美国反垄断的经济学思考

众所周知,国际上垄断的主要形式是托拉斯,而美国这个崇尚自由竞争的经济大国,其垄断行为更为普遍。美国反垄断法的出台及实施,引起了我们更多的经济学思考,研究借鉴美国反垄断法的构成体系、主要内容以及典型的实施案例,对我国反垄断理论的研究和实践将有所裨益。     

机构投资者与个人投资者非理性行为差异研究

机构投资者与个人投资者是证券市场的重要组成部分,其非理性程度直接影响着市场的健康稳定。本文基于有情境元素的问卷调查,构建包含投资者类别为自变量,年龄和性别为控制变量,16种常见非理性行为为因变量的分析框架,实证检验机构投资者与个人投资者非理性行为差异。结果表明,中国机构投资者与个人投资者都存在严重的非理性行为;相比机构投资者,个人投资者非理性程度更为严重;机构投资者与个人投资者在偏好逆转、证实性偏差、沉没成本、模糊厌恶、处置效应和损失厌恶方面存在显著差异。本研究为投资者防范非理性行为提供建议,为市场稳定发展提供参考。     

北京农民收入变化特点与促进增收的政策建议

党的十八大报告提出,到2020年我国城乡居民人均收入要比2010年翻一番,农民收入翻番是实现这一目标的重要组成部分。北京市2010年农民人均纯收入约1.3万元,如何在高起点上完成2.6万元翻番任务是目前亟待解决的问题。本文通过定量分析法、研讨法、文献法,梳理北京市"八五"以来的农民增收政策,得出在增收政策力度增大的情况下,农民收入的四个明显特征。一是收入水平增加明显,1995~2014年收入增长6.3倍。二是结构变化明显,工资性收入的增收贡献率与人均纯收入的增长存在显著的正相关关系;转移性收入在收入构成中的比重不断增加。三是区域差异明显,地区之间不平衡;城市发展新区增速略高于其它两个功能区;城乡居民收入差距持续扩大。四是内部差距明显,农民内部收入差距逐年拉大,收入分配不平等程度高于城镇。分析影响农民收入增长的因素时,得出农民存在自身素质局限性、收入来源狭窄性及收入支出失衡性的现实问题及社会保障、土地、财政、公共服务方面的制度问题。最后提出以加强政策可持续性、增强政策针对性、增进制度创新性为切入点,建立合理、有效、配套的农民增收政策体系,完成新形势下的收入倍增目标。     

Is unemployment good for the environment?

Environmental quality is a public good, potentially impacted by everybody. Individual level pro-environmental behavior affects environmental quality in the aggregate. Therefore, it is important to understand what causes individual’s pro-environmental behaviors to change. We quantify the causal effect of one determinant, unemployment, using an EU-27 population representative Eurobarometer survey. Drawing on results from the theory of the private provision of public goods, and recognizing that unemployment decreases income and the opportunity cost of time, we formulate testable predictions that unemployment will decrease the extent of pro-environmental behaviors that require monetary contributions and increase the extent of pro-environmental behaviors that mainly require time/effort. Instrumental variables regressions provide empirical evidence to support these hypotheses. Changes in the unemployment rate within a sub-national region provide the exogenous variation needed to identify the causal effect. Several supplemental questions on the survey provide evidence that environmental issues lose saliency and economic issues gain saliency when one becomes unemployed, suggesting that interested parties may wish to emphasize cost savings of pro-environmental behavior rather than environmental benefits during times of increased unemployment.     

The Importance of taste in experimental auctions: consumers’ valuation of calorie and sweetener labeling of soft drinks

A majority of purchases that consumers make are classified as repeat purchases. One of the main reasons why consumers make repeat food purchases is the food's taste. Therefore, we examined the importance of including taste testing in nonhypothetical experimental auctions. Specifically, we used two experiments to determine consumers’ willingness to pay for soft drinks labeled with different calorie and sweetener information. In Experiment 1, participants tasted the soft drinks prior to the bidding rounds. In Experiment 2, participants did not taste the soft drinks prior to the bidding rounds. Bidding behavior for the soft drinks was significantly different between Experiment 1 and Experiment 2. Results suggest that including taste testing in the design of experimental auctions is important to accurately capture consumers’ willingness to pay for foods that are purchased repeatedly. Results also imply that policies aimed at combating obesity by making the calorie content of foods more visible may not produce desired outcomes.     

