Technical Efficiency Estimates of Scottish Agriculture: A Note

Within the UK there has been a lack of studies of technical efficiency at the Scottish level. This note compares the results obtained using Scottish data with a recent study by Hadley [Journal of Agricultural Economics (2006) Vol. 57, pp. 81–100] for English and Welsh farms. Four major sectors are investigated, namely: (i) cereals, (ii) dairy, (iii) sheep and (iv) beef over the period 1989 to 2004. Some distinct differences in efficiencies, returns to scale and causes of efficiency are found.     

Labour use efficiency in the Indian and Pakistani commercial banks

The Indian and Pakistani banking industry is said to have an excessive use of labour due to the significant market share of government owned banks. Both countries have undertaken a process of regulatory reform to bring about market discipline in the usage of inputs and to increase the labour use efficiency and productivity. The focus of this paper is the estimation of productivity and efficiency of labour use in the banking sectors of the Indian sub-continent. The results show that the efficiency of labour use across the Indian sub-continent is improving over time and that foreign banks are more efficient compared to domestically owned banks in their usage of labour.     

安徽非公经济发展研究

在当代中国,非公经济发展与改革开放及制度变迁原本是相通的,欠发达地区经济发展的实质就是非公经济的发展;安徽非公经济发展滞后的深层机理在于既定制度格局下的路径依赖。本课题深入分析了既定制度格局影响安徽非公经济发展的机制过程,以此为基础,提出了进一步加快发展的思路和对策。     

资源环境约束下的和谐增长与制度和谐

经济增长对自然资源消耗和环境污染是不可避免的,然而,当经济增长对自然资源与环境资源的需求超过其承载力的阈限时,就会出现由于资源枯竭与环境恶化的非和谐增长.在对和谐增长相关理论进行梳理的基础上,以我国经济增长对资源、环境的超"阈限"影响为背景,分析"三重失灵"对和谐增长的影响,并将和谐增长纳入制度和谐的框架内,试图从制度约束上探讨长期和谐增长的保障机制.     

Replacement Investment: Optimal Economic Life Under Uncertainty

Replacement investment is essentially a regenerative optimal stopping problem; that is, the key decision concerns when to terminate the life of existing plant – and hence when to start over again. This paper examines this optimisation problem within a continuous time framework and studies the qualitative and quantitative impact of uncertainty on the timing of new investment (and the criteria that should be used for terminating the life of existing plant).     

How to measure mutual fund performance: economic versus statistical relevance

In the present paper a comprehensive assessment of existing mutual fund performance models is presented. Using a survivor‐bias free database of all US mutual funds, we explore the added value of introducing extra variables such as size, book‐to‐market, momentum and a bond index. In addition to that we evaluate the use of introducing time‐variation in betas and alpha. The search for the most suitable model to measure mutual fund performance will be addressed along two lines. First, we are interested in the statistical significance of adding more factors to the single factor model. Second, we focus on the economic importance of more elaborate model specifications. The added value of the present study lies both in the step‐wise process of identifying relevant factors, and the use of a rich US mutual fund database that was recently released by the Center for Research in Security Prices.     

石化企业乙烯物料平衡的实例分析

乙烯物料平衡是石化企业的主要物料平衡之一，由于乙烯衍生物的装置较多，影响石化企业乙烯物料平衡的因素也多。在分析了S企业的四个实例后，可以看出，搞好乙烯的物料平衡工作，可以提高乙烯下游装置的开工率和负荷率，从而提高企业的经济效益。     

对可行性研究报告及经济评价的几点认识

指出在建设项目前期工作中存在的问题，建设项目前期工作滞后，前期方案深度不够，需对可行性研究报告及项目经济评价的方法与参数进一步完善，重视风险问题及清偿能力分析，提高技术经济人员的综合分析能力，实现投资决策科学化，提高经济效益。     

Estimation of the mean in ranked set sampling with non responses

The estimation of the population mean when ranked set sampling [rss] is used for selecting the sample and non responses [nr] are present, is studied. The nr stratum is sub sampled using simple random sampling with replacement. Two strategies are analyzed. One of them is based on the selection of a sub sample from the nr in each cycle. The other uses sub samples selected among the nr in each rank.  The accuracy of the proposed estimators is characterized by the corresponding expected variances. Simulations and real life data are used for analyzing the behavior of them. Acknowledgements: This paper was developed partially during the visit of the author to Université des Antilles et Gouyane. The author gratefully acknowledges the helpful suggestions of the referees and thanks the support of DAAD for visiting Humboldt University where a version of the paper version was made.     

中国农村金融组织生存、变迁及发展

由于农业的弱质性及在国民经济发展中的基础地位，农村金融组织在农村经济及整个国民经济稳定发展中发挥着不可或缺的作用。中国农村金融组织也有一个生存、发展的制度变迁过程。本文在研究了合作经济及农村金融组织在农村经济发展中的作用的基础上，重点研究了法国的农村金融体系在法国国民经济中的作用，并进一步探讨了中国农村金融组织的生存条件、制度变迁及发展。