An extension of the Kemp-Wan theorem on the formation of customs unions

Kemp and Wan (1976) proved that nations forming a customs union can always compensate each other so that no nation will be worse off, relative to the pre-union equilibrium. Their proof, however, is existential, giving no clue how to construct such compensation schemes. This paper proposes a particular compensation scheme which is always feasible. Further, there are circumstances where this scheme is the only feasible one. At world prices the arrangement breaks even for each nation. At post-union internal prices, member compensations sum to the union's tariff receipts. The proof that such a scheme is feasible depends upon the Grandmont McFadden theorem.     

Pricing and integration of credit default swap index tranches

This paper first designs an efficient procedure to value Credit Default Swap Index tranches using an intensity-based model. The tranche spreads are effectively explained by a three-factor version of this model, both before and during the financial crisis of 2008. We then construct tradable tranche portfolios to track the intensity factors and compare the pricing of the tranches with equities and their derivatives. Our results show that the senior tranche spreads do not offer returns in excess of the common risk compensations in the equity and derivatives markets, while the junior tranche is not spanned by these standard factors.     

广东保险产品供求状况与创新对策

广东地处沿海经济发达地区,经济发展水平与消费水平较高,与中西部相比,广东保险需求具有高水平、宽领域、多元化的特征,但广东保险产品供给存在产品单一、产品雷同、结构不合理等问题,同时由于资本市场环境的制约和金融工具的缺乏,新型产品的风险无法有效化解?为此应建立完整的保险产品体系,调整产品结构,发展金融衍生产品等,以扩大广东保险产品的有效供给,满足广东社会经济发展和人民群众多样化、多层次的保险需求,发挥现代保险经济补偿、融通资金和社会管理的功能,为广东率先基本实现现代化保驾护航。     

中国-新加坡贸易竞争性和互补性的实证分析

本文运用贸易结合度指数、显性比较优势指数和贸易特化系数对中新双边贸易的现状和发展趋势、比较优势和贸易互补性进行了研究,从实证分析的角度,证明中国与新加坡在比较优势上存在较明显差异,进而分析了中新贸易互补关系及其产生原因,得出结论。基于产业内分工、相似需求和外国直接投资的产业内互补成为中新两国贸易关系的主要特征。     

基于资本市场的中国灾害风险管理

作为世界上灾害损失最严重的少数国家之一,如何在我国建立有效的灾害损失补偿制度为社会各界所关注。笔者以中国的灾害损失补偿作为研究对象,分析了保险和政府在转移灾害风险方面的局限性,认为中国资本市场存在转移灾害风险的现实基础,并从供给、需求和制度的角度,提出了巨灾风险证券化的发展策略。     

一种基于Levy-人工蜂群的三维Otsu阈值分割算法

针对图像分割过程中三维Otsu算法运算时间长、计算量大的问题,提出了一种基于Levy-人工蜂群算法的三维Otsu阈值分割算法。首先,以像素灰度值-邻域均值-邻域中值的三维类间方差作为人工蜂群算法的适应度函数;其次,采用Levy飞行模式评价像素的适应度,对其种群更新及邻域搜索过程进行优化,以增强其全局搜索能力;最后,利用改进后的算法得到的分割阈值对图像进行分割。仿真实验结果表明,与传统三维Otsu阈值分割算法相比,所提算法能够有效降低图像存储空间,处理时间降低了30.8%,具备更好的抗噪性能,分割效果也更为理想。     

QUASI-LINEAR UTILITY FUNCTIONS AND THE DYNAMICS OF PURE EXCHANGE OVERLAPPING GENERATIONS MODELS

This paper considers the dynamics of pure exchange OLG models with stationary population (each agent living for two periods), tastes and endowments, homogeneous agents and well behaved preferences. It is shown that any kind of dynamics that can emerge from this class of models can be generated by a subclass of models where preferences are described by quasi-linear utility functions.     

Martingale Measures For A Class of Right-Continuous Processes

The subject of the present paper is the following. Suppose that W is a class of adapted, right-continuous processes on the continuous time horizon [0, 1], and for every stopping time and W , () is bounded below. A necessary and sufficient condition will be given for the existence of a probability measure Q which is equivalent to the original measure and such that each process in W is a martingale under Q . If the processes in W represent the discounted prices of available securities, then the condition given here for the existence of a martingale measure can be interpreted as absence of "free lunch" in the securities market. This is a familiar kind of theorem from the finance literature; the novelty of this paper is that the security prices are not required to be in LP for some 1 p , nor are they assumed to be continuous. Also, the concept of free lunch is invariant under the substitution of the original probability measure by an equivalent probability measure. the assumption that () is bounded below for every W and stopping time is quite natural since prices are nonnegative.
We shall define a class of admissible subjective probability measures and assume that each agent in the economy has selected a subjective probability measure from (hat class. Subjective free lunch for an agent will be defined using his or her subjective probability measure. It will be shown that under an additional condition the existence of free lunch is equivalent to the existence of a common subjective free lunch simultaneously for all possible agents in the economy.     

