The price and income elasticities of the top clothing exporters: Evidence from a panel data analysis

This paper studies the main export function features of twelve top clothing exporters (China, Hong Kong, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, UK and USA) in the period between 1992 and 2011. Price and income elasticities are estimated for each economy using a panel data approach, after controlling for nonstationarity, cointegration and Granger causality. Rolling regressions are also performed, and show the existence of some elasticities instability over time, fundamentally related to the profound economic and institutional changes affecting the clothing trade in the period under consideration. The analysis suggests that most advanced economies, including Hong Kong, changed their position in the global value chain towards an “organizational” role. China confirms its leadership in clothing exports although its rising price elasticity sounds a warning with regard to future prospects.     

The role of for-profit hospitals in medical expenditures: Evidence from aggregate data in China

The health care delivery system in China, which is dominated by state hospitals, is being increasingly challenged by public concerns: it is too expensive and too inaccessible, a complaint commonly phrased as “kai bin nan, kan bin gui” in Chinese. As the penetration of for-profit hospitals has gradually increased, there is a growing need for policy research to assess their impact on medical spending from the patient perspective. Using panel data at the provincial level in China, this paper examines the impact of the penetration of for-profit hospitals on average medical expenditures for both outpatient and inpatient services in public general hospitals. Based on fixed-effect model estimates, the study shows that the penetration of for-profit hospitals has lowered the average medical expenditures for both inpatient and outpatient services across regions, especially for pharmaceuticals. Together with other results, this study finds no evidence that private for-profit hospitals drive up average medical expenditures while serving their profit-maximization objectives. Rather, they help increase the market supply of health care, which in turn better serves the increasing demand.     

Spread of E-commerce,prices and inflation dynamics: Evidence from online price big data in Korea

The so-called Amazon effect is generally defined as such that the increasing competition in the online market and between online and traditional retailers is reducing retail markups and putting downward pressure on prices. This paper investigates the existence of the Amazon effect using online price big data in Korea where e-commerce has been rapidly spreading. For this task, the direct comparison between the online and offline prices were conducted in terms of the levels, trends, inflations, and dynamic correlations for two prices. Online prices for products were collected and classified under the identical classification in the CPI for 14 items in two divisions: food and non-alcoholic beverages and clothing and footwear. Laspeyres formula with identical weights as for the CPIs was applied to compilation of the item- and division-level OPIs (online price indexes) from July 2018 to June 2019. The empirical analyses overall indicated that persistent decreasing trends in the online prices were found when compared to those in the offline prices represented by the CPIs, indicating the existence of the Amazon effect in Korea. More specifically, the OPI covering two divisions decreased by 1.8%, while the CPI increased by 3.6% for the period. In addition, the close dynamic correlations between on-month inflations of two indexes were also found in panel regression and VAR estimations, indicating that a 1% increasing shock to OPI inflation led to an around 0.3% increasing response in the CPI inflation. The dynamic correlations, however, were quite different across the divisions. Those were more pronounced for the division of food and non-alcoholic beverages while they were found little in the division of clothing and footwear.     

The determinants of exit from institutions and the price elasticity of institutional care: Evidence from Japanese micro-level data

This study examines how the price mechanism affects the length of residents’ at institutions and their destination after exit. Using micro-level data from The Survey on Care Service Providers compiled by the Japanese government, we show that the price elasticity of the hazard of exit was 1.7 from welfare care facilities was 1.8 from health care facilities. Moreover, our estimates reveal that a 1 percentage point increase in copayments leads to an increase in the probability of returning home by 0.04% for residents of welfare care facilities and 3.7% for those of health care facilities and a decrease in the probability of being re-hospitalized by 3.3% for residents of health care facilities and 1.9% for those of medical care facilities. Our findings demonstrate that an appropriate price policy may work well to shorten clients’ length of stay and to reduce the number of the socially institutionalized.     

The costs of non-tariff barriers to trade: Evidence from New Zealand

The Costs of Non-Tariff Barriers to Trade: Evidence from New Zealand. — Recent work on trade policy with imperfect competition indicates that the adverse effects of non-tariff barriers to trade exceed those suggested by traditional theory. With market power in foreign supply, setting a restrictive non-tariff barrier will induce foreign exporters to raise their supply prices. The authors use the experiment provided by the comprehensive New Zealand economic reforms of the mid-1980s. Using panel data on export unit values from Germany and the United States to several destinations including New Zealand, they find some evidence for decreased export prices to New Zealand as a result of the dismantling of non-tariff barriers to trade.     

