Estimation of trade elasticities in the presence of trade barriers, multinationals and imperfect competition

Recent research highlights the role that multinational trading companies may play in impeding price transmission. In markets characterised by imperfect competition, an estimate of the partial elasticity of demand may be of limited practical value if no account is taken of the reaction of competitors. In this paper, we demonstrate the potential for market structure to affect price transmission and trade elasticities, and challenge the presumption that only government intervention can impact upon price transmission, with examples supporting why theory would suggest otherwise.     

Housing demand in Russia: Rationing and reform1

In a number of articles Alexeev (1988a) and (1988b) shows that in the former Soviet Union the administrative rationing of housing was partially replaced by market forces acting through the second economy. This paper uses a much richer dataset to update his analysis for Russia to consider housing demand in 1992, the last year of the administrative allocation system. Almost immediately after the survey used for this analysis Russia began to privatize the housing stock as part of its movement towards a market economy. The questions we ask are: Were households really able to beat the system, as argued by Alexeev and, if so, were they still able to do so in 1992? Our answer to the second question is that in 1992 households were not able to beat the system. Income had no observable effect on housing demand. Furthermore, we do not think that the difference in our empirical results and Alexeev's is due only to the broader economic changes that occurred since his estimation or the richer dataset available to us. Indeed, our answer to the first question is that there are good reasons for arguing that Alexeev's estimates of the income elasticity of housing demand are biased upwards.     

On the conservation of distance in international trade

Using disaggregated bilateral trade data, we find that the elasticity of trade to distance increased (in absolute value) by about 10% since 1985. To explore the reasons for this shift, we decompose the change in the distance elasticity of trade into the part due to a shift in the composition of trade among industries and the part due to a change in the distance sensitivity within industries. We find that adjustment in the composition of trade had little effect, but for 40% of industries distance became more important, with nearly all of the remaining industries showing no significant change. We explore alternative hypotheses as to why the elasticity of trade to distance increased in some industries. We find that homogeneous goods, bulky goods, and high tariff goods became significantly more distance sensitive. In contrast, the evidence implies that changes in tariffs and freight costs have reduced the importance of distance on trade. We conclude that the increase in the importance of distance over time is related to the substitutability of goods and the level of trade costs, but not to changes in tariffs or freight costs.     

我国主要石化产品需求预测及供求结构分析

运用改进了的弹性法对乙烯和乙烯为主要原料的石化产品的市场需求进行了预测，并且对乙烯等石化产品的生产－消费结构进行了系统分析，为我国石化产业结构调整和发展提供了具体建议和对策。     

福建省三次产业对经济增长的贡献分析

本文利用1979-2008年福建省的地区生产总值及第一、二、三产业增加值的时间序列数据,测算了改革开放三十多年来各产业增长对经济增长的贡献。结果表明福建省经济的增长主要是由第二产业拉动的,其次是第三产业,最后是第一产业,其中第二产业对经济增长的贡献率达到了惊人的52.54%。在第二产业内部结构中,工业对经济增长的贡献率是建筑业的30倍。本文据此提出相关建议。     

社会资本、政府干预与区域资本配置效率——来自省级工业行业数据的证据

选取2000—2012年中国大陆30个省份35个工业行业的数据为研究样本,分析社会资本和政府干预影响区域间资本配置效率的作用机制并进行实证检验后发现：较高的社会资本水平和较低的政府干预程度,有助于提高资本配置效率;社会资本与政府干预在影响资本配置效率方面存在替代关系,在政府干预比较严重的地区,社会资本对资本配置效率的影响更加显著。     

基于有界协整方法的中国进口需求弹性研究

有界检验是由Pesaran等(2001)新提出的一种协整分析方法,本文利用这一方法对改革开放以来中国进口贸易与其决定因素之间的长期关系和需求弹性进行了分析。结果表明,无论是长期还是短期,中国的进口需求相对于价格缺乏弹性,但相对于收入具有较高的弹性。这一结论具有重要的政策含义:其一,某些国家力图通过促使人民币升值来缓解其贸易赤字的做法是缺乏论据支持的;其二,中国经济的增长是世界经济的积极贡献因素。     

民间借贷政策规制的社会福利效应：一个分析框架

本文通过构建一个民间借贷规制模型来分析需求弹性和行政执法成本对规制效率的影响。模型表明：在民间借贷缺乏需求弹性时,由于高昂的禁令规制成本,对政府而言更为合适的手段是将民间借贷采取合法化、并加以征税的规制政策。在我国,除了通过“民间借贷服务中心”等机构创新来实现民间金融规范化以外,更主要地是打破金融机构市场准入高度管控的体制,允许民间资本进入金融业,使民间金融机构合法化。     

广西税收增长与经济增长关系的实证分析

本文运用回归模型、自回归分布滞后模型和动态分布滞后模型对广西税收增长与经济增长的关系进行了实证分析。结果表明:广西税收对GDP的弹性过低,原因主要是税制结构不合理、税收征管存在问题。税收增长短期内具有较大惯性,就长期而言还是依赖于经济的持续稳定增长,广西的税收增长与经济增长之间存在长期协调增长的关系。     

Billboard and cinema advertising: Missed opportunity or spoiled arms?

Advertising remains one of the most popular marketing instruments, and many studies have studied its sales effectiveness. However, prior research has either looked at the total spending of a brand/firm, or has focused on the most popular media, especially TV advertising. Even though huge amounts are also spent on “smaller” media such as billboards and cinema, little is known on their effectiveness.