The effect of gun control laws on suicide rates

Conclusions This paper has analyzed a number of gun control laws in different states and found that as a group the laws were significantly correlated with the suicide rates in those states. In other words, strict gun control may have a preventive effect on suicidal behavior, a conclusion supportive of Boyd's view.     

A formal treatment of threats: A note on the economics of deterrence

Summary To discuss and clarify a theory of deterrence this article focusses on military and economic inputs of the international exchange system and uses traditional microeconomic tools. It acknowledges the stochastic character of international threat situations and the influence of the attitude towards risk. The results of this approach suggest that the impact of neither economic and military deterrents nor unconditional rewards can be established apriori and, consequently, stress the importance of minimizing the potential yield of international misconduct and the use of positive sanctions (conditional rewards) as instruments to contain undesirable behaviour amongst nations.This article communicates the opinion of the author. The views expressed herein are not necessarily shared by my employer. Comments by Jan Veenbergen, Erick Schut, Igor Kaa, Kees Eitjes, Marko Bos and two referees of this journal were very helpful. A.R. Hof made suggestions on improving my language. Any errors are mine.     

Gun lobbies and gun control: Senate voting patterns on the Brady Bill and the assault weapons ban

This paper uses an econometric model to analyze the political and economic factors affecting the Senate voting patterns on the 1993 Brady Bill and the assault weapons ban. Results of a logit estimation procedure support the hypothesis that the political activities and presence of the National Rifle Association (measured as relative campaign contributions and membership) had a significant impact on the voting patterns by Senators on both bills.     

Corruption,market quality,and entry deterrence in emerging economies

In many emerging economies incumbent firms often use dubious means to deter entry of other firms. We analyze this scenario in a three‐stage game of entry deterrence. The incumbent has incomplete information about the entrant's costs but can increase this cost by resorting to unfair means (e.g. bribing a politician who harms the entrant). We completely characterize the optimal bribe and show that this depends on the “fairness index” and the “differentiation” parameter. We also show that zero bribes need not maximize welfare and market quality. Our results seem to be compatible with anecdotal evidence from emerging economies such as India.     

Collaborative tax evasion and social norms: why deterrence does not work

This paper makes a preliminary attempt to model a phenomenonof collaborative tax evasion between a seller and his customerand incorporates the social norm into such collusive tax-evadingactivities. It is found that, due to the existence of the socialnorm, more prevalent collaborative tax evasion at the statusquo tends to intensify the extent of the tax evasion itself;this thus furnishes a self-fulfilling equilibrium and it mayalso give rise to multiple equilibria. More importantly, wefind that the snowballing effect stemming from social norm hasa decisive influence not only in determining the conformityof consumers to the tax code, but also the deterrent effectof the authority's tax enforcement. If collaborative tax evasionis initially rampant, raising fines for tax evasion will giverise to a strong venal effect that will increase tax evasion.Once this perverse effect outweighs the usual deterrent effectassociated with raising fines for tax evasion, a more severefine may result in higher rather than lower tax evasion.     

Missed the starting gun! Wage compression and the rise of the Swedish model in the labour market

A central aspect of the Swedish model was the labour market, distinguished by an egalitarian wage structure and by the particular configuration of two institutions: a centralised wage bargaining that followed upon the Saltsjöbad Agreement in 1938 and the solidaristic wage policy implemented in 1956. The literature argues that these institutions produced an outstanding compression of the wage structure from the late 1960s onwards. In contrast, we argue that this narrow post–World War II focus overlooks the historical dimension of the wage structure. The evidence presented here shows that a compression of the wage structure occurred in the late 1930s and 1940s. Previous research attributes this early episode of compression to market factors. In public investigations and periodicals of the 1940s, however, contemporary observers reckoned that special agreements between SAF and LO during World War II caused wage convergence. These agreements anticipated the solidaristic wage policy of the 1950s. We subject the market-factor view to a statistical test and show its explanatory insufficiency. We thereby corroborate the contemporaries’ view and conclude that the coexistence of the centralised agreements, the solidaristic wage policy, and wage convergence configured the rise of the Swedish model during World War II.     

