Relationship between city size and firm productivity – A new interpretation using the Chinese experience

This paper contributes to the literature on the relationship between city size and firm productivity by focusing on agglomeration, selection (market competition), and sorting (presence of firms with diverse productivity) effects using Chinese firm-level data for 1998–2013. Contrary to the existing literature, our parametric regression estimates from nearly two million firms show that when the selection effect is controlled, productivity advantage in big cities is reversed. This outcome is explained through a quantile regression showing the existence of left-sided sorting (inefficient firms sort themselves to larger cities) in big cities which is not captured in existing empirical literature. We further find that (1) left-sided sorting is stronger in exporters than non-exporters; (2) is also generated mainly in enterprises with high asset-liability ratios; and (3) selection has a positive effect on firm productivity, suggesting that market competition is key in an explanation of the rapid growth of big cities in China.     

基于DEA的传统农耕地区农业生产效率测度*——以皖北为例

［目的］农业生产效率是衡量农业生产的重要标准，其生产效率测度结果对研究区域农业经济发展具有重要意义。［方法］文章以皖北农耕地区为研究对象，通过采集2017年统计年鉴的相关数据，构建农业生产绩效评价指标体系，并引入虚拟决策单元，运用数据包络分析（DEA）方法，从自评和他评的角度对2017年皖北各县级单元的农业经济生产效率进行测度，并基于结果的迥异进行效率、冗余及空间分异的分析。［结果］皖北地区农业生产整体效率较低，呈现出粗放式的农业生产模式； 各种投入要素配置不尽合理，皆存在不同程度上的冗余，整体上看塑料薄膜冗余最高、化肥施用的冗余最低； 空间分异显著，南北表现为由北向南逐渐降低的“S”型趋势、东西呈现出两端高中间低的扁平状“v”型空间分异特征。［结论］粗放式的农业生产导致了皖北农业生产效率整体较低，应完善生产要素配置，大力推进农业现代化建设，促进皖北地区农业整体性协调发展，提升地区农业生产效率。     

Agglomeration economies and university program creation in the knowledge economy

Existing academic literature on the relationship between agglomeration economies and university activities is both under-theorized and relatively sparse in terms of empirical examination. This paper addresses each of these voids by contributing and analyzing a market model of pro-revenue education program creation such as graduate-level executive business education (e.g. EMBA) that reveals some intriguing characteristics. For instance, it shows that demand for these pro-revenue programs is inelastic and therefore uniquely determines their availability. More specifically, we show that through agglomeration economies these types of education programs are more likely to emanate from universities located in metropolitan areas and from less academically prestigious universities. Regression analysis of a cross-section of national public universities lends support to important facets of our formal model by suggesting that agglomeration economies continue to increase the probability of offering EMBA programs through a city size of approximately 2.12 million and that the probability that a given business school will offer an EMBA is negatively related to the academic prestige of the institution to which it is affiliated.     

Spatial determinants of productivity growth on agri‐food Spanish firms: a comparison between cooperatives and investor‐owned firms

This study analyses the effect of the spatial factor, location, and interaction effects among peer companies, on the productivity growth of agri‐food companies in Spain. With this aim, we build a productivity growth index and apply a multiequational Seemingly Unrelated Regression on a sample of 344 Spanish cooperatives and investor‐owned firms for the period 2010–2012. Our findings show that agri‐food firms are influenced by spatial factors finding interesting differences between cooperatives and investor‐owned firms. With regard to the geographical location, cooperatives in the western of Spain show higher productivity growth rates, whereas investor‐owned firms in the northeast of Spain present better results. The interaction effect among closer peer companies is also a relevant factor to determine the productivity growth in agri‐food companies. This factor is more relevant for cooperatives than for investor‐owned firms.     

