Migrate for education: An unintended effect of school district combination in rural China

A large number of village primary schools in rural China were closed since the 1990s. This paper studies the impact of the reduction in the number of primary schools on the migration decision of rural residents. First, using China Health and Nutrition Survey that contains information on community characteristics, we find that both the disappearance of village primary school and the increased distance to nearby primary school increased the migration probability of village residents. Second, using the 1% population survey in 2005 and prefecture level information, we find that the decline in the number of primary schools between 2000 and 2004 increased the migration probability of rural residents. Exploring the heterogeneous effects, we find that the migration of individuals with primary-school-age children is more sensitive to the relocation of primary schools, and that the effect is stronger for families with boys than those with girls. These results suggest that human capital investment motive and regional education policy play an important role in China's urbanization process.     

Risk shifting in the US banking system: An empirical analysis

This paper contributes to the empirical literature on risk shifting. It proposes a method to find out whether risk shifting is present in the banking industry and, if so, what type. The type of risk shifting depends on the group of debt holders to whom risk is shifted. We apply this method to the US banking sector in 1998–2011. To study the relationship between risk shifting and the 2008 crisis, the sample is also split into pre-crisis, crisis, and post-crisis periods. Our results suggest that the same type of risk shifting is present in the entire sample and in the pre-crisis and crisis subsamples. We find no evidence of risk shifting after the crisis. Furthermore, holding capital buffers seems to disincentivize risk shifting. This finding appears to provide support for the conservative buffer included in Basel III.     

An appraisal of the CORINE land cover database in airport catchment area analysis using a GIS approach

This paper presents a free available dataset, the CORINE land cover that helps dealing with the biases caused by pre-defined and heterogeneous census district boundaries in airport catchment area analysis in Europe. Using this dataset and a conventional GIS software it is possible to measure the size of the population within catchment areas at the same spatial level for all EU airports, allowing for consistent comparisons among airports. To illustrate the potential of the CORINE/GIS approach, the size of the population in the catchment areas of all European airports was determined. The empirical exercise has an aggregate perspective, but this database presents many other possibilities of analysis to perform in a case-by-case basis.     

Celebrity chef adoption and implementation of social media,particularly pinterest: A diffusion of innovations approach

Pinterest research is beginning to emerge, in part due to the importance of visually stimulating photos within hospitality and tourism. Photos are popular with many chefs for marketing, with some actively using Pinterest and other social media. Some of the world’s top celebrity chefs are a growing phenomenon as influential leaders of their personal brand as well as other goods, services, and causes. This research reports on a pilot study of how celebrity chefs have adopted and implemented social media, especially Pinterest, using the Diffusion of Innovations as a theoretical framework. The study found that of the top 48 chefs, all adopted Facebook, closely followed by 47 adopting Twitter; just 17 adopted Pinterest. The chefs’ social media and Pinterest implementation varied widely. This study sheds insights about social media, particularly Pinterest, extends innovation diffusion research, and serves as a base for future research of both celebrity chefs and social media.     

Risk-taking behavior of technology firms: The role of performance feedback in the video game industry

This study focuses on what drives technology-driven companies to engage in risk-taking behavior by serving new markets. Building on the behavioral theory of the firm and prospect theory, this study suggests that technology-driven organizations tend to respond to past performance rather than future possibilities. Using a sample of 5312 video games from 362 game developers, the results reveal that market performance trend and market performance variability have opposing effects on risk-taking behavior: while a positive market performance trend negatively influences a company's tendency to venture into new markets, a high-degree of market performance variability tends to positively influence new market entry. The study also finds opposite results for expert performance trend and expert performance variability: companies with consistently positive expert evaluations are more likely to enter into new markets, while variability in expert evaluations has a negative effect on new market entry. Furthermore, the effects of expert performance trend and variability are conditional on market performance trends. Finally, the results suggest that companies that venture into new markets tend to choose relatively similar markets if these companies are suffering from a negative market performance trend or a negative expert review trend.     

