Tourism Taxes: Implications for Tourism Demand in the UK

Before one can understand tax implications for the tourism industry, one must understand the sensitivity of tourism demand. Using a recently developed theoretical framework, we model inbound tourism demand in the UK. The results suggest that tourism demand in the UK is very price sensitive and that measures which result in increasing tourism prices will have a significant negative impact on tourist arrivals. It is believed that a reduction in the VAT rate could boost UK's tourism sector, depending on the extent to which a decrease in taxation is passed on in the form of price reductions. The results also suggest that arrivals from neighboring countries are 98% higher than from distant origins; however, expenditure per capita of the former is 52% lower than the latter. We also found that common language between the origin and the destination increases arrivals 7% more than non‐native English‐speaking origins.     

The Demand for Food Products: An Analysis of Interpurchase Times and Purchased Quantities

In this paper we study household purchase behaviour of storable food products. An inventory model is developed in which the household chooses an optimal stock level of the product. Storage of the product is costly, there is a fixed cost per purchase occasion, and the market price is sometimes discounted because of price promotions. We show that the optimal purchase policy is an s , S policy. The model is used to derive predictions on the correlations between interpurchase times and purchased quantities on the one hand, and prices on the other. These predictions are empirically verified using consumer panel data.     

Competition and Competition Policy: Implications of Hong Kong's Reversion to China

The paper explores how Hong Kong's new status as China's Special Administrative Region (SAR) may affect the competitiveness of the industries and the relative position of companies owned by non-Hong Kong investors. The conclusion is that mainland Chinese firms will play an increasingly more important role in Hong Kong's economy and British firms will lose their dominance further. This does not, however, indicate a return to unequal competition in favor of firms from the sovereign country, but the beginning of a period of greater competition by all firms in Hong Kong, whether they be local or non-local. There is a risk that governmental and semi‐governmental corporations of the SAR and other Chinese governments may use their official and semi-official status to tilt the playing field in their favor, but appropriate competition law can address this concern.     

A Regional Analysis of German Money Demand Around Reunification with Implications for EMU

This paper employs regional data to analyze German money demand before and after reunification. The data show that a cointegrating relationship between real per capita deposits, real per capita income and the short-term interest rate can be found in the Western states, suggesting that reunification has not destabilized monetary relationships within West-Germany. In the Eastern states, the large monetary shock following reunification precludes finding a co-integrating relationship, although in the second half of the 1990s East-German velocity growth seems to have converged to the West-German pattern. The behavior of regional monetary aggregates inside Germany also offers a preview of how in the future monetary aggregates may behave inside Europe's monetary union.     

我国生猪养殖户饲料需求行为分析——基于对辽宁、河北生猪养殖户的问卷调查

本文以对辽宁、河北两省生猪养殖户饲料使用情况的调研数据为基础,从养殖户饲料需求的总体情况、养殖户的不同养殖规模、养殖户的不同兼业程度3个角度分别对我国生猪养殖户的饲料需求行为进行分析。结果表明:调研两省生猪养殖户的工业饲料使用比重不高、饲料粮使用比重较高、农副产品使用比重差异较大,这主要是受生猪养殖的规模化水平、饲料价格以及当地资源条件等因素的限制。     

Global Competition for Mobile Resources: Implications for Equity, Efficiency and Political Economy

International integration of markets for labor and capital hasfar-reaching policy implications in economies where governmentspursue extensive programs of redistribution through tax andtransfer policies. The large fiscal impacts that result frommovement of high- and low-income populations, as well as ofcapital, affect the benefits, costs, and political payoffs ofredistributive policies, creating incentives for fiscal competitionthat may limit the extent of redistribution over time. Migrationand capital flows are dynamic adjustment mechanisms, analysisof which can shed light on the consequences of structural changessuch as globalization of factor markets and EU enlargement.(JEL codes: H0, J0)     

The Demand for Money in Canada: A Cointegration Analysis

In this Paper, using the techniques in cointegration theory, we find strong support for the existence of a long-run equilibrium relationship among money demand variables in Canada. Additionally, when the conventional partial adjustment model (PAM) is compared to the two-stage error correction model (ECM), the latter approach is found to perform better, with M2+ showing better results than M2. Our results are also found to be in line with other studies from the U.K. and the U.S.A. These findings provide rationale for further in-depth studies on broader monetary aggregates to formulate sound monetary policy in Canada. [E41]     

