能源消费弹性系数与国内替代能源预期

能源消费弹性系数反映了一个国家能源消费增长速度与国民经济增长速度之间的比例关系,是衡量一个国家能源利用效率的重要指标.准确把握能源消费弹性系数的变化规律,对于确保我国能源供给安全和建设资源节约型社会都具有重要意义.在能源危机、资源短缺的今天,产出水平进一步提高将日益明显地表现出受制于自然-资源稀缺性的特征.因此,经济理论在今后所关注的问题将是如何降低自然资源的消费.我国人口众多,是能源消耗大国,面临能源危机的现实考虑之一是选择替代能源,替代能源将大大缓解自然资源的消耗.文章分析了改革开放以来我国的能源消费弹性系数与国内替代能源预期.     

Commodity Price Instability and Debt-linking by Developing Countries

Most developing countries borrow in world capital markets. Typically this borrowing is denominated in one of the major currencies and requires periodic servicing. The foreign exchange required to meet the service obligation is often dependent on the export of one or a small number of commodities. This demand usually competes with a number of other claims on export earnings, including both consumption and capital goods imports. This paper investigates the use of commodity-linked borrowing by developing countries. If the interest and/or principal payments on external debt are linked to the price of a country's principal exports, the risk of default can be shifted to better-diversified lenders. The social cost of linking is much smaller than that of other compensating arrangements. In addition, commodity-linked debt may reduce the borrower's direct lending costs. This will depend on the quantity of linked debt supplied and the dispersion of expectations about the future price of the commodity. If the supply is small relative to the demand among investors who expect the commodity price to increase, the resulting reduction in the cost of borrowing may be sufficient to offset the premium for bearing the risk associated with the commodity's future price.     

对我国制造业的能源替代关系研究

本文运用超越对数成本函数对我国1978-2005年制造业中的能源与资本、劳动之间的关系进行了分析,发现能源与资本之间存在很强的替代关系,能源与劳动之间也存在较强的替代关系.这种性质的替代关系的存在意味着:在保持给定的产出水平下,政府可以选择提高能源税收水平的政策,从而提高能源使用成本,促进资本对能源替代,达到节约能源和减少污染物排放的目的.     

Polarization,Political Instability and Active Learning*

In a multiperiod setting, decision‐makers can learn about the consequences of their decisions through experimentation. We examine how polarization and political instability affect learning through experimentation. We distinguish two cases: (i) the decision to be made is not salient and does not affect the outcome of subsequent elections (exogenous elections) and (ii) the decision is salient and the election outcome depends on it (endogenous elections). It is shown that while the possibility of learning increases activism, the existence of political instability distorts learning. Furthermore, we demonstrate that, when elections are exogenous, polarization between political parties does not always decrease active learning.     

Countervailing Power and Price Transparency*

We investigate whether improved transparency about prices may increase the countervailing power exercised by buyers of an intermediate good. In a model with an informed manufacturer that sells to both informed and uninformed firms, we show that full transparency cannot be part of equilibrium due to the strategic effect of the resulting informational spillover. Transparency policies introduce a distortion for informed segments and are unsuccessful in completely removing the distortion from the uninformed segment. Welfare effects are hence ambiguous and depend on the weight assigned to uninformed markets. Our results thus cast further doubt on the value of transparency.     

Inter-Fuel and Inter-Factor Substitution in NSW Manufacturing Industry*

This paper uses the absolute price version of the Rotterdam model to investigate inter-factor (energy, labour, capital, material), and the inter-fuel (electricity, solid fuel, liquid fuel, gas, other fuel) substitution in NSW manufacturing during the period 1968-69 to 1980-81. Input demand elasticities with respect to input prices and production volume are derived, analyzed and compared with results from previous studies. While generally previous results are confirmed, some divergencies do occur. These are attributed to choice of time period and region.     

Substitution Between Private and Public Consumption in Australia*

Large increases in the private sector's savings ratio during a period of rapid growth in the relative size of the public sector has led to the suggestion that substitution between private and public consumption may be an important fcature of the Australian economy (Clements 1979). In this paper, empirical estimates are presented which indicate that no such substitution exists The estimates are derived from a theoretical model of consumption which is based on inter-temporal optimization in a stochastic environment. The estimates also suggest that private sector consumption behaviour is consistent with the joint hypothesis of rational expectations and Ricardian equivalence     

能源价格改革和财政补贴

经济的快速增长需要大量的能源作支撑,为了更好地服务经济,使其健康、快速发展,确保足够的能源供应,能源价格市场化改革迫在眉睫.当前,不断蔓延的世界金融危机,为我国实行能源价格改革提供了难得的机遇和空间,应该抓住有利时机,顺利推进能源资源改革,制定配套的财政补贴政策,保证能源改革不断深化.     