Call Center在证券行业的应用及其发展趋势

本文从销管费用控制和业务费用控制两个方面论述了企业如何进行成本的全程控制。     

一种单相电压型逆变器双环控制

文章以单相电压型逆变器为研究对象,给出了一种逆变器双环控制策略。首先,基于单相电压型逆变器的主拓扑结构,建立了相应的数学模型,同时建立了逆变器传递函数框图。其次,给出了相应的双环控制结构,该结构为内、外环均为比例控制。在此基础上,采用极点配置法设计了相应的控制参数取值范围。实验结果表明,文章所给的双环控制方法具有较好的动态控制响应和稳态控制性能。     

The Cuban revolution and infant mortality: A synthetic control approach

The Cuban government often boasts that the country’s infant mortality rate has been low and falling since Fidel Castro’s revolution in 1959. However, because many Latin American countries have experienced similar decreases, and because Cuba historically enjoyed lower infant mortality rates than the rest of Latin America, it is unclear whether the government should get credit. We use the fact that Cuba underwent momentous and unique political changes to consider the effect of Castro’s regime on infant mortality. We employ a synthetic control method to ascertain how much of the reduction, if any, can be attributed to the regime. We find that in the first decade of the regime, infant mortality increased relative to the counterfactual, but that—after the introduction of Soviet subsidies—infant mortality partially reverted to trend. To measure the effect of the subsidies, we run a second synthetic control test concerning the collapse of the Soviet Union and the accompanying end of the subsidies. This control suggests that the subsidies played no important role.     

A note on the economic control of black popular music

We didn’t have writers, but we did have music, and the music was the vehicle to carry the remnants of Black history. The true history of Blacks is not in our history books, but in the music. The only blacks I ever heard of in school were Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver. It was like nobody else existed. We had no folk heroes in books, ever. Our history is all locked in the music and is passed down in its different forms through that music.     

理论与现实:从两个维度深化认识劳动价值论

文中提出设计一种共同补货期 (CRE的机制用于供应链库存控制 ,分析了合作性供应链库存带来的优势。在这种机制下 ,供应商规定共同的补货期 ,要求所有的购买者必须在这个期间内订货 ;供应商提供一个价格折扣以诱使购买者按受这种策略。通过解一个Stackelberg博奕模型求出供应     

Reverse-lag reserve accounting,bank behavior,and monetary control: A formal analysis

Conclusion The fundamental conclusion of the analysis contained in this paper is that Laurent's claims concerning the potential monetary control enhancements of the adoption of a reverse-lag reserve accounting system are correct. This result conflicts with those reached by other studies of the monetary control properties of RLA, because the model of RLA used in this paper has been based on an analysis of the microeconomic behavior of banks. The conclusion that monetary control could be improved by adoption of RLA vindicates Laurent's [1984] argument that a “microbank analysis” is fundamental to understanding correctly the workings of an RLA system. An important qualification that prohibits a conclusion that RLA clearly is superior to lagged or contemporaneous accounting is that the monetary control enhancements resulting from adoption of RLA are mitigated to some extent by the existence of the Federal Reserve discount window. Indeed, the relative desirability of RLA as compared to alternative reserve accounting systems cannot be evaluateda priori in the presence of a discount window. Any serious consideration of RLA would need to be prefaced by a careful study of the relationship of the money stock to bank borrowing in an RLA setting. The final version of this paper was written while the author was a visiting economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. This paper has benefited considerably from comments and suggestions by Robert Laurent, Kenneth Kopecky, Daniel Friel, Chris Waller, Elmus Wicker, and participants in a seminar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and in the Indiana University Money and Banking Seminar. Initial work on this topic was supported by an Indiana University Summer Faculty Fellowship. Any errors are the author's responsibility, and any views expressed in the paper do not necessarily reflect those of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System or its staff.     

成功与自我管理

成功是人们向往和为之奋斗的目标。自我管理是知识经济时代盛行的新型管理思想。这两者的关系如何?成功应该如何衡量,影响它的因素是什么?自我管理对于人生的成功又有何意义?为澄清这些问题,使读者在各自的工作和事业发展中取得成功,本文从对于成功的理解与衡量、自我管理及其要素体系、成功与自我管理的关联、自我管理成就了"现代管理学之父"等四个方面进行了论述,供各位学者参考。