The Transmission of Monetary Policy in South Africa Before and After the Global Financial Crisis

This paper examines whether the transmission mechanism of monetary policy in South Africa has changed after the global financial crisis (GFC). We use a Bayesian vector autoregressive (BVAR) model with Minnesota priors and 15 monthly variables, extending the system of Christiano, Eichenbaum, with Evans (1999). The benefit of the BVAR approach is that it can accommodate a large cross section of variables without running out of degrees of freedom. To identify the change in the transmission process, we divide the sample size into two subsamples, namely the pre‐GFC period (March 2001 to August 2008) and the post‐GFC period (September 2008 to February 2016). The results indicate that a change in the transmission of monetary policy occurred after the GFC. The magnitude of the effect of a monetary policy shock on output is considerably greater in the pre‐GFC period compared to the post‐GFC period. Moreover, the impact of a policy shock on inflation is not statistically significant in the post‐GFC period. The variance decomposition shows that the interest‐rate channel has possibly weakened in the post‐GFC period.     

What threatens retail employees' thriving at work under leader‐member exchange? The role of store spatial crowding and team negative affective tone

Thriving at work is a positive psychological state that captures employees' joint experience of learning and vitality. Building on the socially embedded model of thriving , we first propose the positive relationship between leader‐member exchange (LMX) and retail employees' thriving at work. We then explore store spatial crowding as a contextual constraint on this relationship. To better reveal this contextual impact, we further contend that team negative affective tone mediates the cross‐level moderating effect of store spatial crowding on the LMX–thriving linkage. Using two‐wave survey data collected from retail employees and their store managers across 89 stores of a grocery retail chain, we found empirical evidence on our multilevel‐mediated moderation model. This study highlights the importance of considering wider contextual features as boundary conditions to thriving. Our results suggest theoretical modifications to the existing thriving model and offer implications on the practical interventions that retailing organizations can take to develop a thriving workforce.     

淮河生态经济带不同水文时期水质的时空特征研究

[目的]揭示淮河生态经济带不同水文时期水质的时空特征,为水污染治理提供科学依据。[方法]应用统计方法和地理空间分析方法,阐明不同水文时期水质的时空特征。[结果](1)时间上,不同水质指标在各水文时期的中位值总体接近,但波动幅度差异较大;丰水期前期水质偏差而后期较好,而平水期和枯水期污染物浓度以2月、3月偏高。(2)空间上,不同水文时期的水质表现为干流较好而北侧支流较差的格局。各水文时期pH总体稳定,DO仅在丰水期时空间差异略大;不同水文时期COD_(Mn)和NH_3-N的浓度差异较大,空间分异较突出,北侧支流水系浓度较高水质偏差。(3)水质时序差异与不同水文时期降水径流的消解作用和水利工程的调节控制有关;而水质的空间差异主要受南北水系不对称且降水南多北少的水文差异和水体自净能力影响。[结论]淮河生态经济带各水文时期的水质在时间上波动差异较大,而空间上干流水质较好但北部支流水质较差,应当重点加强经济带内淮河干流北侧支流的水体污染治理。     

城镇化与城乡收入差距——基于省域面板模型的分析

本文运用全国数据，考察城镇化与城乡收入差距的动态变化关系，发现1990～2014年城镇化与城乡收入差距之间呈倒U型变化，其拐点在2005年。根据1996～2013年省域面板数据特征，使用空间面板模型进行分阶段检验，结果表明，1996～2004年城镇化扩大了城乡收入差距，而在2005～2013年城镇化缩小了城乡收入差距。同样利用1996～2013年省域面板数据，估算每个省份城镇化对城乡收入差距的影响效果，结果显示，城镇化缩小城乡收入差距的地区一般为东部沿海省份。可见，城镇化是否产生缩小城乡收入差距的效应是有阶段性和地区差异性的。就目前及未来而言，可以把城镇化作为缩小城乡收入差距的一个手段。但其真正发挥这个作用，还依赖于有关政策的完善与创新。对经济发展阶段较滞后的地区而言，应积极促进城镇化缩小城乡收入差距效果的到来。     

Retail-center viability and urban form: a micro analysis

Location is commonly axiomatically stated as the most important real estate feature. However, little attention is given to the urban system that reveals how location is configured, and how that configuration sustains the viability of site-specific retailing activity in the metropolitan region. In this paper, we use block-level, GIS-aided spatial data that reveal the physical qualities of the retail center’s built environment as well as employment and business activity. Thereby, we examine a hypothesis that retailing viability is linked to urban form and set out to determine a statistical relationship. Retail sales data indicate the viability of businesses in two matched shopping centers, urban and suburban, each anchored by an identical big-box retailer downsized to a neighborhood supermarket, with pedestrian-friendly orientation and proximity to housing. The paper concludes with regression estimates of the urban form determinants of business viability by various distances from the retail center.     

中国FDI区位决定因素研究(1986—2009)

关于中国和其他经济体的外商直接投资(FDI)区位决定,绝大部分研究仅仅关注决定因素的选择,而忽略了决定因素及其重要性可能会随一个国家或地区FDI的特性的变化而变化。而且,这类研究也几乎不考虑空间数据的特征。文章以中国为对象,顾及省域变量的空间特征,采用空间面板数据分析方法,并通过分阶段方式来捕捉FDI决定因素及其重要性,研究结果表明,空间特征确实在中国省域引进FDI中具有影响作用,FDI决定因素及其重要性会随时期动态变化。上述发现对中国各级政府以及跨国公司都具有重要政策和决策意义。     

基于循环特性的均匀圆阵快速空间谱计算

针对在阵元数多、分辨率要求高的情况下，基于均匀圆阵的空间谱直接计算方法存在计算量大、实时性差的缺点，利用循环矩阵、离散傅里叶变换、卷积运算之间的内在联系，提出了一种快速空间谱计算方法。仿真结果表明，在保持测向性能完全一致的情况下，所提快速算法降低空间谱计算过程中角度搜索阶段的计算量随阵元数增加而增加；且在相同计算量条件下，所提快速算方法可以用于更高精度和分辨率的角度搜索。     

Tourism water footprint: an empirical analysis of Mount Huangshan

Water is an important factor for the sustainable development of tourism. We constructed a comprehensive model of the tourism water footprint (TWF), including tourism sewage and water for management, and used the world heritage Mount Huangshan as an example. The results showed that the total TWF, which included green, blue and grey water of Mount Huangshan in 2012, was about 10.19 million m³/year, approximately per tourist 3.39?m³/day or 3387?L/day. Tourism sewage and food were the main factors of water consumption. The spatial transfer of TWF led the spillover of tourism environmental impact, not only affecting Mount Huangshan but the Huangshan City and even nationwide. Tourist flow and temperature had a highly significant positive correlation with the TWF. Quantifying the TWF can reflect the pressure of tourists on water resources, and provide an effective decision-making basis for rational use of water resources.