One size may not fit all: Welfare benefits and cost reductions with optional differentiated household electricity rates

We consider optional time-of-use (TOU) pricing for residential consumers, offered by a publicly regulated electricity supplier, as an alternative to a single TOU or flat rate structure. An equilibrium model explores and quantifies the effects of such pricing on welfare, consumption, and production costs. The supplier offers to each household a menu of possible rate structures obtained by maximizing a collective welfare function subject to three restrictions: Pareto efficiency, incentive compatibility, sufficiency of supplier revenue to cover costs. Simulations based on realistic calibration of the model demonstrate that optional pricing can increase overall consumer welfare and reduce average cost.     

住房公积金导致了不平等吗*——来自中国家庭金融调查的证据

住房公积金制度作为一项政策性住房金融制度，能够缓解家庭购房金融约束、稳定住房金融市场，成为实现“房住不炒”的重要政策工具。本文以2015年实施的住房公积金信贷宽松政策作为外生冲击，从财富效应的角度研究了住房公积金制度对不同家庭购房行为的影响。利用双重差分的实证研究方法，本文发现目前住房公积金主要促进了缴存家庭的多套房需求，加大了缴存家庭与非缴存家庭的住房财富差距。住房信贷政策的针对性与多样性急需提升。     

消费者需求受食品质量与安全影响的讨论分析

近年来,国内经济发展迅速,人们生活水平也得到很大提升,使得人们越来越重视安全,而食品是人们生活中的基本物质保障,是人们生活的必需品,所以食品的质量与安全问题是当下最热门的话题之一。当前消费者的需求会受食品质量与安全的影响,频发的食品质量与安全问题让人们愈发重视食品质量与安全,消费者的需求渐渐发生变化。基于此,本文展开了关于食品质量与安全对消费者需求的影响的研究。     

资本主义福利国家的必然性、局限性与面临的挑战——基于经济全球化视阈的历史唯物主义诠释和启示

资本主义福利国家的产生和发展是第二次世界大战后资本主义社会应对生产力发展和生产方式变化的自我调整，具有历史必然性，也具有自身局限性：形式上的“国家回归”没有改变资本主义私有制生产关系，无法消除资本主义社会的根本矛盾和经济危机；社会普遍高福利的实现（部分）依赖于凭借显著竞争优势在世界市场上获取的超额利润，福利模式具有排他性和剥削性，不能为落后国家所复制，也不能成为世界福利模式。因而，资本主义福利国家成为发达国家的特权，且当经济危机爆发或出现经济滞胀时，其会采取削减甚至拆除社会福利的措施以追求资本和财富的积累。随着经济全球化发展，资本积累与社会福利的矛盾日益凸显，资本主义福利国家模式面临实践上的可持续性和价值上的普适性双重挑战。借鉴资本主义福利国家的经验教训，后发国家应努力提升“结构的或根本性的竞争力”，寻求经济与社会的平衡发展；中国还应充分发挥国家制度和国家治理体系的显著优势，积极建设国家主导、福利要素多元、福利机制灵活的中国特色社会主义福利社会。     

外资进入影响行业工资差距的路径与异质性研究——来自中国服务业的经验证据

外商直接投资（FDI）可以通过劳动力需求效应和技术溢出效应改变东道国的劳动力就业结构和行业相对劳动生产率，进而影响行业工资差距，并且这种影响具有不确定性；由于投资动机和进入方式的不同，FDI对行业工资差距的影响具有异质性并表现为地区差异。基于中国服务业的经验分析发现：外资进入通过增加低工资行业的相对就业规模和提升高工资行业的相对劳动生产率扩大了行业工资差距，适应中国低技能劳动力丰裕而高技能劳动力相对稀缺的劳动力市场条件；在以垂直型和合资型FDI为主的地区外资进入具有显著的扩大行业工资差距效应，而在以水平型和独资型FDI为主的地区这一影响并不明显。因此，应努力提高劳动力人力资本水平并充分保障低技能劳动力的权益，积极鼓励和引导水平型FDI进入并适度减少垂直型FDI的引入，持续增强企业的技术吸收能力并不断缩小技术差距，进而在高效利用外资的同时缩小行业工资差距。     

基于DEA方法的内外资星级酒店效率评价与差异分析——以东部省份14个城市为例

近年来,酒店投资规模不断扩大,但整体收益却不尽如人意,内外资星级酒店利润率差距明显。应用DEA方法对2011~2016年我国东部省份14个主要城市的内外资星级酒店效率进行评价,研究发现:从综合效率来看,虽然内外资酒店存在差异,但两者总体水平均较高,且两者波动趋势一致;从技术效率来看,外资酒店略高于内资酒店,两者差距不明显,且差距有缩小的趋势;从规模效率来看,内外资酒店均处于较高水平,但两者差距明显;从效率分类来看,不同效率水平下的内外资酒店技术效率和规模效率表现不同。据此,对内外资星级酒店综合效率与影响因素之间的关系进行了进一步研究。     

Does foreign investment benefit the exporting activities of Vietnamese firms?

