基于中央选择性控制的试验——中国改革“实践”机制的一种新解释

关于中国改革机制有众多的解释,新近提出的试验说被视为切中改革实践的一种理论。本文从内容到方法论层面对试验说进行评析,在此基础上提出替代性解释：试验是基于中央选择性控制的。中央对怎么改革并不预先设定一个原则和目标,而是通过对试验的不确定态度,实现对地方的选择性控制。改革过程中,除了维护政治权力秩序（地方服从于中央）的意识非常清晰之外,对怎么改革并没有明确的意识。实践的形式可以多种多样,至于采用哪种形式完全取决于中央的需要及对中央的功效如何,在根源上则受制于整个权力体系结构所受的约束。基于中央选择性控制的试验有利于中央化解危机但又不失对秩序的控制权,但客观上却使得试验难以充分发挥和推广,最终趋于同质化。     

统筹城乡改革“九龙坡模式”的经验与启示

九龙坡区在重庆主城都市圈中最具城乡并存的典型特征,是重庆市首个城乡统筹发展综合改革先行试验区。九龙坡区在统筹城乡综合配套改革中进行了一系列实践探索,如公共服务均衡化、“四规叠合”（城乡发展规划一体化）、工业化推动城市化和市民化等,取得了显著成效;但是“九龙坡模式”依然面临一些难以破解的困扰城乡统筹发展的难题,如政策供给不足所导致的“有动力而无能力统筹”问题。破解城乡统筹发展难题,必须改革土地制度、优化投资环境、建立城乡一体化的社会保障体系、推进农民工变市民、重视中小企业发展和加快“城中村”改造。     

辽宁省养老保险改革试点与养老金财务可持续运行分析

根据国务院试点方案,辽宁省对本省养老保险制度进行了调整与优化.实证测算表明,辽宁省"十一五"规划中的不同发展方案,对改革试点中的辽宁省养老保险收支状况产生很大影响;此外通过拍卖国有资产、加大财政支持力度、提高收缴率将会有利于辽宁省养老保险收支赤字的弥补.     

植物学实验开放自主式教学的探索与实践

为了更好地培养符合社会需求的高素质创新人才,对开放自主式植物学实验教学方法进行了探索和实践。根据专业基础实验课的特点,在植物学实验中采用逐步推进的方式开展开放自主式实验教学,明显提高了学生的实验技能,培养了学生的创新意识和科研兴趣,从而真正实现创造型、创新型、创业型人才的培养。     

Do mobile banner ads increase sales? Yes,in the offline channel

Firms allocate increasingly large budgets to mobile banner advertising. Yet, existing research paid only scant attention to the sales effects of mobile banner ads. In this paper, we fill this gap by determining the offline and online sales impact of a large-scale mobile banner advertising campaign. As part of a geographical field experiment, over 3.5 million mobile banner ads were served to a predetermined geographical area. We determine the offline and online sales effects of the mobile banner ad campaign by analyzing twenty months of sales data for regions covering the entire country of the Netherlands. Relying on a difference-in-difference approach and two matching methods, we demonstrate an offline sales increase of around 2%. The online sales effect is not significant. We conclude that firms can use mobile banner advertising to boost offline sales. We find no evidence for cross-channel sales cannibalization.     

Brand familiarity as a moderating factor in the ad and brand attitude relationship and advertising appeals

Studies examining the effects of advertising appeals have yielded conflicting results. Some have found that an emotional appeal is more persuasive than an informational appeal, while others have demonstrated the opposite. The objective of the current study was to explore a theoretical explanation for the conflicting results in advertising appeal research. The findings of this study support the theory that brand familiarity determines the effectiveness of advertising appeal. The study results additionally support the theory that attitudes toward the ad predict the consumer’s attitude toward the brand. In addition, the study found that brand familiarity moderates the strength of the relationship between ad attitude and brand attitude. Other aspects and the implications of these findings are discussed in this paper.     

In-Store Valuation of Steak Tenderness

Experimental methods were used to examine consumer willingness-to-pay for steak tenderness in a grocery store setting. When relying on a taste test alone to determine product quality, the participants paid an average premium of $1.23/lb for a tender versus tough steak. Fifty-one percent of the participants were willing to pay an average of $1.84/lb when they had completed a taste test and were also provided information about the steak's tenderness. Results indicate that most consumers prefer more tender steaks and that many are willing to pay a premium for tender steaks.     

Does irritation induced by charitable direct mailings reduce donations?

Charities rely mainly on direct mailings to attract the attention of potential donors. Individuals may feel irritated by these mailings, in particular when they receive many mailings. This might harm the revenues charities receive from their mailing activities. Moreover, target selection by charities likely results in many mailings being sent to the best donors, and hence they might become most irritated. As such, irritation with direct mailings could well be endogenously determined. To ensure exogenous variation in irritation, we performed a unique controlled field experiment in cooperation with five of the largest charities in the Netherlands. Our analysis reveals that direct mailings do result in irritation, but surprisingly, this irritation affects neither stated nor actual donating behavior.     

信息对小额健康保险需求影响的实验经济学分析

本文通过实验经济学的研究方法检验了信息对于小额健康保险投保需求的影响。实验结果表明,在信息提供不充分的情况下,小额健康保险需求相对社会最优需求水平不足,信息的充分提供能使小额健康保险需求水平显著提高。其中得知准确的疾病发生概率可以显著地提高门诊和住院保险的需求,了解更广范围的出险与理赔信息可以显著地提高住院保险的需求,但是同时提供这两种信息的并不显著优于只提供准确的疾病发生概率的信息。     

Consumer willingness-to-pay to reduce the probability of retail foodborne pathogen contamination

The US Department of Agriculture applies a cost-of-illness approach to value reductions in morbidity, which may understate the projected benefits from proposed food-safety improvements by ignoring costs such as pain, suffering and worry. We use a national survey with a hypothetical food-choice experiment to estimate a more comprehensive measure of consumer willingness-to-pay for food-safety improvements. Our approach differs from previous evaluations of food-safety improvements because we: (1) provide the respondent with information about the promised change in the probability of pathogen contamination in retail food packages rather than changes in the probability of becoming ill, (2) elicit changes in respondents’ subjective probability of becoming ill, and (3) elicit predicted changes in the quantity demanded for products that have enhanced food-safety properties. We estimate the consumer’s choice between a safety-enhanced and an existing product, the change in subjective probability of contracting foodborne illness associated with the enhanced product and the change-in-demand for the enhanced product in a manner that recognizes the correlation among unobserved elements. The aggregated results suggest benefit estimates that are significantly larger than previous estimates for similar improvements.