A unified beta pricing theory

This paper derives Ross's mutual fund separation theory and a new, equilibrium version of Ross's arbitrage pricing theory as special cases of a general theory. The paper also reveals that the two theories are identical in their predictions of asset prices and portfolio returns. The capital asset pricing model (a restricted case of the mutual fund separation theory) receives special treatment.     

The perception of technological risks: A literature review

In response to rising concern about technological risks, a concerted effort is being made to improve risk analysis methods and risk management approaches. As part of this effort, behavioral and social scientists have produced a substantial body of knowledge of value to risk analysts and decision makers. This paper focuses on behavioral and social science studies of human intellectual limitations in thinking about the risks, factors influencing risk attitudes and perceptions, and factors contributing to social conflicts and disputes about technological activities. A basic assumption of the paper is that analysts and decision makers can benefit from a better understanding of how experts and nonexperts think and make decisions about technological risks. Without such understanding, well-intended policies may be ineffective or even counterproductive.     

The shift to services employment: A review of the literature

This paper provides an overview of literature on the employment shift towards services. It follows the three dimensions of structural change: inter-industry productivity differences, the inter-industry division of labor (outsourcing), and shifts in final demand. It concludes that the third dimension gained importance over the last decades although differential productivity growth continued to contribute to the rise of service employment as well. Outsourcing of service tasks from manufacturing industries increased but cannot explain much of the rise in service-industry employment over time. The shift to services is not just a price effect nor is it mainly the effect of the outsourcing of service activities from manufacturing industries. The shift to services is real.     

The evolution of markets and the revolution of industry: a unified theory of growth

This paper puts forth a theory of the Industrial Revolution whereby an economy transitions from Malthusian stagnation to modern economic growth as firms implement cost-reducing production technologies. This take-off of industry occurs once the market reaches a critical size. The mechanism by which market size affects process innovation relies on two overlooked facts pre-dating England??s Industrial Revolution: the expansion in the variety of consumer goods and the increase in firm size. We demonstrate this mechanism in a dynamic general equilibrium model calibrated to England??s long-run development, and explore how various factors affected the timing of its industrialization.     

Repeated contests: A general parameterization

Contests often involve players vying for the same prize year after year. This paper characterizes equilibrium effort, both individual and aggregate, in a general parameterization of such repeated contests.     

The J-Curve: a literature review

Due to lag structure, currency devaluation is said to worsen the trade balance first and improve it later resulting in a pattern that resemble the letter J, hence the J-Curve phenomenon. Since its introduction by Magee in 1973 Magee, SP. 1973. Currency contracts, pass through and devaluation. Brooking Papers on Economic Activity, 1: 303–25.   (Brooking Papers on Economic Activity, 1, pp. 303–25), a large number of studies have attempted to test the phenomenon using different techniques and different model specifications. The results are at best ambiguous and deserve to be collected together for the future generation of researchers and graduate students. This paper fills such a vacuum in the literature by reviewing the J-Curve related empirical papers.     

Democracy as a middle ground: A unified theory of development and political regimes

Although many of the worst performing countries over the post-World War II period were autocracies, many of the best were likewise autocratic. At the same time, no long-lived autocracy currently is rich whereas every long-lived democracy is. This paper proposes a theory to account for these observations that rests on the ideas that autocrats are heterogeneous and that elites experience lower land rents with industrialization. In a model calibrated to Britain's development, we show that elites democratize society only after the economy has accumulated enough wealth, and that the democratization date depends importantly on the history of rulers and distribution of land.     

Market frictions: A unified model of search costs and switching costs

It is well known that search costs and switching costs can create market power by constraining the ability of consumers to change suppliers. While previous research has examined each cost in isolation, this paper demonstrates the benefits of examining the two types of friction in unison. The paper shows how subtle distinctions between the two costs can provide important differences in their effects upon consumer behaviour, competition and welfare. In addition, the paper also illustrates a simple empirical methodology for estimating separate measures of both costs, while demonstrating a potential bias that can arise if only one cost is considered.     

市场的微观结构和交易机制：关于中间商理论的研究评述

虽然中间商在经济发展中发挥了巨大作用,但是,长期以来不被标准经济学文献重视.近年来关于中间商的研宛正在兴起,但还没有形成一个完整的理论体系.在各种文献中.研究的重点是中间商如何出现、通过中间商交易,时社会福利的影响、中间商和其他交易方式的竞争,以及技术进步对中间商的影响等领域.     

