The commuting time paradox

We examine the conditions for the ‘commuting time paradox’ which states that the average commuting time does not vary between different periods. We develop therefore an equilibrium job search model with endogenously chosen commuting costs. Presuming wage bargaining between workers and firms, the optimally chosen maximum commuting costs jointly maximise the worker's and firm's payoffs. We demonstrate that when productivity levels increase over time, average commuting costs and average wages both increase, which affects the optimally chosen commuting time. We establish the conditions under which the paradox holds.     

企业时间成本管理的制度分析

改革开放以来,我国企业的成本管理方法获得了长足的进步,但是对于时间成本管理,目前还处于研究的起步阶段。文章尝试从制度的角度出发分析时间成本问题的起因及其与企业效率、效益的作用机制,认为路径依赖和制度供给不足是时间成本问题产生和存在的主要原因,并从正式制度和非正式制度的角度给出了若干实施时间成本管理的制度创新途径。     

Estimating time series models using the relevant cost function

In many forecasting problems, the forecast cost function is used only in evaluating the forecasts; a second cost function is used in estimating the parameters in the model. In this paper, I explore some of the ways in which the forecast cost function can be used in estimating the parameters and, more generally, in producing the forecasts. I define the optimal forecast and note that it may depend on the entire conditional distribution of the data, which is typically unknown. I then consider three of the steps involved in forming the forecast: approximating the optimal forecast, selecting the model, and estimating any unknown parameters. The forecast cost function forms the basis of the approximation, selection, and estimation. The methods are illustrated using time series models applied to 15 US macroeconomic series and in a small Monte Carlo experiment.     

Transport tax reform, commuting, and endogenous values of time

We consider a model of urban transport with two trip purposes, commuting (assumed perfectly complementary to labour supply) and noncommuting, to analyse the effects of transport tax reform on the value of time and marginal external congestion costs. Higher commuting taxes plausibly reduce time values, but higher noncommuting transport prices will typically raise the value of time. The intuition for this latter finding is that the reduction in congestion that follows from the tax increase itself raises net wages per hour of work (inclusive of commuting time). Empirical illustrations with Belgian data show a potentially large effect of transport tax reform on time values. In quite a few of the tax reforms studied traffic levels are reduced, but the increase in time values implies that marginal external congestion costs actually increase.     

The opportunity costs of commuting: the value of a commuting satellite account framework with an example from Lisbon Metropolitan Area*

Commuting affects regional and urban economies. It shapes urban areas, defines their relationships with neighboring regions, intensifies economic flows and exacerbates energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. This paper sets out a proposal for an innovative commuting satellite account (CSA), integrated in a multi-regional input–output model. This framework combines commuting activities with regional distribution of income, distinct household consumption structures, real estate renting activities and the energy consumption and environmental flows incorporated in the different industries. To assess the opportunity costs of commuting, the CSA framework is applied to the Lisbon Metropolitan Area. The socio-economic-environmental impacts of a scenario in which commuters become non-commuters by moving their residence to the municipality in which they work are estimated. The analysis indicates that: commuting, in general, induces significant economic and environmental opportunity costs. Finally, the adoption of policy-oriented recommendations contributing to limit sprawling in metropolitan regions is discussed.     

基于产权的企业家人力资本定价探讨

文章介绍了企业家人力资本的产权特征,结合体制改革、效用变化分析了企业家人力资本定价的制度变迁,最后试图建立与产权相符的企业家人力资本定价制度。     

The impacts of education spending and finance reform on manufacturing property shadow values: a cost function approach

The effects of court-ordered education finance reform on property values and residential choice have received increasing attention in recent years (Fischel 2001). However, little attention has been focused on the effects of education finance reform on manufacturing sector property values within an optimizing framework. This is pursued here by modeling education expenditures and education finance reform as “free” variables to manufacturing firms in a cost function model together with input demand equations. This framework is applied to panel data on manufacturers’ capital (building and structures) stocks for the 48 continental US for 1982–1996 to estimate implicit (shadow) values to the manufacturing sector of education spending and school finance reform. On average, school finance reform lowers the implicit value of manufacturing firms’ stock of buildings and structures capital, while greater education spending lowers manufacturing variable costs.

Mining cost analysis and cost control based on the sensitivity factor analysis

This paper systematically generalizes relevant theories and methods regarding mining cost control and constitutes the model for the mining cost analysis. It also comes up with the sensitivity factor analysis to conduct mining cost control. The theories and methods have been experimented with Jiangsu Chuanshan Mining Joint-Stock Company Ltd. Case studies have been undertaken on mining cost of the company and the most sensitive factor which affects mining cost has been found accordingly. Finally the paper concludes that the focus concerning the cost control of the company should be directed at output and material costs.     

住房价格指数以及区位对住房价格的影响——北京市住房价格实证分析

根据北京市的1308个新建住宅项目数据,建立了Hedonic模型,着重分析了时间、距离、环线以及行政区等变量对住房价格的影响,构建了北京市住房Hedonic价格指数和住房价格的梯度曲线.     

