On emerging stock market contagion: The Baltic region

This study provides new evidence on emerging stock market contagion during the Global Financial crisis (GFC) and the Euro zone Sovereign Debt Crisis (ESDC). Focusing on the three emerging Baltic markets and developed European markets, proxied by the EUROSTOXX50 stock index, we explore asymmetric dynamic conditional correlation dynamics across stable and crisis periods. Empirical evidence indicates a diverse contagion pattern for the Baltic region across the two crises. Latvia and Lithuania were contagious during the GFC, while they were insulated from the adverse effects of the ESDC. On the other hand, Estonia decoupled from the negative consequences during the global turmoil period, but recoupled during the ESDC. The results could be attributed to financial and macroeconomic characteristics of the Baltic countries before and after the turmoil periods and the introduction time of the Euro as a national currency.     

How can investors build a better portfolio in small open economies? Evidence from Asia’s Four Little Dragons

This study investigates the role of hedging and portfolio design among stocks, exchange rates, and gold in small open economies (SOEs) from 4 January 2000 to 31 March 2020. We adopt the trivariate dynamic conditional correlation-fractionally integrated asymmetric power ARCH model and unconditional quantile regression model, and our findings show that the hedging role of the U.S. dollar (USD) and gold against stocks differs under regular and extreme market conditions. The USD can act as a powerful hedge asset for stocks in regular market periods. Moreover, during the global financial crisis and COVID-19 outbreak, the safe-haven effect of gold becomes stronger for almost all stocks, whereas the USD can serve as a strong safe haven against stock markets of Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore when stock returns are extremely low. In terms of portfolio designing, we find that adding the USD and gold to portfolios improves their hedging effectiveness, and the optimally weighted stock-USD-gold portfolio is the best portfolio strategy, irrespective of referring to return or risk.     

中国全要素农田水利效率及其空间分布格局

选取我国31个省、自治区、直辖市1998—2015年的面板数据,运用数据包络分析方法测算农田水利全要素生产率。在此基础上,构建中国31省市的经济-距离空间权重矩阵,分析农田水利全要素生产率的空间相关性。研究结果表明:农田水利全要素生产率的年度波动明显,区域发展不平衡;农田水利全要素生产率的分布从高到低依次为东部地区、东北地区、西部地区、中部地区;规模效率普遍呈递减趋势,规模不经济是影响我国农田水利全要素生产率提升的主要阻力;从空间分布格局来看,农田水利全要素生产率高和低的地区都出现相对聚集的现象,而各省市具体地区的空间聚集特征强度差异较大。提出我国应注重农田水利规模效率的提升,扩大中西部地区农田水利投资规模以减少区域差异的建议。     

On the tourism-led growth hypothesis in the UAE: a bootstrap approach with leveraged adjustments

The emerging market of the UAE has chosen attracting international tourism as one of the main strategies during the recent decades in order to diversify its economy. The main goal has been to achieve sustainable growth without overreliance on the volatile oil sector. This article investigates the impact of tourism on economic performance in the UAE by using bootstrapped causality tests with leverage adjustments. The results show that the tourism-led growth hypothesis can be supported empirically. Thus, the conducted policy by the UAE government to promote international tourism for achieving economic growth might be considered as a sustainable strategy.     

Impact of short selling activity on market dynamics: Evidence from an emerging market

With unique daily short sale data of Borsa Istanbul (stock exchange of Turkey), we investigate the dynamic relationship between short selling activity and volatility, liquidity and market return from January 2005 to December 2012 using a VAR(p)-cDCC-FIEGARCH(1,d,1) approach. Our findings suggest that short sellers are contrarian traders and contribute to efficient stock market in Turkey. We also show that increased short selling activity is associated with higher liquidity and decreased volatility. However this relation weakens during the financial turmoil of 2008. Our results indicate that any ban on short sales may be detrimental for financial stability and market quality in Turkey.     

Does Medical Equipment Expansion Lead to More Diagnostic Services? Evidence from China’s Sichuan Province

A major goal of China’s healthcare reform is to control the increasing healthcare spending, much of which can be attributed to the overuse of diagnostic tests and has been relatively less studied in the literature. This article analyzes the correlation between medical equipment expansion and the increase in diagnostic test expenditure in China, using Sichuan Province as an example. County-level data aggregated from hospitals’ annual reports in Sichuan Province from 2008 to 2012 were used. The results show a positive correlation between the expansion of medical equipment and the increase in diagnostic test expenditure. Our study provides implications on reforming China’s healthcare delivery system and medical equipment regulation policies.     

