The Neutrality Illusion: Biased Economics,Biased Training,and Biased Monetary Policy. Testing the Role of Ideology on FOMC Voting Behaviour

This research is trying to shed light on two myths that are usually widespread: the first one being the idea of the academic economist as a neutral scientist finding uncontestable consensual truths, thanks to uncontestable empirical methods, the second, the idea of the central banker as a Weberian neutral bureaucrat setting aside personal beliefs to act mechanically for the common good. Deconstructing this ‘neutrality illusion’, this work argues that economics is actually a divided and ideologically marked discipline despite its aim at natural-science-type-legitimacy. It argues in a related discussion that such ideological bias also impedes a purely neutral conduct of monetary policy, undermining the very idea of central bank independence. Linking these two arguments, it argues that graduate training in economics is the first place for the formation of biased preferences, because of the substantial ideological sorting that exists across universities. Using a unique database on FOMC members’ votes and ideology, the paper tests this idea empirically and despite unavoidable caveats, finds robust evidence of a systematic impact of the ideological features of their alma mater on FOMC members’ voting behaviour – impact that we found more important than the other traditional determinants of central bankers’ actions.     

敦煌种业财务绩效评价研究

选择以农业上市公司敦煌种业为研究对象,以企业2014—2019年的报表数据为基础,采用功效系数法并以国务院国资委所编写的《企业绩效评价标准值》中国有企业绩效评价体系作为参考,构建对农业企业的财务指标评价体系,对敦煌种业2014-2019年企业财务指标的表现进行纵向分析,选择同行业中营业收入水平较高的北大荒进行横向对比,通过对比发现敦煌种业的问题主要体现在盈利能力和资产质量方面,对此提出了改进措施及建议。     

Assessment of OECD Better Life Index by incorporating public opinion

Well-being has a multidimensional nature as it depends on multifaceted factors such as material conditions and quality of life. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has developed the Better Life Index (BLI) as part of the OECD Better Life initiative to facilitate the better understanding of what drives well-being of people. The BLI is a three-level hierarchical composite indicator that covers several socio-economic aspects. In this paper, considering the entire hierarchical structure of the index, we introduce a bottom-up procedure for the aggregation of the components at each level. We formulate the assessment of BLI as a multiple objective programming (MOP) problem that facilitates the implementation of different concepts to derive different aggregation schemes. We incorporate the data from previous years into the normalization process of the indicators, to take into account the discrepancy on their observed values and smooth their deviations across the years. Also, we consider the public opinion about well-being that is captured from the worldwide responses in the web platform of OECD BLI. We incorporate the public opinion into the assessment models in the form of weight restrictions. In this way, we reduce the effect of compensation that might be imposed by the adopted modelling approach. We apply our methodology to the data of 38 countries (35 OECD and 3 non-OECD economies) for the year 2017. Our findings illustrate that the public opinion in the form of weight restrictions can effectively drive the optimization process and depict the collective preferences to the BLI scores.     

Dynamic efficiency evaluation of Italian judicial system using DEA based Malmquist productivity indexes

The aim of this study is the empirical analysis of the Italian judicial system, measuring its efficiency and productivity. For this purpose, in details, the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Malmquist indexes were used, since they are recognized by the current literature as successful techniques to evaluate the performance of decision making units, namely the courts of law in our field of application.The statistical data on the administration of justice in Italy, as reported in Dossier n. 11 May 2013, Senate Research Services, Research Office on Institutional Issues, Justice and Culture, XVII legislature, shows that the efficiency crisis of justice in Italy began in the 1970s of the last century, aggravating during the ‘80s, and reaching its most critical moment during the 1990s. Several studies emphasize the relevance of the effects of inefficiency upon the judicial system on the credit and financial markets.The present analysis, using data that covers a wide time span and is disaggregated at district level, has set the goal of measuring the efficiency of the individual Italian judicial offices while assessing the progress of productivity in its components, by the means of technological progress and scale efficiency. The efficiency analysis that was carried out transcends the aspect of judicial taxation, considering how the passage of time has impacted on judicial efficiency.Considering the judges and judicial administration employed, in the new, pending and finished cases during the years ranging from 2011 to 2016, the results highlighted a distinct heterogeneity among courts, depending on their geographical location. The five-year period that was considered, included the years in which the judicial geographical distribution reform entered into force, so to better comprehend how this complex reform influenced the recovery of efficiency of the judicial offices. Furthermore, by breaking down the index into change in efficiency and change in technology, this work offers a further glimpse into judiciary organization. The application of combined DEA method and Malmquist indexes for evaluating court efficiency in a large time frame showed very interesting and useful results, relevant for judicial administration.     

