On the relationship between the value of the mark and German production

This study employs Johansen's cointegration technique to determine the long-run relationship between exchange value of the DM and German production. It is shown that depreciation of the DM has a long-run expansionary impact on German production. This conclusion is based on a new method of selecting the order of VAR and the appropriate cointegrating vector simultaneously.     

Optimal fiscal policy in the Uzawa-Lucas model with CES production

This paper devises an endogenous growth model with human capital in the Uzawa-Lucas framework in which the average human capital has a positive external effect on the goods sector. Unlike previous works, this paper assumes that output is produced with a CES technology and analyzes the existence, uniqueness, and stability of equilibrium. Also, a fiscal policy is devised that is capable of providing the required incentives to optimize the competitive equilibrium. In order to correct the market failure caused by the externality, the authors introduce a subsidy to human capital and analyze how it can be financed in an optimal way. Some simulation results are presented.     

On the relationship between hierarchy and type morphisms

Here, we establish a relationship between hierarchy and type morphisms. Both concepts have been used to relate the types in one structure to types in a second “larger” structure. In general, the two concepts may differ, in the sense that a hierarchy morphism need not be a type morphism. We provide a necessary and sufficient condition under which the two concepts coincide. We go on to provide situations under which this condition must be satisfied.     

Technological change in energy systems: Learning curves, logistic curves and input-output coefficients

Learning curves have recently been widely adopted in climate-economy models to incorporate endogenous change of energy technologies, replacing the conventional assumption of an autonomous energy efficiency improvement. However, there has been little consideration of the credibility of the learning curve. The current trend that many important energy and climate change policy analyses rely on the learning curve means that it is of great importance to critically examine the basis for learning curves. Here, we analyse the use of learning curves in energy technology, usually implemented as a simple power function. We find that the learning curve cannot separate the effects of price and technological change, cannot reflect continuous and qualitative change of both conventional and emerging energy technologies, cannot help to determine the time paths of technological investment, and misses the central role of R&D activity in driving technological change. We argue that a logistic curve of improving performance modified to include R&D activity as a driving variable can better describe the cost reductions in energy technologies. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the top-down Leontief technology can incorporate the bottom-up technologies that improve along either the learning curve or the logistic curve, through changing input-output coefficients. An application to UK wind power illustrates that the logistic curve fits the observed data better and implies greater potential for cost reduction than the learning curve does.     

略论生态经济学与可持续发展经济学的关系

对生态环境的狭义理解，决定了可持续发展经济学与生态经济学是大范畴与小范畴的关系，这种关系决定了它们之间有许多共同的地方，但又存在着许多差别，因此它们之间存在互补的关系，正确处理这种关系，就能促进两者的共同发展。     

On the existence of a regulated production function

This paper examines the generalization of the regulated production function. It characterizes the set of admissible regulatory constraints that are compatible with the existence of a regulated production function in a sufficiently weak framework to encompass the usual rate-of-return constraints à la Averch and Johnson and value constraints.     

On the relationship between population change and sustainable development

This paper investigates the relationship between population growth and economic growth, through the study of fertility choices and their effects on natural resources. It aims at analyzing the interactions between endogenous fertility choices and the environment and their link to the sustainable matter. We analyze a growth model driven by natural resources and without production, where agents have jointly to determine consumption and fertility, taking into account the effects of their decisions on the dynamics of natural resources. We adopt the most optimistic view on natural capital (it generates endogenous growth) and the weakest notion of sustainable paths (all variables are positive): in such a framework we expect that sustainable paths exist. We instead show that this is not always true. In fact, even if renewal capacity of natural resources is unbounded, not always can a sustainable path be found: this depends on the difference between the stationary fertility rate and the mortality rate. If the stationary fertility is lower than the mortality rate, a sustainable path will not be found, and in such a case public intervention is necessary in order to address the economy along a sustainable path. This can simply be done through policies affecting public attention to environmental protection or the intensity of the dilution effect.     

On testing the stability of input-output relationships in the Indian economy

Scepticism is often expressed about plan models for their reliance on input-output relationships based on not-very-recent data. An attempt is made in this paper to demonstrate, with Indian data, that temporal changes in input-output relationships in general are likely to be small. In a few crucial cases, however, the changes may be more than nominal and adjustments for intra-sectoral product mix and technological changes would be necessary for minimising the errors in intermediate demand projections. While the applicability of these findings to economies with a slow rate of growth seems plausible, the same cannot be said for other developing economies experiencing a much faster rate of growth.     