新型城镇化对产业升级的影响效应分析

我国新型城镇化已成为经济新常态下产业升级的新思路，新型城镇化进程产生的诸多绩效是产业升级的强大动力。本文系统阐述了新型城镇化影响产业升级的作用机理，并基于数据可得性以带状选取东中西部各3个省份，每个省选取3个中大型地级市2004~2015年的面板数据作为研究样本，将新型城镇化和产业升级之间关系图和格兰杰因果检验结合，从时间和空间角度分析新型城镇化对产业升级的影响。结论表明：在时间上，2005~2011年，两者有负相关关系，2011~2015年，两者有正相关关系；在空间上，东部新型城镇化对产业升级有正向影响，中西部前者对后者无正向影响。根据实证结果和新型城镇化对产业升级的影响在时间和空间上存在差异的原因进而提出相关对策建议。     

气候变化背景下哈萨克斯坦气候生产潜力时空特征分析

[目的]研究全球气候变化背景下气候生产潜力的时空分布特征,对于合理利用农业气候资源,促进农业生产力的提高具有重要意义。[方法]选择1901—2000年哈萨克斯坦24个代表气象站点的月平均气温和降水资料,采用Thortwaite Memorial、Miami模型估算气候生产潜力,并运用气候倾向率、M-K检验以及ArcGIS空间插值等方法对气候生产潜力时空分布特征进行分析。[结果](1)1901—2000年哈萨克斯坦气候生产潜力总体表现为增长趋势,不同时段气候生产潜力差异明显,相对于其他研究时段(T1,T3),T2(1936—1970年)时段气候生产潜力及增长速率最大,并且水热匹配状况最好;(2)哈萨克斯坦气候生产潜力空间分布地域性明显。YP(降水生产潜力)和Y E(蒸散生产潜力)总体表现为自东南向西北递减的趋势,YT(气温生产潜力)表现为自西南向东北递减的趋势,气候生产潜力高值区主要位于天山北麓及东部山区的河谷地带,低值区位于西部和南部荒漠区;(3)气候生产潜力对降水更为敏感,当气温保持不变,降水量增加(减少)10%、20%,YE将增加(减少)9.6%、19.94%。[结论]哈萨克斯坦东部气候生产潜力大于西部,天山北麓及河谷地区气候生产潜力大于平原地区,哈萨克斯坦气候生产潜力主要受降水量的制约,未来“暖干型”变化将会使研究区气候生产潜力下降。为提高农业生产潜力,必须加强对农业基础设施的建设和提高水资源的调配能力。     

Do regional house prices converge or diverge in China?

This paper aims to test whether the regional house prices are convergent or divergent in China using a monthly panel data set of China’s 70 large and medium-sized cities from July 2005 to December 2010. This issue is closely related to understanding the efficiency of the country-level housing policies made by China’s central government. The test results suggest that the regional house prices in China are generally divergent, and thereby the country-level policies may be inefficient since they do not explicitly take the strong heterogeneity of China’s regional housing markets into consideration. As a consequence, it may be better for China’s central government to further decentralize and devolve its governance toward the housing market to the local governments.     

Unbundling the differences between Psychic and Cultural Distance: An empirical examination of the existing measures

The diversity between the country-scores of Hofstede, Schwartz, GLOBE, Håkanson and Ambos and Dow and Karunaratna is the main focus of this study. To investigate the correlation between the country-scores of these CD (Cultural Distance), pPD (perceived Psychic Distance) and PDs (Psychic Distance stimuli) instruments we apply the Mantel test, a test predominantly used in anthropology and genetics, which can be particularly insightful when examining “distance” data. The matrix correlation findings provide evidence supporting the high diversity between these measures and their lack of consistent results for the same countries. Therefore, despite the similarity between the way of conceptualizing and operationalizing CD that Hofstede, Schwartz and GLOBE share, these CD measures do not report consistent findings. Consistently, the lack of correlation, between the PDs measure of Dow & Karunaratna and pPD of Håkanson & Ambos, indicates the diversity between PD stimuli measures and perceived PD measures. At the same time, while the two Psychic Distance (PD) measures indicate high correlation in some cases, overall they are highly diverse from the CD measures. We argue, therefore, that identical studies could reach significantly different conclusions by simply using different measures of CD,pPD&PDs which then denotes significant implications for the reliability of research findings. Additionally, we point out potential weaknesses of these measures when examining culturally proximate countries and multicultural nations.