A Spatial Cross–Sectional Analysis of Elasticity of Demand for Soccer

Several studies estimate the demand for watching English professional football (soccer) as highly inelastic, a puzzling result given that clubs appear to possess a degree of monopoly power. We discuss weaknesses in earlier studies and offer an alternative method of assessing elasticity based on travel costs of spectators living different distances from the grounds. We find that elasticity varies across the 20 senior clubs for which data were available but in almost every case demand is more elastic than reported in the existing literature and pricing policy appears therefore to be more orientated towards profit maximisation than previously thought.     

发达国家食品安全监管体系及对中国的启示

一些发达国家或地区为了加强食品安全管理,建有食品安全预警机制、明确的监控机制、迅速有力的应急机制、全面配套的法律体系、科学健全的标准体系、严格及时的食品追溯与召回制度和食品安全的责任追究及惩罚制度。在分析美国、欧盟、加拿大、日本等发达国家食品安全监管体系的基础上,结合当前我国食品安全监管体系中存在的一些问题,提出：我国应当借鉴发达国家食品安全监管体系的成功经验,积极探索和建立一套适合中国国情的食品安全监管机制和法律制度。     

面向未来的消费理论及其对刺激内需政策选择的启示

面向未来的消费理论对我们启动内需的政策选择方面有以下启示：１．在刺激居民消费需求方面重视制度建设,以改善人们对未来的预期;２．应把激发投资热情（主要是企业投资）作为启动内需的重点。     

Discrete Choice Analysis of Demand for Broadband in Japan

The remarkable development of Japan’s broadband (BB) market has attracted attention worldwide. This paper is one of the first to analyze Japan’s BB demand (including FTTH) using a discrete choice model. Our main conclusions are first, there is a distinction between narrowband (NB) and BB services based on a nested choice structure. Second, considering own-price elasticities of access demand, ADSL is inelastic, but FTTH and CATV are elastic. Third, in ADSL submarkets, low-speed and high-speed ADSL are becoming more elastic.     

Demand for Environmental Quality: An Empirical Analysis of Consumer Behavior in Sweden

In this paper we estimate the income elasticity of demand for recreational services and other traditional groups of goods in Sweden and test for potential changes in such estimates over the twentieth century. Due to the difficulty of directly observing the demand for recreational services, we employ an indirect methodology by using the demand for some outdoor goods as a proxy for the demand for recreational services. In line with most prior research, our results confirm the expectation that recreational services, as a public good, is a luxury good in Sweden. Our results also show that the income elasticities for traditional goods are stable over time, indicating that consumer preferences for expenditure on these specific commodities do not change over time.      

消费稳定、消费增长与居民福利* ——对于扩大内需的新寓意

城乡居民消费取决于两个视阈的特征：消费波动和消费增长。扩大内需尤其是消费需求一直以来都在致力于促进消费增长,但效果却不理想,而稳定消费作为被忽视的另一个视阈,值得关注吗？本文基于我国省际城乡1985-2011年实际人均消费数据,测度消费增速放缓和消费波动的福利成本,实证分析我国省级城乡层面两种福利成本的大小关系,从定量意义上说明稳定消费为扩大内需不容忽视的新视阈。研究发现,无论是城镇,还是农村,各省份消费波动的福利成本并不必然远小于消费增速放缓的福利成本,相关参数合理取值范围之内,前者大于后者是更为普遍的情形。因此,稳定消费视阈扩大内需具有不容忽视的政策空间,政府应该在把促进消费增长作为扩大内需工作重点的同时,合理兼顾消费稳定。     

Some Implications of Imperfect Competition For Recent Trade Theory*

This paper argues that in a general-equilibrium context, it is not sensible for oligopolistic (and mono-polistically competitive) firms to maximize profit, because the outcome would be sensitive to the choice of the numeraire. the natural objective of these firms would be to maximize the utility of the shareholders if the shareholders are identical. I show that even if each firm takes the representative individual's marginal utility of income as given, the outcome of the utility maximization objective is Pareto optimal, and in equilibrium, each firm equates price with marginal cost.     

