Search for the underlying mechanism of framing effects in multi-alternative and multi-attribute decision situations

This paper extends previous research on the framing effect from single-alternative and single-attribute to multi-alternative and multi-attribute situations. Two experimental studies demonstrate that attribute framing and goal framing influence consumer decision-making in multi-attribute and multi-alternative situations. The results indicate that attribute framing influences only the perceived evaluation of the specific alternatives along a framed attribute, in that the perceived evaluation of the framed attribute is higher in the positive attribute framing condition than in the negative. On the other hand, goal framing influences only the weight of a framed attribute. Specifically, the weight of the framed attribute becomes more important in the positive goal framing condition than in the negative. Further, the results suggest that the attribute framing effects are attributable to the changes in mental representation in the encoding stage of the decision, rather than in the judgment stage.     

Mix-Up: Models of Governance and Framing Opportunities in U.S. and EU Consumer Policy

Students of comparative politics have highlighted different styles of regulation in the U.S. and Europe. These differences also apply to consumer policy and its different models of governance. The paper holds that governance is a key variable but adds aspects of issue framing. Two examples of consumer policy are analysed: regulation of genetically modified organisms and tobacco control. The case studies show that features of governance such as adversarial legalism or the precautionary principle are not necessarily linked to distinctive styles of regulation. Instead they vary across policy fields. Only a mix of governance elements and framing opportunities for interest groups can explain output and new directions of consumer policy. Dilemmas of collective action appear to be shrinking for consumers because framing trumps mobilization of members.     

A reconciliation of the unemployment — New firm startup paradox

The purpose of this paper is to reconcile the seeming paradox emerging in the literature relating unemployment to new-firm startup activity and the decision to enter into self-employment. On the one hand time series studies have generally found that entrepreneurship is promoted by high levels of unemployment. On the other hand, cross-sectional studies have generally found that startup activity tends to be depressed where unemployment is high. We present a model derived from Knight's theory of individual choice in order to reconcile this apparent paradox. Assuming presence of an economy-wide demand shock and industry-specific shocks, the model indeed predicts the relations between new firm startup and unemployment which are found in empirical analysis. Hence, instead of blaming specification errors or unobserved policy changes, the seeming paradox can be reconciled by solid economic theory.     

Causal Ambiguity in Lean Production Implementation in Malaysia

The success of the lean production system in Japan has led other companies to attempt to adopt it. Yet lean production system initiatives have seen a low success rate. This study draws on the theory of causal ambiguity and its role in the transfer of knowledge to argue that causal ambiguity can impede interfirm transfer of knowledge during lean production system implementation. The authors argue that causal ambiguity undermines motivation during lean production system implementation. Several variables are proposed as moderating the relationship. The findings of a survey are presented here.     

Preference robust distortion risk measure and its application

Distortion risk measure (DRM) plays a crucial role in management science and finance particularly actuarial science. Various DRMs have been introduced but little is discussed on which DRM at hand should be chosen to address a decision maker's (DM's) risk preference. This paper aims to fill out the gap. Specifically, we consider a situation where the true distortion function is unknown either because it is difficult to identify/elicit and/or because the DM's risk preference is ambiguous. We introduce a preference robust distortion risk measure (PRDRM), which is based on the worst-case distortion function from an ambiguity set of distortion functions to mitigate the impact arising from the ambiguity. The ambiguity set is constructed under well-known general principles such as concavity and inverse S-shapedness of distortion functions (overweighting on events from impossible to possible or possible to certainty and underweighting on those from possible to more possible) as well as new user-specific information such as sensitivity to tail losses, confidence intervals to some lotteries, and preferences to certain lotteries over others. To calculate the proposed PRDRM, we use the convex and/or concave envelope of a set of points to characterize the curvature of the distortion function and derive a tractable reformulation of the PRDRM when the underlying random loss is discretely distributed. Moreover, we show that the worst-case distortion function is a nondecreasing piecewise linear function and can be determined by solving a linear programming problem. Finally, we apply the proposed PRDRM to a risk capital allocation problem and carry out some numerical tests to examine the efficiency of the PRDRM model.     

Double talk—The political economy of eastward enlargement of the EU

There is an inherent ambiguity in the attitude of the EU towards eastern enlargement. On the one hand, since the Gothenburg Council of June 2001 the EU appears to be at last on the brink of a first round of eastward enlargement. On the other hand, the major internal reforms in the EU which are essential if enlargement is to take place have so far made only unsatisfactory progress. What are the reasons for this situation? What are the perspectives?     

