Fiscal and monetary policies in complex evolving economies

What is the most appropriate combination of fiscal and monetary policies in economies subject to banking crises and deep recessions? We study this issue using an agent-based model that is able to reproduce a wide array of macro- and micro-empirical regularities. Simulation results suggest that policy mixes associating unconstrained, counter-cyclical fiscal policy and monetary policy targeting employment is required to stabilise the economy. We also show that “discipline-guided” fiscal rules can be self-defeating, as they depress the economy without improving public finances. Finally, we find that the effects of monetary and fiscal policies become sharper as the level of income inequality increases.     

基于AHP-SWOT模型的高标准基本农田建设发展策略研究——以沈阳市为例

"十分珍惜和合理利用每一寸土地"是我国的基本国策,中国作为一个农业大国,粮食安全至关重要,而高标准基本农田建设作为保证我国粮食安全的一项重要举措,意义尤为重大。在此背景下,文章将层次分析法应用于SWOT分析中,建立AHP-SWOT模型,并以沈阳市为例,分别从优势、劣势、机会和威胁4个方面分析了沈阳市高标准基本农田建设的发展现状,通过权重计算,比较各方面优先次序,从而进行未来的战略模式选择,因地制宜地为未来沈阳市未来高标准基本农田建设的发展决策提供理论指导。研究表明:沈阳市高标准基本农田建设的发展现状中,4个方面的优先权重排序为威胁(T)劣势(W)机会(O)优势(S)。故沈阳市未来高标准农田建设战略决策应以W-T模式,即克服劣势、应对威胁模式为主,归纳为3个方面,具体包括:政府组织多部门联动,统筹规划,协调管理;完善管理办法,针对重要环节出台专门规程;三管齐下,制定优奖劣罚的考核机制。     

Growth uncertainty,generalized disappointment aversion and production-based asset pricing

We study a production economy with regime switching in the conditional mean and volatility of productivity growth. The representative agent has generalized disappointment aversion (GDA) preferences. We show that volatility risk in productivity growth carries a positive and sizable risk premium in levered equity. Our model can endogenously generate long-run risks in the volatility of consumption growth observed in the data. We show that introducing leverage with a procyclical dividend process consistent with the data is critical for the GDA preferences to have a large impact on equity returns.     

知识视角下区域创新绩效研究——基于PCA-DEA模型和Malmquist指数的实证分析

本文综合关于区域创新绩效的研究文献，构建了知识视角下的区域创新绩效指标评价体系。在此基础上，首次运用PCA-DEA模型和Malmquist指数分析方法对我国30个省域创新绩效进行了动态实证分析。研究发现我国区域创新绩效整体呈上升趋势，但是近年遇到瓶颈，区域创新效率的主要限制因素是PECH（纯技术效率）值较低。东部区域创新绩效高于西部地区，而中部区域创新绩效最低。西部地区创新技术效率已经赶超东部，呈持续领先态势。北京、内蒙、福建、河南、贵州、云南、宁夏、新疆等8个省市是创新活动生产可能性前沿外移的主要推动者。基于实证分析的结果，为提高我国区域创新绩效提供相应思路。     

Determinants of Intra-GCC Food Trade

Using panel data for six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries from 1995–2014, we assess the impacts of several major economic variables on intra-GCC food exports, and on GCC food exports to the world. The GCC customs union had minimal impact on intra-GCC food exports, but occasioned a significant reduction in GCC food exports. Unlike GCC food exports, intra-GCC food exports occurred among countries with similar relative factor endowments, in agreement with the Linder Hypothesis. Rising incomes and exchange rates played significant roles in both intra-GCC food exports and GCC food exports, while distance has lost its once-dominant role.     

‘Not to bet the farm’: SANLAM and internationalisation, 1995–2010

The South African Life Assurance Company (SANLAM) entered global markets after 1990, with varied success. Contextual pressures exerted a ‘push’ on financial services companies, which led to strategic changes in firm strategy, structure and performance. Theories of internationalisation afford more attention to industrial production internationalisation. This article explores the SANLAM experiences with internationalisation since the early 1990s. Initial internationalisation attempts were less successful, leading to strategic business changes, which led to a change in the globalisation strategy and more success in alternative markets. This article explores the different stages of SANLAM’s internationalisation strategy and what determined eventual success. The article contextualises the SANLAM internationalisation strategy by drawing on aspects of the process theory, the Matthews Linkage, Leverage and Learning (LLL) framework, and the Strategy, Structure, Organisation and Performance (SSOP) analytical framework. The SANLAM case underlines the crucial role of tacit knowledge of the host market as prerequisite for successful globalisation strategies of financial services’ firms.     

Aid econometrics: Lessons from a stochastic growth model

This paper evaluates the standard empirical methods employed in the study of foreign aid, when the data generating process is a calibrated stochastic growth model in which aid recipients make optimal investment and consumption decisions. When recipients receive a stochastic flow of aid and wish to smooth consumption, standard methods fail to distinguish between the response to transient and permanent aid shocks, and hence yield misleading results concerning the object of interest to policy makers: the long-run impact of aid.     

Methods for Scalar‐on‐Function Regression

Recent years have seen an explosion of activity in the field of functional data analysis (FDA), in which curves, spectra, images and so on are considered as basic functional data units. A central problem in FDA is how to fit regression models with scalar responses and functional data points as predictors. We review some of the main approaches to this problem, categorising the basic model types as linear, non‐linear and non‐parametric. We discuss publicly available software packages and illustrate some of the procedures by application to a functional magnetic resonance imaging data set.     

What caused Japan’s Great Stagnation in the 1990s? Evidence from an estimated DSGE model

Despite the widespread belief that Japan’s “Great Stagnation” in the 1990s is due to the financial dysfunction after the collapse of asset price bubbles, Hayashi and Prescott (2002) argue that its main cause is a slowdown in total factor productivity growth, using a calibrated neoclassical growth model. The present paper aims to fill this gap by estimating a New Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model augmented with a financial accelerator mechanism and associated financial shocks. Our estimation results show that even in the presence of the financial shocks an adverse neutral technology shock mainly induced the Great Stagnation and that the rate of neutral technological change is strongly correlated with all enterprises’ financial position in the Tankan. Based on these findings, the paper argues that the Great Stagnation was caused by an adverse neutral technology shock that is likely to represent a tightening of firms’ financing, which induced reduction of R&D investment and misallocation of resources as indicated in previous literature.     

京津冀城市可持续发展效率动态测评及比较研究——基于超效率CCR-DEA模型和Malmquist指数的度量

本文借助超效率 CCR-DEA 模型和 Malmquist 指数，对 2008~2015 年京津冀 13 个城市的可持续发展效率进行了动态测评和对应项分解。研究结果表明：（1）北京与津冀城市的可持续发展效率极为不平衡，北京大幅领先于津冀城市并有逐年扩大的趋势；津冀城市可持续发展效率的差距有逐年缩小的趋势；（2）京津冀城市作为一个整体其可持续发展效率在提高，但各城市可持续发展效率意义上的纯技术效率几乎没有提升；（3）京津冀各城市投入--产出系统虽处于可持续发展效率意义上的规模经济阶段，但不具有持续性。未来京津冀三地应充分利用建设雄安国家新区的战略性历史机遇，统一认识，密切合作，促进京津冀城市经济、社会和资源环境的协调可持续发展。