Summary of the Nation's 1995 Housing System Reform

ＡｆｔｅｒｔｈｅＳｔａｔｅＣｏｕｎｃｉｌＤｅｃｉｓｉｏｎｏｎＤｅｅｐｅｎｉｎｇＵｒｂａｎＨｏｕｓｉｎｇＳｙｓｔｅｍＲｅｆｏｒｍｗａｓｐｒｏｍｕｌｇａｔｅｄｉｎＪｕｌｙ1994,ｈｏｕｓｉｎｇｒｅｆｏｒｍｐｏｌｉｃｉｅｓｗｅｒｅｇｒａｄｕａｌｌｙｓｔａｎｄａｒｄｉｚｅｄａｎｄｐｅｒｆｅｃｔｅｄ,ｗｈｉｃｈｈａｓｆｕｒｔｈｅｒｄｅｅｐｅｎｅｄ1995ｕｒｂａｎｈｏｕｓｉｎｇｓｙｓｔｅｍｒｅｆｏｒｍａｎｄｃｏｎｔｉｎｕａｌｌｙａｃｃｅｌｅｒａｔｅｄｈｏｕｓｉｎｇｒｅｆｏｒｍｐｒｏｃｅｓｓ.Ｈｏｕｓｉｎｇｒｅｆｏ…     

Do rental agents discriminate against minority customers? Evidence from the 2000 Housing Discrimination Study

This study examines the incidence and causes of housing discrimination in qualitative treatment by rental agents, using national audit data from the 2000 Housing Discrimination Study. Using the fixed-effects logit method described by [Review of Economic Studies 47(1) (1980) 225–238], we control for unobservable factors that are shared by audit teammates and conduct hypothesis tests for the incidence and causes of discrimination. We find evidence that rental housing discrimination has declined since 1989 but continues to exist in several important types of housing agent behavior. We also find evidence that this discrimination is caused by agents’ own prejudice and by their response to the prejudice of white clients.     

Are central banks really breaking the (policy) rules?

• ? Looking at the strength of the global economy, it's no surprise that simple policy rules suggest that interest rates in some advanced economies are much too low and/or that several rate hikes would be needed in 2018 to avoid falling further behind the curve. Nonetheless, we expect central banks to respond cautiously and we see a slower pace of tightening than the consensus view .
• ? Policy rules, such as the Taylor Rule, have long been considered a useful guide to the potential path for policy rates. But while it suggests that current US, Eurozone and Australian central bank rates are broadly appropriate, it signals that UK, Canadian, and Swedish rates should be substantially higher. Based on our economic forecasts, Taylor Rules suggest that the central banks in the US, Eurozone, Canada and Australia will all need to raise intertest rates by around 100bps by end‐2018.
• ? However, there are several reasons not to draw strong conclusions from such point estimates. First, the Taylor Rule requires estimates of two unobservable variables – the output gap and the natural rate of interest – which cannot be estimated precisely.
• ? Second, using models that were designed to predict US policy responses in the 1990s to forecast central banks' behaviour today is likely to be misleading. Meanwhile, inferring central banks' reaction functions from recent policy rate moves to assess the future policy path is fraught with difficulties. Not only have interest rates been broadly unchanged for the bulk of the post‐financial crisis period, but policymakers have provided other forms of policy support.
• ? Third, outside the US at least, Taylor Rules have historically pointed to persistently different policy rates from those observed, yet inflation has been well anchored.
• ? The upshot of all this is that we expect central banks in the advanced economies to err on the side of caution and anticipate interest rates rising less quickly than the consensus amongst economists.

     

Are There Tax Arbitrage Opportunities in Private Rental Housing Markets?