International Terrorism,Domestic Political Instability,and the Escalation Effect

What are the main causes of international terrorism? Despite the meticulous examination of various candidate explanations, existing estimates still diverge in sign, size, and significance. This article puts forward a novel explanation and supporting evidence. We argue that domestic political instability provides the learning environment needed to successfully execute international terror attacks. Using a yearly panel of 123 countries over 1973–2003, we find that the occurrence of civil wars increases fatalities and the number of international terrorist acts by 45%. These results hold for alternative indicators of political instability, estimators, subsamples, subperiods, and accounting for competing explanations.     

Domestic Labor Markets and Foreign Direct Investment*

We study how the labor market and industry uncertainty affect the investment decisions of multinational enterprises (MNEs). In an uncertain business climate, MNEs must take account of the future in deciding where to locate a branch plant. When wages are endogenously determined, both the opportunity cost of labor and redundancy payments influence the MNE’s decision. When countries compete for foreign investment, different national characteristics determine the winners in different industries. Differences in risk may draw MNEs to different locations. Firm‐specific bargaining always offers an advantage, as the mix of current and future pay fully reflects the firm’s risk profile.     

Domestic Credit Growth and International Capital Flows*

During the pre‐crisis period, Europe experienced substantial cross‐country variation in domestic credit growth and cross‐border capital flows. We investigate the inter‐relations between domestic credit growth and international capital flows during the period 1993–2008, with a special focus on the boom period of 2003–2008. We establish that domestic credit growth in European countries is strongly related to net debt inflows but not to net equity inflows. This pattern also holds for an extended sample of 54 advanced and emerging economies.     

宏观替代弹性、国内生产率与进口种类利得纠偏

基于2006-2016年中国与124个进口来源国(地区)数据,证实了中国国内产品种类与进口产品种类的替代性,考察了阿明顿(Armington)宏观替代弹性、国内生产率对进口产品种类利得的影响,测算了中国工业品贸易利得的偏误.结果 发现:在中国国内产品种类与进口产品种类具有替代性的条件下,中国国内生产率会放大贸易成本对进口产品种类的影响;Armington宏观替代弹性越高,贸易成本对进口产品种类的影响越大;中国工业平均贸易利得被高估12％,国内生产率导致的平均贸易利得被高估9％;从行业结构看,有12个行业的进口利得被低估或高估,其中"煤炭"贸易利得被高估3～5倍.因此,应科学判断进口产品种类利得,不断提高国内生产率.     

Psychological Oil Price Barrier and Firm Returns

In this paper, we investigate the psychological barrier effect induced by the oil price on firm returns when the oil price reaches US$100 or more per barrel. We find evidence of the negative effect of the US$100 oil price barrier for: (a) the entire sample of 1559 firms listed on the American stock exchanges; (b) both foreign and domestic firms, with domestic firms significantly more affected; (c) the 10 different sizes of firms, with the smaller firms less affected compared to the larger firms; and (d) 17 sectors of firms, with firms in the utilities, mining, and administration sectors being the least affected.     

Price dispersion and the stability of trade*

Research on trade relationships has documented a high rate of relationship breakup and churning. We use data on Norwegian exports to document two stylized facts about the stability of trade relationships. First, the probability of relationship breakup increases in the deviation of the relationship-specific price from a reference price. Second, relationship hazards follow Zipf's law. We propose a search model with limited information and search frictions to explain these facts. Reference prices provide information on outside trade options that inform optimal breakups, leading to the first stylized fact. Strong heterogeneity in breakup frictions across relationships can explain the Zipf's law hazards.     

Price Dispersion and the Role of Stores*

In this paper, we study price dispersion in the Norwegian retail market for 766 products across 4,297 stores over 60 months. Price dispersion for homogeneous products is significant and persistent, with a coefficient of variation of 37 percent for the median product. Price dispersion differs between product categories and over time. Store heterogeneity accounts for 30 percent of the observed variation in prices for the median product–month, and for around 50 percent for the sample as a whole. Price dispersion is still prevalent after correcting for store heterogeneity.     

VERs and Price Undertakings under the WTO*

Under the rules of the WTO, governments are prohibited from negotiating voluntary export restraints (VERs) but may negotiate price undertakings (i.e. import price minima). While these two policies can have identical effects in models of perfect competition, they can have very different economic consequences with imperfect competition. The model presented here shows that in a model of international Bertrand duopoly, a VER can result in lower domestic prices and profits than a price minimum regime. This suggests that price undertakings should also be prohibited under the WTO.     

Substitution,Income, and Intertemporal Effects In Currency-Substitution Models*

Empirical studies which aim to determine the extent of international currency substitution typically focus on the coefficient associated with the anticipated rate of depreciation of the domestic currency or on the foreign interest rate in the domestic money demand equation. an intertemporal optimizing model is used to obtain a money demand function which shows that the anticipated exchange-rate change and the foreign interest rate capture an income effect and an intertemporal income or substitution effect. Using these theoretical results, the findings from empirical studies are examined to show circumstances in which international currency substitutability may have been overstated or understated.