Sectoral Effects of News Shocks

This paper argues that an aggregate news shock reveals news about technological improvements in the durable goods sector. Better technological prospects translate into large responses of the fundamentals in the durable goods sector; much larger than the responses of the fundamentals in the non‐durable goods sector. These better technological prospects, contrary to common belief, do not induce short‐run comovement among fundamentals within either of the two sectors. The behaviour of inventories, an important margin that durable goods producers can use to buffer news shocks, proves to be crucial for reconciling the effects of news shocks in a two‐sector model with the data.     

Sectoral Shocks and Metropolitan Employment Growth

In this paper, we study the sources of industry employment growth in each of five metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). The objective is to understand the relative importance of aggregate disturbances versus local sectoral shocks in generating observed employment fluctuations at the MSA level. The empirical evidence presented in this paper derives from structural vector autoregressions (SVARs), estimated for each of the five MSAs. Estimations use monthly employment data covering nine one-digit industrial categories for the period 1951:1–1999:8, as well as two variables that capture the influences of aggregate (i.e., national) shocks on MSAs. We find that within-MSA industry shocks explain considerably more of the forecast error variance in industry employment growth than do aggregate shocks. Sectoral shocks account for between 87 and 94% of the 36-month-ahead forecast error variance. Among individual local sectors, shocks to MSA-specific government, manufacturing, and service sector employment growth are the predominate sources of variability.     

Price‐matching policy with imperfect information

The model of price‐matching policy emphasizes on the importance of information imperfection. The demand is derived based on the assumptions that consumers have different reservation prices and different preferences over location. When a firm undercuts its competitor's price, it changes the demand structure of the market. The result shows that price‐matching policies are anticompetitive, but they do not facilitate monopoly price. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Voluntary Quality Disclosure under Price‐Signaling Competition

We analyze an oligopolistic competition with differentiated products and qualities. The quality of a product is not known to consumers. Each firm can make an imperfect disclosure of its product quality before engaging in price‐signaling competition. There are two regimes for separating equilibrium in our model depending on the parameters. Our analysis reveals that, in one of the separating regimes, price signaling leads to intense price competition between the firms under which not only the high‐quality firm but also the low‐quality firm chooses to disclose its product quality to soften the price competition. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Pro‐competitive Effect of Trade and Non‐decreasing Price‐Cost Margins*

This study surveys the empirical evidence on the pro‐competitive effect of international trade and analyses the determinants of price‐cost margins for OECD countries between 1970 and 2003. The main objective was to focus on the quantification of the impact of imports on margins, and understand why, despite trade liberalization, price‐cost margins have not fallen overall. On average, imports would have contributed to a large decrease of five percentage points in the price‐cost margins. However, these effects seem to have been partially counterbalanced by the impacts of financial deepening and disinflation.     

Sectoral Survey‐based Confidence Indicators for Europe*

We analyse a novel dataset of Business and Consumer Surveys, using dynamic factor techniques, to produce composite coincident indices (CCIs) at the sectoral level for the European countries and for Europe. Surveys are timely available, not subject to revision, and fully comparable across countries. Moreover, the substantial discrepancies in activity at the sectoral level justify the interest in sectoral disaggregation. Compared with the confidence indicators produced by the European Commission we show that factor‐based CCIs, using survey answers at a more disaggregate level, produce higher correlation with the reference series for the majority of sectors and countries.     

Measuring Financial Contagion Using Time‐Aligned Data: The Importance of the Speed of Transmission of Shocks*

This paper presents a new empirical approach to address the problem of trading time differences between markets in studies of financial contagion. In contrast to end‐of‐business‐day data common to most contagion studies, we employ price observations, which are exactly aligned in time to correct for time‐zone and end‐of‐business‐day differences between markets. Additionally, we allow for time lags between price observations in order to test the assumption that the shock is not immediately transmitted from one market to the other. Our analysis of the financial turmoil surrounding the Asian crisis reveals that such corrections have an important bearing on the evidence for contagion, independent of the methodology employed. Using a correlation‐based test, we find more contagion the faster we assume the shock to be transmitted.     

碳税对中国产业与地区竞争力的影响：基于CO2排放责任的视角

基于2007年中国区域间投入产出表,本文从生产者责任与消费者责任两个方面考察了中国不同地区、不同产业的CO2排放情况,并分析了两方面征收碳税对各地区以及相关产业竞争力影响的差异。研究表明,中国也存在着从东南沿海等相对发达地区向西北、东北等欠发达地区的“碳泄漏”现象。因此,与从生产者责任方征税相比,从消费者责任方征收碳税,可以较大幅度地减轻对西北、东北等欠发达地区及相关产业竞争力带来的负面影响,同时又不致使东南沿海经济发达地区及相关产业的额外负担上升幅度过大。本研究的政策启示是,在进行区域与产业CO2排放责任分担时,不能仅仅停留在生产者责任方面,需要同时引入消费者的责任,这既符合责任分担的公平性要求,也能够协调各方利益,达到最佳减排效果。     

Intra‐Sectoral Differences in Climate Change Strategies: Evidence from the Global Automotive Industry