中国企业研发经费投入现状及国际比较

企业是开展创新活动的重要主体,加强企业研发经费投入对提升企业技术创新能力至关重要。本文基于《欧盟产业研发投资记分牌(2019)》和调研数据,从研发经费投入及结构视角分析了我国企业创新活动现状,并与世界主要创新型国家进行了国际比较分析。研究发现:我国企业研发经费投入规模不断扩大,企业已经是研发经费投入主体和执行主体;相比国有企业,民营企业更具研发投资动力,是企业研发经费投入主体;我国企业研发经费投入增速较高,但研发经费投资规模和强度低于世界主要创新型国家;我国企业科学研究经费布局明显低于世界主要创新型国家,严重制约企业自主创新能力提升;我国企业基础研究占比偏低与创新特性、企业使命、发展阶段、企业能力、体制机制等因素有关,新时代应重点引导和激励更多企业向"爱迪生象限"和"巴斯德象限"跃升。     

Housing and Health

Deprived housing is recognized as a source of poor health, but there is still little evidence of a causal relationship between housing and health. While existing literature identifies neighborhood effects and the individual dwelling as factors which affect health, it does not offer a joint examination of these factors. Moreover, endogeneity is a concern in analyses of both problems. Thus far, studies addressing endogeneity have done so through experimental design or instrumental variables. The first approach suffers from problems of external validity and the latter from the lack of reliable instruments. We therefore adopt an alternative strategy which considers both sources of endogeneity in order to identify the effects of housing on health by estimating fixed‐effect models. We reveal how housing problems affect health depending on living conditions and socioeconomic status. Our results therefore indicate that living in poor housing is an important short‐term socioeconomic determinant that directly affects health.     

Capitalization of Flood Insurance and Risk Perceptions in Housing Prices: An Empirical Agent‐Based Model Approach

Federally regulated or insured lenders in the United States are mandated to require flood insurance on properties that are located in areas at high risk of flooding. Despite the existence of this mandatory flood insurance requirement, take‐up rates for flood insurance have been low, and the federal government's exposure to uninsured property losses from flooding remains substantial. Meanwhile, the value of capital at risk varies significantly with flood events and changing risk perceptions, which necessitates mechanisms that stabilize these dynamics. In this article we discuss how a scenario of complete insurance uptake, under various risk attitudes, affects the value of properties in the 100‐year and 500‐year flood zones. Our results indicate that an increase in flood insurance uptake may provide such a mechanism by lowering the value of capital at risk in the flood zone consistently, independent of homeowners' risk attitudes. We apply an empirical adaptive agent‐based model to examine the capitalization of insurance costs, risk premiums, and their interaction in housing prices. Our approach combines widely‐used empirical hedonic analysis with the computational economic framework. We highlight the usefulness of our method in capturing the marginal implicit price of homeowners' preferences that may change over time and separately assess the effect of various factors and policies on property values, illustrating the agent‐based modeling as a valuable complement to traditional hedonic analysis.     

Reasonable and Risk‐Based? Replacing NFIP Generally Subsidized Rates with a Means‐Tested Subsidy

The National Flood Insurance Program was created to seek two often conflicting goals: (i) shifting risks from federal taxpayers to those who choose to live in flood plains and (ii) ensuring flood insurance is available to everyone at “reasonable” rates. Efforts to accomplish the second goal currently take the form of subsidies based on location and the date a home was constructed. The resulting revenue from subsidized insurance premiums is not sufficient to cover the true cost of flood insurance, and federal taxpayers have paid the difference: $30 billion to date. Based on a detailed survey of households in the high‐risk flood zones of New York City (NYC), we find that replacing existing premium subsidies with risk‐based prices and a subsidy for low‐income housing‐burdened households could better meet both goals by ensuring low‐income individuals have access to affordable flood insurance while still saving the federal taxpayer up to $183 million per year in NYC alone.     

QM在SAP R/3系统中的运行原理

SAP公司,在中国企业管理界来说绝对不会陌生,SAP可以说是ERP的代名词。SAP公司的R/3系统凭借其自身系统的完美性、极高的成功率,令无数企业爱不释手,但其不匪的身价却又使企业有可望而不可求之感。SAPR/3系统是由SD模块、FI模块、CO模块等组成的企业资源管理系统,且每一个模块都在系统中发挥极其重要的作用。