Societal preferences for fertility treatment in Australia: a stated preference discrete choice experiment

Objective: To investigate preferences for fertility treatment from the Australian general population with the aims of calculating the willingness to pay in tax contribution for attributes (characteristics) that make up treatment and for an “ideal” fertility treatment program. We also assessed whether willingness-to-pay varies by the relationship status or sexual orientation of the patient.

Methods: A stated preference discrete choice experiment was administered to a panel of 801 individuals representative of the Australian general population. Seven attributes of fertility treatment under three broad categories were included: outcome, process, and cost. Attributes were identified through published literature, focus group discussions, expert knowledge, and a pilot study. A Bayesian fractional experimental design was used, and data analysis was performed using a generalized multinomial logit model. Further analyses included interaction terms and latent class modeling.

Results: Six of the seven attributes influenced the choice of a treatment program. Under process attributes, individuals preferred: continuity of care of clinic staff, where patients are seen by the same doctor but different nurses at each visit; “alternative” treatments being offered to all patients; and onsite clinic counseling and peer-support groups. Personalization and tailoring of the treatment journey were not important. Among outcome attributes, the improved success rate of having a baby per cycle and significant side-effects were considered important. Cost of treatment also influenced the choice of treatment program. Individual preferences for fertility treatment were not associated with patients’ relationship status or sexual orientation. Latent class modeling revealed sub-groups with distinct fertility treatment preferences.

Conclusion: This study provides important insights into the attributes that influence the preferences of fertility treatment in Australia. It also estimates socially-inclusive willingness-to-pay values in tax contributions for an “ideal” package of treatment. The results can inform economic evaluations of fertility treatment programs.     

张家界市居民对旅游影响的感知研究

在旅游发展的过程中，旅游目的地居民正逐渐被视为旅游产品的核心，越来越受到人们的重视。以张家界市为例，通过问卷调查和个别访谈的方法，分析了当地居民对旅游经济、社会文化、环境影响的感知，比较了不同人口学特征的居民对旅游影响的感知差异。结果表明，张家界市居民总体上对旅游的正面影响感知较强，对旅游的负面影响感知较弱。最后建议通过建立健全居民参与旅游发展规划的机制来调控居民对旅游影响的感知，以促进旅游地的可持续发展。     

Impatience and equilibrium indeterminacy

This paper extends the neoclassical one-sector optimal growth model by postulating that individual agents’ time preference (impatience) depends on the economy-wide average consumption and average income, which are social factors taken as external by individual agents. The paper shows that with the socially determined individual time preference local equilibrium indeterminacy can arise. Moreover, local indeterminacy can also be associated with global indeterminacy in many cases. The results hold in models with bounded and unbounded growth.     

中国上市公司股权融资偏好与融资成本研究

企业可以通过股权方式或债务方式来筹集资金,这两种融资方式又会引发公司资本结构和资本成本等一系列问题。本文研究了我国上市公司的融资行为和融资成本,结果发现,上市公司普遍存在着“股权融资偏好”,上市公司的真实股权融资成本要远高于债务融资成本,因此,过低的融资成本只是股权融资偏好的表层原因,特殊的股权结构和严重的委托-代理问题才是其内因。     

Revealed preference and differentiable demand

Summary. We prove that, for finitely many demand observations, the Strong Axiom of Revealed Preference tests not only the existence of a strictly concave, strictly monotone and continuous utility generator, but also one that generates an infinitely differentiable demand function. Our results extend those of previous related results (Matzkin and Richter, 1991; Chiappori and Rochet, 1987), yielding differentiable demand functions but without requiring differentiable utility functions.Received: 1 November 2001, Revised: 5 February 2004, JEL Classification Numbers: D11, D12. Correspondence to: Kam-Chau WongThis is a much revised version of Lee and Wong (2001). We are grateful to the Referee for valuable suggestions. We also thank Professor Marcel K. Richter for his comments.     

多元化战略、经济绩效与资本结构——关于上市公司股权融资偏好解释

我国上市公司存在十分强烈的股权融资偏好,学术界一般将其原因归结为股权融资成本偏低。笔者研究则表明,融资成本因素并不能全部解释上市公司股权融资偏好。本文从企业多元化经营战略角度来剖析股权融资偏好。研究发现:企业多元化程度越低负债率越低,企业经济绩效越好;企业有动力降低负债率,采用股权融资。研究还发现,企业多元化战略已经构成融资决策的有效约束,股权融资偏好是上市公司的理性选择。     

肉类食品安全认知和选择行为

目前，消费者对肉类食品安全状况表示担忧，消费者对兽药残留、饲料添加剂、食品添加剂的不舍理使用，以及病畜肉问题关注程度较高。对风险程度较高的微生物污染关注程度较低。在购买肉类食品过程中。颜色、气昧等易于直接识别的特征是消费者用于判断肉类食品质量常用的质量信号，对价格、食品标簦所提供的质量信息的信任程度不高。政府应加强食品安全信息披露体系建设，为肉类食品生产者的安全生产行为提供激励。     

漓江水生态系统问题研究

本文分析指出，漓江水生态系统保护与修复的目标是保证桂林的水安全，核心在于对其价值的偏好和评估。同时，文章提出了修复的标准及其实现的关键技术和关键途径。     

促进民间投资的税收政策研究

启动民间投资对促进经济发展具有重要意义,而且在我国民间资本有巨大潜力可挖。税收是国家调节经济的强有力工具。本文着重分析了我国现行税制在促进民间投资的过程中存在的问题以及解决问题的新思路。     

Drama theory and its relation to game theory. Part 2: Formal model of the resolution process

In a drama, characters' preferences and options change under the pressure of pre-play negotiations. Thus they undergo change and development. A formal model of dramatic transformation is presented that shows how the core of a drama is transformed by the interaction among the characters into a strict, strong equilibrium to which they all aspire. The process is seen to be driven by actors' reactions to various paradoxes of rationality.