Can PIGLOG preferences identify equivalence scales?

This paper clarifies the conditions under which PIGLOG and extended PIGLOG preferences can identify household equivalence scales. The results are of interest to practitioners who have to elect preferences suitable for welfare analysis. It also shows that independent of the base utility equivalence scales are the same whether the budget shares of the demand systems are linear or quadratic in log income. (JEL: D11, D13) The author is grateful to an anonymous referee for several helpful suggestions.     

中国开展银行业务外包的研究

银行业务外包是指银行通过契约将原内部工作交由他人完成,是银行应对日益激烈的市场竞争的重要工具,也是银行主动调整战略、实现核心价值的有效手段.银行业务外包研究在国外比较热门,研究较为深入,而随着中国对WTO承诺的到来,中国银行业面临着与国外实力银行竞争,银行业务外包也越来越引起国内理论界的关注.在对国际国内银行业务外包进行比较分析的基础上,指出了我国目前银行业务外包存在的问题,并提出了改进的建议.     

Assessing National Resource Claims and Welfare Contributions—A Search for a Rational Consensus

Macro-economic aggregates carrying the same labels in different countries (GNP, investment, defence expenditure, etc.), even when uniformly defined, are inevitably measured in different units (dollars, pounds, francs, etc.) and price systems, which makes it difficult, if not impossible, to appraise their relative size. Can we find a way to make them commensurable, in a manner that will enable us to make valid comparisons across national boundaries and economic systems, without arbitrariness or bias between one country and another? This paper suggests a possible method of doing so, based on a stylized consensus of countries making their own assessment, considering only their own welfare implications, without regard to those of their rivals or peers. These assessments are first estimated, and a consensus is then postulated based on conditions of consistency and rationality. This results in a unique set of correction coefficients for conventional prices, to be known as consensual ratings, or ‘co-ratings’ for short. The co-ratings are algebraically defined to be computable from conventional input–output tables supplemented by the import-export networks linking the various countries.     

Comparing international consumption patterns

When attempting to identify empirical regularities in consumption patterns, their tremendous diversity across countries represents both a major opportunity and challenge. For example, consumers in rich countries devote less than 20% of their budget to food, while this rises to more than 50% in the poorest countries. This paper uses a major new database released in Selvanathan and Selvanathan (Selvanathan EA, Selvanathan S (2003) International Consumption Comparisons: OECD versus LDC. World Scientific, Singapore) to explore several related issues, including the extent to which the consumption basket is diversified and how this changes with income, whether a simple utility-maximising model is capable of explaining the diversity of consumption patterns internationally, the measurement of the extent to which tastes differ across countries, and how the world can be partitioned into groups of countries with minimal within-group heterogeneity of tastes on the basis of the revealed preference of consumers.

Housing supply price elasticities revisited: Evidence from international, national, local and company data

This paper re-examines one of the key parameters in housing economics – the price elasticity of housing supply. In the international literature, there is little agreement on its value or even on the appropriate methodology for its measurement. The paper argues that different spatial scales capture different aspects of the problem and, therefore, there is merit from comparing results at international, national, local and firm level. Using standardised models, there is evidence that the responsiveness of housing supply to market conditions is lower in Britain than in the US or Australia. However, supply is more responsive to the change in house prices than their level. With exceptions, most past research on supply in Britain concentrates on the national or regional dimensions. The paper finds that there are also insights to be obtained from examining local and firm level data. Local estimation across the Thames Gateway shows the importance of planning constraints on supply elasticities, but historical patterns of land use and geography are also important. Firm level data indicate that supply elasticities are greater for large firms than for small firms.     

Gender Quotas and Human Capital Formation: A Relative Deprivation Approach

We study a quota's effect on individual human capital investment incentives beyond merely altering individual's overall probability of being promoted. We assume that individuals sense relative deprivation from unfavorable (income) comparisons within their reference group and that comparisons take place within the same gender. The introduction of a female quota increases (decreases) the number of women (men) holding top positions. On one hand, the relative deprivation to which female individuals are subjected to increases. These female individuals respond to an increase in their relative deprivation by acquiring additional human capital which, because it enables them to increase their earnings, reduces their relative deprivation. On the other hand, male individuals invest less in human capital in response to a decrease in relative deprivation. We show that the human capital formed by women who are encouraged to do so by the quotas is larger than the human capital that men who are discouraged by the quotas refrain from forming. However, the positive human capital accumulation effect hinges on a certain level of ability by gender and on how much individuals perceive relative deprivation.     

产品过剩、产能过剩与经济结构调整

由美国金融危机引发的世界性经济危机使我国显露出产品相对过剩和产能结构性过剩问题,这种过剩与资本主义国家的产品相对过剩和产能过剩有相似之处,但也存在本质的不同.其产生原因除一般市场经济中的固有矛盾外,也有我国特有的原因和机制.建议政府增强宏观的行业信息传递和投资引导工作,合理引导投资方向和范围,根据实际情况对某些产品和产业投资进行宽松有限的管理,调整现有经济结构和产业结构.     

Social comparisons of wage increases and job satisfaction

We combine status quo and social comparison considerations and investigate whether relative wage increases in the sense of differences between individual wage increases and wage increases of comparable employees are related to managers’ job satisfaction. Using a panel data set of managers in the German chemical industry, we indeed find first evidence. The relation between relative wage increases and job satisfaction is relevant for managers with lower absolute wage levels in particular.     

Comments on McCloskey and Weingast

Economic growth is an aspect of social change which cannot be explained by economic theory alone. McCloskey invokes ‘ideas’ but ideas only matter as embodied in institutions. Weingast makes this points but his institutions are too economistic. Only institutionalised self-emergence can explain massive, relentless and automatic change.     

Pay Growth,Fairness, and Job Satisfaction: Implications for Nominal and Real Wage Rigidity

Theories of wage rigidity often rely on a positive relationship between pay changes and utility, arising from concern for fairness or gift exchange. Supportive evidence has emerged from laboratory experiments, but the link has not yet been established with field data. This paper contributes a first step, using representative British data. Workers care about the level and the growth of earnings. Below‐median wage increases lead to an insult effect, except when similar workers have real wage reductions or when firm production is falling. Nominal pay cuts appear to be insulting even when the firm is doing badly.