Money,transactions and portfolio choice

Real money balances are held separately forconsumptionandportfolioreasons. When real balances are a state variable in the investor 's optimization problem, there is a specific inflation-hedging portfolio. An investor hedges against inflation when the effect of real money holdings on the marginal utility of wealth is negative. We show that a decrease in real balances due to inflation has two opposite effects on the marginal utility of wealth. On the one hand, the decrease in real balances reduces consumption, which in turn raises the marginal utility and decreases the marginal cost of consuming: this explains why an investor would normally hedge inflation. On the other hand, the decrease in real balances tends to increase the marginal cost of consuming. When this second effect dominates, we have the somewhat surprising result that the investor reverse-hedges inflation.     

Inventories,inflation dynamics and the New Keynesian Phillips curve

We introduce inventories into an otherwise standard New Keynesian model and study the implications for inflation dynamics. Inventory holdings are motivated as a means to generate sales for demand-constrained firms. We derive various representations of the New Keynesian Phillips curve with inventories and show that one of these specifications is observationally equivalent to the standard model with respect to the behavior of inflation when the model's cross-equation restrictions are imposed. However, the driving variable in the New Keynesian Phillips curve – real marginal cost – is unobservable and has to be proxied by, for instance, real unit labor cost. An alternative approach is to impute marginal cost by using the model's optimality conditions. We show that the stock–sales ratio is linked to marginal cost. We also estimate these various specifications of the New Keynesian Phillips curve using GMM. We find that the predictive power of the inventory-specification at best approaches that of the standard model, but does not improve upon it.     

Climate Policy,Uncertainty, and the Role of Technological Innovation

We study how uncertainty about climate change severity affects the relative benefits of early abatement and a portfolio of research and development (R&D) in lowering future abatement costs. Optimal early abatement depends on the curvature of the marginal benefit and marginal abatement cost (MAC) functions and how the uncertain parameter affects marginal benefits. R&D in a particular technology depends on whether uncertainty increases early abatement; whether investment lowers marginal costs for that technology; whether R&D lowers the slope of that technology's MAC function; and the shape of that technology's MAC function. We illustrate, focusing on the role of backstop technologies.     

The Antonelli Versus Hicks Elasticity of Complementarity and Inverse Input Demand Systems

A true measure of input substitution associated with exogenous changes in input quantities requires that the output level be held constant. To this effect, this study presents the Antonelli elasticity of complementarity characterised by the distance function. The more common Hicks elasticity of complementarity assumes that marginal cost is constant and hence does not capture pure substitution effects. The two elasticities of complementarity are related to inverse demand systems and are shown to be equivalent under constant returns to scale. A framework for estimating the Antonelli elasticity from the uncompensated demand system is presented. Estimation results reveal substantial bias of input substitutability with the use of Hicks' measure.     

Barriers to investment in ICT

This paper studies the complementarity between investment in information and communication technologies (ICT) and the related investment in human and organizational capital. Using firm-level data taken from a large sample of Italian manufacturing firms, an ICT marginal product much higher than its user cost is estimated. It is then argued that missing complementary investments may have acted as barriers to investment in ICT. Results support the conjecture that the marginal product excess over the user cost is due to those firms that did not complement their ICT investment with an increase in the human capital of their labour force and with a reorganization of the workplace.     

跨国并购的技术创新机理研究——海尔集团并购FPA案例研究

跨国技术并购中的知识转移能够提升企业创新绩效,但作为并购方的中国企业在技术上并没有并购对象先进,这就导致并购企业不能有效地管理知识转移过程。为明确在跨国技术并购中知识转移促进技术创新的内在机制,并解释知识一致性、战略互补性、组织匹配性等因素对于知识转移效率的影响机制,本文采用案例研究的方法,以海尔集团并购FPA为研究对象,研究中国企业通过跨国并购实现技术创新机理。结果表明,跨国技术并购过程中知识一致性、资源互补性、组织匹配性等因素,有助于并购企业间的知识转移,并最终提升了并购企业的创新绩效。知识一致性、战略互补性和组织匹配性增强了知识转移对于企业创新绩效的影响。从知识转移研究的角度看,知识一致性能够提升吸收能力,并降低知识转移的成本。从并购研究的视角看,战略互补性、组织匹配性则为知识转移提供了保障机制。最后,本文提出我国企业通过跨国并购战略获取关键技术的过程中,应该评估与并购对象的知识一致性、战略互补性和组织匹配性,能够提升并购企业的吸收能力,增强并购双方的跨组织创新网络与联系,使得知识转移更加容易在并购企业双方之间发生,最终提升并购企业的创新绩效。     

COST‐SAVING PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGIES AND STRATEGIC DELEGATION*

This work analyses a managerial delegation model in which firms choose between two production technologies: a low marginal cost technology and a high marginal cost technology. For the former to be adopted more investment is needed than for the later. By giving managers of firms an incentive scheme based on a linear combination of profit and sales revenue, we find that Bertrand competition provides a stronger incentive to adopt the cost‐saving technology than the strict profit maximisation case. However, the results may be reversed under Cournot competition. If the degree of product substitutability is sufficiently low (high), the incentive to adopt the cost‐saving technology is larger under strict profit maximisation (strategic delegation).     

