The Differential Returns Offered by Mutually Owned and Proprietary UK Depository Institutions: 1993–2000

The study quantifies the differences in the level of return from investing in deposit (savings) accounts provided by depository institutions, which are either 'mutual' or 'proprietary'. It is shown that for most types of deposit accounts offered in the UK, mutual building societies provide higher returns than proprietary firms. Surprisingly, it is also shown that returns from deposit accounts issued by converted or non‐mutual building societies are, generally, lower than either mutual building societies or proprietary firms. These findings are consistent for interest rate data adjusted for the effect of non‐price product characteristics and for unadjusted interest rate data.     

FRONTIER EFFICIENCY MEASUREMENT IN DEPOSIT-TAKING FINANCIAL MUTUALS: A REVIEW OF TECHNIQUES, APPLICATIONS, AND FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

ABSTRACT ** :  Despite the global importance of mutuals in financial services, and the universal need to measure and improve organizational efficiency in all deposit-taking institutions, it is only relatively recently that the most advanced econometric and mathematical programming frontier techniques have been applied. This paper provides a synoptic survey of the comparatively few empirical analyses of frontier efficiency measurement in deposit-taking financial mutuals, comprising savings and loans, building societies and credit unions in Australia, the UK, and the USA. Both estimation and measurement techniques and the determinants of efficiency are examined. Particular focus is placed on how the results of these studies may help inform regulatory policy and managerial behaviour.     

Time-inconsistent preferences in a general equilibrium model

This paper introduces time-inconsistent preferences in a multicommodity general equilibrium framework with incomplete markets. The standard concept of competitive equilibrium is extended in order to allow for changes in intertemporal preferences. Depending on whether or not agents recognize that their intertemporal preferences change, agents are called sophisticated or naïve. This paper presents competitive equilibrium notions for economies with naïve agents and economies with sophisticated agents and provides assumptions under which both types of equilibria exist. Surprisingly, the set of naïve equilibria in societies populated by time-consistent households is not allocationally equivalent to the set of competitive equilibria. For sophisticated equilibria, the equivalence holds. Time-inconsistency also raises conceptual issues about the appropriate concept of efficiency. Choices have to be made concerning the incorporation of future preferences and the appropriate instruments to create Pareto improvements. For both naïve and sophisticated societies, we present four possible efficiency concepts. Suitable conditions are specified for which both naïve and sophisticated equilibria satisfy appropriate efficiency concepts.     

The merger of populations, the incidence of marriages, and aggregate unhappiness

Let a society??s unhappiness be measured by the aggregate of the levels of relative deprivation of its members. When two societies of equal size, F and M, merge, unhappiness in the merged society is shown to be higher than the sum of the levels of unhappiness in the constituent societies when apart; merger alone increases unhappiness. But when societies F and M merge and marriages are formed such that the number of households in the merged society is equal to the number of individuals in one of the constituent societies, unhappiness in the merged society is shown to be lower than the aggregate unhappiness in the two constituent societies when apart. This result obtains regardless of which individuals from one society form households with which individuals from the other, and even when the marriages have not (or not yet) led to income gains to the married couples from increased efficiency, scale economies, and the like. While there are various psychological reasons for people to become happier when they get married as opposed to staying single, the very formation of households reduces social distress even before any other happiness-generating factors kick in.     

马克思的现代社会发展理论与科学发展观

在马克思的现代社会发展理论中,无论是东方的社会主义还是西方的社会主义其根本点是:必须是实现了现代化的社会。而实际上的社会主义却产生于经济文化落后的国家,是前现代社会。由此决定,这些国家进入"社会主义"后首要的任务就是实现现代化,把社会主义建立在现代文明基础之上。科学发展观与马克思现代社会发展理论中关于未来社会发展的原则是一致的,是新的形势下马克思现代社会发展理论在中国特色社会主义现代化建设中的创新性体现。     

Trends and opportunities framing innovation for sustainability in the learning society

Innovation, a broad social and economic activity within emerging societies, transcends any specific technology, even if revolutionary, and is tied to attitudes and behaviours oriented towards the exploitation of change by adding value. In this context, we analyse on-going paths towards innovative societies taking into consideration their sustainable development. The solution-space for innovation for sustainability is characterised by three dimensions: 1) the entire lifespan of a product; 2) the entire socio-technic network of which a particular plant is part of, or from which a particular product emerges; and 3) stakeholders and decision processes, including business organisations and strategies; and public institutions, policy and regulatory frameworks. All theses three dimensions are shown to be critically related with the social appropriation of a broad knowledge base, which calls our special attention to the systems of innovation and competence building shaping our societies.Societies and their organisations differ in their approach to sustainability. Distinguishing between different types of stakeholders helps to elucidate barriers to change, and to exploit the solution-space for innovation. The contributions in this Special Issue illustrate various dimensions of the innovation-space and their related knowledge base. The examples addressed support the conclusion that the framework presented has general applicability to analyse and foster innovation for sustainability.     

