Is fiscal revenue concentration ratio in China too high?

This paper challenges the viewpoint that fiscal revenue concentration ratio in China is too high. First, this paper estimates China's nominal and real fiscal revenue concentration ratios at both budgetary and full‐calibre levels, and makes an international comparison using all available data of the IMF's GFS database for both developed and developing countries, revealing five stylised facts that expresses serious doubts about the statement that fiscal revenue concentration ratio in China is too high. Second, the paper proposes four indicators to measure asymmetric degree of China's central fiscal revenue concentration ratio and expenditure concentration ratio to identify whether fiscal revenue concentration ratio in China is too high. The results show that: (i) central fiscal revenue concentration ratio is lower and (ii) compared with asymmetric degree of China's central budgetary fiscal revenue concentration ratio and expenditure concentration ratio, asymmetric degree of China's central full‐calibre fiscal revenue concentration ratio and expenditure concentration ratio is more serious, indicating that the central full‐calibre revenue concentration ratio is much lower. Therefore, this paper not only disproves the view that China's fiscal revenue concentration ratio is too high, but also shows that China's fiscal revenue concentration ratio, especially at a full‐calibre level, is much lower. Further international comparison shows that asymmetric degree of China's central fiscal revenue concentration ratio and expenditure concentration ratio is ranked third in the world, and Chinese central government has the lowest ability to undertake full‐calibre fiscal expenditure among the world's countries. Finally, following the State Council's guidance on properly increasing central authority, the paper argues that it is necessary for the central government to improve central fiscal revenue concentration ratio, especially at the full‐calibre level.     

我国农业支持政策的绿色生态转型研究——基于中日韩三国的比较分析

为了更有针对性地推进我国农业支持政策的绿色生态转型,进而加快实现农业绿色发展,本文选取可比性强、借鉴价值较大的日韩两国为参照,并在农业支持情况、绿色发展水平和未来政策改革的空间等多方面进行了中日韩三国比较。研究发现,相较于日韩两国,我国的农业支持存在总量不足、结构不合理等问题,导致我国农业支持政策的环保导向淡化,在此农业支持政策的指引下,我国农业的绿色发展水平偏低,但经过多年努力,我国农业的整体生产能力较强,这为我国推进增产导向的农业支持政策进行绿色生态转型提供了较大的改革空间。基于上述比较和发现,本文提出加大农业支持力度、优化农业支持结构、强化农业环境保护和鼓励涉农企业"走出去"等政策建议。     

Risk allocation in service triads – The case of Dutch and Finnish home care procurement

We compare how Finland and the Netherlands organize home care services, both in legislation and in procurement practices, from a service triad risk perspective. We find Finnish public bodies rely to a great extent on inhouse provision and hybrid outsourcing. Dutch public bodies rely completely on outsourcing, using framework agreements with many care providers in parallel. Incentives used in contracts affect financial and service quality risks assumed by buyers, suppliers, and end-customers in the triad. This research improves our understanding of risk allocation among the actors in the service triad based on buyer decisions on outsourcing and supply market conditions. The risk profiles for all three actors in the home care service triad are affected by the manner in which public bodies outsource home care services: the purchasing practices. The delivery method (whether public and private or all private) and the number of providers impact the information position of the municipality versus the care provider in the triad.     

Nonparametric tests for Optimal Predictive Ability

A nonparametric method for comparing multiple forecast models is developed and implemented. The hypothesis of Optimal Predictive Ability generalizes the Superior Predictive Ability hypothesis from a single given loss function to an entire class of loss functions. Distinction is drawn between General Loss functions, Convex Loss functions, and Symmetric Convex Loss functions. The research hypothesis is formulated in terms of moment inequality conditions. The empirical moment conditions are reduced to an exact and finite system of linear inequalities based on piecewise-linear loss functions. The hypothesis can be tested in a statistically consistent way using a blockwise Empirical Likelihood Ratio test statistic. A computationally feasible test procedure computes the test statistic using Convex Optimization methods, and estimates conservative, data-dependent critical values using a majorizing chi-square limit distribution and a moment selection method. An empirical application to inflation forecasting reveals that a very large majority of thousands of forecast models are redundant, leaving predominantly Phillips Curve-type models, when convexity and symmetry are assumed.     

The Turnover Intention–Behaviour Link: A Culture-Moderated Meta-Analysis

Turnover intention is widely regarded as a direct antecedent to and proxy for actual voluntary turnover behaviour. However, previous studies have found the turnover intention-behaviour link to be highly heterogeneous and not necessarily strong. This study adopts a cross-cultural perspective, examining how the link varies as a function of Hofstede’s four work-related cultural dimensions. Data from 152 independent samples were meta-analysed, representing the testing of 216,093 employees from 18 nations across 9 geographical regions. The multilevel meta-analytic results reveal significantly stronger turnover intention-behaviour links for countries higher in power distance, higher in individualism, and lower in masculinity.     