Do search frictions matter for inflation dynamics?

We assess the empirical relevance for inflation dynamics of accounting for the presence of search frictions in the labor market. The new Keynesian Phillips curve explains inflation as being mainly driven by current and expected future marginal costs. Recent empirical research has emphasized different measures of real marginal costs to be consistent with observed inflation persistence. We argue that, allowing for search frictions in the labor market, real marginal cost should also incorporate the cost of generating and maintaining long-term employment relationships, along with conventional measures, such as real unit labor costs. In order to construct a synthetic measure of real marginal costs, we use newly available labor market data on worker finding and separation rates that reflect hiring and firing costs. We then estimate a new Keynesian Phillips curve by generalized method of moments (GMM) using the imputed marginal cost series as an observable and find that the contribution of labor market frictions in explaining inflation dynamics is small.     

Econometric issues related to identification of the market power parameter

This study demonstrates the crucial role the specification of the cost function plays in identifying the market power parameter in autarky models. For constant marginal cost or marginal cost with quantity interacting with input prices, the market power parameter in autarky models in identified without a rotation of the demand curve. If a comodity is sold in both domestic and foreign markets, the market power parameters are identified regardless of the specific form of the marginal cost and demand specifications.     

The meta-technology cost ratio: An indicator for judging the cost performance of CO2 reduction

This paper constructs an innovative ratio of meta-technology cost (MTCR) by combining the meta-frontier framework and shadow price model. This ratio is not only an indicator to account for country-specific technology heterogeneity or technology heterogeneity across a group of countries to measure improvement toward the meta-frontier. This ratio also computes the absolute value difference between the real and ideal minimum marginal abatement costs for the non-market good CO₂ to achieve specific emission reduction. An equally weighted combination of technological readiness and innovation is used to classify countries into groups. The value of the MTCR via the computation of the meta marginal abatement cost (MAC^meta) and group marginal abatement cost (MAC^group-k) allows us to identify the possible improvement of marginal abatement cost (MAC) in absolute value. That is, observation of the MTCR, along with its components the MAC^meta and MAC^group-k, provides more intuitive and comprehensive information for commanding the cost performance of CO₂ reduction than the traditional meta-technology ratio alone.     

小企业加入非对称联盟动机对权力配置与绩效的影响——以水环境治理行业为例

以往有关联盟绩效的研究很少关注企业动机通过权力配置对绩效的多重影响,以及不同动机和权力配置的影响差异。以资源依赖理论和议价能力理论为基础,以中国245家水环境治理企业为样本,研究小企业加入联盟的动机通过感知位置权力与能力权力的配置,对非对称联盟创新绩效和财务绩效的联合效应。结果表明,战略动机通过感知权利互补和平衡促进技术创新;成本动机通过感知权利互补影响财务绩效,但无法通过感知权利平衡影响财务绩效。     

论采购联盟集体谈判力的价格、销量与福利效应

文章以中国的制造业外包服务,即出口加工贸易活动为基础,发展了一个有关本国企业的中间品策略性采购联盟与外国垄断性供给者进行集体谈判的非合作性广义Coumot-Nash谈判模型,探讨是否应该建立中间品策略性采购联盟,以及如何运用其集体谈判力实现行业降低成本、保障供给等问题.文章证明本国与外国之间的中间品与最终产品贸易的互补性既增加了建立采购联盟进行集体谈判的迫切性,也复杂化了集体谈判力的价格、销量与福利效应:这些效应既依存于本国策略性采购联盟的偏好这种主观因素,也取决于最终产品需求由线的弹性与曲率、外国企业的技术以及生产专业化程度等客观因素,其中,采购联盟的偏好因素具有重要的影响.     

Domestic R&D,Foreign Direct Investment and Welfare

This paper provides a new rationale to examine the two‐way relationship between domestic research and development (R&D) and foreign direct investment (FDI), as well as their impacts on domestic welfare. Our analysis is based on the strategic interaction in cost‐reducing investment decisions between domestic firms and a foreign firm, which is different from the common factors that are discussed in the literature such as spillovers and technology sourcing. Our results are as follows. We show that domestic R&D investment may either increase or decrease the foreign firm's FDI incentives. Further, depending on the marginal cost of domestic firms, domestic R&D incentives can always increase regardless of the effects of domestic R&D investment on the foreign firm's FDI decision. Finally, we find that domestic welfare improves under domestic cost reduction if the slope of the marginal cost of domestic R&D investment is sufficiently small.     