Estimating Final Demand Expenditure at Factor Cost and Net Price Indices

This article describes the methodology which is currently used at Statistics Canada to compute price indices, net of taxes and subsidies (net price indices), and to estimate final demand expenditure at factor cost in the Canadian system of national accounts. This methodology involves the use of a specially designed input–output model of the Canadian economy. The model is used to extract the taxes, net of subsidies paid on the inputs used by industries, and to allocate these net taxes to the direct and indirect final demand deliveries of the industries. Downstream interindustry links are established to trace the final demand deliveries of industries. Using these links, the model could easily be extended to decompose final demand expenditure into other cost components, such as the embedded energy cost or the cost of imported inputs. Some empirical results are shown to illustrate how the calculations are made.     

Structural analysis and forecast of gold price returns

Gold has multiple attributes and its price is affected by various factors in the market. This paper studies the dynamic relationship between the gold price returns and its affecting factors. Then we use the STL-ETS, neural network and Bayesian structural time series model to predict the gold price returns, and compare their performance with the benchmark models. The results show that the shocks of crude oil returns and VIX have the positive effect on gold price returns, the shocks of the US dollar index have the negative effect on gold price returns. And the fluctuation of gold price returns mainly depends on crude oil price returns shocks. STL-ETS model can accurately fit the fluctuation trend of the gold price returns and improve prediction accuracy.     

Estimating DEA technical and allocative inefficiency using aggregate cost or revenue data

In this paper, we address the question of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) evaluation of efficiency when aggregate cost or revenue data must be used. We show that the DEA technical inefficiency measure using total revenues as the single output variable or total costs as the single input variable equals the aggregate technical and allocative inefficiency. We employ this result to estimate allocative inefficiency and construct statistical tests of the null hypothesis of no allocative inefficiency analogous to those of the null hypothesis of no scale inefficiency. We illustrate our method using revenue and personnel data for the top U.S. public accounting firms over 1995–1998. Our empirical results indicate the existence of statistically significant allocative inefficiency in the public accounting industry.

Crude oil price forecasting incorporating news text

Sparse and short news headlines can be arbitrary, noisy, and ambiguous, making it difficult for classic topic model LDA (latent Dirichlet allocation) designed for accommodating long text to discover knowledge from them. Nonetheless, some of the existing research about text-based crude oil forecasting employs LDA to explore topics from news headlines, resulting in a mismatch between the short text and the topic model and further affecting the forecasting performance. Exploiting advanced and appropriate methods to construct high-quality features from news headlines becomes crucial in crude oil forecasting. This paper introduces two novel indicators of topic and sentiment for the short and sparse text data to tackle this issue. Empirical experiments show that AdaBoost.RT with our proposed text indicators, with a more comprehensive view and characterization of the short and sparse text data, outperforms the other benchmarks. Another significant merit is that our method also yields good forecasting performance when applied to other futures commodities.     

浅谈工程造价管理

文章认为,对工程项目投资实施全过程有效的成本控制,从组织、技术、经济、合同与信息等方面,可以挖掘潜力、降低成本、提高投资效益和社会效益,并针对对工程造价影响比较大的设计阶段、招标投标阶段、施工阶段、竣工结算阶段叙述了如何进行工程造价控制。     

城市地价分类管理研究

指出我国城市土地市场是国家垄断为主的一级市场与自由竞争的二级市场并存的二元结构,提出城市地价分类管理的基本思想,深入剖析地价体系中存在的基准地价缺陷、标定地价作用不充分以及市场机制形成土地价格不完善等问题,分别对一级、二级市场地价管理的目标和平台进行设计,初步构建基于分类管理的新的地价体系.     

Divisia price and quantity indices: 80 years after

This paper reviews and extends the theory of price and quantity indices which are defined as line integrals, the two types being those of Divisia and Montgomery. The properties of these indices are systematically explored, whereby in particular attention is paid to the path-(in)dependency issue. Two sections discuss the problem of how to approximate the line integral indices when only data at discrete points of time are available. It appears that every bilateral index can be conceived as the outcome of a line integral index over a particular curve in price–quantity space. The classical position is that chained bilateral indices are rationalized by Divisia indices. This rationalization is only interesting when the Divisia indices themselves possess a proper foundation in economic theory. The final sections are therefore devoted to the role played by the Divisia indices in micro-economic theory.     

Estimating banking cost efficiency with the consideration of cost management

This study re-investigates the bank cost efficiency by a combination of two strands of literature. The first strand is related to bank cost efficiency; the other is related to earnings management. Employing the findings reported in bank earnings management literature, this study argues that bank observed total cost (“accounting cost”) may be the biased estimator of the true total cost. Using the biased total cost may thus yield incorrect inferences from estimating bank cost efficiency. We propose a method to modify accounting cost, which is referred to as “economic cost”, to be consistent with the economic theory; that is, one that is free of cost management. Both accounting and economic costs are then adopted to analyze the efficiency of 29 commercial banks in Taiwan banking industry. Our results show that estimated efficiency, with the application of economic cost, offers results that are more reasonable results than those of the accounting cost.     

浅析施工企业成本计划的控制

工程项目成本计划是成本控制的前提,成本控制贯穿于项目成本管理的全过程。分投标阶段、合同签订阶段、施工准备阶段、正式施工过程和竣工后五个时间段,文章对各个阶段施工企业应该注意的成本控制事项,及应采取的成本控制措施予以讨论,以便计划的顺利实施。     

钢材市场价格风险及其避险工具开发

文章介绍了近年来钢材价格大幅波动的状况及危害,阐述了钢材远期电子交易、钢材期货及钢材期权与钢材期货期权等价格避险工具的概况,在此基础上探讨了钢材价格风险回避工具的开发。