Ranking Candidates Through Convex Sequences of Variable Weights

Scoring rules are a well-known class of positional voting systems where fixed scores are assigned to the different ranks. Nevertheless, since the winners may change according to the scores used, the choice of the scoring vector is not obvious. For this reason several methods have been suggested so that each candidate may be evaluated with the most favorable scoring vector for him/her. In this paper we propose a new model that allows to use different scoring vector for each candidate and avoid some shortcomings of other methods suggested in the literature. Moreover we give a closed expression for the score obtained by each candidate and, in this way, it is possible to rank the candidates without solving the proposed model.     

Co-creation and service recovery process communication: effects on satisfaction,repurchase intentions,and word of mouth

After service failure situations, firms often carry out transactional activities to achieve customer recovery (CR), using corrective actions to restore the exchange (e.g., economic and social compensations). Furthermore, during the service recovery process, firms can encourage activities of co-creation (CC) to prevent similar future failures. This paper discusses the importance of CC and service recovery process communication (RPC), in which customers are informed of the adoption of solutions to address the cause of the failure, so as to avoid the same problem happening again. Experimental studies investigate the impact, individually and together, of CR, CC, and RPC on satisfaction, repurchase intentions, and word of mouth. The results indicate that CC and RPC improve customer’s satisfaction, repurchase intentions, and word of mouth. Firms that want to maximize the return on their efforts to prevent service failures, should encourage CC, develop solutions to prevent future failure recurrence, and implement strategies of RPC. Firms must decide how to promote CC and which media to use for RPC.     

The digital entrepreneurial ecosystem

A significant gap exists in the conceptualization of entrepreneurship in the digital age. This paper introduces a conceptual framework for studying entrepreneurship in the digital age by integrating two well-established concepts: the digital ecosystem and the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The integration of these two ecosystems helps us better understand the interactions of agents and users that incorporate insights of consumers’ individual and social behavior. The Digital Entrepreneurial Ecosystem framework consists of four concepts: digital infrastructure governance, digital user citizenship, digital entrepreneurship, and digital marketplace. The paper develops propositions for each of the four concepts and provides a theoretical framework of multisided platforms to better understand the digital entrepreneurial ecosystem. Finally, it outlines a new research agenda to fill the gap in our understanding of entrepreneurship in the digital age.     

侵权行为的经济分析

经济分析法学是西方法学界和经济学界发展最快的领域之一,运用经济学的方法对法律问题加以阐释,效率与均衡被认定为法律制度的核心理念。特别是在侵权领域引入经济学理论,对侵权行为的责任承担、损害赔偿的事后研究转向了事先分析。因此,从预防成本与预防收益之间的关系对侵权行为的归责原则进行效率分析,并借助“亨德公式”对两种不同的损害赔偿进行经济界定,权衡由侵权行为引起的社会成本差异,当预防的成本小于预防的预期收益,侵权人的预防是必要的、有效率的。如未采取有效的预防措施,侵权人的行为就是无效的,就要受到法律的惩罚。     

Less restrictive trade in textiles and apparel: a position paper

This is a position paper * * The graduate fellow author developed this paper in response to the following assignment: For this assignment, you are to assume that your paper is a briefing paper for a new U.S. textile negotiator who has had a limited amount of experience in working with the textile sector. The new negotiator must be prepared by various constituencies to represent their respective positions adequately and fairiy as bilateral agreements and other trade policies are negotiated. Thus, it is quite important to have your position articulated thoroughly and effectively; the ultimate survival and success of the interests you represent are at stake. For this paper, each student is expected to analyse and articulate the complexities involved in balancing economic, political, and social concerns for this key sector. Professor K. G. Dickerson assisted in developing the paper for publication.
which advocates textile and apparel trade with fewer restrictions. The paper evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of protectionist legislation for the textile sector; also considered are the position of the consumer, and the economy more broadly. Proposed U.S. textile legislation is evaluated in the context of the current political climate, both nationally and internationally. When all factors are considered, the casts of protectionism may exceed the benefits, perhaps even for the industry.     