Media generations and their advertising attitudes and avoidance: a six-country comparison

This cross-national survey (N = 5784) examined generational differences in media use, advertising attitudes and avoidance for five media (websites, social media, mobile phones, television, newspapers) in six countries (Germany, Spain, United Kingdom, United States, France, and the Netherlands). The results showed that the net generation and the newspaper generation, but not the TV generation, were clearly distinct in the frequency of their media use in all six countries. For advertising attitudes, generational patterns were visible, however, neither for all media nor in all countries. When generational differences did occur, the net generation was on the positive end, whereas the newspaper generation was usually the most negative. For advertising avoidance, generational patterns were less present and consistent. The findings point out interesting directions for future research. Practical implications for advertisers and media planners are discussed.     

Role of downward versus upward social comparison in service recovery: Testing a mediated moderation model with two empirical studies

This paper extends prior research into the role of social comparison in service recovery by investigating the role of both downward and upward social comparison. Social comparison theory and attribution theory are applied to explore the differences in how upward and downward inter-customer comparison affects post-recovery satisfaction and word-of-mouth intentions. The mediating role of distributive justice perceptions and the moderating effects of the attribution of inter-customer differences in service recovery and customers’ justice sensitivity are also examined. Two online scenario-based experimental studies show that downward social comparison leads to greater satisfaction and lower negative word-of-mouth intentions. In addition, distributive justice mediates the relationship. Finally, attribution of difference in inter-customer influence and individual-level justice sensitivity moderate these effects. Besides its conceptual contributions, the findings from this paper may help managers design more effective service recovery strategies.     

Peer‐based comparison and firms' discretionary cost decisions

This study investigates whether firms engage in peer‐based benchmarking in their decision‐making regarding selling, general and administrative expenses (SG&A) for a large sample of U.S. listed firms. Peer‐based comparison relates to comparing own performance against the performance of a meaningful reference group of other firms. SG&A are to a large extent discretionary, but optimal levels of (relative) SG&A are hard to assess. Based on the behavioural theory of the firm and institutional theory, we argue that peer‐based comparison is likely to be an important input to managers' SG&A decision processes. Results show that peer‐based comparison significantly drives changes in firms' reported SG&A. In addition, the effect of peer‐based comparison is found to depend on the firm's life cycle stage. Findings further indicate that peer‐based comparison has a significantly stronger effect in reference groups characterised by high(er) SG&A similarity. Results are robust to using several industry classification systems, as well as, multiple approaches to identify firm life cycles.     

Social comparison of cost behaviour and financial analysts

We investigate whether social comparison of a firm’s reported selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses affects financial analysts’ information uncertainty (and their behaviour). Based on a sample of US firms, we examine whether similarity of a firm’s SG&A to an industry-specific peer-based benchmark (or social benchmark) is associated with analyst forecast dispersion, forecast error and coverage. For external observers, the SG&A relative to sales (SG&A ratio) is a key diagnostic of a firm’s cost behaviour, but interpretational ambiguity of the SG&A signal is likely to incentivise search for information-relevant external cues to set expectations about and assess a firm’s SG&A ratio. Higher similarity to the social benchmark is expected to attenuate information asymmetry between analysts and firms regarding firms’ ability to effectively control overheads, decreasing analyst information uncertainty about cost behaviour and performance. In line with a varying weights model for social comparison, we observe a negative association between SG&A similarity and both forecast dispersion and error of one-year-ahead earnings for firms with a prior SG&A ratio exceeding the social benchmark. Our findings also show a negative relationship between SG&A similarity and analyst coverage, especially for firms with a prior SG&A ratio exceeding the social benchmark.     

克拉玛依油田特低渗透下乌尔禾组储层渗流机理研究

新疆克拉玛依油田下乌尔禾组储层是一个低孔、特低渗透、微裂缝发育的厚层状砾岩油藏,根据储层物性特征和渗流能力评价,反映了储层低孔低渗的特征。通过对比新疆克拉玛依、大庆、长庆同等渗透率级别岩心对比,表明新疆克拉玛依油田下乌尔禾组特低渗储层岩心喉道分布曲线的峰值最低,大级别喉道含量最高,大喉道的存在为有效渗流能力提供了良好的通道,同时又受到小吼道的限制作用;可动流体饱和度分布较宽,相对较大;启动压力梯度和储层渗透率大小关系密切,储层渗透率越低,启动压力梯度越大,说明了其开发难度大的原因。依据这三个参数对低渗透储层进行分类和评价,新疆克拉玛依油田下乌尔禾组储层特低渗储层以三类储层为主,部分二类下限储层,表明有一定的开发潜力,但开发难度较大。