Tax arbitrage opportunities in rental housing markets arise when high bracket taxpayers exploit the tax shelter and conversion features of the tax treatment of rental housing and as a consequence offer low bracket taxpayers rental housing at a cost lower than if they purchased the same quantity of housing for owner occupation. A microdata set has been employed to estimate the size of these tax arbitrage opportunities with respect to 1907 properties owned by Australian landlords. The measure of tax arbitrage opportunities is the breakeven tax rate at which the maximum rental rate a potential occupant is prepared to pay before turning to purchased housing is equal to the landlord's reservation rental rate. Potential occupants with marginal tax rates below the breakeven tax rate find that renting has a relative cost advantage over home purchase. When agency costs (the costs incurred in managing landlord-tenant relationships) are included in the tax arbitrage model, our estimates of the breakeven tax rate indicate that home purchase has a relative cost advantage over renting for most potential occupants. Renting is only financially attractive to low tax bracket individuals. This finding is consistent with Australian tenure patterns. However, there are more puzzling results. A majority of landlords belong to tax brackets below the top bracket, landlords in the lowest tax brackets typically make below normal profits, and reservation rental rates at the bottom of the rental housing market are relatively high. Down payment requirements, lock-in effects, and rent clientele groups are put forward as possible explanations for these findings.     

Providing Shelters or Low Income Housing? An Optimal Control Model

An optimal control model is developed to model the choice between short-term safety nets (shelter beds) and longer term investments (low income housing) for the alleviation of literal homelessness (people sleeping on the street). Society's objective function depends negatively on literal homelessness and the budget expenditure to fight it. A steady-state saddle point solution is found. The model is extended to take into account incentive effects in the provision of shelters and leakage effects in the provision of low income housing.Journal of Economic Literature ClassificationNumbers: H53, R21, C61.     

A study on the mean past lifetime of the components of (n − k + 1)-out-of-n system at the system level

In the present paper, we consider a (n − k + 1)-out-of-n system with identical components where it is assumed that the lifetimes of the components are independent and have a common distribution function F. We assume that the system fails at time t or sometime before t, t > 0. Under these conditions, we are interested in the study of the mean time elapsed since the failure of the components. We call this as the mean past lifetime (MPL) of the components at the system level. Several properties of the MPL are studied. It is proved that the relation between the proposed MPL and the underlying distribution is one-to-one. We have shown that when the components of the system have decreasing reversed hazard then the MPL of the system is increasing with respect to time. Some examples are also provided.     

国际电工委员会(IEC)国际标准化组织(ISO)国际电信联盟(ITU)世界标准日祝词

为小企业创造大效益小企业可以称得上是全球最大的产业群体。据估计,全世界超过95%的企业是中小型企业。因此,正如标准能给跨国企业、政府和社会普遍创造效益一样,国际标准也能为中小企业创造效益。小企业家和管理者勤勉工作,致力于企业的生存和发展,国际标准化活动似乎与他们的实际工作关联很少。但事实上,由IEC、ISO和ITU制定的国际标准正在促进着经济的发展和技术的推广,就如同标准对大型企业的发展起作用一样,标准也必然会增强小企业的发展活力。国际标准在发展电力网络、电信/信息通讯技术(ICT)网络和全球供应链中发挥着重要的作…     

学电脑笔记(三) 数值计算(上)

CCED不仅制表功能很强,而且能进行数值计算,包括列间数值计算、行间数值计算、一列数值求和,以及表外一般数值计算。下面先简述一些数值计算所用的运算符号、运算表达式和计算命令。 (一)CCED在数值计算中使用的运算符号有:+、-、*√、^五种。其中,*号是计算机上的乘法符号,/是除法符号,^是乘方符号。此外.还需要在算式最后列出计算结果,要求保留的小数位敬,用逗号与前面的数值隔开。     

工作研究和Flexsim在手机Housing全检线平衡改善中的应用

以某品牌手机Housing全检线为研究对象,运用作业测定技术首先测出全检线各工位的作业时间,找出瓶颈工位;其次借助Flexsim仿真软件对全检线建模仿真,得到各工位忙闲率及全检线产能状况和在制品数量;再次运用程序分析法分别从作业方式、工位布置方面分析全检线存在的问题,提出对应的改善方案;最后对改善方案进行仿真测试,以检验改善效果。研究结果:全检线平衡率提升至94.41%,在制品减少175 pcs,产能提高28.2%。     

