidence that the amount of R&D an industry undertakes is also important is less robust.     

The Assessment: Financing and Managing Public Services

Public services can be, and are, delivered according to a varietyof different arrangements. The public sector can finance andprovide a service itself, or contract with the private sectorto participate in provision, or its role may be limited to regulatinga private provider. In this paper we examine the features determiningthe effectiveness of public-service delivery, including incentivesfor employees and teams within organizations providing publicservices, the structure of the organization and the competitiveframework that it faces, and the role of the private sector.We assess the reform programme in the UK, which has involvedsubstantial reorganization of public services and increasinginvolvement of the private sector. Reforms focus on the improvementof incentives; but while incentives are critical, the specialcharacteristics of public services (and the people who providethem) must be recognized in the implementation of new structuresand incentive schemes.