关于旅游保险的文献综述

针对2009年以来关于旅游保险的研究进行了梳理。通过对近几年关于旅游保险文献的总结,可以看出学术界关于旅游保险的研究热点在现状、问题及对策的探讨方面,且多为定性分析。同时也找出了一些从新颖角度看待旅游保险的文章,从而可以了解近几年关于旅游保险研究的进展,从而为今后旅游保险的研究方向提供参考,避免相似问题的重复研究,以便切实推进旅游保险市场的发展。     

企业国际化:一个理论与概念框架的文献综述

本文沿用Anderson理论与框架的区别思路,根据企业国际化研究的理论基础就企业国际化研究进行了分类与综述,然后在从变量和概念框架两个层面讨论企业国际化概念框架间联系的基础上,构建了一个综合性的企业国际化概念框架。     

有益品理论：回顾与思考

自马斯格雷夫提出有益品概念后,经济学家探讨了有益品与信息不对称、功利主义之间的关系,将经济人的偏好顺序分为市场偏好、反映偏好与政治偏好,并将有益品概念引入宏观经济学分析领域.由于有益品理论比公共物品理论对现实具有更准确的解释与预测能力,为了丰富财政经济学与公共经济学的学科体系,理论界应加强对有益品的范围、融资方式与有效提供的研究,使有益品理论进入主流经济学的视野.     

Economic theory and comparative economic systems: A partial literature survey

This paper surveys the more abstract literature on the newly developing theory of economic systems. Works from both pure economic theory and comparative economics are discussed. The principal thesis is that, while these two literatures have developed rather independently, they share an amazingly similar framework. What is emerging is a full-fledged theory of economic systems. Emphasis is placed on the three component structures of economic systems—the information, decision-making, and incentive structures–and the normative evaluation of economic systems. J. Comp. Econ., Dec. 1978, 2(4), pp. 355–381. Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: 024,053.     

Piracy of digital products: A critical review of the theoretical literature

Digital products can be copied at almost no cost and are subject to non-commercial copying by final consumers. Because the copy of a copy typically does not deteriorate in quality, copies can become available on a large scale basis – this can be illustrated by the surge of file-sharing networks. In this paper we provide a critical overview of the theoretical literature that addresses the economic consequences of end-user copying. We analyze basic models of piracy, models with indirect appropriation, models with network effects, and models with asymmetric information. We discuss the applicability of the different modeling strategies to a number of industries such as software, video and computer games, music, and movies.     

Population,food, and knowledge: a simple unified growth theory

This paper provides a unified growth theory, i.e. a model that explains the very long-run economic and demographic development path of industrialized economies, stretching from the pre-industrial era to the present-day and beyond. Making strict use of Malthus’ (An essay on the principle of population. London, printed for J. Johnson, 1798) so-called preventive check hypothesis—that fertility rates vary inversely with the price of food—the current study offers a new and straightforward explanation for the demographic transition and the break with the Malthusian era. Employing a two-sector framework with agriculture and industry, we demonstrate how fertility responds differently to productivity and income growth, depending on whether it emerges in agriculture or industry. Agricultural productivity and income growth makes food goods, and therefore children, relatively less expensive. Industrial productivity and income growth, on the other hand, makes food goods, and therefore children, relatively more expensive. The present framework lends support to existing unified growth theories and is well in tune with historical evidence about structural transformation.      

Factors for winning interface format battles: A review and synthesis of the literature

The literature on selection of interface formats is fragmented and does not provide an overall framework in which all relevant factors are included. Current frameworks are incomplete and focus on a subset of the total set of factors. In this paper we develop a more complete overview of factors based on the available literature. First, we perform an extensive literature study of 127 publications, resulting in 29 factors for format dominance. Second, we group the factors into five categories: characteristics of the format supporter, characteristics of the format, format support strategy, other stakeholders, and market characteristics. Third, we perform a meta-analysis and we specify the direction of each factor on format dominance. This results in a framework that facilitates assessing the chances that an interface format achieves dominance. We demonstrate that this framework is more complete than previous frameworks. The framework can be used by both researchers and practitioners to understand historical and current format battles as well as acceptance of formats without direct competitors.     

Reconciling Kuznets and Habbakuk in a unified growth theory

Economic historians have debated the relative labor productivity of the United States agricultural and nonagricultural sectors during the nineteenth century. David (Discussion papers in economic and social history, University of Oxford, 1996) offers a reconciliation of the opposing views by suggesting that while productivity per hour worked in agriculture was comparable to productivity in other sectors, the number of hours worked per year was relatively low, creating a large gap in annual output per worker across sectors. We model and extend a version of Davis’s reconciliation within a unified growth theory that makes connections between the decline in traditional agriculture and several other features of United States development. The dynamic general equilibrium model is consistent with the structural transformation having minor direct and indirect effects on aggregate labor productivity per hour, but substantial effects on aggregate labor productivity per worker. The model also provides a close match to the trends in schooling, fertility, rates of return to physical capital, and labor productivity growth in the nineteenth century.      

Long-run growth empirics and new challenges for unified theory

Annual estimates of productivity are reported for periods over 500 years for eight countries and for five other countries over shorter periods. One- and two-break time series models are used to investigate discontinuities in productivity growth. The results support two-break models of long-run productivity and they favour approaches to unified growth modelling with three epochs. However, the lessening of productivity gaps and the decisive shifts to higher productivity occurred in the twentieth century, chiefly in the years around the World War II. The timing of the breaks and the complexity of the historical record highlights a need for unified models to connect more closely with economic history.