论乡(镇)政企(事)分开

从乡(镇)政府与企(事)业分开的涵义着手,提出了乡(镇)政府与企(事)业分开的重要手段——推进公用事业民营化的政府底线。重点研究了面对乡(镇)企(事)业组织的政府作为:监管民营化企业,控股国有企业,中介组织"不挂靠"。     

美国价值工程师协会(SAVE)职称评定说明书(续)

<正> 价值工程专家再任申请者要做到: 1.在五类活动之中的A类活动中取得30分,并且A2活动所得分数不得低于10分。 2.B类活动所得分数不得低于10分。 3.要在五类活动之中的任意三类活动中取得30分,并且这三类活动中的每一类活动所得分数不得低于5分。 4.参加Ⅱ型价值工程研讨会并获得30分,这个研讨会应不同于开始申请价值工程专家时所使用的那个研讨会。 F.终身价值工程专家 终身价值工程专家职称实行终身制。终身价值     

美国价值工程师协会(SAVE)职称评定说明书(续)

<正> D.价值思想传播活动 1.写作 有关价值方面的科研写作成果,根据其成果水平,按每500字不超过1分来计算。对合作成果,成绩要均分。 2.大众传播资料的写作: 对那些通过写作向公众传播价值思想的人给予     

隐喻(小小说)

昨夜的雨,洗去了立秋以来日日汗津津却说不得热的日子。上年,我和财金、农水审计股的同事一同去地税局,督促落实审计决定和请其协查一地税分局与一茶场的财务往来事宜。 地税局财务股长一个人俯身桌前,在写什么。见我们进屋,忙放下手中的笔,装烟、沏茶。寒暄之后,得知我们的来意,他歉意地说,管机关的副局长去房改办了,管财务的局长参加县里召开的财政工作会议了;他在着手准备传达会议精神的材料,局内     

洛阳纸贵(散文)

我国西晋时著名文学家左思，少年时，家父教他习文，因他反应迟钝，朝会夕忘，气得他父亲无可奈何。 　　一日，客人来访，偶问起左思的学业如何 ?父亲面带羞色，气恼地说：“犬子呆笨，量不成器，酒囊饭袋而已。” 　　左思听了父亲的断言，刺痛了心。从此发愤读书，学业大有进展，不到一年功夫，就写出了才华横溢的《齐都赋》 (赋是汉代流行的一种文体—作者注 )，从此左思在文坛上也有了名气。随之，他读书和写作都越发勤奋起来了，早起晚睡，从不贪花恋草。他为了写魏、蜀、吴三都之赋，考察了三国的山川、风土人情，研究了著名的散文…     

新婚之夜(小说)

赶来闹洞房的同事、同伴刚刚散尽,时针正好指到了22点30分。 装修布置一新的洞房之内,就剩新郎官和新娘子两个人了。这片天地此刻完全彻底地就属于他们自己,该是他们为所欲为的时候了。 本来,被欢乐、嘻闹、簇拥整整折腾了十几个小时的一对年轻伉俪此刻该双双上床就寝或是枕边戏逗的最佳时期,但是由于过份的兴奋加劳累,反而使他们的睡意错位过去而又一次困味全无,进一步来了精神。     

春(外一首)

当一叶新芽在心地上萌动人说,春天来了笑意写在脸上而春天不仅仅是一个季节,还是一种思想一种感觉不然为啥冬天里也有春的温暖 三月惊势,几埃乍暖的风吹来她枉盈的脚步阳宪.如术映出儿分妩媚几分娇羞穿过山脚那片桃林.所有的花朵都红了脸面对她清新的坦露的胭体于是,男人们开始操动一路歌唱一路追逐累了,就仲出手来请女人搀扶三月就笑了一对燕子街着笑声在房据下呢喃 (贵任编辑:李万全)春(外一首)@文慕白     

春意(散文)

日子徜徉在斗转星移的岁月溪流里,漫长而温柔。我独自一人漫步在县城边上那片向往至极的山林里,踩着软软的松针,聆听风的低语,遐思