Congestion with heterogeneous commuters

We study a congestion model where a continuum of heterogeneous commuters make a binary choice between riding a bus and driving private vehicles for their commutes. Formulating the model as a large game, we establish the existence and uniqueness of a nontrivial Nash equilibrium and analyze how a gasoline tax affects the allocation of commuters between public transportation and private vehicles at the equilibrium. Based on the analysis, we provide a sufficient condition under which a gasoline tax is Pareto improving. We also prove the existence of a socially optimal policy that minimizes the aggregate loss to all commuters.     

The regional wage gap in the Spanish hospitality sector based on a gender perspective

In this work we estimate human capital returns in the Spanish hospitality sector using an expanded version of the Mincer wage equation (1974). In addition, wage differences in the main tourist regions are quantified using the wage decomposition of Oaxaca (1973) and Blinder (1973) from a gender perspective. Using data from the 2006 Spanish Wage Structure Survey (Encuesta de Estructura Salarial), all the regions under analysis show lower education returns in the hospitality sector when compared to other private services. The same results are found for the other human capital variables used. There are significant differences in education returns between regions, especially in Catalonia and the Canary Islands. The main wage gap in the Canary Islands and the Madrid region is due to differences in returns in the observed variables, whereas in other regions most of the differences are due to the resources allocated. Furthermore, gender wage differences are found in all the regions. The largest estimated wage gap between men and women occurs in the Balearic Islands followed by Catalonia and the Community of Valencia. In contrast, equality between genders is greater in the Community of Madrid.     

基于古诺竞争模型的我国航空产业技术提升策略研究——以大飞机为例

在扩展古诺竞争模型的基础上,通过比较不同技术提升策略对我国大飞机厂商收益的影响,考察了发展大飞机产业自主研发与技术引进的选择问题。研究结果表明,在单一机型竞争市场上,若自主研发的成功概率很大,则国内厂商在未来两期的最优技术提升策略是自主创新;在两种机型竞争市场上,若自主研发的成功概率很大,则国内厂商在未来两期的最优技术提升策略是第一期技术引进、第二期自主研发。     

韩国应对劳工短缺的政策选择及其对中国的借鉴

劳工短缺现象已成为东亚许多国家的普遍问题。这个问题并不是经济自发调节便可消除的暂时现象,如长期持续下去,将对各国的产品出口以及经济发展构成严重的制约。韩国自20世纪80年代末起便开始了对劳工短缺问题的调查研究,积累了大量的文献与实践经验。在描述韩国劳工短缺现状的基础上,探讨其成因并介绍韩国政府对此问题所采取的措施及实施效果。提出了对解决我国劳工短缺问题的可借鉴之处。     

Negative equity and wages

We examine the relationship between housing equity and wage earnings using nine waves of the national American Housing Survey from 1985 to 2003. Employing a rich set of time and place controls, a synthetic mortgage instrumental variable strategy, and a first difference estimator we find that people underwater on their mortgage command a significantly lower wage than other homeowners. The finding survives a number of robustness checks for reverse causality and unobserved heterogeneity. We also explore other determinants of “house lock” including loss aversion, a low existing mortgage interest rate and property tax assessment caps, but do not find these factors mitigate the effect of negative equity on wages.     

Effects of Transport Regulation on the Oil Market: Does Market Power Matter?

Instruments used to regulate the consumption of oil in the transport sector include fuel taxes, biofuel requirements, and fuel‐efficiency standards. However, the effects that these have on oil consumption and price vary. If market power is present in the oil market, the directions of change in consumption and price might contrast with those in a competitive market. As a result, the market structure affects not only the effectiveness of the policy instruments used to reduce oil consumption, but also the terms of trade and carbon leakage. In particular, reduced oil consumption, as a result of increased fuel‐efficiency standards, will unambiguously increase the price of oil under a monopoly.     

Anatomy of Russia’s market segmentation1

Based on a relationship between price difference and demand difference among locations, the role of various market frictions in causing segmentation of the Russian goods market is analysed. The spatial sample covers most of Russian regions (70 of the 89); the data are annual, spanning 1992 to 2000. Spatial disconnectedness of regions is found to be responsible for about 70 percent of the average price differential, while the rest is caused by ‘artificial’ impediments to market integration such as regional protectionism, organized crime and intra‐region shipping conditions.     

Green Consumption under Misperceived Prices: An Application to Active Transportation

We propose a consumption model that captures the impact that perceived price ambiguities may have upon decision‐making in green markets in general and in active transportation markets in particular. The basic intuition for the model is that a consumer who may be misperceiving the price of the green good (the active transportation mode) would be willing to pay a positive amount from her income in the current period to resolve the misperception going forward. We posit that the basis for the price misperception in the active transportation context is misperception of the relative risks involved in taking that mode. The compensating variation that aligns perceived and objective risk is derived. We show how raising green consumption via price misperception correction can be superior to traditional economic policy instruments. The results shed light on the more general family of situations in which agents may consistently misperceive aspects of the decision environment.     

The impact of auctions on residential property prices

This study assesses whether the sale method in residential real estate markets – auction versus private treaty – is a determinant of sale price. Utilising a larger and richer dataset than previous research, we test for a price effect in auction sales in Sydney and Christchurch. When self‐selection biases are corrected for, using two‐stage hedonic regression analysis and a matched sampling procedure, we find no significant difference between prices of properties sold at auction to those sold by private treaty. This conflicts with the conclusions of previous research in the Australian and New Zealand housing markets, which have documented a price premium associated with auction sales.     

人力资本存量、R&D投资与中国工业增长转型

工业是中国当前三大产业中的支柱产业,工业增长模式的体制转轨很大程度上反映了中国经济增长模式的转轨方向和现状。文章借助1990年-2007年的统计数据进行计算和实证检验发现：中国工业企业从上世纪90年代初以依靠人力资本存量和物质资本存量积累的增长模式转变为新世纪以来以R＆D投资带来的技术进步和工业劳动力投入为主要产出支撑的新模式,虽然这种增长转轨并未彻底完成,但已经证明集约化增长模式将逐步成为中国经济可持续发展的主要途径。