Remanufacturing for the Circular Economy: An Examination of Consumer Switching Behavior

For the circular economy to be tenable, consumers need to not only return products after use, but also purchase products that are remanufactured. However, research finds that consumers have a poor opinion of remanufactured products and are typically not prepared to adopt them. Thus, development of the circular economy is dependent upon deeper understanding of consumers’ attitudes and behaviors. Research typically considers either micro‐level or macro‐level factors when assessing consumer perceptions of remanufactured products. The current research incorporates macro‐level factors of price, government incentives and environmental benefits with the moderating influence of micro‐level consumer attitudes to examine consumers’ intention to switch from purchasing new products to remanufactured products. The findings suggest that a consumer's attitude toward remanufactured products is an important moderating factor predicting consumer switching behavior to remanufactured products. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

What caused Japan’s Great Stagnation in the 1990s? Evidence from an estimated DSGE model

Despite the widespread belief that Japan’s “Great Stagnation” in the 1990s is due to the financial dysfunction after the collapse of asset price bubbles, Hayashi and Prescott (2002) argue that its main cause is a slowdown in total factor productivity growth, using a calibrated neoclassical growth model. The present paper aims to fill this gap by estimating a New Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model augmented with a financial accelerator mechanism and associated financial shocks. Our estimation results show that even in the presence of the financial shocks an adverse neutral technology shock mainly induced the Great Stagnation and that the rate of neutral technological change is strongly correlated with all enterprises’ financial position in the Tankan. Based on these findings, the paper argues that the Great Stagnation was caused by an adverse neutral technology shock that is likely to represent a tightening of firms’ financing, which induced reduction of R&D investment and misallocation of resources as indicated in previous literature.     

AN ANALYSIS OF THE WELFARE CUTS IN THE COMPREHENSIVE SPENDING REVIEW AND THE BUDGET 2010

In the Comprehensive Spending Review and in the Budget 2010, the Liberal–Conservative coalition has announced cost‐cutting measures in the benefit system. Some of these measures can be interpreted as ‘random cuts’, where the given scope and structure of a spending programme is retained, while bits and pieces are chopped off here and there. Others can be interpreted as more strategic measures, or reconsiderations of the proper role of government in the respective area. However, where the coalition has pursued a more strategic approach, it has not followed it through consistently. The coalition's consolidation strategy relies too much on temporary caps and freezes, which will eventually expire and give way to renewed spending pressures.     

A NEW LOOK AT SHORT‐TERM IMPLIED VOLATILITY IN ASSET PRICE MODELS WITH JUMPS

We analyze the behavior of the implied volatility smile for options close to expiry in the exponential Lévy class of asset price models with jumps. We introduce a new renormalization of the strike variable with the property that the implied volatility converges to a nonconstant limiting shape, which is a function of both the diffusion component of the process and the jump activity (Blumenthal–Getoor) index of the jump component. Our limiting implied volatility formula relates the jump activity of the underlying asset price process to the short‐end of the implied volatility surface and sheds new light on the difference between finite and infinite variation jumps from the viewpoint of option prices: in the latter, the wings of the limiting smile are determined by the jump activity indices of the positive and negative jumps, whereas in the former, the wings have a constant model‐independent slope. This result gives a theoretical justification for the preference of the infinite variation Lévy models over the finite variation ones in the calibration based on short‐maturity option prices.     

VALUATION OF BARRIER OPTIONS VIA A GENERAL SELF‐DUALITY

Classical put–call symmetry relates the price of puts and calls under a suitable dual market transform. One well‐known application is the semistatic hedging of path‐dependent barrier options with European options. This, however, in its classical form requires the price process to observe rather stringent and unrealistic symmetry properties. In this paper, we develop a general self‐duality theorem to develop valuation schemes for barrier options in stochastic volatility models with correlation.     

A STRUCTURAL RISK‐NEUTRAL MODEL FOR PRICING AND HEDGING POWER DERIVATIVES

We develop a structural risk‐neutral model for energy market modifying along several directions the approach introduced in Aïd et al. In particular, a scarcity function is introduced to allow important deviations of the spot price from the marginal fuel price, producing price spikes. We focus on pricing and hedging electricity derivatives. The hedging instruments are forward contracts on fuels and electricity. The presence of production capacities and electricity demand makes such a market incomplete. We follow a local risk minimization approach to price and hedge energy derivatives. Despite the richness of information included in the spot model, we obtain closed‐form formulae for futures prices and semiexplicit formulae for spread options and European options on electricity forward contracts. An analysis of the electricity price risk premium is provided showing the contribution of demand and capacity to the futures prices. We show that when far from delivery, electricity futures behave like a basket of futures on fuels.     

略论低碳经济的发展向度与意义

低碳经济作为一种新的经济形式,无论是理论研究还是实践探索都呼唤发展哲学的观照。低碳经济作为一种新的发展模式,具有鲜明的低代价发展向度、普世的公正发展向度及强烈的创新发展向度,这对于人类社会的持续发展和文明跃迁具有重大而深远的意义。     

中国省际专利竞争力比较研究

本文将专利竞争力划分为现实竞争力与潜在竞争力两个层次，从专利拥有、运营、保护、服务、投入、创造和管理七个方面构建专利竞争力指数，对中国省际专利竞争力进行测算，结果显示，中国现阶段区域专利竞争力总体水平不高，而且省际之间差距很大。本文将所选取的31个省、直辖市、自治区的专利竞争力划分为三类：第一类为现实竞争力和潜在竞争力均高于国内平均水平的地区，此类地区可通过打造服务助力型政府、激励企业丰富专利拥有和专利运用方式来提升专利竞争力；第二类为专利现实竞争力不强，但有较强的潜在竞争力的地区，此类地区的政府在培育专利竞争力方面应定位于规划、布局和引导，企业则应转变观念，树立专利是市场竞争有效武器的观念；第三类为专利现实竞争力和潜在竞争力均很弱的地区，此类地区需要主导推动型的政府来推动地区专利竞争力的提升。     

深化漳台产业合作的几点思考

立足漳州市情，深化漳台产业对接，构建具有核心竞争力的现代产业体系，是落实“海西建设，漳州先行”发展战略的重要举措。比较分析漳台产业的互补性，运用经济学原理论证漳台产业对接的现实性与可行性，并提出深化漳台产业合作曲建议。