Time-varying pricing may increase total electricity consumption: Evidence from Costa Rica

We study the implementation of a time-varying pricing (TVP) program by a major electricity utility in Costa Rica. Because of particular features of the data, we use recently developed understanding of the two-way fixed effects differences-in-differences estimator along with event-study specifications to interpret our results. Similar to previous research, we find that the program reduces consumption during peak-hours. However, in contrast with previous research, we find that the program increases total consumption. With a stylized economic model, we show how these seemingly conflicted results may not be at odds. The key element of the model is that previous research used data from rich countries, in which the use of heating and cooling devices drives electricity consumption, but we use data from a tropical middle-income country, where very few households have heating or cooling devices. Since there is not much room for technological changes (which might reduce consumption at all times), behavioral changes to reduce consumption during peak hours are not enough to offset the increased consumption during off-peak hours (when electricity is cheaper). Our results serve as a cautionary piece of evidence for policy makers interested in reducing consumption during peak hours—the goal can potentially be achieved with TVP, but the cost is increased total consumption     

Public Disclosure of Audit Fees and Bargaining Power between the Client and Auditor: Evidence from China

Before the public disclosure of audit fees was mandated, it was unlikely for an audit client to have accurate information about how much other companies were charged by their auditors. Public fee disclosure decreases the cost of auditees' access to audit fee information for the auditor's portfolio of clients and is thus likely to increase the relative bargaining power of auditees over auditors when they negotiate audit fees. Using both proprietary and public audit fee data before and after public fee disclosure was mandated in China, we provide evidence consistent with the preceding conjecture. We find that public fee disclosure reinforces the magnitude of audit fee decreases for overcharged clients and weakens auditors' ability to raise audit fees for undercharged clients. These findings suggest the existence of unintended consequences of public fee disclosure regulation, the original rationale of which was a concern about audit pricing practices that could undermine auditor independence.     

Balancing budget through tax increases or expenditure cuts: is it neutral?

Fiscal adjustment currently ranks at the top in the economic policy agenda of many OECD countries, and not only those European countries aiming to meet the Maastricht convergence criteria. Recently, Alesina and Perotti argued that successful cases of fiscal adjustment resulted from cutting expenditures, while those focusing on tax increases were unsuccessful. The paper, using a bivariate VECM representation for the joint government revenue–government expenditure dynamics for five of the main OECD countries, provides two contributions to this issue. First, it proposes and performs a neutrality test of the alternative adjustment strategies (through revenue or expenditures), second it characterizes the departure from neutrality in the three countries where the neutrality hypothesis is rejected. The conclusion, prevailing for these three countries, is that adjustment through taxes not only is inefficient, but even results in a perverse effect with induced extra expenditures which more than offset the increase in government revenue.     

货币政策调整的基本取向及政策建议

当前,我国经济运行中的积极因素不断增多,回升向好的势头日趋明显,货币政策的整体效果初步显现。在复杂的国际国内环境下,货币政策依然是促进经济良性运行的重要工具,但其调整需要审时度势,必须宽松适度,避免通货膨胀。     

EXPLORING THE POTENTIAL EFFECTS OF FORECASTER MOTIVATIONAL ORIENTATION AND GENDER ON JUDGMENTAL ADJUSTMENTS OF STATISTICAL FORECASTS

The growing adoption of demand collaboration initiatives such as Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment (CPFR) has made judgmental adjustments of forecasts, an already widespread forecasting practice, an increasingly routine part of many logistics managers' responsibilities. This article investigates how logistics managers might improve forecast accuracy by judgmentally adjusting statistical forecasts and potential factors that may influence the effectiveness of such adjustments. In particular, our goal is to expand current knowledge in this area by focusing on individual differences, specifically motivation and gender, which have been thus far neglected in the extant literature. Our findings indicate that motivation has a significant effect on accuracy improvement and this relationship is moderated by gender. Managerial implications of these findings and future research opportunities are also presented.     

Ambiguity of measured WTP for quality improvements when quantity is unconstrained: a note

This paper addresses the issue of how to estimate by contingentvaluation methods the maximum price consumers are willing topay when a new quality is available for a market good for whichquantity adjustments are possible. We argue that current practice,which typically does not specify a quantity when asking consumersthe price they are willing to pay for a new quality product,fails to identify prospective consumers' behaviour when theyare free to adjust the quantity purchased. Theoretical modelsare discussed for assessing the maximum price consumers arewilling to pay in these cases, and econometric approaches toaddress these situations are discussed.     

Agro-Manufactured Export Prices, Wages and Unemployment

This article estimates the impacts of world agricultural trade liberalization on wages and unemployment in Argentina in the presence of individual labor supply responses and adjustment costs in labor demand. After a 10% increase in agro-manufactured export prices, I find that: ( a ) the employment probability would increase by 1.36 percentage points, matched by a decline in the unemployment probability of 0.75 percentage points and an increase in labor market participation of 0.61 percentage points; ( b ) the unemployment rate would decline by 1.23 percentage points; ( c ) expected wages would increase by 10.3%, mostly due to higher employment probabilities.     

中国银行业市场化改革的五个阶段及特点

改革开放以来,中国经济社会转型不仅是中国银行业改革的大背景,也是银行制度市场化演进的推动力。与此相适应,中国银行制度受强制性制度变迁的影响不断缩小,而受市场主导下的诱致性制度变迁的影响不断扩大。银行体制、运行机制、市场结构的市场化变迁过程呈现五个不同的阶段性特点,经历了一个从计划经济体制下的银行制度到基本符合市场经济要求的现代银行制度转变的过程。     

财政赤字与积极财政政策

财政赤字是宏观调控的手段，对其评价，关键是看宏观经济状况和社会总需求小于总供给，财政赤字就是好的；社会总需求大于总供给，就不能搞财政赤字。因此，对于积极财政政策淡出的时机及其进度，需要认真选择。     

Book-Tax Differences and Inland Revenue Audit Adjustments in New Zealand

Abstract:  Using confidential data from US manufacturing firms' tax returns and Inland Revenue Service (IRS) audit adjustments, Mills (1998) tests, and finds support for, her hypothesis that IRS audit adjustments increase as the book-tax differences increase. We test Mills' hypothesis using confidential data obtained from the New Zealand Inland Revenue (hereafter Inland Revenue). Confidential data provide the key variable of interest, Inland Revenue's proposed audit adjustment, which is not available from public sources. These data provide the exact audit adjustment amounts, eliminating measurement errors inherent in proxy variables, and enable a temporal alignment of the book-tax differences with the Inland Revenue audit adjustments, thereby enhancing the internal validity of the relation between book-tax differences and Inland Revenue audit adjustments. Because the results of our study using New Zealand data, another time period, a more diverse set of firms, and a different institutional environment are consistent with those of Mills, we argue for the generalizability of Mills' hypothesis that proposed audit adjustments are positively related to the excess of book income over taxable income.