The demand for mortgage finance in the united kingdom

This paper examines the rationing behaviour of building societies in the United kingdom. Mortgage rationing is defined as the use of non-interest rate terms to allocate available funds and the empirical results indicate that the adjustment of such terms is significant in determining the demand for mortgage finance. In contrast with previous studies, the demand side of the mortgage market is disaggregated between first-time house buyers and existing owner-occupiers.     

吉林省建筑节能政策分析与框架构建

经济的持续发展,需要建筑节能政策的大力护航。阐述吉林省建筑节能政策的现状,并对其存在问题加以分析,从节能宣传、筹资机制、能效标识、激励机制四个环节,提出节能政策框架,对于政府完善节能建筑政策提供一定参考。     

Strategic Role of Technological Self-Reliance in Development Management

Thanks to technological advancements, every society — throughout the world — is now better off than before. Although this is true for all societies considered in an aggregate manner, within each society and between different societies, the relative gaps in prosperity are increasing. Reversing these gaps is the most important challenge for human development in the twenty-first century. A thorough scrutiny of the causes for the observed negative trends would indicate that technological gap is at the root of all. Success stories clearly tell us that technological capacity building is the best foundation for any meaningful economic growth that leads to a higher standard of living and greater prosperity for the citizens of a country. Moreover, technology-based creative problem solving and the ability to manage technological innovation are essential prerequisites for the success of contemporary business executives operating in the competitive globalized market environment. Paying attention to these lessons is the call of the day for any developing country government as well as for the business executives of that country. This article discusses the strategic role of technological self-reliance in development management, in terms of what we have learned so far and where we should be going, so as to reverse the widening technological capacity gap between the developed and developing countries.     

Increased ecoefficiency and gross rebound effect: Evidence from USA and six European countries 1960-2002

Despite increased efficiency in the use of natural resources, the use of these resources continues to increase in most societies. This paper examines the discrepancy between the potential decrease of use of natural resources, as an effect of increased efficiency, and actual use. During the period 1960-2002, this difference was found to grow faster in the USA than the mean for six West European countries. Possible reasons for this difference between the two regions are analysed. To reduce the anthropogenic flows of energy and material, and the consequent deleterious effects on the biosphere, it will become necessary to adapt consumption to degree of efficiency in the use of natural resources. Based on the comparison between the two regions, some economic aspects of this issue are discussed.     

Voluntarily Separable Repeated Prisoner's Dilemma

Ordinary repeated games do not apply to real societies where one can cheat and escape from partners. We formulate a model of endogenous relationships that a player can unilaterally end and start with a randomly assigned new partner with no information flow. Focusing on two-person, two-action Prisoner's Dilemma, we show that the endogenous duration of partnerships generates a significantly different evolutionary stability structure from ordinary random matching games. Monomorphic equilibria require initial trust building, while a polymorphic equilibrium includes earlier cooperators than any strategy in monomorphic equilibria and is thus more efficient. This is due to the non-linearity of average payoffs.     

谈学生社团对大学生就业创业的重要作用

一直以来,大学生就业难已经成为一种社会问题,大学生创业作为提高大学生就业率的一种重要且有效的方式,越来越受到社会的广泛关注。在高校,学生社团作为高校校园文化的主力军,应该大力倡导学生创业,并为其营造良好的创业环境及氛围。     

Repelling states: Evidence from upland Southeast Asia

Although many economists recognize the existence of stateless orders, economists such as Cowen, Sutter, and Holcombe question how viable stateless orders are in the long run. Research documenting the historical existence of stateless societies is much more developed than our understanding of whether societies can successfully remain free of states. This article analyzes historical and anthropological evidence from societies in Southeast Asia that have avoided states for thousands of years. The article provides an overview of some of their customary legal practices and then describes the mechanisms that they use to avoid, repel, and prevent would-be states. Such stateless societies have successfully repelled states using location, specific production methods, and cultural resistance to states. A better understanding of these mechanisms provides a potential explanation for how such societies remained free of states for long periods of time.     

