A note on globalization and urban residential rents

We present evidence on the impact of international economic openness upon residential real estate, consistent with the well-known Balassa–Samuelson effect, which suggests that increasing openness raises relative prices of non-tradable goods and services. Using a data set for 46 cities in different countries, we find that urban rents are positively affected by the openness of the economy and by city size.     

关于会计寻租主体的探讨

自寻租理论用于会计领域以来,已经取得了许多可喜的成果,如对会计寻租产生的原因、会计寻租的主要行为表现及会计寻租所采取的方式方法等。但会计学者们却没有对会计寻租的主体进行过系统的研究,本文从会计寻租行为可能发生的原因或动机出发,探讨了各类会计寻租的主体,即国家、机构投资者、经营者、所有者、IT人员、中介机构、地方政府、会计人员等。明确这些寻租主体对提高会计监管的有效性具有重要意义。     

Economic rents and mutual fund performance: An empirical investigation

We investigate the monthly returns of 377 open-end mutual funds during the September 1981–1994 period to learn whether economic rents can be garnered through the judicious selection of the advertising and sales method in the mutual fund industry. Specifically, we seek to learn whether direct sales or mass marketing produces economic rents under the assumption that those rents would be passed on to consumers to build a “high quality” image to differentiate the product line. Results suggest that no-load funds produce superior net returns except in the aggressive growth category.     

创新发展 任重道远——“和谐文化企业行”天津代表座谈摘要

在当前全国上下贯彻落实党的十六届六中全会精神,把建设和谐文化作为构建社会主义和谐社会重要任务的形势下,本刊与战略支持者联手开展了“和谐文化企业行”活动,     

国际化 任重而道远

这个世界变化得真快,仿佛昨天我们还在中国的市场上“与狼共舞”呢,今天“国际化”就成了一批中国企业的实际行动。如同2004年12月8日联想集团收购了IBM全球PC业务一样,近年来,中国的企业频频出现在国际并购舞台上。对于中国企业走出国门的壮举,有人说,这是因为在国内增长饱和面临压力的情况下,在向外寻找出路;有人说,这是一批志存高远的企业不甘心在自家的市场上“称王称霸”,更希望在国际市场上“与狼共舞”。但不管怎么说,随着经济全球化的加快,随着中国市场经济的深入,随着中国企业的不断壮大,国际化已经是中国企业的历史选择,是不可…     

House prices and rents in Spain: Does the discount factor matter?

We estimate alternative price-to-rent ratios in the Spanish housing market by considering different stochastic discount factors in present value models similar to those used in the financial literature but where the higher rigidity that characterises this market is taken into account. We identify three robust across-model regularities: (i) the increase in the price-to-rent ratio since the late 1990s helped at first to restore equilibrium, (ii) further increases in house prices raised the ratio between 24% and 32% above equilibrium by 2004, although (iii) at that time the ratio was only around 2% above its short-term adjustment path towards a (new) long-run equilibrium.     

A note on a heteroscedastic model

In this article the author considers a regression model where the variance of the error term is a linear combination of certain independent variables and compares four different estimators of the coefficients of this linear combination, They are (1) the estimator proposed by Goldfeld and Quant and called the Modified Glejser Method, (2) the estimator proposed by Hildreth and Houck, (3) the generalized least squares method, and (4) the maximum likelihood estimator. It is shown that the first two are asymptotically not fully efficient whereas the last two are.     

Spatial Cournot competition and economic welfare: a note

We investigated welfare implications in location-quantity models in a symmetric linear city. We found that when firms are not agglomerated in equilibrium, increasing the distance between firms raises (reduces) producer surplus and social welfare (consumer surplus). Moreover, central agglomeration is always optimal for consumers among symmetric locations, but not necessarily for producers. Central agglomeration can be inefficient even if it is the unique equilibrium outcome. In short, the firms are more likely to agglomerate or locate closer than what welfare maximizers would dictate, whereas they locate farther apart than what consumer surplus maximizers would recommend.     

