Small seeds for grand challenges—Exploring disregarded seeds of change in a foresight process for RTI policy

The recent turn in research, technology and innovation (RTI) policy towards challenge-led strategies is posing new demands to Foresight methodology. RTI Foresight practitioners need to complement their well developed set of technology oriented methods with equally sophisticated approaches tackling societal aspects of innovation. In this paper we aim to make a contribution to this requirement. Building on user innovation theory we argue that demand oriented RTI Foresight needs to systematically integrate voices and hypotheses from the fringes of the innovation system. In order to develop a sound approach for this we set out from well established Foresight theory on “weak signals” and “cognitive biases”. Adopting a constructivist stance towards such signals leads us to the need to set up a socially robust, diverse discourse on “seeds of change hypotheses”. We then outline a practical implementation of such a discourse in the context of the recent Foresight process of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in Germany. We describe and discuss the experience of this Foresight process and suggest avenues for further development of the approach.     

Light fuel demand and public policies in Brazil, 2003–2013

The main objective of this article is to evaluate determinants of demand for light fuels in Brazil between 2003 and 2013. Through a vector autoregression analysis, an effort was made to identify and quantify the impact of different economic variables and public policy measures adopted during this period on the surprising increase in energy consumption by Brazil’s light-vehicle fleet. The results suggest that demand for energy by the light-vehicle fleet was influenced by an increase in income, by a decrease in fuel prices associated with a policy designed to prevent increases in the price of gasoline from pushing the inflation rate up, by a higher availability of credit for buying vehicles, and by a drop in the real price of those goods, with emphasis on countercyclical measures to waive the tax on industrialized products levied on new vehicles during economic downturns in the automotive industry.     

小企业需要怎样的金融服务——以义乌箱包行业为例

小企业金融服务是长期探讨和研究的话题,但很少有人会从小企业具体运行的业务模式和资金流向去分析探究其资金需求的特点,本文以具有准入门槛低、劳动就业容量大、生产涉及面广等特征的义鸟的箱包行业入手去分析小企业的金融服务需求,先分析了箱包行业的业务模式、再分析箱包行业的资金特征和对应的资金需求,再是银行可根据这些资金需求开展哪些业务创新,最后得出银行做好小企业金融服务的关键点是:寻求可靠的风险控制点,把可能产生的各类风险通过合理、规范的设计进行转移消除这个结论.     

COEFFICIENT CHANGE,PRICE EFFECTS,AND IMPLICIT ELASTICITIES: ESTIMATING MICROECONOMIC DETERMINANTS OVER TWO TIME PERIODS

This paper presents and estimates an input–output model in which input coefficient changes are functions of changing prices. The model produces results that mirror the characteristics of input demand functions based on the model of cost minimization subject to producing a desired level of output. It does not rely on the specification of a functional form for input coefficients, and it does not require the use of assumptions regarding the elasticity of substitution. Instead, it allows the actual price and coefficient changes that occur between periods to identify the implicit elasticities and own- and cross-price derivatives. Using this model, it is shown how accurate measures of price effects, including the full array of own and cross-elasticities of demand, can be estimated for models comprising up to 15 sectors given data for only two time periods.     

Steady-state growth and the elasticity of substitution

In a neoclassical economy with endogenous capital- and labor-augmenting technical change the steady-state growth rate of output per worker is shown to increase in the elasticity of substitution between capital and labor. This confirms the assessment of Klump and de La Grandville (2000) that a greater elasticity of substitution allows for faster of economic growth. However, unlike their findings my result applies to the steady-state growth rate. Moreover, it does not hinge on particular assumptions on how aggregate savings come about. It holds for any household sector allowing savings to grow at the same rate as aggregate output.     

美国住房租赁市场运行机制探讨及借鉴

美国拥有发达的私人住房租赁市场和公共住房租赁市场,其关于住房租赁市场的法律制度、税收体系、房租补贴政策和完善的政府监管体制等方面均值得我国借鉴。研究表明,支撑美国住房租赁市场的因素主要有供给因素、需求因素和政府对租赁市场的有效管理和规范。尽管在住房消费文化和土地制度环境等方面我国住房市场与美国住房市场差异显著,但美国发展与规范住房租赁市场的经验对培育和发展我国住房租赁市场仍然具有重要的政策借鉴价值。     

我国机动车辆保险市场需求潜力研究

近几年来我国机动车辆保险市场发展迅速,成为发展较快的险种之一。机动车辆保险作为财产保险的第一大险种,对于财产保险业的发展意义重大。本文在论述中国车险市场发展现状的基础上,分析车险市场的市场潜力,基于需求的视角找寻推动车险市场的发展的动力从而提出挖掘机动车辆保险市场的潜力的政策与建议。     

东亚与欧盟区域的产品需求结构与贸易模式

东亚和欧盟分别表现为外需主导型和内需主导型的贸易模式。两种不同的贸易模式对经济发展产生着不同的影响。由于东亚区域对外部最终产品市场的严重依赖,所以,后危机时代下,东亚贸易模式转型的必要性更加明显。但是,东亚贸易模式的转型将是一个长期的过程,而中国将在这个过程中发挥重要的作用。     

引致需求、路网密度与中国道路运输业营运绩效评价——基于DEA模型与面板Tobit的两阶段分析

本文基于产出导向的BCC-DEA模型对中国道路运输业在2000-2009年期间的营运效率进行了测算,并采用受限随机效应面板Tobit模型检验了各种外部环境因素对于道路运输业营运效率的影响;此外,还结合基于非参数DEA的Malmquist生产率指数,对中国道路运输业全要素生产率进行了动态评价。实证结果显示,纯技术效率较低是中国道路运输业营运效率较低的主要原因,而且突发性外部环境冲击是道路运输业营运效率出现较大幅度波动的重要因素;样本期间内道路运输业全要素生产率呈现出较为平稳的增长态势,这主要得益于道路运输业较为明显的技术进步;单位面积生产总值等引致需求因素以及公铁基础设施等路网密度因素,均是影响道路运输业营运效率的重要因素。     

Discrete-order admission ATP model with joint effect of margin and order size in a MTO environment

Swarming demands and seasonality periodically induce a stringent capacity problem in the made-to-order (MTO) B2B environment. Desirable order admission is a tactic with minimal application cost for handling this problem. A real-time order admission problem with limited major-customer population and batch-size demand with heterogeneous distributions is modeled as a dynamic and stochastic knapsack problem. The optimality of the Markovian deterministic reward-threshold policy is verified. Optimal policy, basic policy, and the capacity rationing method are compared in the designed experiment. The numerical results suggest great potential for increasing profit using the optimal order admission policy for MTO businesses.