The effect of ethnic diversity on the participation in social groups: Evidence from trade unions

This paper advances the hypothesis that individuals in more ethnically fragmented societies, participate less in social groups. More precisely, the empirical analysis places the spotlight on trade unions and investigates whether ethnic diversity affects the decision of workers to participate in them. The analysis takes place along two layers: (a) country-level and (b) individual-level. First, building on a set of innovative instruments derived from the parasite-stress theory of values and sociality, our country-level analysis seeks to exploit exogenous sources of variation in ethnic diversity and establish a convincing causal relationship between ethnic diversity and trade union density across countries. In turn, we employ individual-level data from the European Social Survey (ESS) and investigate whether immigrants who cοme from more ethnically fragmented societies participate less in trade unions in their European countries of residence. Consistent with the prediction of the theory, both layers of the empirical analysis provide robust evidence of a negative, sizeable and highly significant effect of ethnic diversity on the participation in trade unions.     

Implications of ethnic diversity

Ethnically differentiated societies are often regarded as dysfunctional, with poor economic performance and a high risk of violent civil conflict. I argue that this is not well founded. I distinguish between 'dominance', in which one group constitutes a majority, and 'fractionalization', in which there are many small groups. In terms of overall economic performance, I show that both theoretically and empirically, fractionalization is normally unproblematic in democracies, although it can be damaging in dictatorships. Fractionalized societies have worse public sector performance, but this is offset by better private sector performance. Societies characterized by dominance are in principle likely to have worse economic performance, but empirically the effect is weak. In terms of the risk of civil war, I show that both theoretically and empirically fractionalization actually makes societies safer, while dominance increases the risk of conflict. A policy implication is that fractionalized societies are viable and secession should be discouraged.
—Paul Collier     

Institutional Bioeconomics and the Division of Labor: Reflections on Yarbrough & Yarbrough' Paper

The New Institutional Economics might have significant interactions with the economics of non-human societies. Some possibilities are considered in connection with the ideas of Yarbrough and Yarbrough on human societies. First, the need for enforcement may be less when the organisms in question treat one another as resources. Second, theories of the division of labor that have been developed in biology are applicable to human societies. There may be some interesting alternatives to traditional sociobiology as well.     

基于DEA-Tobit模型的农业科技推广服务效率研究——对福建省306个农业科技推广项目的实证分析

应用DEA方法测算了福建省的农业科技成果推广服务效率,应用Tobit模型分析了影响农业科技成果推广服务效率的因素。针对福建省306个农业科技成果推广服务项目的实证分析结果表明:福建省的农业科技成果推广服务存在规模偏小、投入要素配比不尽合理、效率较低等问题;市场需求与推广载体是影响农业科技成果推广服务效率的重要因素。提出建立需求导向的科技创新与服务体系,建立农业科技需求与服务信息平台,建立健全农业科技推广协调机制,充分发挥农民专业合作社的作用等建议。     

Bounded socio-technical experiments as agents of systemic change: The case of a zero-energy residential building

Large-scale shifts in dominant technologies are the necessary components of a transition toward sustainability. Such shifts are difficult because, in addition to technological innovation, they require changes in the existing institutions, professional norms, belief systems and, in some cases, also lifestyles. In the languages of cognitive and policy sciences, higher order learning on a scale ranging from individuals to professional and business communities, to the society at large, is needed. Higher order learning is especially crucial in the types of innovations that depend mainly on synthesis of existing technologies and know-how to achieve radical reductions in energy and material consumption, as is the case with high performance buildings. One way to facilitate this type of learning is through experimentation with new technologies and services.Drawing on our earlier concept of a Bounded Socio-Technical Experiment, in this paper we propose a four-level conceptual framework for mapping and monitoring the learning processes taking place in a BSTE, and apply it to an empirical case study of a zero-fossil-fuel residential building in Boston. Three major conclusions are that: learning took place both on the individual and team level, that individual learning primarily (but not exclusively) involved changes in problem definitions; and that team learning consisted of participant turnover until congruence in worldviews and interpretive frames was achieved. This case study also shows that we must think of innovating in building design as both a process and a product, and that both must be considered in the future efforts to replicate this building.This study highlights that technological innovation about technology as much as about people, their perceptions, and their interactions with each other and with the material world. Sustainability will not be reached by technology alone, but by deep learning by individuals, groups, professional societies and other institutions.     

西北农村建筑增效资源关键途径

文章所论增效资源乃就西北农村建筑有关资料而言,其效果应该:(1)有利于全球消除气候过暖的危害:(2)有利于西北农村建筑生态的可持续发展.经调研与相关实验,文章建议:西北农村建筑增效资源的关键途径是"因地制宜、优化体形、有效用能、环境绿化和自然空调".这五项原则既是西北农村建筑可持续发展的绿色之途,也是有利于消除气候过暖危害的必由之路.