The wage impact of undocumented workers: Evidence from administrative data

Using administrative, individual level, longitudinal data from the state of Georgia, this article finds that rising shares of undocumented workers results in higher earnings for documented workers, but by a small amount. A one percentage point increase in the share of undocumented workers in a documented worker's county/industry results in an average wage boost of 0.44%. Within the firm, a one percentage point increase in the percent of undocumented workers employed by the firm boosts wages by 0.09% (0.11, 0.12, and 0.04 in low, medium, and high skill firms, respectively). Potential explanations for a positive wage impact are discussed.     

最小价格变动单位的减小对买卖价差日内周期性的影响——来自香港的证据

本文实证分析了香港联交所2006年降低最小价格变动单位(MPV)对股票日内买卖价差的影响。首次检验并拒绝了Foucault等(2005)提出的“收盘买卖价差假说”--他们预测在MPV降低后,收盘时买卖价差相对之前同时段会增大,并给出了若干解释。进一步的回归分析发现,MPV减少后,标准化买卖价差在开盘时变大,在收盘时则变小。这说明在降低MPV的情况下,限价指令交易者调整了他们的日内交易策略。     

The trading behavior and price impact of foreign, institutional, individual investors and government: Evidence from Korean equity market

We examine the dynamic relation between stock returns and four types of investment flows using Korean daily data for the period 1998–2010, focusing on the investment/trading behavior of four types of investors – individual, institutional, government, and foreign – and the effect of cross-border investment flows on the Korean equity market. We find that, first, foreigners and institutional investors tend to drive the Korean equity market, and their trades seem to be information-driven, whereas individual investors do not drive the Korean equity market and their trades do not seem to be information-driven. Second, as a result, both foreigners and institutional investors performed well in the sample period, whereas individual investors performed poorly. Third, the four types of investors differ in their trading behavior. In response to U.S. market returns, foreigners and institutional investors tend to take a momentum strategy whereas individual investors and government tend to take a contrarian strategy.     

Wholesalers,indirect exports,geography, and economies of scope: Evidence from firm transaction data in Japan

This study examines wholesalers’ roles in manufacturers’ exports in Japan. First, it is shown that, like in the case of manufacturing sector, a productivity sorting on the overseas activities is also present in the case of wholesalers. Namely, only the most productive wholesaler firms can engage in foreign direct investment, and the next productive wholesaler firms can participate in export activities, and the least productive wholesaler firms do domestic transactions only. Second, we investigate how the wholesalers facilitate manufacturers’ export activities in the form of indirect exports. We have found that the wholesalers through which manufacturing firms indirectly export their goods are predominantly located in Tokyo or Osaka. The probability of indirect exports is negatively correlated with distance between manufacturers and wholesalers, but there are certain threshold distances at 300–500 kilometers, over which the chance of indirect exports turns null. Another notable finding is that wholesalers’ productivities have positive correlation with the chances of indirect exports whereas manufacturers’ productivities do not matter. The number of manufacturers from which a wholesaler purchases goods, is found to have a positive correlation with the probability of indirect exports, a type of economies of scope effect.     

CPI、REI、PPI和房地产价格传导研究——来自上海的实证数据

本文基于上海价格指数数据研究居民消费价格指数(CPI)、原材料燃料动力购进价格指数(REI)和工业品出厂价格指数(PPI)及房地产销售价格指数的传导效应。通过DAG技术和多元动态因果检验,给出4种价格指数的同期因果流,揭示它们之间的因果联系和信息传导。实证研究表明,PPI对CPI长期传导效应显著,房地产销售价格指数对CPI有一定的弱传导效应。我国应重新编制CPI,提高居住类权重。     

The in-hospital mortality rates of slaves and freemen: Evidence from Touro Infirmary, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1855-1860

Using a rich sample of admission records from New Orleans Touro Infirmary, we examine the in-hospital mortality risk of free and enslaved patients. Despite a higher mortality rate in the general population, slaves were significantly less likely to die in the hospital than the whites. We analyze the determinants of in-hospital mortality at Touro using Oaxaca-type decomposition to aggregate our regression results. After controlling for differences in characteristics and maladies, we find that much of the mortality gap remains unexplained. In conclusion, we propose an alternative explanation for the mortality gap based on the selective hospital admission of slaves.     

The effect of foreign competition on UK employment and wages: Evidence from firm-level panel data

The Effect of Foreign Competition on UK Employment and Wages: Evidence from Firm-Level Panel Data. —This paper contributes to the sparse empirical literature on the effects of foreign competition on domestic employment and wages. The authors estimate a structural labour demand equation on UK firm-level panel data between 1982 and 1989 and several wage equations. When they restrict the sample to the manufacturing sector only, they find for the unionized firms that foreign competition has a negative effect on both wages and on employment. However, when UK manufacturing firms face only a few rivals, foreign competition has a positive effect on wages, but no effect on employment.     