Using firm-level data, this paper examines the effects of foreign investment on the exporting behaviour of domestic firms in the Vietnamese manufacturing and service sectors. Applying the Heckman selection model on panel data and following the Wooldridge approach, we find that investment by foreign firms has a significant positive effect on the decision of domestic firms in the same and upstream sectors to export. The proportion of exports of domestic firms declines through horizontal and forward linkages, but increases through backward linkages in the manufacturing sector. However, there is only weak evidence in support of export spillovers on domestic firms in the service sector. We also find that the presence of foreign firms has differing effects on the exporting activities of low- versus high-tech firms in the manufacturing sector.     

Parking futures: An international review of trends and speculation

The explosion of low-cost, on-demand taxi services and the anticipation of an autonomous vehicle future has made transportation the center of debate and discussion for the first time since the massive expansion of the US highway system in the 1950s. Yet the realm of parking boasts innovations and developments far beyond the high-profile issues of TNCs and AVs. Rather, innovation in parking is happening in many cases quietly on a wide variety of fronts, including technology, public policy, and design. This paper serves an overview of emerging trends in parking, primarily within the US context. We identify and outline five developments and the pertinent technologies helping to catalyze change: unbundling parking costs, reducing parking minimums, pricing and allocating curb space dynamically, designing hybrid parking structures, and preparing for the autonomous era and “mobility as a service.” This paper presents these trends with illustrative examples highlighting current practices, governance challenges, and possible future scenarios.     

Electricity awareness and consumer demand for information

With the envisioned growth in the residential electricity demand and increased share of intermittent renewables in the supply mix, consumers will need to be better informed about their electricity consumption and to play an active role in managing their electricity use. However, consumer inattention and lack of information are ubiquitous, especially in household energy‐related settings. Thus, using a novel survey and actual monthly electricity consumption data, this study set out to measure the level of awareness about electricity bills, prices and costs among some Finnish households—as captured by the answers to six questions—and to investigate whether higher levels of “electricity awareness” are associated with electricity savings. In addition, this study analyses the willingness to receive extra information about energy consumption and savings and how it differs between “electricity aware” and “electricity unaware” respondents. The results indicate low levels of “electricity awareness” among the respondents of the survey. Compared to the respondents with little knowledge about electricity bills, prices and costs, the respondents with higher levels of “electricity awareness” tend to consume less electricity. Higher levels of awareness about electricity use and consumption might “materialize” inconspicuous consumption patterns, as opposed to more general facts about the largely invisible environmental consequences of everyday practices. More than two‐thirds of the total number of respondents would like to receive additional information about energy consumption and how to save energy. However, there exists a significant portion of “electricity unaware” respondents who are not only unwilling to receive such information, but are also unaware of their own knowledge deficits. To maximize the impact of any information strategy, decision makers should attempt to engage with this type of consumer; by becoming more aware of their knowledge deficits, people might become more receptive to information that can benefit them.     

Extending the determinants of currency substitution in Nigeria: Any role for financial innovation?

Existing literature suggests that macroeconomic and institutional factors are the drivers of currency substitution. The persistent and significant incidence of currency substitution during the period of mixed performance of macroeconomic variables suggests the existence of a knowledge gap on the drivers of currency substitution during the era of rapid technological innovation. To contribute to this literature, we augmented the traditional money demand model of the determinants of currency substitution to introduce financial innovation. We use Nigerian data from 2005Q1 to 2019Q4 and Pesaran et al. (2001, https://doi.org/10.1002/jae.616 ) autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bound test approach to cointegration to estimate the models. The results confirm the presence of short-run and long-run relationships between financial technology and currency substitution in Nigeria. In effect, the deployment of financial technology in developing payment system infrastructure creates additional incentives for economic agents to hold foreign currency deposit. Economic managers must, therefore, mainstream credible monetary and fiscal policies to moderate the effect of financial innovation on currency substitution.