Time-varying linkages between tourism receipts and economic growth in South Africa

The causal link between tourism receipts and GDP has recently become a major focus in the tourism economics literature. Results obtained in recent studies about the causal link appear to be sensitive with respect to the countries analysed, sample period and methodology employed. Considering the sensitivity of the causal link, we use rolling window and time-varying coefficient estimation methods to analyse the parameter stability and Granger causality based on a vector error correction model (VECM). When applied to South Africa for the period 1960–2011, the findings are as follows: results from the full-sample VECM indicate that there is no Granger causality between tourism receipts and GDP, while the findings from the time-varying coefficients model based on the state-space representation show that tourism receipts have positive-predictive content for GDP for the entire period, with the exception of the period between 1985 and 1990. Full-sample time-varying causality tests show bidirectional strong causality between tourism receipts and GDP.     

区间时变时滞线性系统稳定性准则的改进

研究了区间时变时滞线性系统的稳定性问题,基于Lyapunov泛函方法,使用新的处理技术估计Lyapunov泛函导数的上界,以线性矩阵不等式形式给出了系统稳定性准则的改进结果。所给稳定性准则比已有结果具有更低的保守性,数值实例表明了结果的有效性。     

Services inflation dynamics and persistence puzzle in Brazil: a time-varying parameter approach

This article analyses services inflation dynamics in Brazil, focusing on the Services Inflation Persistence Puzzle, for monthly data from January 2004 to February 2016. We apply a time-varying parameter (TVP) approach, via a Kalman filter, to estimate hybrid Phillips curves and compare inflation inertia for tradable goods and services inflation. Aggregate Brazilian Extended Consumer Price Index inflation serves as a benchmark. To justify the TVP analysis, parameter instability and structural change tests are implemented, based on OLS and Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) frameworks. The main results are as follows: (i) the TVP approach is relevant due to observed instability in some parameters estimated; (ii) inflation expectation coefficients are higher than lagged inflation in all calculations, but inflation inertia is not negligible at all; (iii) services inflation persistence ranges from 27 to 36%, whereas tradable goods inflation persistence ranges from 36 to 47%, providing evidence of the Services Inflation Persistence Puzzle in Brazil; (iv) from 2009 onwards an increase in one percentage point in real wages raises monthly services inflation rate by 0.02 to 0.03 percentage point; (v) there is evidence that cost-push pressures, due to wage increases in the service sector, are more important to explain services inflation than demand pressures from early 2009 to mid-2014.     

Is there a role for uncertainty in forecasting output growth in OECD countries? Evidence from a time-varying parameter-panel vector autoregressive model

This paper uses a time-varying parameter-panel vector autoregressive (TVP-PVAR) model to analyze the role played by domestic and US news-based measures of uncertainty in forecasting the growth of industrial production of 12 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Based on a monthly out-of-sample period of 2009:06 to 2017:05, given an in-sample of 2003:03 to 2009:05, there are only 46% of cases where domestic uncertainty can improve the forecast of output growth relative to a baseline monetary TVP-PVAR model, which includes inflation, interest rate and nominal exchange rate growth, besides output growth. Moreover, including US uncertainty does not necessarily improve the forecasting performance of output growth from the TVP-PVAR model which includes only the domestic uncertainty along with the baseline variables. So, in general, while uncertainty is important in predicting the future path of output growth in the 12 advanced economies considered, a forecaster can do better in majority of the instances by just considering the information from standard macroeconomic variables.     

新型农村社会养老保险对贫困群体生活的影响——基于 CHARLS2011～2015面板数据的分析

本文探讨了新型农村社会养老保险是否对低收入的贫困群体的生活产生更显著的效用,从而论证该制度是否助力扶贫工作。因为养老金是收入的组成部分,而收入有边际效用递减的特点,因此养老金对不同收入群体的效用可能存在差别。本文按家庭人均收入水平区分贫困与非贫困群体,基于CHARLS 2011 -2015年数据,采用多维贫困指标,使用断点回归发现新农保养老金对贫困参保群体在食品消费方面产生更显著的效用,有助于扶贫工作。并使用含复杂时变效应的二元变量模型,进一步发现该效用在养老金开始发放时显现。本文结论有利于认识新农保政策对扶贫的作用,并将扶贫工作和已有的社会保险政策结合,以提高扶贫工作效率。     

Risk forecasting in (T)GARCH models with uncorrelated dependent innovations

(G)ARCH-type models are frequently used for the dynamic modelling and forecasting of risk attached to speculative asset returns. While the symmetric and conditionally Gaussian GARCH model has been generalized in a manifold of directions, model innovations are mostly presumed to stem from an underlying IID distribution. For a cross section of 18 stock market indices, we notice that (threshold) (T)GARCH-implied model innovations are likely at odds with the commonly held IID assumption. Two complementary strategies are pursued to evaluate the conditional distributions of consecutive TGARCH innovations, a non-parametric approach and a class of standardized copula distributions. Modelling higher order dependence patterns is found to improve standard TGARCH-implied conditional value-at-risk and expected shortfall out-of-sample forecasts that rely on the notion of IID innovations.     

基于Copula函数和蒙特卡洛模拟方法的权证定价

在分析计算单一权证价格的基础上,提出了利用Copula函数和蒙特卡洛模拟的方法来计算多种权证的定价模型。具体实例分析表明,该方法可为投资者提供有益的投资决策参考。     

Contracts with endogenous information

I study covert information acquisition and reporting in a principal agent problem allowing for general technologies of information acquisition. When posteriors satisfy two dimensional versions of the standard First Order Stochastic Dominance and Concavity/Convexity of the Distribution Function conditions, a first-order approach is justified. Under the same conditions, informativeness and riskiness of reports are equivalent. High powered contracts, that make the agent's informational rents more risky, are used to increase incentives for information acquisition, insensitive contracts are used to reduce incentives for information gathering. The value of information to the agent is always positive. The value of information to the principal is ambiguous.     

基于Copula的道指与恒指的尾部相关性分析

Copula函数能有效地刻画随机变量间的非对称性和尾部相关性。在研究当道琼斯工业指数与恒生指数的相关性时,采用非参数核密度估计拟合边缘分布。并应用Kol mogorov-Smirrnov检验三种Archi medean Copula函数。研究发现参数值θ=0.2221的Clayton Copula可以用于描述下尾相关性,而θ=1.1105的Gumbel Copula可用于描述上尾相关性。     

货币供应、通货膨胀与经济增长的互动关系研究——基于时变参数VAR模型的实证检验

文章以我国1996年1月至2012年12月的月度数据为基础,首次建立了货币增长率、通货膨胀率和经济增长率的带随机波动的时变参数VAR模型（TVP-VAR）,以此来考察货币供应、通货膨胀和经济增长之间的互动关系。研究结果表明：货币增长短期内促进经济增长,但长期内对经济增长没有驱动效应;货币增长短期内对通货膨胀的作用不确定,而在中长期时间内货币扩张会引发通货膨胀。经济的增长并没有推动货币增长,经济增长在短期内导致通货膨胀,但在长期内经济增长对通货膨胀的影响基本不存在;通货膨胀对经济增长和货币增长的作用依状态而变化。