Financial functional analysis: a conceptual framework for understanding the changing financial system

The financial system is currently undergoing a revolution brought about by e-finance, digital convergence, new market entrants and government-encouraged competition. New market entrants such as Apple, Alibaba, Facebook and Google come from industries such as IT, retail, social media and telecoms, and, therefore, do not fit comfortably within traditional financial institutional structures. A functional perspective might provide more practical insights into this revolution; however, the functional perspective has had a limited impact. This paper will investigate the benefits and limitations of financial functional analysis; probe the underpinning principles of sociology’s structural functional analysis; revisit Merton and Bodie’s (1995) six core financial functions in relation to new entrants in the financial landscape; and, finally, argue that in the new financial environment, functional analysis provides a more coherent and explanatory framework of the financial system for students and practitioners alike.     

Co‐movements in commodity prices: a note based on network analysis

This article analyses co‐movements in a wide group of commodity prices during the time period 1992–2010. Our methodological approach is based on the correlation matrix and the networks inside. Through this approach we are able to summarize global interaction and interdependence, capturing the existing heterogeneity in the degrees of synchronization between commodity prices. Our results produce two main findings: (a) we do not observe a persistent increase in the degree of co‐movement of the commodity prices in our time sample, however from mid‐2008 to the end of 2009 co‐movements almost doubled when compared with the average correlation; (b) we observe three groups of commodities which have exhibited similar price dynamics (metals, oil and grains, and oilseeds) and which have increased their degree of co‐movement during the sampled period.     

Identifying airline cost economies: An econometric analysis of the factors affecting aircraft operating costs

This paper provides the results of an econometric analysis of the influences of airline characteristics on the average operating costs per aircraft movement. The analysis combines a comprehensive selection of airline-output variables, airline-fleet variables, and airline-market variables. The results confirm the existence of economies of density, economies of load factor, economies of aircraft utilisation and economies of aircraft size. The paper does not provide evidence of economies of scale, economies of stage length or economies of fleet commonality. Furthermore, airlines that additionally operate full freighters, airlines that are members of a worldwide alliance and airlines that operate a multi-hub system face higher average operating costs per aircraft movement. Surprisingly, the regression results demonstrate that airlines that use newer aircraft have higher average operating costs per aircraft movement, suggesting that ownership costs (depreciation and leasing costs) of new aircraft outweigh the increasing maintenance costs of old aircraft. Finally, the results show that airlines that have a dominant position at their hubs or bases have higher operating costs per aircraft movement, implying that the absence of serious competitive pressure enables airlines to charge higher ticket prices and, with that, leads to a limited focus on cost savings.     

维吾尔族民众信任的权威格局分析——以四个地区个案为基础的实证研究

权威格局是各种权威要素因地位差异构成的功能互补的社会秩序协调机制，对权威格局的研究是从合法性角度对社会政治稳定必须具备的民众基础的考量。调查结果显示：新疆社会政治稳定具备牢固的维吾尔族民众基础。维吾尔族民众信任的权威格局中。以领导干部为代表的法理型权威在个人和社会事务两个领域普遍受到信任，占据权威格局的主导地位，辅之以在社会事务方面越来越受到信任的知识能力型人才代表的新型权威。经济愈发达的地区，情况愈是如此。宗教人士所代表的传统权威能够发挥的作用主要局限在社会事务领域中的道德规范，在经济欠发达地区的作用相对更大。     

关于旅游合同示范文本的法律思考

旅游合同示范文本由旅游局和工商局联合制定推广,性质上属行政指导,具有效率、安全、优先及补充等法律价值,示范文本条款分四大功能模块,由通用条款和协议条款组成。目前示范文本是多级制定,种类单一,权威性不高,文章提出完善和丰富示范文本种类和内容、统一示范文本和示范文本备案豁免等建议,以提升旅行社使用示范文本的积极性,发挥示范文本的作用。     