劳动异质情况下的产业结构偏离及其影响因素分析——基于2006～2013年全国产业行业数据

本文充分考虑劳动异质性，利用产业人力资本结构，重新核算三次产业结构偏离度，发现第一产业和第三产业结构偏离程度均被高估，第二产业结构偏离被低估，进而指出“民工荒”、大学生就业难等现象产生的原因是第一产业可转出人力资本减少，第二产业需求旺盛，而第三产业由于发展不足陷入低水平均衡状态。最后通过系统的影响因素分析发现，解决我国结构偏离和就业问题的重点在于优化需求结构、合理规划产业发展路径以及全面推进城镇化和市场化进程，关键更在于释放农村消费市场巨大潜力和全面加快第三产业发展。     

Utilizing urban form characteristics in urban logistics analysis: a case study in Lisbon,Portugal

Within the realm of urban logistics, Macário (2013) developed a hypothesis, denominated the Logistics Profile (LP) concept that suggests homogeneous groups of urban zones with respect to three dimensions, which could be used to analyze freight movement policy: (1) the social and built environment; (2) characteristics of the goods/products being moved; (3) characteristics of the deliveries at the receiver establishment. The concept was expected to ease the transferability of best practices in city logistics, by analyzing similarities and differences between zones. This research uses a quantitative methodology to apply the LP concept, and assess its potential, using the city of Lisbon as a case study. The analysis is focused on: (a) the extrapolation of freight trip generation per establishment and delivery characteristics from a sample of commercial establishments to the population within the case study, (b) proposing a methodology to test the LPs, (c) testing the existence of proposed LPs. Freight trips have been extrapolated using a Multiple Classification Analysis (MCA) model. Freight delivery characteristics were attributed to establishments from a sample-based probability distribution. LPs were tested using a two-step cluster analysis. Some LPs have been matched with clusters of case-study zones, subject to case study particularities. Profile overlap was not an issue and occurrences were expected. The testing showed that Logistic Profiles have the potential for being used as a departure point for urban freight planning and policy analysis.     

我国行政审批制度改革的力场分析与突破策略

行政审批是政府对市场和社会资源进行配置的前置性管理手段。为了与社会主义市场经济体制相匹配,我国在行政审批改革中设立了减少审批项目、规范审批行为、实现制度创新和推进依法行政的改革目标。但根据力场分析理论,在行政审批制度改革过程中由于对相关主体利益的重新分配造成改革力场中存在驱动力和制约力。通过研究改革中决策者、执行者、受规制者和消费者的利益取向,可以获知驱动力和制约力的强弱,并推算出制度变迁的方向。为了使行政审批制度改革能够顺利推行,还需进一步分析制约力存在的方式并寻求相应的突破策略。     

Implications of domestic price insulation for global food price behavior

Rapid changes in global food prices in recent years are widely viewed as a serious threat to global development. While various sources of price instability in agriculture have been identified, little attention appears to have been given to the importance of changes in trade policies that insulate domestic prices from world markets as a source of volatility in world prices. A contribution of this paper is to show that these interventions are dynamically more complex than simple proportional insulation. Insulation against an initial price increase in world prices increases the magnitude of that increase, while subsequent adjustments to the level of protection change the fundamental nature of price volatility. We find such policies are widespread and increase the volatility of world prices while not reducing the volatility of domestic prices because of the collective action problem involved in this form of policy intervention.     

Overconfidence and optimism: The effect of national culture on capital structure

This study assesses whether variations in capital structure across countries can be explained by cultural traits. We analyze capital structure choices of firms in 42 countries and provide evidence that these decisions are affected by the degree of individualism of the country where the firm is located. We assert that managers in countries with high level of individualism exhibit strong optimism and overconfidence which cause an upward bias in perception of supportable debt ratios. Our results are robust to controlling for other firm- and country specific determinants of capital structure choices and to using alternative model specifications and estimation techniques.