The effects of the social norm on cigarette consumption: Evidence from Japan using panel data

Using Japan's prefecture-level panel data from 1989 to 2001, this paper examines the influence of the social norm on a person's smoking behavior when the complementary relationship between smoking and drinking is taken into account. The key findings through a dynamic panel model controlling for unobserved prefecture-specific fixed effects are as follows: (1) influence from others is stronger when people live more closely and cohesively. A tightly knit society results in a reduction of smoking through smoking-related interaction. (2) Smoking and drinking have a complementary relationship: greater initial consumption of alcohol results in larger consumption of cigarettes. (3) The complementary relationship between smoking and drinking is attenuated if the cost of committing the annoying conduct (i.e., smoking) is high.Overall, this empirical study provides evidence that the psychological effect of the presence of surrounding people has a direct significant effect upon smoking behavior and, furthermore, that it attenuates the complementary relationship between smoking and drinking, thereby reducing cigarette consumption. These results indicate that not only formal rules but also tacitly formed informal norms are effective deterrents to smoking.     

The “news view” of economic fluctuations: Evidence from aggregate Japanese data and sectoral US data

This paper uses aggregate Japanese data and sectoral US data to explore the properties of the joint behavior of stock prices and total factor productivity (TFP) with the aim of highlighting data patterns that are useful for evaluating business cycle theories. The approach used follows that presented in [Beaudry, P., Portier, F., 2004. News, stock prices and economic fluctuations. Working paper 10548. NBER]. The main findings are that (i) in both Japan and the US, innovations in stock prices that are contemporaneously orthogonal to TFP precede most of the long-run movements in total factor productivity and (ii) such stock prices innovations do not affect US sectoral TFPs contemporaneously, but do precede TFP increases in those sectors that are driving US TFP growth, namely durable goods, and among them equipment sectors. J. Japanese Int. Economies 19 (4) (2005) 635–652.     

受教育年限、阶层认同与幸福感——来自委托-代理理论和CGSS的证据

所谓“苟不教,性乃迁”,教育自古是引导个人身心发展的有效工具,同样也是国家百年大计之根本。在个人和国家都越来越重视幸福感的今天,教育对幸福感是否以及如何发挥作用,便是文章的研究主题。文章基于经济理论和实证研究方法,使用委托-代理理论一般模型原理和中国综合社会调查项目(CGSS)的调查数据,理论上和实证上验证了教育与幸福感的正相关关性,并深入研究了教育对幸福感的作用机制。研究发现,受教育年限越长即学历越高的人,幸福感相对更强。进一步对不同群体展开分析,显示受教育年限为男性带来的幸福感略高于女性;为45岁以下群体带来的幸福感要高于45岁以上群体;除此之外受教育年限对幸福感的影响还存在区域差异,其为农村群体带来的幸福感要高于城市群体。并且实证证据表明教育是可以通过阶层认同感来影响幸福感,“受教育年限—阶层认同感—幸福感”这一幸福感作用机制成立。以上结论说明,个人可以通过教育这一工具来提升自己的幸福感,同时政府在推进居民幸福提升的进程中,应坚定不移地推进乡村振兴人才队伍建设及十二年义务教育试点工作,支持女性及其专项教育事业,关注中老年群体身心健康。     

腐败控制、私人部门参与基础设施提供与反贫困效应——来自发展中国家的经验证据(1996-2014)

惩治腐败和消除贫困始终是广大发展中国家面临的重要任务。文章基于1996年到2014年138个发展中国家的数据，探索了腐败控制降低一国贫困率的新机制，即促进私人部门参与基础设施提供。我们发现：第一，腐败控制显著促进了私人部门参与基础设施提供；第二，私人部门参与基础设施提供显著降低了发展中国家的贫困率；第三，"中介效应"分析显示，腐败控制是通过促进私人部门参与基础设施提供进而降低一国贫困率的。文章的发现是对发展中国家腐败与贫困关系研究的一个有益补充，不但有助于理解私人部门参与基础设施提供的制度基础，也有助于发展中国家设计反贫困的公共政策。     

小商品市场发展的国际依托、学术论争与战略操作:浙江证据

浙江省义乌市国际贸易综合改革试点总体方案(以下简称义乌试点)已获国务院批复,义乌试点必须充分发挥义乌小商品批发市场在全球分工协作体系中的独特作用。在探索现代流通新方式方面,大胆探索,实现体制机制的创新与突破,为我国加快转变外贸发展方式,形成经济全球化条件下参与国际经济合作与竞争的新优势提供新动力。