Efficiency and the production function

Journal of Economics -     

On the time-varying relationship between EMU sovereign spreads and their determinants

We use a dynamic multipath general-to-specific algorithm to capture structural instability in the link between euro area sovereign bond yield spreads against Germany and their underlying determinants over the period January 1999–August 2011. We offer new evidence suggesting a significant heterogeneity across countries, both in terms of the risk factors determining spreads over time as well as in terms of the magnitude of their impact on spreads. Our findings suggest that the relationship between euro area sovereign risk and the underlying fundamentals is strongly time-varying, turning from inactive to active since the onset of the global financial crisis and further intensifying during the sovereign debt crisis. As a general rule, the set of financial and macro spreads' determinants in the euro area is rather unstable but generally becomes richer and stronger in significance as the crisis evolves.     

Domestic demand and global production in the Eurozone: A multi-regional input-output assessment of the global crisis

This paper studies the effects of domestic and foreign demand impulses in euro area economies following the Great Recession of 2008–2009 and the Eurozone crisis of 2011–2012. Using a global Input–Output framework we apply a set of metrics to assess spillover effects of international trade in intermediates triggered by the dynamics of final demand. Our findings suggest that while cross-country trade spillovers have played a crucial role during the Great Recession, they have had a moderate impact when compared with the role of domestic sources of final demand during the Eurozone crisis. Hence, a strategy of coordinated fiscal austerity cannot be sustained by empirical evidence.     

The dynamic relationship between the US GDP,imports and domestic production of crude oil

This article investigates the dynamic relationship between crude oil imports, gross domestic product (GDP) and domestic crude oil production of the United States using a Vector Error Correction model estimation, generalized impulse response functions, persistence profile and variance decompositions. This article results suggest that the GDP has a leading role in determining oil imports.     

中央银行独立性与通货膨胀关系的实证研究

对中央银行独立性问题的研究起源于对货币政策动态不一致的讨论,学者普遍认为中央银行独立性的增强有助于减轻货币政策动态不一致导致的通货膨胀.本文提出我国的央行独立性应该包括人事独立性、政策独立性和财务独立性三方面,并且用修正过的指标对我国中央银行独立性与通货膨胀之间的关系进行实证分析.在理论上分析了我国中央银行独立性可以抑制通货膨胀的两个机制:固定资产投资渠道和为了缓解收入不平等进行转移支付的渠道.     

On the relationship between the provision of waste management service and illegal dumping

The illegal dumping of waste has been a serious environmental concern of most countries in the world. This paper examines the relationship between the provision of waste treatment facilities and the frequency of illegal dumping. Our results show that a shortage of intermediate waste treatment facilities has played an important role in increasing the frequency of illegal dumping.     

On the relationship between energy returns and trading volume: a multifractal analysis

Forecasting and modelling commodities price movements and the activity of energy markets are of real interest to investors and policymakers, especially during turbulent times. This study investigates the volume–returns relationship for two major energy markets (oil and gas) during the recent global financial crisis. Unlike previous studies, we examine this relationship by applying an original fractal approach to intraday data, which has the advantage of accounting for further non-normality, nonstationarity, and fat-tailedness properties. Our study provides two interesting findings. First, we find a significant multifractal relationship between returns and volume in both markets and across all timescales, suggesting nonlinearity in the cross-correlation between returns and volume and rejecting the efficiency assumption. Second, the measure of multifractality in this relationship shows that the magnitude of the fluctuations during bearish and bullish trends affects the volume–return relationship differently, and that the oil market exhibits higher volatility than does the gas market.     

VARMA modeling of the production function

This paper models the elements of the production function by VARMA methods to gain empirical insight on which element leads the other. At the same time, we look for the possibility of detecting any characteristic which could help to differentiate between developed and developing economies.     

Using Monte Carlo analysis to investigate the relationship between overconsumption and uncertain access to one's personal utility function

The failure of income and subjective well-being to correlate strongly beyond subsistence levels has been well documented. This is an important observation from an environmental perspective because it suggests that some excess consumption could be curbed without leading to a decline in subjective well-being. At the same time, there is evidence that access to one's internal utility function is imperfect, indicating that choices may approximate utility maximization but that the correspondence is unlikely to be exact. Here I use a Monte Carlo model to incorporate findings from hedonic psychology to investigate the question of how imperfect access to one's utility may lead to negatively affective overconsumption through asymmetries in how people are able to budget their time. According to the model, consumer debt leads to a compounding of this issue. Although it cannot return well-being to the ideal level, some hedonic costs of this overconsumption can be partially mitigated through required vacation in excess of what individuals would chose themselves in a fully functioning market, perhaps along the line of the European model.     

Understanding the relationship between poverty and children's health

Throughout the world, children from poor households have worse health than children from wealthier households. There are numerous channels through which such disparities may arise. For designing programs to improve children's health, it is important to identify, for example, whether these disparities arise from differences in pre-natal health inputs and behaviors (nutrition, alcohol and tobacco use during pregnancy), or differential health inputs following birth. We explore these issues for Russia, where children's health is particularly poor. We find that large health disparities between rich and poor originate largely from differences in pre-natal nutrition and alcohol use.