四川省重点生态功能区有机农业生产效率研究——基于三阶段DEA模型的实证分析

[目的]有机农业为我国农业绿色发展起到良好的带动作用,但我国有机农业发展中,西部贫困地区较为滞后。针对西部贫困地区有机农业生产效率进行定量分析,揭示影响有机农业生产效率的主要因素,旨在提高该地区有机农业生产效率,丰富区域视角下的有机农业生产研究。[方法]采用三阶段DEA模型对2014年四川省重点生态功能区有机农业生产效率进行量化分析,识别环境变量对有机农业生产效率的影响。[结果]环境因素和随机误差对四川省重点生态功能区有机农业生产效率产生了显著的影响。环境因素中,农民人均纯收入的增加有利于促使农机、耕地等资源的有效利用,但同时也导致化肥投入冗余增加;城镇化率的提高会降低耕地、劳动力、化肥、农药等使用效率,从而对有机农业生产效率产生不利影响;财政支出占GDP比重的增加有利于提高农机使用效率,但同时也导致化肥和农药投入冗余增加;粮食播种面积占耕地面积比重对有机农业生产效率产生了不利影响。剔除环境因素和随机误差的影响后,四川省重点生态功能区各县平均技术效率和规模效率有所下降,纯技术效率则略有提升。基于纯技术效率和规模效率,四川省重点生态功能区各县有机农业生产效率可分为"双高型""高低型""低高型"和"双低型"等4种类型。[结论]三阶段DEA模型有效剔除了环境因素和随机误差对有机农业生产效率的影响,估计的效率值更真实地反映了四川省重点生态功能区有机农业生产效率水平。针对四川省重点生态功能区各县有机农业生产效率的不同特征,应结合地方实际,通过扩大要素投入规模或改进要素配置效率和使用效率,提高有机农业生产效率。     

Competition in the stock market with asymmetric information

We build a game theoretical model to examine how the level of information advantage of insiders and the competition between insiders and sophisticated investors affect stock price movements and traders’ trading strategies and profits. We show that the competition between insiders and sophisticated investors can reduce the losses of less sophisticated investors, and thus alleviates the disadvantaged position of the less sophisticated investors. Further, traders’ profits are affected by the accuracy of insiders’ private information, and the number of days that insiders have obtained the information in advance. These findings show the importance of information transparency and the role of sophisticated investors in limiting insiders’ trading advantages and mitigating the expropriation of investors by insiders.     

中国城市宏观级差地租的形成机制

城市宏观级差地租是我国特殊国情下的创新理论。先梳理了城市宏观级差地租理论的发展和最新成果,在前人研究的基础上,提出一些新的理论观点。之后对城市宏观级差地租的概念进行了新的诠释,然后重点论述了城市宏观级差地租的形成机制,并结合我国实际情况,分别从城市区位级差地租、城市规模级差地租和城市功能级差地租三方面进行深入分析和论述,阐明了城市宏观级差地租形成的原因。最后总结了我国城市宏观级差地租理论创新的意义,指出中央政府对宏观级差地租理论的运用是缩小我国区域经济差距一个新的政策思路。     

Resource connectivity for beneficial insects in landscapes dominated by monoculture tree crop plantations

Homogenization of agricultural landscapes affects ecological processes and biodiversity and can affect the community composition of ecosystem service providers. These effects can have particular impact in landscapes dominated by monocultures of pollinator-dependent tree crop plantations, which create both spatial and temporal homogeneity at the landscape scale. I looked for associations between the proportion of nearby unmanaged vegetation and potential wild pollinator groups collected within flowering almond orchards in two types of landscape. In the Complex landscape, characterized by a heterogeneous mosaic of multiple crops, semi-natural grassland and natural woodland, insect pollinator groups were not associated with unmanaged vegetation. In the Simple landscape, dominated by monoculture almond plantations, most pollinator groups showed positive relationships with the two unmanaged vegetation types (grassland and woodland). In particular, all wild bee and all but one hoverfly individual were found in remnant native vegetation patches within almond plantations, rather than within rows of almond trees. More research is necessary to identify how structural differences created in monoculture landscapes, between crops and the native vegetation they encroach on, influence ecological communities and the provision of ecosystem services.     

Methods for Scalar‐on‐Function Regression

Recent years have seen an explosion of activity in the field of functional data analysis (FDA), in which curves, spectra, images and so on are considered as basic functional data units. A central problem in FDA is how to fit regression models with scalar responses and functional data points as predictors. We review some of the main approaches to this problem, categorising the basic model types as linear, non‐linear and non‐parametric. We discuss publicly available software packages and illustrate some of the procedures by application to a functional magnetic resonance imaging data set.