The performance of fiscal policy under an inflation targeting regime: What can be learned by the Brazilian fiscal rules?

This paper aims at, on the one hand, analyzing the Brazilian fiscal performance since the implementation of inflation targeting regime (ITR), June 1994, and the usefulness of fiscal rules to reach fiscal discipline in Brazil. On the other hand, it tries to evaluate what would have happened to the Brazilian government deficit if the new fiscal regime, that was implemented in 2016, would have been applied after the implementation of the ITR. Into this direction, we present an empirical analysis to describe three different fiscal rule scenarios, which includes a restriction related to inflation, depending on the preferences of the fiscal authorities: the austere, the symmetric or indifferent or the growth‐promoting environment. The main result of our empirical analysis is that, even in a context of ITR, the use of proper fiscal rule (countercyclical fiscal policy) helps to rationalize fiscal consolidation efforts by promoting a favorable environment for economic growth.     

Optimal dynamic regulation of carbon emissions market

In this article, we deal with optimal dynamic carbon emission regulation of a set of firms. On the one hand, the regulator dynamically allocates emission allowances to each firm. On the other hand, firms face idiosyncratic, as well as common, economic shocks on emissions, and they have linear quadratic abatement costs. Firms can trade allowances so as to minimize total expected costs, which arise from abatement, trading, and terminal penalty. Using variational methods, we first exhibit in closed form the market equilibrium in function of the regulator's dynamic allocation. We then solve the Stackelberg game between the regulator and the firms. The result is a closed-form expression of the optimal dynamic allocation policies that allow a desired expected emission reduction. The optimal policy is unique in the presence of market impact. In absence of market impact, the optimal policy is nonunique, but all the optimal policies share common properties. The optimal policies are fully responsive, and therefore induce a constant abatement effort and a constant price of allowances. Our results are robust to some extensions, like different penalty functions.     

农产品不公平贸易政府行为的市场动力及耦合机制研究

由于一些国家经常采取各种手段,实施不公平竞争,导致了农产品贸易摩擦的频繁发生:一方面,任何农业贸易政策都是政治市场均衡的结果。发达国家的政府为获得农业利益集团的政治支持,倾向于采取贸易保护政策。另一方面,农业目标必须与其他行业目标保持平衡,同时,农业贸易政策目标也是多元化的,存在各目标彼此协调的问题。在不确定性环境中,农业政策的形成具有连续性和惯性。     

英文语言词汇之歧义篇

歧义长久来为语言中的一部分令实际中交际双方的言语障碍凸显化.在是福是祸的声浪中,歧义现象本身则体现着语言演变发展过程中交际的复杂性.笔者试从语言词汇学的角度出发探求语言歧义这一现象,辅以其在精神分析和文学上的实际案例对歧义现象从历史、社会、文化等层面上给予其特有的文化重视.     

Macro-control Polices on the Real Estate Market: 08 vs. 09

2008 is a year full of policy changes for the real estate market. On the one hand, real estate policies were launched one after another,most frequent in recent years. On the other hand, a major policy shift was emerging, most evident in financial and fiscal policies.Macro-control policies are meant to lunctlon as a [001 ior reverse regulation. When the market is overheated, macro policies are used to cool it down; when the market is down, they are used to stimulate its development. At present, the central government has basically confirmed its stand to help the real estate market out. If the market remains down in near future, more favorable policies will be put in place.     

Motivational complexity of green consumerism

This paper elaborates on the motivational complexity of green consumerism using a simple model of motivation as an analytical tool. The objective is to provide insights into the challenges that environmentally concerned ‘green consumers’ may face in the markets, as well as to illustrate the limitations of framing and targeting environmental policy measures in terms of individual motivation and morally responsible decision making. On the whole, the paper argues that as a private lifestyle project of a single individual, ‘green consumerism’ is much too heavy a responsibility to bear. Therefore, the author joins the growing number of scholars who argue that in environmental policy the focus on individual consumers is limited and thus needs to be problematized.     