EDAP at Ford: a research note

The Employee Development and Assistance Programme (EDAP) is a unique new initiative launched jointly by the management and unions at Ford. Here the author outlines the scheme which provides a significant ‘model’ for adult and continuing education within commercial enterprises. It is attracting widespread interest and imitators.     

True and fair in the Czech Republic: a note on local perceptions

With the collapse of communism in Czechoslovakia’, and the subsequent desire of Czechoslovakia to join the European Union, in common with other countries in Central Europe, Czechoslovakia utilized the Fourth Directive as a ‘toolkit’ in designing part of its new accounting legislation. In incorporating the Fourth Directive, it has also included the requirement for financial statements to show a ‘true and fair’ view. Given the confusion over the exact meaning of ‘true and fair’ it is interesting to study how ‘true and fair’ has been introduced into the Czech Republic, and what it seems to signify for those who implemented it and for those who are preparing and using financial statements. Our initial findings indicate that ‘true and fair’ varies in its significance for the groups of individuals involved in preparing and using financial statements and that it may have particular significance for some groups of accountants who wish to secure specific advantage within the Czech economy.With the collapse of communism in Czechoslovakia’, and the subsequent desire of Czechoslovakia to join the European Union, in common with other countries in Central Europe, Czechoslovakia utilized the Fourth Directive as a ‘toolkit’ in designing part of its new accounting legislation. In incorporating the Fourth Directive, it has also included the requirement for financial statements to show a ‘true and fair’ view. Given the confusion over the exact meaning of ‘true and fair’ it is interesting to study how ‘true and fair’ has been introduced into the Czech Republic, and what it seems to signify for those who implemented it and for those who are preparing and using financial statements. Our initial findings indicate that ‘true and fair’ varies in its significance for the groups of individuals involved in preparing and using financial statements and that it may have particular significance for some groups of accountants who wish to secure specific advantage within the Czech economy.With the collapse of communism in Czechoslovakia’, and the subsequent desire of Czechoslovakia to join the European Union, in common with other countries in Central Europe, Czechoslovakia utilized the Fourth Directive as a ‘toolkit’ in designing part of its new accounting legislation. In incorporating the Fourth Directive, it has also included the requirement for financial statements to show a ‘true and fair’ view. Given the confusion over the exact meaning of ‘true and fair’ it is interesting to study how ‘true and fair’ has been introduced into the Czech Republic, and what it seems to signify for those who implemented it and for those who are preparing and using financial statements. Our initial findings indicate that ‘true and fair’ varies in its significance for the groups of individuals involved in preparing and using financial statements and that it may have particular significance for some groups of accountants who wish to secure specific advantage within the Czech economy.With the collapse of communism in Czechoslovakia’, and the subsequent desire of Czechoslovakia to join the European Union, in common with other countries in Central Europe, Czechoslovakia utilized the Fourth Directive as a ‘toolkit’ in designing part of its new accounting legislation. In incorporating the Fourth Directive, it has also included the requirement for financial statements to show a ‘true and fair’ view. Given the confusion over the exact meaning of ‘true and fair’ it is interesting to study how ‘true and fair’ has been introduced into the Czech Republic, and what it seems to signify for those who implemented it and for those who are preparing and using financial statements. Our initial findings indicate that ‘true and fair’ varies in its significance for the groups of individuals involved in preparing and using financial statements and that it may have particular significance for some groups of accountants who wish to secure specific advantage within the Czech economy.     

Hedonic theory, bid rents, and willingness-to-pay: Some extensions of Ellickson's results

An alternative to Ellickson's multinomial logit model of household bids for dwelling units is derived by making use of observable information on the price paid by the winning bidder. The alternative specification makes it possible to estimate willingness-to-pay for housing attributes, which cannot be obtained from Ellickson's model. Some methodological issues arising from Ellickson's method of grouping households are also examined.     