Picking the Poor: Indicators for Geographic Targeting in Peru

Geographic targeting is perhaps the most popular mechanism used to direct social programs to the poor in Latin America. This paper empirically compares geographic targeting indicators available in Peru. To this effect, I combine household–level information from the 1997 Peru Living Standards Measurement Survey (LSMS) and district–level information from the 1993 Peru Population and Housing Census. I then conduct a series of simulations which estimate leakage rates, concentration curves, the impact of transfers on poverty as measured by the headcount index, poverty gap and P2 measures of the FGT family, and non–parametric (kernel) densities when transfers are based on alternative indicators. I conclude that there is substantial potential for geographic targeting in Peru. However, the differences in outcomes across geographic targeting indicators are small, and are not statistically significant. These results are in keeping with earlier work which suggests that (among reasonable alternatives) the choice of geographic targeting indicator does not have an important bearing on poverty outcomes, and are at odds with more recent research which stresses the advantage of poverty maps which "impute" consumption or income.     

The Demand for Cigarettes in the Republic of Korea and Implications for Government Policy to Lower Cigarette Consumption

The government of the Republic of Korea has become concerned with reducing cigarette consumption, which historically has been very prevalent. This study contributes to the debate over cigarette policies in South Korea, with implications for other Asian countries with similar economic and cultural backgrounds. The authors estimate cigarette demand in South Korea over the period 1960–97, considering various government policies employed to reduce cigarette consumption. Results of the estimation suggest that taxation appears to be a viable means of reducing cigarette consumption, but methods to inform the public about the health hazards of smoking should be reconsidered and strengthened. (JEL H51 , I18 , L66 )     

Competition Between Networks: A Study of the Market for Yellow Pages

This paper estimates the importance of network effects in the market for Yellow Pages. I estimate three simultaneous equations: consumer demand for usage of a directory, advertiser demand for advertising and a publisher's first-order condition (derived from profit-maximizing behaviour). Estimation shows that advertisers value consumer usage and that consumers value advertising, implying a network effect. I find that internalizing network effects would significantly increase surplus. As an application, I consider whether the market benefits from monopoly (which takes advantage of network effects) or oligopoly (which reduces market power). I find that a more competitive market is preferable.     

Competition Among Italian Junior‐Secondary Schools: A Variance‐Decomposition Empirical Analysis

The public economic theory emphasizes the potential role of competition in fostering the performance of educational systems. The rationale for pro‐competitive policies in education (i.e. vouchers, charter schools, tax deductions) is that schools can improve their quality responding to ‘pressures’ from nearby competitors. The objective of this paper is to analyze the potential relationship between (i) competition among schools and (ii) students’ achievement in Italy. While previous studies used OECD‐Pisa data for this purpose, here a new dataset about Italian schools has been employed: about 19,000 students in 150 schools constitute the sample. The reference framework is the idea that the presence of more schools in a certain area, and/or the proportion of students enrolled in private schools, should raise the performance of schools operating in that area through a ‘competition effect’. A multilevel strategy, which allows separating between‐areas variance in achievement scores, is employed. The findings support the view that competition has an impact, albeit little, on students’ achievement, and such competitive pressure is due to the number of schools, no matter if public or private.     

经济增长与食品安全——食品安全库兹涅茨曲线假说检验与政策启示

中国经济快速增长却伴随食品安全事故频发的经验证据表明,食品安全与经济增长之间可能存在着某种相关关系。本文在理论上从弥补食品供需缺口导致的技术滥用和非正式制度缺失导致的逐利行为两个层面出发,分析食品安全事故频发的原因,提出食品安全库兹涅茨曲线假说,并进行实证检验。研究发现:经济增长水平、食品工业产值与食品安全风险度之间存在着"倒U型"曲线关系,在"倒U型"曲线拐点到来之前,随着经济增长水平的提高、食品工业规模的扩大,食品安全风险度是上升的;而当突破拐点之后,食品安全风险度是不断下降的。此外,食品工业发展程度、人均受教育年限与食品安全风险度存在着负相关关系。食品安全库兹涅茨曲线假说为现阶段中国食品安全问题的解决提供了有益的政策启示。