银行异质性、货币政策工具与银行信贷

通过对中国银行业2006-2010年84家银行的数据建立Panel Data模型,本文分析了货币供应量和银行间市场利率对不同类型银行信贷的影响。研究结果发现国有银行和股份制银行的信贷要显著地受到货币供应量的影响,而外资银行和城市商业银行的信贷要受到银行间市场利率的显著影响,农村商业银行没有显著地受到这些货币政策工具的影响。另外,货币政策工具对银行信贷的影响,也与不同类型银行的规模、资本充足性、盈利能力等方面的特征有关。因此,中央银行在运用不同的货币政策工具时,要综合考虑不同类型的银行对货币政策工具的反应。     

利用LAMBDA方法进行多维载波相位模糊度转换

为解决GPS载波相位整周模糊度结算的问题，Teunissen提出了最小均方模糊度解相关调整算法(LAMBDA)。本文基于这一算法，对于多维模糊度转换矩阵进行了构建。转换后的矩阵可以直接利用多维高斯变换，而不用将两维的高斯变化多次使用。最后，通过一个例子对所提出的方法进行了验证。     

Bank finance for private firms in China: Does political capital still pay off?

This paper investigates whether political connection can help private firms in China gain access to commercial bank loans. Based on data from the 2012 Nationwide Survey of Private Enterprises in China, it finds that: (i) politically connected firms were more likely to have access to commercial bank loans; (ii) the mechanism for this better access might be that, on the one hand, political connection was used by private firms as a tool to overcome discrimination and/or information asymmetry in the loan market; on the other hand, political connection was seen by banks as a signal of creditworthiness; and (iii) the importance of political connection seems to lie in the connection to the power to govern rather than the mere opportunity to influence policy.     

Bundesverfassungsgericht und Krisenpolitik der EZB — Stellungnahmen der Ökonomen

In June 2013, the Federal Constitutional Court in Germany held an expert hearing on the suitability of ECB measures, such as the purchase of government bonds, and their compatibility with existing EU and German legislation. The statements of five invited experts are documented here. The authors comment on the path from the agreement that has laid down the basic rules for the euro area to a crisis-driven approach that seems to have forgotten these rules. The ECB policy holds many risks - above all that of financing public budgets almost without limits - for the stability of monetary and fiscal governance in the euro area. On the other hand, ECB measures can also be interpreted as a necessary means to comply with the ultimate task of the ECB, the defence of price stability. Hence the ECB’s crisis measures do not represent any intention to intervene in fiscal or economic policy measures, and after the crisis the ECB can return to a narrower interpretation of the role of a central bank. It should not be forgotten that the ECB measures bear high risks for the countries in trouble as well as for those countries supporting them.     

经济政策不确定性会影响股票流动性吗？——基于中国上市公司的经验证据

以2007-2017年中国A股上市公司为研究对象，考察经济政策不确定性对股票流动性的影响。实证结果表明，经济政策不确定性的提高会导致股票流动性下降，分析师跟踪会对经济政策不确定性和股票流动性产生影响，能有效抑制经济政策不确定性所带来的股票流动性的下降。进一步研究发现，相较于机构投资者持股比例高的企业，机构投资者持股比例低的企业分析师跟踪对经济政策不确定性与股票流动性的正向调节作用更显著。研究一方面丰富了经济政策不确定性和股票流动性的研究文献；另一方面为如何提高股票流动性也提供了一定的理论依据和经验证据。     

基于字典对齐的迁移稀疏编码图像分类

基于稀疏编码的图像分类算法，当源域和目标域间样本服从不同分布时，从源域样本中学习到的字典无法有效对目标域样本进行编码，进而严重影响算法的分类性能。为了解决此问题，提出一种基于字典对齐的迁移稀疏编码(TSC-DA)算法。一方面，通过将字典对齐机制引入稀疏编码模型训练过程中，以减少源域和目标域间样本分布差异；另一方面，采用L2正则化项代替字典约束项，将其转化为无约束优化问题，从而回避了拉格朗日对偶法复杂的求解方式。实验结果表明，TSC-DA能够有效提高目标域的图像分类精度。     

策略性行为在基本养老保险中的发生及矫正

策略性行为是分析制度规则与政策对象行为互动的分析视角。在我国基本养老保险领域,策略性行为频频发生,这一方面是由经济生活中普遍存在的自利动机决定的,同时个人和企业的财务压力与制度本身的设计漏洞也都起到了推动作用。策略性行为会削弱基本养老保险制度的老年保障能力,影响财务平衡的实现,损害制度的经济效率,因此需要采取适当措施进行矫正。