Companies are increasingly challenged for action on climate change. Most studies on business responses to climate change focus on cross‐sector comparisons and neglect intra‐sectoral dynamics. This paper investigates the influence of supply chain position and regional affiliation on climate change strategies within a particular industry. We present a generic framework integrating both market and non‐market responses to climate change. We argue that climate change strategies comprise several corporate activities that have different foci of interaction and four main objectives: governance, innovation, compensation and legitimation. Using a global sample of 116 automotive companies, we conduct a cluster analysis and identify four types of strategy. We find that the sophistication of automobile manufacturers' strategies significantly differs from that of suppliers. Regional affiliation and firm size prove to be determinants of the strategy type pursued. We cannot find evidence for a relationship between financial performance and a company's strategic approach to climate change. © 2017 The Authors. Business Strategy and the Environment published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd     

Raising the Regional Leviathan: A Relational‐Materialist Conceptualization of Regions‐in‐Becoming as Publics‐in‐Stabilization

The purpose of this article is to contribute to the understanding of how spatial entities in general — and those spatial entities that are defined as ‘regions’ in particular — form, evolve and sometimes stabilize. Inspired by the scholarship of Noortje Marres, the article explores how regions‐in‐becoming may be gainfully conceptualized as publics‐in‐stabilization. In the article it is argued that some of the mechanisms involved in such processes pertain to how territorially framed issues sometimes become formulated as loosely articulated propositions for regionalization. These can, with time, generate emergent stakeholder communities, which in turn may become stabilized and delegated to more durable forms and materials which can eventually become naturalized as recognized regions. A suggested conceptual model is utilized to perform an analysis of empirical material from three contemporary processes of regionalization in Northern Europe with the purpose of examining and discussing some of the potential merits and shortcomings of the conceptual model. It is concluded that adopting the proposed perspective can enable scholars to highlight some of the mechanisms whereby vague and non‐coherent propositions for regionalization within time may be singularized and stabilized to such a degree that they become taken for granted as naturalized spatialities.     

Shocks and final straws: Using exit‐interview data to examine the unfolding model's decision paths

The unfolding model emphasizes the role of shocks (jarring events that initiate exit cognitions) in the turnover process. In contrast to earlier survey‐based research, we used exit interviews to classify organizational leavers along the model's paths. The data provide support for the model but highlight several aspects of shocks not addressed by previous research. Employees on the same path may experience distinctly different shock subgroups (e.g., work or nonwork), some employees require shock combinations (e.g., push and pull shocks) to motivate leaving, and some dissatisfied employees experience shock‐like events (final straws) that confirm previous exit cognitions rather than initiate them. The research demonstrates how organizations can use exit interviews to better understand their employee exit patterns. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

浅谈数学软件对计算数学的重要性

本文主要探讨数学软件在计算数学的数值计算中重要性,并介绍数学软件是如何实现经典算法及对算法的改进。最后,说明数学软件在数值模拟中的应用。     

施工现场管理的途径及其重要性

简析施工现场管理的重要性及其管理的有效途径。     

浅谈公路工程试验检测的重要性与完善途径

当前我国社会主义市场经济发展较快,各类公路工程建设规模在不断扩大,加强公路工程试验检测具有重要作用。现阶段公路工程试验中存在着诸多问题,比如试验检测人员综合素质较低、检验设备没有定时进行更新等。本文对公路工程试验检测的重要性与完善途径进行分析,明确建筑市场责任主体所承担的各项义务,完善监管制度,从根本上促进公路工程施工质量的提升,推动公路建设行业的全面发展。     

浅谈医院设置内部审计机构的重要性

医院内部审计定性于对医院内部经济行为充分性和有效性的检查、监督和评价,起到加强单位内部控制和风险防范的作用,要使医院在为社会服务的同时自身能够得到健康发展,就必须建立健全医院内部审计制度。     

The Relative Importance of Symmetric and Asymmetric Shocks: The Case of United Kingdom and Euro Area*

We show how a simple model with sign restrictions can be used to identify symmetric and asymmetric supply, demand and monetary policy shocks in an estimated two‐country structural VAR for the UK and Euro area. The results can be used to deal with several issues that are relevant in the optimal currency area literature. We find an important role for symmetric shocks in explaining the variability of the business cycle in both economies. However, the relative importance of asymmetric shocks, being around 20% in the long run, cannot be ignored. Moreover, when we estimate the model for the UK and US, the degree of business cycle synchronization seems to be higher. Finally, we confirm existing evidence of the exchange rate being an independent source of shocks in the economy.     

战时港口基础设施重要度评价模型与方法

提出了战时港口基础设施重要度的概念,建立了评价指标体系与基于灰色层次分析法和模糊理论的重要度评价模型。结合实例,详细介绍了评价步骤,并对该方法进行了总结,指出了改进方法。     

论企业文化建设对企业发展的重要性

如今,企业管理思想已经进入“文化管理”阶段。许多研究表明,企业文化对企业效能影响显著。而且,企业文化与企业效能之间具有一定的科学过程和运行机制。在激烈的市场竞争中,许多公司能够发展与壮大,一个很重要的原因是这些公司具有独特而强大的价值观和风格,即它们的“企业文化”。随着企业文化研究的深入,人们越来越关注企业文化对企业的实际功效。目前,我国关于企业文化和企业效能的研究仍处在起步阶段,这个问题也就成为文章的主题。     

Mortality Shocks and Survivors’ Consumption Growth*

In contrast to health shocks, mortality shocks do not only induce direct costs such as medical and funeral expenses and possibly income loss, but also reduce the number of consumption units in the household. Using data from Indonesia, it is shown that the economic costs related to the death of children and older persons seem to be fully compensated for by the decrease in consumption units. In contrast, when prime‐age adults die, survivors face additional costs and, in consequence, use coping strategies. These strategies seem to be quite effective, although households may face higher long‐term vulnerability.