The income elasticity of mortgage loan demand

One explanation for the emergence of the housing market bubble and the subprime crisis is that increases in individuals’ income led to higher increases in the amount of mortgage loans demanded, especially for the middle class. This hypothesis translates to an increase in the income elasticity of mortgage loan demand before 2007. Using applicant‐level data, we test this hypothesis and find that the income elasticity of mortgage loan demand in fact declines in the years before 2007, especially for the mid‐ and lower‐middle income groups. Our finding implies that increases in house prices were not matched by increases in loan applicants’ income.     

上海市入境旅游市场影响因素分析与预测——以德国、法国、英国、美国与泰国客源国为例

入境旅游是衡量一个国家知名度、影响力和旅游发展水平的主要因素,也是赚取外汇和旅游收入的重要路径。上海是外国游客入境重要的目的地,也是中国最大的入境游客中转站。文章分析了德国、法国、英国、美国、泰国五个上海主要入境旅游客源国2004年第一季度至2018年第三季度的数据,运用计量经济学方法建模,并实证分析了上海入境旅游需求的影响因素。研究表明,口碑效应、客源地的收入水平与上海入境旅游需求正相关;上海入境旅游具有较大的季节波动特点,冬夏两季入境游客数量减少;世博会对上海入境旅游拉动作用较大。同时,对德国、法国、泰国三大市场未来十年的旅游季度需求进行了预测,预测发现,德国、法国、泰国三大市场未来十年都有较大增长,特别是泰国市场的年均增长率达到4%。     

对经济发展过程的若干逻辑观察

本文借助于不变工资模型和递增工资模型,以农业劳动力向现代部门转移为视角,从逻辑上考察了从前资本主义经济向现代经济转变的经济发展过程,并用劳动平均生产率高于工资、边际生产率低于工资对经济发展过程做出严格定义,并说明在经济发展过程中,劳动边际生产率将比平均生产率提高得更快,劳动产量弹性上升,同时农业劳动生产率将比现代部门提高得更快。     

中国进口贸易利益规模及其分解 ——基于产品多样性视角的研究

本文从产品多样性视角考察中国进口贸易利益规模。基于现有文献的研究模型和中国海关2002年至2012年进口数据,本文发现在一系列对称性假设下中国进口贸易带来产品多样性增加的贸易利益总体规模较小。分产品类别看,中间产品、工业品及初级产品贡献了绝大部分贸易利益。分产业类别看,金属矿的开采、化学品及化学制品的制造及与资源、初级产品相关的行业贡献较大。     

Forecasting Market Share for Non-Traditional Agricultural Exports

Economic and financial feasibility of projects that are being presented for potential funding by financial agencies depend, among others, on the soundness of assumptions made about the niche in the market which the contemplated enterprises are to fill. This type of market share forecasting is particularly hazardous for entrepreneurs in less developed countries (LDCs), who aim at penetrating export markets for non-traditional agricultural commodities. In this article the author: (a) reviews the methodology used by an Uruguayan enterprise, which decided to export summer citrus to markets in the Northern Hemisphere; (b) shows how these procedures for market share forecasting could be readily adapted to preparation of feasibility studies for enterprises aimed at penetrating export markets for other non-traditional products; and (c) explores the macro-marketing implications of the case study for off-season export of fresh produce from the Southern Hemisphere to consumer centers in North America, Western Europe and Japan.     

Intertemporal elasticity of substitution and risk aversion: are they related empirically?

This article examines the relationship between two types of preference: preference of intertemporal choices and preference towards risk. In the simplest form of the constant relative risk aversion utility function, the intertemporal elasticity of substitution (IES) and risk aversion have an inverse relationship. However, there is no empirical evidence that suggests this inverse relationship holds. We examine the relationship between risk aversion and IES using household consumption data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey during 1996–2010. Multiple risk domains are selected to represent risk preference, and for each domain, we consider some households to be more risk averse than others. We separately estimate IES for the more risk-averse and less risk-averse households. We find that the IES estimates are generally smaller for the more risk-averse households than for the less risk-averse households and that the difference is statistically significant in the majority of the financial domains. This finding supports the inverse relationship between the two parameters, although considerable heterogeneity is found across domains.     

Revenue Elasticities in Complex Income Tax Structures: An Application to Spain*

This paper derives analytical expressions for the revenue elasticity of complex income tax systems, as applied to tax units and in aggregate. Among the complexities considered are the schedular nature of income tax systems and the role of central and regional governments, along with the existence of a range of intricate tax credits and eligible expenditures and deductions. Empirical estimates are obtained for the case of Spain using a cross‐sectional data set, which enables a number of important ancillary elasticities (relating to allowances and tax credits, and different income sources) to be estimated. It is found that there is considerable variation among tax units in the revenue elasticity, with highly positively skewed distributions. The nature of the distributions varies among regions of Spain, and the aggregate elasticities for each region were found to display some variation associated with income distribution differences. The national aggregate is found to be around 1.3.     

Modeling domestic holiday tourism demand in Australia: Problems and solutions

An econometric model is very useful for understanding the underlying relationship between tourism demand and economic variables such as income and travel prices. However, a long time series horizon of data is essential to run an econometric model that is consistent with economic theory. Although time series data on the number of domestic trips and visitor nights in Australia are available since 1978–79, breaks in the time series in different years have made it difficult to estimate a domestic holiday demand model. It is because the data series in different periods are not directly comparable. In this study, a simple data adjustment technique has been used to obtain comparable data series. Among several econometric demand models, a single equation multivariate time series demand model in a double log linear functional form was found to be the most appropriate and practical model to estimate and analyze the demand parameters of domestic holiday travel in Australia. However, the model with variables in level terms was observed having the “spurious regression problem” which has been corrected using the cointegration and error correction mechanisms. The estimated income and price elasticity of domestic holiday travel demand are consistent with economic theory and therefore can be used for forecasting and other purposes.     

Modeling diffusion of multi-generational LCD TVs while considering generation-specific price effects and consumer behaviors

An effective diffusion model characterized by the technology-induced function diversification and cost reductions can be developed to reflect whether competition exists among multiple generations of technology and to interpret how price reductions stimulate consumption. New technology can enhance the production skill levels of LCD TV manufacturing, enabling successive generation of LCD TV to become larger-sized than the previous generation, reducing the overall cost in manufacturing process and resulting in the price reduction of LCD TVs. However, previous diffusive predictions of LCD TVs using conventional multi-generational models ignore the price effect on market potentials and generational substitutions, so a novel generation-specific multi-generational model for the first time incorporating heterogeneous price elasticity and consumer behaviors across various LCD TV sizes is constructed in this work. This study applies nonlinear least square method to simulate the parameters of our modified model and further compares the accuracy between our modified model and the existing models. Analytical results indicate that price reduction strongly correlates with LCD TV sales, implying that price reductions increase the market potential of each LCD TV generation. Our modified model performs superior to the conventional multi-generational model in terms of predicting future shipment orbits of 26-, 42-, and 46-in. LCD TVs.