Corruption in Emerging and Developing Economies: Evidence from a Pooled Cross-Section

Corruption has affected systems of governance for thousands of years. Existing evidence suggests that it is especially common in "emerging and developing economies," yet cross-country analysis in this context is rare. We examine the impact of political, economic, and media freedom on corruption in a large sample of countries across multiple time periods to investigate the marginal differences within each. The results show that increased economic and press freedoms are associated with lower levels of corruption in developing countries. We find that although increased political freedom through democratization is statistically significant, it reduces corruption only in developed countries and may increase levels of corruption in developing countries.     

Leisure and work ethics and locus of control

Abstract

Equivocal findings regarding the relationship between attitudes toward leisure and the extent to which people feel in control of their own fate led to the consideration of possible mediating influences. The current study was an attempt to examine the relationship between locus of control and the affective domain of leisure attitude, or leisure “ethic,” while controlling for the influence of work ethic. The possibility of differences between males and females and students and nonstudents led to four separate subgroup analyses. Results indicated that of the four groups, only female students showed a substantial relationship between locus of control and leisure ethic. In this group, leisure ethic was associated with an external locus of control, the tendency to regard the control of life's circumstances as lying outside oneself. In none of the groups was the influence of work ethic great enough to make an appreciable difference in the relationship between locus of control and leisure ethic. The group differences were discussed in terms of sex‐role orientations and career aspirations.     

单执行器步行机器人机构运动分析

步行机器人腿机构一般为多自由度且需多个驱动执行器。文章介绍了一种单自由度腿机构,只用一个执行器来驱动。该机构以Hoecken为基础构成,其足部具有良好的位移特性和速度特性。文章对Hoecken机构的连杆端部运动特性进行了数学建模、理论分析和计算机仿真,证明了其良好的运动特性。分析表明:采用该腿机构能使机器人本体保持平行于地面、速度平稳的运动。     

Dynamic conditional score models of degrees of freedom: filtering with score-driven heavy tails

This article extends the quasi-autoregressive (QAR) plus Beta-t-EGARCH (exponential generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity) dynamic conditional score (DCS) model. For the new DCS model, the degrees of freedom parameter is time varying and tail thickness of the error term is updated by the conditional score. We compare the performance of QAR plus Beta-t-EGARCH with constant degrees of freedom (benchmark model) and QAR plus Beta-t-EGARCH with time-varying degrees of freedom (extended model). We use data from the Standard and Poor’s 500 (S&P 500) index, and a random sample of its 150 components that are from different industries of the United States (US) economy. For the S&P 500, all likelihood-based model selection criteria support the extended model, which identifies extreme events with significant impact on the US stock market. We find that for 59% of the 150 firms, the extended model has a superior statistical performance. The results suggest that the extended model is superior for those industries, which produce products that people usually are unwilling to cut out of their budgets, regardless of their financial situation. We perform an application to compare the density forecast performance of both DCS models. We perform an application to Monte Carlo value-at-risk for both DCS models.     

Index of economic freedom: Unrealized pedagogical opportunities

Although the Index of Economic Freedom appears in many economic textbooks, their coverage of the index misses opportunities to teach statistical and policy-related concepts important for the principles course. The standard textbook presentation passes up an opportunity to examine the statistical issues of weighting in composite index numbers and correlation versus causation. In addition, textbook presentations fail to examine the assumptions made in the indexes about key economic concepts. These include inflation rate targets, appropriate government spending levels, tax rates, labor standards, financial regulation, monetary policy, property rights, government regulation, and even the meaning of economic freedom. This study explores how examining economic freedom index assumptions can help students understand key economic policy debates.     

从乌坎事件看村民自决权的保护

乌坎选举成功的个案意义,要远远大于普遍意义。村委会选举制度一日不上轨道,村民对于选举的公正性疑虑便一日不能消除,要想复制下一个乌坎并不容易。这些制度上面的改进至少包括设立常设的选举委员会、建立公正的选举诉讼制度、保证参选的自由和竞争,确保村委会成员稳定的收入。村委会选举的真正目的是让村民自由决定村内公共事务的管理人,一切干扰这种自由的障碍都应该撤除。     

从责任形态反思表达自由权利的界限

表达自由权利的行使需要受到法律的指导和规范,本文从表达自由权利不当行使可能导致的刑事责任、行政责任、民事责任和相对的责任豁免等角度讨论言论自由权利的边界,以期引导公众规范有序地行使表达自由权利。     

自由人联合体视野下现代公民社会的生成

自由人联合体是历史长期演化的产物,当代世界正趋向于自由人联合体,并且伴随着现代公民社会的生成。现代公民社会组织的新发展,构成通向自由人联合体的新路径。现代公民是个人在现代公共生活中的形象,它与公民社会相表里,行进于＂自由人＂的历史进程中。     

《草叶集》主题思想探讨(英文)

本文从两个方面分析讨论《草叶集》的主题。在《草叶集》中,惠特曼讴歌民主和自由,倡导人类平等,揭露和批判了一切违背民主思想的罪恶,并对生活在社会底层的黑人寄以深切的同情。     

完善中国对外贸易政策的思考

目前，中国的经常项目和资本项目都处于顺差状态，但外贸出口仍面临严峻的考验。为了实现国际收支平衡和国内经济的健康发展，应该进一步完善外贸政策，加强宏观调控，实行有管理的自由贸易，并注重扩大进口和增加内需，同时努力培育中国的自有品牌。