我国资产管理公司的资本运营及其发展趋势

资产管理公司是我国处理不良资产的一项重要举措，运行两年多来，取得了可喜的成绩，但从资本运营的角度来分析资产管理公司的运作，仍值得我们深思和探讨。     

我国地方政府显性债务问题实证分析

本文对我国某地区显性债务规模与结构进行分析，结果表明，从规模上看，我国地方政府显性债务具有规模庞大，不断扩张，超出了地方财力规模，逾期债务比重较大等特点；从结构上看，我国地方政府显性债务具有来源复杂等特点。同时，通过对债务规模与某些因素的相关分析表明，我国地方政府显性债务规模与地方经济总量存在相关性。     

城区特征对房贷的影响

城区特征通过多种途径影响商业银行住房抵押贷款决策.商业银行可以根据城区特征判断一个城区的住房抵押贷款违约风险,进而确定对该城区的最低首付款比例或拒贷率.通过分析国外城区特征对商业银行住房抵押贷款决策的影响机制,联系我国实际情况,指出我国商业银行根据城区特征进行住房抵押贷款决策具有合理性,建议商业银行密切关注城区住房价格波动率,并建议政府限制中低收入城区商业银行的数量.     

The Effect of Risk Characteristics on the Willingness to Pay for Mortality Risk Reductions from Electric Power Generation

The objective of this study is to estimate willingness to pay (WTP) for the reduction of mortality risks caused by fossil fuel (natural gas, coal and oil) versus nuclear electric power generation systems and to examine the influence of risk characteristics involved with electric power generation on WTP. A choice experiment was conducted to achieve these objectives. The attributes for nuclear risks in the experiment included the probability of disasters and the expected losses if a disaster occurs. We find evidence of (i) a baseline effect (where WTP is sensitive to hypothetical versus actual baseline expected mortality); (ii) a ‘labeling effect,’ where, surprisingly, the term ‘nuclear’ has no effect on WTP, but the term ‘fossil-fueled power generation’ results in lower WTP; and (iii) disaster aversion, meaning that people focus on the conditional loss from a nuclear disaster, not the probability. We also find that the WTP for reducing deaths from a nuclear disaster is about 60 times the WTP for routine reducing fossil-fuel generation-related deaths.     

Learning for Innovation and the Skill Premium

The computer revolution took very long to pay off in productivity growth in the computer-using sectors. The relative wage of skilled workers, however, has risen sharply from the early days of the computer revolution onward. As skilled workers wages reflect their productivity, the two observations together pose a puzzle.This paper provides a micro-based explanation for the long diffusion period of the computer revolution. The general equilibrium model of growth zooms in on the research process and provides an explanation for sluggish growth with booming relative wages of the skilled. Technological progress in firms is driven by research aimed at improving the production technology (innovation) and by assimilation of ideas or principles present outside the firm (learning). A new General Purpose Technology (GPT) like the computer revolution generates an initial slowdown in economic growth and an increase in the skill premium.Acknowledgement I am indebted to Theo van de Klundert for suggestions and encouragement. Suggestions by Jan Boone, Bas Jacobs, Patrick Francois, Henri de Groot, Lex Meijdam, Niek Nahuis Sjak Smulders, Harald Uhlig and anonymous referees have contributed to the paper.     

Deposit insurance and bank regulation in a monetary economy: a general equilibrium exposition

Summary. It is commonly argued that poorly designed banking system safety nets are largely to blame for the frequency and severity of modern banking crises. For example, underpriced deposit insurance and/or low reserve requirements are often viewed as factors that encourage risk-taking by banks. In this paper, we study the effects of three policy variables: deposit insurance premia, reserve requirements and the way in which the costs of bank bailouts are financed. We show that when deposit insurance premia are low, the monetization of bank bailout costs may not be more inflationary than financing these costs out of general revenue. This is because, while monetizing the costs increases the inflation tax rate, higher levels of general taxation reduce savings, deposits, bank reserves, and the inflation tax base. Increasing the inflation tax rate obviously raises inflation, but so does an erosion of the inflation tax base. We also find that low deposit insurance premia or low reserve requirements may not be associated with a high rate of bank failure.Received: 2 January 2002, Revised: 1 March 2003JEL Classification Numbers: D5, E5, G1.B. D. Smith: Sadly, our co-author, colleague and dear friend, Bruce D. Smith, died on July 9, 2002.     

武汉大旅游圈的构建与发展模式研究

在迈向２１世纪的关键时期，武汉市提出了建设国际性城市的战略目标。旅游业在实现这个战略目标中的地位、作用以及特定的意义日益引起广泛的关注。本文对武汉市旅游业的发展战略模式──大旅游图的构建要素、职能特点等进行了分析，提出了武汉大旅游圈功能结构和空间结构的具体拓展方案。     

天津滨海新区区域经济特点、问题与对策

开发滨海新区是天津市经济发展的重大战略决策。经过7年的高速发展滨海新区已经形成了经济区的基本框架,成为天津市经济的龙头。本文综合分析了滨海新区的区域经济特点及其在发展过程中存在的矛盾和问题,在此基础上提出了加强区域经济持续发展能力建设的对策和建议。     

县(市)级土地利用总体规划中耕地需求量预测方法及其应用

科学准确地预测耕地需求量,是制定县(市)级土地利用总体规划的基础.文章根据中国南方某县1996-2005年来的耕地变更调查统计数据,分别采用趋势分析法、回归分析法、指数平滑法、GM(1,1)模型法和灰色-马尔柯夫链模型的方法,对该地区耕地总量进行了模拟和预测.不同方法的预测结果表明,基于灰色-马尔柯夫链方法的预测结果更加准确可靠,更有利于土地管理决策者的经济决策行为.在当前耕地利用方式的背景下,灰色-马尔柯夫链模型可以作为县(市)级土地利用总体规划中耕地需求量预测方法的一种好选择.     

Thermodynamics and process analysis for future economic scenarios

Economists are increasingly interested in forecasting future costs and benefits of policies for dealing with materials/energy fluxes, polluting emissions and environmental impacts on various scales, from sectoral to global. Computable general equilibrium (CGE) models are currently popular because they project demand and industrial structure into the future, along an equilibrium path. But they are applicable only to the extent that structural changes occur in or near equilibrium, independent of radical technological (or social) change. The alternative tool for analyzing economic implications of scenario assumptions is to use Leontief-type Input-Output (I-O) models. I-O models are unable to endogenize structural shifts (changing I-O coefficients). However, this can be a virtue when considering radical rather than incremental shifts. Postulated I-O tables can be used independently to check the internal consistency of scenarios. Or I-O models can be used to generate scenarios by linking them to econometric macro-drivers (which can, in principle, be CGE models). Explicit process analysis can be integrated, in principle, with I-O models. This hybrid scheme provides a natural means of satisfying physical constraints, especially the first and second laws of thermodynamics. This is important, to avoid constructing scenarios based on physically impossible processes. Process analysis is really the only available tool for constructing physically plausible alternative future I-O tables, and generating materials/energy and waste emissions coefficients. Explicit process analysis also helps avoid several problems characteristic of pure CGE or I-O models, viz. (1) aggregation errors (2) inability to handle arbitrary combinations of co-product and co-input relationships and (3) inability to reflect certain non-linearities such as internal feedback loops.