对低收入者住房问题的研究

2011年是极不寻常的一年。世界经济出现大变局,中国经济开始大调整后,中国经济面临大挑战。在地震频繁爆发,世界经济大幅度动荡的情形下,中国也在汶川.青海.云南之后,物价持续上涨,从而也在一定程度上影响着房地产事业。而占社会群体绝大多数的低收入者对此次的感受从某种意义上来说更为深刻。前两年房价上涨过快,脱离了绝大多数老百姓的承受能力,低收入者的住房问题成为全社会关注的焦点,也成为了国家在民生方面的工作重点。从全国范围来看,住房保障建设还远未达到要求。最主要是各级政府重视不够,虽然出台一系列政策措施,但是对保障政策的具体落实执行情况远不尽如人意,无论在投入机制、配套措施、部分城市政府介入还是保障性住房供应量等方面有诸多问题。     

Asymmetric cash flow sensitivity of cash holdings

Almeida, Campello, and Weisbach (2004) and Riddick and Whited (2009) offer contrasting conclusions regarding the corporate cash flow sensitivity of cash. We use an augmented empirical model to affirm the conclusion in Riddick and Whited that the cash flow sensitivity of cash is generally negative. In addition, we contend that the cash flow sensitivity of cash is asymmetric to cash flow. The asymmetry may be due to several reasons, including binding project contracts, bad news withholding, and agency costs. Using a sample of manufacturing firms from 1972 to 2006, we document that the cash flow sensitivity of cash is negative when a firm faces a positive cash flow environment, supporting Riddick and Whited (2009), but the cash flow sensitivity of cash is positive when a firm faces negative cash flows. We further divide firms into financially constrained and unconstrained ones and find that the cash flow sensitivity of cash asymmetry continues to hold in both groups. When we use institutional holding as a control for the agency problem, we find that firms with better outside monitoring dissave to capture good investment opportunities. All the results support our hypotheses that firms have different levels of responses to their cash holdings when facing positive and negative cash flows.     

谈私营企业主阶层地位的变迁及影响

私营企业主阶层地位及其地位相关关系的变迁受制于经济、制度诸因素的影响,其发展与地位变迁是一个与整个社会经济、制度环境互动的过程,同时也是这种互动的结果。本文主要对私营企业主阶层变迁的阶段进行了分析,并在此基础上分析私营企业的发展对于构建社会主义和谐社会的影响。     

Energy-saving Supporting Tourism Sustainability: A Case Study of Hotel Swimming Pool Heat Pump

Based on energy-related measurements, this article evaluates the thermal performance, energy-saving, indirect emissions and financial feasibility of using heat pumps for hotel out-door swimming pools in subtropical climates. A rooftop pool of a city-centre hotel was investigated. It was found that the average coefficient of performance (COP) was around 2.0. The measured electricity consumption was 24.6 MWh and the total heat output was 49.1 MWh for the heating season studied (mid-December to the late April). Compared with conventional electric boilers and gas-fired condensing/non-condensing boilers, the total energy savings during the heating season ranged from 26.5 to 32.5 MWh. Greenhouse and noxious emissions can also be indirectly reduced by about 12,000 kg. A discounting approach was adopted to compute the net present value of fuel costs over a lifecycle of 10 years. It was found that, over a 10-year lifecycle, the energy cost could be reduced by HK$226,400 when a heat pump with an average COP of 2.0 was used instead of a conventional electric boiler. Derived from the energy cost saving over other conventional type of water heating equipment, the simple pay-back period can be about 2 years and the lowest internal rate of return can be 39%.     

Energy benchmarking in support of low carbon hotels: Developments,challenges, and approaches in China

Achieving effective and objective energy benchmarking for hotels is integral in fostering the sustainable development of the lodging sector. In this work, we reveal the major and minor streams of hotel energy benchmarking and ascertain that the most popular approach in benchmarking is normalized energy use intensity (EUI) based on floor level. Previous efforts to establish EUI indicators using subsystem average, data envelopment analysis (DEA), and regression technique are also studied. We propose that hotel energy benchmarking based on floor area is useful from the top-down management perspective. However, on a practical perspective, energy benchmarking based on facilities should be the first priority for hotel management or owners. Compared with the general energy benchmarking in the building sector, we find that the hotel sector lags behind in the adoption of computer modeling for benchmarking.     

Cultural values in Hong Kong's print advertising, 1946–96

This paper examines a content analysis of 580 of Hong Kong's print advertisements for the period from 1946 to 1996, which was conducted using Cheng and Schweitzer's (1996) framework of cultural values. Product categories were more determinant than the time variable in accounting for changes in cultural values. The cultural values present in advertising over time were fairly consistent and the study did not support a rapid shift from utilitarian values to symbolic values over the 50 years in question.     

Moving average stochastic volatility models with application to inflation forecast

We introduce a new class of models that has both stochastic volatility and moving average errors, where the conditional mean has a state space representation. Having a moving average component, however, means that the errors in the measurement equation are no longer serially independent, and estimation becomes more difficult. We develop a posterior simulator that builds upon recent advances in precision-based algorithms for estimating these new models. In an empirical application involving US inflation we find that these moving average stochastic volatility models provide better in-sample fitness and out-of-sample forecast performance than the standard variants with only stochastic volatility.     

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS IN THE MAINTENANCE,REPAIR, AND OVERHAUL INDUSTRY: AN OPTIONS APPROACH

This paper presents a practical case application of the real options framework to a multi-stage investment in the aerospace maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) industry. With the deregulated commercial airline industry and military procurement reform, the $44 billion MRO sector must implement tools to remain strategically poised. In this case study, the MRO participant values a multi-stage irreversible expenditure in maintenance equipment and processes under air travel demand uncertainty using a real options analysis. The investment scenario is viewed from a delay, growth, and compound options framework, and an appropriate sensitivity analysis is performed. The main contribution of this paper is the detailed real option framing, valuation, and discussion that may be used as an illustration for industry practitioners or classroom instruction.     

Risk and Return on Real Estate: Evidence from Equity REITs

We analyze monthly returns on an equally weighted index of eighteen to twenty-three equity (real property) real estate investment trusts (REITs) that were traded on major stock exchanges over the 1973–87 period. We employ a multifactor Arbitrage Pricing Model using prespecified macroeconomic factors. We also test whether equity REIT returns are related to changes in the discount on closed-end stock funds, which seems plausible given the closed-end nature of REITs.
Three factors, and the percentage change in the discount on closed-end stock funds, consistently drive equity REIT returns: unexpected inflation and changes in the risk and term structures of interest rates. The impacts of these variables on equity REIT returns is around 60% of the impacts on corporate stock returns generally. As expected, the impacts are greater for more heavily levered REITs than for less levered REITs. Real estate, at least as measured by the return performance of equity REITs, is less risky than stocks generally, but does not offer a superior risk-adjusted return and is not a hedge against unexpected inflation.