多属性逆向拍卖采购机制设计

全球市场环境不断向买方市场的转变,为企业利用逆向拍卖机制进行采购创造了条件。多属性逆向拍卖机制是采购拍卖中具有广泛应用价值的机制之一,在供应商成本和采购商效用具有可加属性特征的条件下,设计了一个基于模糊评价的多属性逆向拍卖机制,将各属性等级权重值设为供应行业提供此属性等级的平均边际成本,发现该机制是激励相容的较好机制。     

Erratum to: Exploring Factors Affecting Digital Piracy Using the Norm Activation and UTAUT Models: The Role of National Culture

The model emphasizes the ethical dynamics of compassion in hospitality settings by suggesting that under an organizational ethical climate, the hotel staff will be more morally aware of peers’ pain and suffering, and motivated to participate in delivering compassion. Based on the positive psychology focus on compassion as individual states and traits supporting interpersonal dealings, the paper operationalizes compassion based on four individual factors involved in the compassionate process: (a) empathic concern, or an other-oriented emotional response elicited by and congruent with the perceived welfare of a person in need; (b) mindfulness, a state of consciousness in which attention is focused on present-moment phenomena occurring both externally and internally; (c) kindness, or understanding the pain or suffering of others; and (d) common humanity, or seeing others’ experiences as part of the larger human experience. Data were collected from 280 employees at ten hotels in the Canary Islands (Spain). With the exception of self-interest, results of multiple linear regressions demonstrate that each of the six interpreted factors of ethical climate has substantive effects on any of the studied elements of staff compassion. The egoistic-related and principle-related climate factors generated a more consistent and intense compassionate reaction, suggesting that the staff is moved to act out of compassion either to assure that the team succeeds or to support each other out of moral obligation.     

Do small businesses create more jobs? New evidence for Europe

In this paper, we argue why, in our view, the so-called dynamic classification method should be favored when determining the contribution of small businesses towards job creation. First, it is the only method that consistently attributes job creation or loss to the size class in which it actually occurs. In addition, dynamic classification has two other advantages: (1) it is not vulnerable to the so-called regression to the mean bias, and (2) only a small number of aggregated data are required for its application. Using the dynamic classification, we analyze job creation within the different size classes for the 27 Member States of the European Union. Our main findings are as follows. For the EU as a whole, smaller firms contribute on a larger scale towards job creation than do larger firms. Net job creation rates decrease with each firm size class. This pattern occurs in most industries, however, not in all; the manufacturing industry and trade industry show different patterns. At the level of individual countries, the net job creation rate also tends to decrease with each firm size class. However, this relationship is not perfect.     

Corporations as Political Actors – A Report on the First Swiss Master Class in Corporate Social Responsibility

This paper presents a report on the first Swiss Master Class in Corporate Social Responsibility, which was held between the 8th and 9th December 2006 at HEC Lausanne in Switzerland. The first section of the report introduces the topic of the master class – ?Corporations as Political Actors – Facing the Postnational Challenge’ – as well as the concept of the master class. The second section gives an overview of papers written by nine young scholars that were selected to present their research. The brief summary of each paper also includes a summary of comments from the masters, practitioners, and NGO representatives at the event. The third section brings in the perspectives of one master and one NGO representative on the discussed issues. The final section offers a brief wrap-up of the discussed topics and outlines ways to structure future conceptual and empirical research.     

STATIC FUND SEPARATION OF LONG‐TERM INVESTMENTS

This paper proves a class of static fund separation theorems, valid for investors with a long horizon and constant relative risk aversion, and with stochastic investment opportunities. An optimal portfolio decomposes as a constant mix of a few preference‐free funds, which are common to all investors. The weight in each fund is a constant that may depend on an investor's risk aversion, but not on the state variable, which changes over time. Vice versa, the composition of each fund may depend on the state, but not on the risk aversion, since a fund appears in the portfolios of different investors. We prove these results for two classes of models with a single state variable, and several assets with constant correlations with the state. In the linear class, the state is an Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process, risk premia are affine in the state, while volatilities and the interest rate are constant. In the square root class, the state follows a square root diffusion, expected returns and the interest rate are affine in the state, while volatilities are linear in the square root of the state.     

Time Changes for Lévy Processes

The goal of this paper is to consider pure jump Lévy processes of finite variation with an infinite arrival rate of jumps as models for the logarithm of asset prices. These processes may be written as time-changed Brownian motion. We exhibit the explicit time change for each of a wide class of Lévy processes and show that the time change is a weighted price move measure of time. Additionally, we present a number of Lévy processes that are analytically tractable, in their characteristic functions and Lévy densities, and hence are relevant for option pricing.     

GENERAL PROPERTIES OF ISOELASTIC UTILITY ECONOMIES

This paper studies the class of single‐good Arrow–Debreu economies in which all agents have isoelastic utility functions and homogeneous beliefs, but have possibly different cautiousness parameters and endowments. For each economy in this class, the equilibrium stochastic discount factor is an exponential function of the inverse mapping of a completely monotone function, evaluated at the aggregate consumption. This fact allows for general properties of the class to be studied analytically in terms of known properties of completely monotone functions. For example, conditions are presented under which the agents’ cautiousness parameters and a distribution of initial wealth can be recovered from an equilibrium stochastic discount factor, even if nothing is known about the agents’ endowments. This is a multiagent inverse problem since information about economic primitives is extracted from equilibrium prices. Several example economies are used to illustrate the results.