Cost share‐induced technological change and Kaldor’s stylized facts

This paper presents a theory of induced technological change in which firms pursue a random, local, and bounded search for productivity‐enhancing innovations. Firms implement profitable innovations at fixed prices, which then spread through the economy. After diffusion, all firms adjust prices and wages. The model is consistent with a variety of price‐setting behaviors, which determine equilibrium positions characterized by constant cost shares and productivity growth rates. A fixed mark‐up can yield Marx‐biased technological change. Target‐return pricing yields Harrod‐neutral technological change with a fixed wage share as a stable equilibrium, consistent with Kaldor's stylized facts, while allowing for deviations from equilibrium, as observed in the longer historical record.     

A critique of the paper by Kanabar,R. and Simmons,P. (2016), ‘To defer or not to defer? UK state pension and work decisions in a lifecycle model’, Applied Economics, 48, 58, 5699-5716

We suggest corrections to the paper by Kanabar and Simmons and provide analyses for deriving the internal rate of return arising from a UK state pension deferral decision and for an actuarially fair deferral scheme.     

The influence of crediting and permanence periods on Australian forest-based carbon offset supply

Governments globally are developing increasingly ambitious carbon emissions reduction schemes that include significant emissions offset credits for forest-based carbon sequestration. Such strategies can present significant challenges in highly modified and intensively farmed regions where forest land use opportunity and establishment costs are high. This article evaluates the economics of land-use change via active afforestation for local carbon abatement in the Australian state of South Australia, a region with high supply costs representative of long-established temperate farming regions. We found that there is no economically viable abatement below $38 tCO₂e⁻¹, however up to 154 Mt CO₂e of abatement could be available up to prices of $50 tCO₂e⁻¹.Variation in current Australian Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) policy parameters related to permanence and crediting periods were also assessed. Recent ERF contracts involve a 100-year land-use change commitment (permanence period) and a 25-year crediting period where payments for growth in carbon from the land-use change is contracted. We compared outcomes of this arrangement to a scenario with equal 100-year permanence and crediting periods. We found substantial differences in carbon supply at some price points for a 25 rather than a 100-year crediting period. Under ERF parameters the first economically viable revegetation options occur at $42 tCO₂e⁻¹, however, we found a 69 percent reduction in economically viable supply at a carbon price of $50 tCO₂e⁻¹. The results highlight the role offset crediting policy can have on dis-incentivising land-use change and the need for landholders to be compensated fully for temporal opportunity costs.     

Assessing the Vulnerability to Price Spikes in Agricultural Commodity Markets

We examine empirically the predictability of conditions associated with a higher probability of a price spike in agricultural commodity markets. We find that the forward spread is the most significant indicator of probable price jumps in maize, wheat and soybeans futures markets, a result which is in line with the ‘Theory of Storage’. We additionally show that some option-implied variables add significant predictive power when added to the more standard information variable set. Overall, the estimated probabilities of large price increases from our probit models exhibit significant correlations with historical sudden market upheavals in agricultural markets.     

国有企业发展轨迹考察及改革策略选择

在次贷危机的影响下,我国先后提出了以四万亿投资和振兴十大产业规则为主要内容的刺激经济的一揽子计划。这些政策措施都是旨在促进国有企业更好的发展,但与此同时也引发了国进民退这一观点,然而,国退民进与国进民退都是从静态的形而上学的角度来看待国有企业和民营企业的发展。本文以建国60周年的经济大环境为背景,来说明国有企业发展的动态效率,并结合市场中重工业及基础设施等的正的外部性的存在来说明国有企业改革的动力。最后,提出了完善国有企业改革的相关政策建议。     

GMDH网络在短期负荷预测中的应用

文章提出基于自组织方法的GMDH（Group Method of Data Halldlin亩型神经网络并将它应用于短期负荷预测。与一般的前馈神经网络不同,GMDH网络的结构确定于训练过程之中,因而可大大提高神经网络性能。它能充分、合理地利用数据,自动进行变量组合,筛选及判断从而得到合适的模型,特别适用于数据预测。将这种用自组织方法所构成的GMDH型神经网络应用于广西某地区电力局的短期负荷预测,采用Matlab6．5进行仿真实验,证明其在短期负荷预测方面有很好的应用前景。     

Bidding for nothing? The pitfalls of overly neutral framing

Neutral framing is a standard tool of experimental economics. However, overly neutral instructions, which lack any contextual clues, can lead to strange behaviour. In a contextless second-price auction for a meaningless good, a majority of subjects enter positive bids – likely a case of cognitive experimenter demand effect. Subjects may interpret the lack of context as being tasked with bidding in the experiment. Adding another auction that has a context drastically reduces the positive bids in the meaningless auction.     

中小投资者的风险态度与市场环境

按照期望效用理论所揭示的风险厌恶、风险中性和风险追逐的3种风险态度的划分以及前景理论中投资者损失规避风险态度的特征,我们对我国A股市场投资者的风险偏好进行研究,发现在我国A股市场中小投资者风险态度受获得收益的显著影响,当投资者获得正收益时,总体呈现风险追逐,收益越高风险追逐的倾向越明显;当投资者获得负收益时,总体呈现风险中性,收益率与后市判断没有明显关系。我国中小投资者的风险态度不符合损失规避的特征。牛市环境下中小投资者总体呈现风险追逐,熊市环境下中小投资者总体风险中性。     

Do central bank foreign exchange interventions affect market expectations?

The aim of this article is to study the impact of the Brazilian central bank swap interventions on the FX market from 2006 to 2013. In this period, these nontraditional interventions were the main FX instrument of the Brazilian Government. Since the central bank operates through a sequence of daily interventions in most of the period, we employ the event study method, which is appropriate to investigate cumulative impact of intervention episodes. We analyse the effects on the risk neutral distribution of BRL-USD exchange rate, which incorporates economic valuation besides the likelihoods. We investigate both changes in level and in the dynamics of the moments. Our tests indicate that interventions have little effects on the exchange rate distribution. We only find evidences of some impact on the dynamics of the mean, volatility and skewness over long horizons when the central bank takes short positions on the exchange rate.     

110kV变压器中性点取消独立间隙电流互感器分析

110kV电网中,主变中性点保护广泛采用由零序电流互感器与间隙电流互感器为基础构成的中性点零序保护和间隙保护。本文分析了这两种故障情况及保护的原理和实现过程,探讨取消独立间隙电流互感器的可行性。