农技人员推广导向对农户品牌行为影响的作用机理——基于扎根理论的探索性研究

本文立足农资品牌成长的特定环境, 从农技基层推广人员的视角出发, 运用扎根理论研究方法, 归纳不同推广导向下形成的不同类型产品推广方式, 构建农资产品推广导向对农户品牌行为的作用机理模型, 为探讨中国特殊背景下农资产品推广导向与农户品牌行为的关系提供有益的理论依据和研究框架, 以期在实践中发挥促进农资品牌推广和推动农资品牌成长的指导作用.     

Subsidiary managers’ knowledge mobilizations: Unpacking emergent knowledge flows

Knowledge flows are a key source of advantage for multinational corporations (MNCs); however the nuances of knowledge flow practices and their micro-foundations require further theoretical development. Using qualitative data on 40 cases of subsidiary managers’ knowledge mobilizations, this paper unravels micro-level practices of knowledge flows in MNCs. We find that subsidiary managers’ knowledge mobilizations initiate a complex pattern of subsidiary knowledge inflows, pinpointing the significance of lateral and bottom up exchanges (locally as well as internationally). We use these insights to distinguish between two types of subsidiary knowledge flows: deliberate and emergent, and discuss how their differences have profound implications for the investigation of MNC knowledge flows and their micro-foundations.     

Unraveling public support for casino gaming: The case of a casino referendum in Penghu

By integrating the social exchange theory (SET) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this study unravels the factors associated with residents’ intention to support casino gaming development in Penghu in future referenda. Residents’ attitudes toward casino gaming development in their community were examined in the SET framework while their intention to support such development was investigated in the TPB framework. Despite that partisan difference did not have a significant interaction with TPB variables, past behavior exerted moderating effects determining residents’ intention to support casino gaming development through two TPB variables: subjective norm and perceived behavioral control. Implications are provided.

Abbreviations: ATTU: attitude; DPP: Democratic Progress Party; ECOI: perceived economic impact; ENVI: perceived environmental impact; INT: intention to support casino gaming development in future referenda; KMT: Kuomingtang; PBC: perceived behavioral control; PPB: perceived personal benefit; SET: social exchange theory; SN: subjective norms; SOCI: perceived social impact; TPB: theory of planned behavior     

Compulsory versus voluntary voting: An experimental study

We report on an experiment comparing compulsory and voluntary voting institutions in a voting game with common preferences. Rational choice theory predicts sharp differences in voter behavior between these two institutions. If voting is compulsory, then voters may find it rational to vote insincerely, i.e., against their private information. If voting is voluntary so that abstention is allowed, then sincere voting in accordance with a voter's private information is always rational while participation may become strategic. We find strong support for these theoretical predictions in our experimental data. Moreover, voters adapt their decisions to the voting institution in place in such a way as to make the group decision accuracy differences between the two voting institutions negligible. The latter finding may serve to rationalize the co-existence of compulsory and voluntary voting institutions in nature.     

Effects of Label on Consumer Preferences: Focus on Hawaiian Avocado Industry

This study examines market challenges facing a local agriculture industry in a small island setting. Examination of the Hawai‘i local avocado industry indicates labeling can address the product information gap between consumers and producers, improve market share, and increase import substitution by local products. Currently, local avocados occupy only 33% of market share, compared with 67% captured by imports. Consumer preferences among local labeled, local unlabeled, and imported avocados were analyzed using multinomial logistic regression. Statistical results showed that labels influence consumers’ decisions to buy local or imported avocados, and their preferences were also influenced by sociodemographic variables, avocado characteristics, and purchasing behavior. Key market segments to target and policy implications are also discussed.