黄安南:引领金隅嘉业突围

对黄安南的访谈是从金隅·山墅开始的。北京城西,汽车穿过闹市区,转个弯就看到一栋栋赭红色联排别墅,依山错落排开。大部分房子都已售出,里面传出装修工人叮当的敲打声。院中几棵高大的杜仲树,位置处得恰到好处,让人难以相信这是地块开发前保留下来的原生树。抬起头来,依稀能看见几个用树皮拼搭的鸟窝放在树丫间,细微处的雕琢显见建设者的匠心。金隅·山墅是金隅嘉业开发的第一个别墅     

A note on a specification test of independence

In a recent paper Zheng (1997a) proposed a new specification test of independence between two random vectors by the kernel method. He showed asymptotic normality under the hypothesis and local alternatives. The present work investigates the asymptotic distribution of the corresponding test statistic under fixed alternatives. In this case asymptotic normality of a standardized statistic is still valid but with a different rate of convergence. Received: January 1999     

A note on studentizing a test for heteroscedasticity

Breusch and Pagan (1979) have recently proposed a convenient test for heteroscedasticity in general linear models. This note derives the asymptotic distribution of their test under sequences of contiguous alternatives to the null hypothesis of homoscedasticity. The test is shown to possess asymptotically incorrect size (nominal significance level) except in the case of strictly Gaussian disturbances. A slight modification of the test is proposed which corrects this defect.     

Effects of domestic multiculturalism on job attitudes in Nigeria: a research note

This study investigates possible cultural differences in job attitudes among the three main sub-cultural groups dominating the entire population of the Nigerian work-force: Hausa (n=80), Ibo (n=119) and Yoruba (n= 151). Several hypotheses were derived from previous knowledge of the three cultures and differences were explored in the relationships between perceptions and attitudes concerning specific aspects of the job. Consistent cross-cultural differences that can be related to characteristics of the cultures studied were revealed with regard to only three motivational factors, namely, interpersonal relations, nature of work and supervision. The overall results seem to indicate that employees' cultural background has little impact on their perceptions of job motivation. However, a number of different personal variables were found to affect responses. Practical and research implications of the findings are discussed as well as directions for future research.     

Quantifying the economic cost of children: a note on intertemporal equivalence scales

Static economic models based on complete demand systems are inadequate for estimating unconditional equivalence scales; in order to capture the effects of demographic changes on consumer behaviour, a life-cycle dynamic model is taken into account. In literature, studies have presented and evaluated longitudinal equivalence scales and intertemporal cost of children but these cannot be applied in practice when equivalence scales are utilised in poverty or income distribution analyses. This paper proposes intratemporal equivalent income scales, which are within period index numbers incorporating intertemporal consumer behaviour.     

Philosophical foundations of sociological measurement: a note on the three level model

Even a cursory perusal of the social science literature suffices to show the prevalence of dichotomous thinking. Many of these dichotomies deal with some aspect of the “conceptual versus empirical” distinction. This paper shows that while dichotomies predominate for some reason, the actual research process that they are designed to represent deals minimally with three separate and necessary levels. We term these the conceptual level (X), the empirical level (X′), and the operational or indicator level (X″). This minimal three level model is applied to an analysis of philosophical foundations of measurement, specifically the formulations of Northrop and Bridgman. It is shown that both of these formulations are essentially dichotomous, while the phenomena they deal with are trichotomous. For example, Northrop's “concepts by postulation” and “concepts by intuition” are purportedly separate levels connected by an epistemic correlation. Application of the three level model reveals that both are true concepts, and thus belong on the same level of analysis (X). Similarly, application of the three level model to Bridgman's formulation shows that both mental and physical concepts belong on the same level (X). Bridgman's formulation is valuable in pointing out that operations are not restricted to one level of analysis, and in fact we see them to be crucial on all three levels. The three level model is not a panacea, but does provide an efficacious framework for the difficult but important task of analyzing the philosophical underpinning of measurement.