Managerial risk-taking incentives, product market competition and welfare

Managers’ compensation may increase with the variance of the firm's profits. This paper investigates how this affects their choice of strategic variables, and how that affects managerial compensation. The social welfare aspects of this interaction are analyzed in a duopoly setting with uncertain linear demand and linear marginal cost. Compared to a situation in which the managers’ compensation does not depend on the variance of profits, social welfare may be either higher, lower, or remain unaffected, depending on the slope of the marginal cost curve and whether the competing firms produce goods that are demand substitutes or complements.     

银行跨国战略联盟:基于价值链的分析框架

本文从价值链的角度重新诠释了银行跨国战略联盟 ,认为战略联盟的实质是价值链核心环节的互补 ,并以交易费用理论和资源理论为工具 ,剖析了战略联盟具体形式的选择问题。联盟伙伴的选择和联盟的有效管理是决定联盟运作是否成功最主要的两大因素 ,这两个因素直接决定了联盟成员之间的合作程度。本文重点分析了关系资本对联盟成员合作的意义与作用过程 ,并以动态分析的方法对关系资本的两种主要形式———信任与承诺的形成及其在联盟成员之间的互动机制进行了较为深入的研究。在理论分析的基础上 ,本文提出利用银行跨国战略联盟实施我国银行业国际化发展战略的构想 ,并指出应注意的相关问题。     

Taxation of externalities: Direct versus Indirect

First, a model with separable utilities in the externalities is presented to analyze the impact of direct and indirect taxes on the correction of externalities that are caused by the consumption of one good. It is shown that the sign of the indirect tax is based not on the complementarity (or lack thereof) between the two taxed goods, but on the link between complementarity of the two goods for each consumer and the size of the marginal impact on his consumption on the externality. Second, a model of externality aggregate is further developed along the previous lines and alternative definitions of complementarity are considered.     

效率、边际等式与成本分离

理解真实世界各种现象和行为之道,在于寻找影响成本和收益的约束条件。考虑了所有的约束条件,经济总是有效率的,边际收益总是等于边际成本,私人成本与社会成本没有分离。现实中,帕累托改进是不存在的。帕累托改进要求约束条件不变,那些所谓的帕累托改进其实伴随了约束条件的改变,因而不是真正意义上的帕累托改进,也就不能成为无效率的理由了。     

Cost-based Phillips Curve forecasts of inflation

It is a well-established idea that prices are a function of marginal cost, yet estimating a reliable measure of marginal cost is difficult to do. Stock and Watson (1999) use the Phillips Curve to forecast inflation for a variety of existing activity variables that researchers commonly use to proxy for marginal cost. This paper uses a similar type of approach to examine the performance of a new candidate for the activity variable, which is marginal cost measured following the theoretical methodology of Bils (1987), which we find to be simple yet powerful when implemented empirically. We then use the Phillips Curve to conduct pseudo out-of-sample inflation forecasts for the US using: output, unemployment, hours, the labor share, the capacity utilization rate, and the new measure of marginal cost. For almost all cases, forecast errors are lowest in the regressions with the new marginal cost variable, indicating that this new measure is an improvement over previous attempts to proxy for marginal cost.     

The new Keynesian Phillips curve: endogeneity and misspecification

The wrong or insignificant sign of the forcing variable in the new Keynesian Phillips curve estimations may be a result of the endogeneity of the labour share and misspecification of real marginal cost in the baseline model. We address the misspecification of real marginal cost by formulating a broad measure that features the labour share, output gap and supply shock variables. The endogeneity of the labour share is addressed by using an appropriate lag of the labour share in the Phillips curve. Reduced-form evidence from five developed and five emerging market economies support the empirical validity of the NKPC.     

Strategic trade policy under asymmetric information with screening

The design of strategic rent-extracting trade policies requires information that may be private, such as the cost structure of an industry or parameters of the demand function. As a consequence, under asymmetric information, the design of these policies is problematic. We propose screening menus consisting of different instruments (tariff vs. quota) designed to solve this informational issue. We first use a simple model that examines a Cournot duopoly between a domestic firm and a foreign firm with linear demand and cost functions, with both firms supplying a homogeneous good on the domestic market. In this scenario, if the government does not have information regarding the demand parameter, which is known by both firms, a menu consisting of a rent-extracting tariff for a low demand parameter and a rent-extracting quota for a high demand parameter maximizes the government's objective function. This menu leads the domestic firm to reveal private information. We then generalize this framework to a scenario with imperfect information regarding the firms' marginal cost. Finally, we discuss the issue of quotas generating public revenues and study the case of a menu consisting of a tariff and a free quota.