Intergenerational equity and the social discount rate

Recent modelling of the costs and benefits of climate change has renewed debate regarding assumptions for the social discount rate in analysing the impacts of environmental change. Previous literature suggests two key factors influence estimates of the social discount rate: the rate of pure time preference and the elasticity of marginal utility of future consumption. These components of the social discount rate reinforce the linkages between the choice of social discount rate and intergenerational distribution. This paper addresses the question of the relationship between intergenerational equity and the social discount rate and promotes the application of intergenerational distributional weights as a means of incorporating intergenerational equity preferences in policy analysis. Intergenerational equity‐adjusted social discount rates are derived as a means of decomposing the intergenerational equity aspect of the social discount rate. The work has significant policy implications for projects with long time frames given the sensitivity of Cost Benefit Analysis outcomes to decisions regarding the social discount rate.     

Consumption externalities,market imperfections and optimal taxation

In a dynamic model with a keeping‐up‐with‐the Joneses preference and market imperfections, we attempt to investigate under what circumstances and for what reason the optimal tax should be state‐varying. We extend the Ljungqvist and Uhlig (2000) proposition to include preferences that exhibit non‐homotheticity. We show that a keeping‐up‐with‐the‐Joneses preference (a non‐intertemporally‐dependent preference) can lead the social planner to commit to a state‐contingent tax on labor income. Moreover, the optimal labor income tax can be either procyclical or countercyclical with respect to economic fluctuations, this crucially depending on whether the level of contemporaneous consumption increases or decreases the wedge between the intertemporal substitution elasticity of households and of the social planner.     

国外经典旅游目的地选择模型述评

对旅游目的地的选择是任何一个旅游者都必须做出的最重要的决策。多年来,国外学者从不同研究视角出发,提出了大量的相关理论模型,这些模型对旅游消费者行为研究具有重要意义。文章主要对实证主义范式下的旅游目的地选择模型进行了回顾,并从理论和实践角度对其进行了评述;通过对其理论渊源、主要贡献和不足之处进行梳理,以期为旅游目的地选择的相关研究和营销实践提供借鉴。     

Interest rate option pricing with volatility humps

This paper develops a simple model for pricing interest rate options when the volatility structure of forward rates is humped. Analytical solutions are developed for European claims and efficient algorithms exist for pricing American options. The interest rate claims are priced in the Heath-Jarrow-Morton paradigm, and hence incorporate full information on the term structure. The structure of volatilities is captured without using time varying parameters. As a result, the volatility structure is stationary. It is not possible to have all the above properties hold in a Heath Jarrow Morton model with a single state variable. It is shown that the full dynamics of the term structure is captured by a three state Markovian system. Caplet data is used to establish that the volatility hump is an important feature to capture. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

中频接收机数字化设计中的几个关键问题

本文以短波数字化中频接收机为例，讨论中频数字化接收机设计的几个关键问题，包括收机前端增益的确定、数字和模拟AGC门限的选取、二中频频率与取样率的选择、以及接收机信噪比（SNR）的核算。     

Health as a consumption object: research notes and preliminary investigation

Through the processes of commodification and marketization, materials and human activities are brought within the domain of market exchange. The results of these accelerating processes are observed in the consumer culture centred on objects of consumption. We contend that, in addition to healthcare, health itself has become yet another object incorporated within consumption space. This contention is consistent with the perspective of consumption as the dominant social paradigm in the structuring of health and healthcare practices. In this paper we present the conceptual backdrop for our contentions, together with details of a heuristic study. Our findings support the view that people regard health as a consumption object. Furthermore, the evidence suggests a patterning of responses by social grade and gender. Given our wider interest in class‐based health inequalities, we use our results to comment on the broader policy debate concerning this phenomenon in relation to consumerism.     

The endogeneity of the natural rate of growth – an empirical study for Latin‐American countries

The aim of this paper is to analyse the sensitivity of the natural rate of growth to the actual rate of growth for a sample of 11 Latin‐American countries, assuming the natural rate to be determined endogenously by changes in the actual rate of growth. The natural rates of growth are estimated in a system of SUR estimations over the period 1986–2003. In order to determine whether they react endogenously to changes in the actual rate of growth, a dummy variable for boom periods is added to the system of regressions. The results confirm the hypothesis about the endogeneity of the natural rate of growth.     

Consumption externalities and the effects of international income transfers on the global environment

In this paper, we extend the standard model of private provision of public goods by including consumption externalities to characterize a situation in which economic activities pollute the environment. We consider a case in which there are an industrial country which can afford to invest in the environment and a developing country which cannot. Then, we show that international income transfers in both directions can improve the global environmental quality as well as the welfare of each country. We also show that the results have important implications for policies such as official development assistance or the assignment of tradable emission permits.     

欧元诞生以来的表现及原因分析

欧元自正式启动以来 ,汇价一路下滑 ,屡屡跌破历史新低 ,大大超出世人所料 !文章通过分析道出个中缘由 :欧元区国家近年来经济增长放缓 ,各国间经济增长速度快慢差异巨大 ,使汇率缺乏基本支撑力和货币政策的极难协调 ;欧洲央行对其跌势持放任态度 ;几年来 ,欧元区资金外流严重 ,短期内较难逆转 ;欧盟空袭南联盟 ,使本已十分脆弱的欧元汇率下滑趋势加大 ;最后 ,也是较为主要的原因之一 ,即欧元汇率定值过高 ,欧元与其所涵盖的经济总量呈弱相关。然而 ,我们并不能就此认为欧元已经失败。从长期来看 ,欧元仍将是一个比较稳定的货币 ,并将在国际货币体系中发挥重要作用。     

旅游消费的概念及其基本特征刍议

在比较分析了有关旅游消费的概念之后，对旅游消费的含义进行了重新界定，指出了旅游消费的八个基本特征，并在最后提出了几个有关旅游消费的值得商榷的基本特征。