Socio-demographics,political attitudes and informal sector employment: A cross-country analysis

In this paper, we empirically investigate the relationship between informal sector employment and micro-level socio-demographic characteristics, political acts and attitudes, and individual norms. Using self-reported individual micro-level data from the World Values Survey for seven developing countries (China, Ecuador, Egypt, Mexico, Peru, South Africa and Yemen), our cross-country regressions and principal component analysis reveal that socio-demographic characteristics of individuals are strong predictors of their informal sector employment. Our estimations further document that individual preferences for an economically strong, interventionist and egalitarian state and confidence in state and political institutions are positively and significantly correlated with informal sector employment, whereas variables associated with confidence in free market institutions and support for competition are negatively and significantly correlated with informal sector employment. We also show that individuals who participate either actively or inactively in peaceful and lawful political processes are significantly less likely to work in the informal sector. Finally, we document that individual norms, such as religiosity and tax morale, are negatively correlated with informal sector employment. Throughout our analysis, instead of having to rely on ad-hoc informality categorizations of third parties, we base our measurement of informal sector employment directly on the self-evaluation of individuals, who have the best information on the degree of their informality.     

大数据背景下区域木材物流配送中心选址

指出了我国木材物流存在的主要问题以及解决方案,结合大数据技术,利用遗传算法进行木材物流配送中心的选址,建立了数学模型并进行了案例分析,以达到对木材物流成本和服务的优化。     

POSTERIOR‐PREDICTIVE EVIDENCE ON US INFLATION USING EXTENDED NEW KEYNESIAN PHILLIPS CURVE MODELS WITH NON‐FILTERED DATA

Changing time series properties of US inflation and economic activity, measured as marginal costs, are modeled within a set of extended New Keynesian Phillips curve (NKPC) models. It is shown that mechanical removal or modeling of simple low‐frequency movements in the data may yield poor predictive results which depend on the model specification used. Basic NKPC models are extended to include structural time series models that describe typical time‐varying patterns in levels and volatilities. Forward‐ and backward‐looking expectation components for inflation are incorporated and their relative importance is evaluated. Survey data on expected inflation are introduced to strengthen the information in the likelihood. Use is made of simulation‐based Bayesian techniques for the empirical analysis. No credible evidence is found on endogeneity and long‐run stability between inflation and marginal costs. Backward‐looking inflation appears stronger than forward‐looking inflation. Levels and volatilities of inflation are estimated more precisely using rich NKPC models. The extended NKPC structures compare favorably with existing basic Bayesian vector autoregressive and stochastic volatility models in terms of fit and prediction. Tails of the complete predictive distributions indicate an increase in the probability of deflation in recent years. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Formal and real ownership structure of the Polish economy: state-owned versus state-controlled enterprises

This article analyses the difference between the state’s formal and real shares in the Polish economy. We identify two basic types of corporate control exercised by the state over enterprises through ownership (in the case of majority ownership) and non-ownership tools (in the case of minority ownership). Consequently, we distinguish between two types of state enterprises: state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and state-controlled enterprises (SCEs). In post-communist economies, SCEs mainly originate from so-called reluctant privatisation, in which the transfer of ownership rights takes place without the appropriate transfer of control rights. We discuss the tools of non-ownership control used by the state. Our estimates of the real share of state enterprises in the Polish economy (which include both SOEs and SCEs) show that it is almost two times higher than the formal share (only SOEs). The share of state enterprises is also highest in the group of Poland’s largest and most important firms. We conclude that the real importance of state enterprises in the Polish economy is much higher than might be expected if only the formal share of state ownership is taken into account.     

从金融“再平衡”看中国经济的可持续复苏

随着全球经济的复苏和国际贸易的回升，全球的不平衡格局正在发生着积极变化。就中国而言，通过强力刺激政策实现率先复苏之后，一方面，以积极财政政策和宽松货币政策为代表的“再杠杆”政策正在进行灵敏主动的动态微调，从而避免经济出现“二次探底”，同时也预警性地调控可能的通货膨胀预期和资产泡沫风险；另一方面，为了增加经济持续复苏的内在动力，实现平衡的、可持续的复苏，中国也在根据全球化的新趋势积极调整对外经济金融政策，以促进国际收支失衡的调节。从国际范困观察，全球“再平衡”进程也在前进之中，世界总需求中的消费正在从发达国家转向新兴市场，同时国际资本也开始从复苏较慢的西方发达市场流向复苏较快的东亚新兴市场。     

美国金融监管改革的新框架与新趋势

针对金融危机中暴露的监管缺陷,美国正在进行"大萧条"以来最为全面的金融监管改革.本文在宏观和微观审慎监管相结合的框架下介绍了美国金融监管改革的主要内容,分析了围绕改革的主要争论,并对国际金融监管改革趋势进行总结比较,认为美国这次金融监管改革将从监管标准、方法、模式和理念等方面重构美国金融监管体系,有利于形成更加稳定有序的金融市场新秩序,防范金融危机重演.     

从历史比较中寻找市场调整的逻辑——与深沪机构会议交流

经济周期回落和结构调整的叠加效应使经济回落承受更大的压力，经济出现周期性回落也是毫无疑问的趋势，经济结构调整将增加经济周期性回调的深度以及企业所感受的紧缩的压力，这一叠加效应的产生对于现行政策也展开了挑战。中央和地方政府政策目标函数在总体一致的前提下，可能存在的阶段性政策重点的差异，使得当前在经济增长和抑制通胀的宏观政策取向上还需要进行艰苦的观察和平衡。本土市场和全球市场的互动程度提高使得把握国内经济趋势必须要有全球视野。政策重点应当积极推动经济转型，在保持适度从紧的货币政策基调上，积极放松管制，鼓励市场创新。     

人民币现金境外需求规模的间接测算研究:1999-2008

本文基于1978年至2008年的年度数据和缺口估算法,通过构建一个货币需求函数的计量模型,对1999年至2008年的人民币境外持有规模进行了估算,估算结果表明,在1999年至2008年间,境外人民币的需求占人民币现金总量的比率均值为7.62%,且流通规模呈逐年递增之势。最后,本文进行了总结并提出相关政策建议。     

次贷危机中的中国:看到危险,更要看到机会

美国次贷危机正在演变成全球经济危机,这是全球经济结构失衡以及金融监管不能适应金融模式创新导致的一次真正的全球化时代的金融危机.其对中国而言,既是危机,也是机遇.全球经济危机无疑会对中国经济产生强烈的冲击,但在全球化时代,中国已经积累相当的经济实力,只要宏观政策应对得当,就可以将危机转化为中国崛起的机遇.     

How does working capital management affect the profitability of Spanish SMEs?

This paper analyzes the relation between working capital management and profitability for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by controlling for unobservable heterogeneity and possible endogeneity. Unlike previous studies, we examine a non-linear relation between these two variables. Our results show that there is a non-monotonic (concave) relationship between working capital level and firm profitability, which indicates that SMEs have an optimal working capital level that maximizes their profitability. In addition, a robustness check of our results confirms that firms?? profitability decreases as they move away from their optimal level.