基于模糊评价模型的物流管理专业实践教学体系研究

考虑物流管理专业实践教学的特性,从实践环节、创新与创业、管理机制、教学团队等方面构建了实践教学指标体系,并运用模糊综合评价法进行评价分析。研究结论表明,毕业实习、毕业论文、学科竞赛、创新与创业项目对物流管理专业实践教学的影响较大。     

城市轨道交通运营管理专业三维立体人才培养模式构建的实证研究

论文以城市轨道交通运营管理专业为例,运用霍尔三维结构模式理论构建以知识体系、岗位技能、职业素养为坐标的三维立体人才培养模式维度体系,打破了传统仅以知识体系和岗位技能为重点的二维人才培养模式,丰富了交通类高职专业人才培养模式研究理论,为交通类相关专业在制定人才培养方案时提供参考依据。     

省级区域规划实施评估方法和机制探究

省级区域规划是国家和地方发展和空间规划体系中的重要组成部分。在我国建立更加有效的区域协调发展新机制的实践中,探究我国省级区域规划实施评估中存在的问题,研究和建立更加有效的省级区域规划实施评估的内容、方法和机制,对于进一步落实好省级政府的责任和义务,更好全面、有效实施好省级区域规划具有重要推动作用。文章提出了我国省级区域规划实施评估存在的问题、评估的方法、评估的内容和指标体系,并提出了具体建立更加有效的省级区域规划实施评估机制的建议和设想。     

全球视角下生态系统服务付费的国际经验与评价

将生态系统服务付费(PES)工具分为经济类和非经济类两种,根据生态服务生产者和付费者的支付意愿,进一步细分为双方自愿支付、集体自愿支付、强制双方支付、强制集体支付四种具体的PES制度,通过分类介绍PES机制在全球的各种实践案例,归纳PES机制成功推行的共同点,分析PES系统的社会和环境挑战与由此产生的生物多样性风险之间的关系。     

林业职业技术培训研究进展与展望

从文献研究规模、研究主题以及研究机构三个方面对林业培训文献进行梳理,并从培训现状、尚存在的问题、培训研究方法以及培训对策对文献进行分析。结果发现:尽管林业培训越来越受到林业局以及林户的重视,但依旧存在培训内容不够全面、培训效果评估体系不够健全等问题。从政府和林业局、参与培训的林户以及该领域的研究学者三个方面提出了相应的建议。     

基于DEA方法的安徽省地方财政科技投入绩效评价

安徽省近年来一直很重视财政科技投入力度,但财政科技投入的逐年增加并没有引导全社会研发投入有相应幅度的增加,这是因为对财政科技投入的效率和产出效果没有专业的评价,导致投入产出效率不高。本文运用数据包络(DEA)方法,通过建立绩效评价指标体系,从横向和纵向两个维度分别对安徽省16个地市和2007-2017年安徽省地方财政科技投入产出进行绩效评价,评价结果显示2007-2017年安徽省地方财政科技投入总体上的投入产出综合效率表现不错,但是分地区的投入效率不够理想。因此建议政府部门优化财政资金管理体系、增加对基础性研究的财政投入、加强对市级财政科技投入的监管等,进一步提高安徽省地方财政科技投入效率。