My five pounds are not as good as yours, so I will spend them

An experimental approach is used to examine how money denomination and the choice between or availability of coins and banknotes may influence consumers’ purchasing behaviour. Evidence shows that for small amounts of money, consumers may prefer a smaller monetary value in banknotes rather than a higher value in coins. Findings also suggest that people carrying coins are more likely to make a purchase of small value than people not carrying coins.     

When it Rains,it Pours: Estimating the Spatial Spillover Effect of Rainfall

Environmental and Resource Economics - A large fraction of the world’s poor rely on rain-fed agriculture, which makes them vulnerable to changes in rainfall patterns. In this paper, we...     

繁荣的依据--我和我所认同的经济学观点

改革开放以来我国经历了两次宏观经济的繁荣时期,也曾两度遭遇到经济萧条的威胁,经济的繁荣与经济的相对萧条之间是否存在一定的困果关系呢？是什么造就了中国经济近20年的快速增长？这些因素是否能够继续推动中国经济的快速增长？本试图给出这个问题的一种答案。     

It pays to do good,but not to do more good than it pays: A note on the survival of altruism

Recently Becker and Hirshleifer have attempted to explain the survival of altruism. Altruism ‘pays’ in their framework because it permits mutual cooperation or exchange to take place. This paper shows that these arguments are invalid. This case is that in any environment where altruism pays there is always an egoistic strategy called cooperation egoism — which yields an even higher return. In equilibrium, this will be anticipated so that, while altruism may pay off in a disequilibrium situation, in equilibrium egoism and not altruism has survival value.     

The state spends first: Logic,facts, fictions,open questions

Keynesian (or Kaleckian) logic leads post Keynesian economists to presume that a variation of state revenues from taxes and sales of Treasury bonds are the result of a variation in state spending and not the other way around. In the past two decades, the exponents of modern monetary theory (MMT) have been at the forefront in asserting the Keynesian (or Kaleckian) logic of this proposition, filling a theoretical vacuum in post Keynesian thinking. The question is that MMT consolidates the Treasury and Central Bank (CB) so that the latter automatically creates purchasing power in favor of decisions of the former to spend. Critics, however, point out that most institutional arrangements forbid CBs to finance the Treasury directly. After Lavoie (2013 ———. “The Monetary and Fiscal Nexus of Neo-Chartalism: A Friendly Critical Look.” Journal of Economic Issues, 2013, 42, 1–32. Working paper version, 2013 (available at www.boeckler.de/pdf/v_2011_10_27_lavoie.pdf) [Google Scholar]), the debate has moved forward and seen some convergence. The present paper critically reviews for unfamiliar readers an otherwise almost esoteric but fundamental discussion.     

2004/2005联合国年回顾:受到挑战和肯定的作用

第59届联合国大会倡导的2004/2005联合国年(2004年9月14日至2005年9月13日)以9月14日至16日召开“2005年世界首脑会议”为标志。这次首脑会议的召开,是因为联合国在当今世界的作用遭遇了挑战。大会在结束时再次重申,如果说联合国的作用有何不同的话,那就是联合国的作用从未像今天这样重要过。然而,与人们对联合国进行重大改革所寄予的较高期望相比,大会依然留下了许多遗憾。2003年9月23日,联合国秘书长科菲·安南在向联合国大会发表演讲时指出,联合国正处在一个“叉路口”:它要么被边缘化,要么实现复兴。边缘化的忧虑始终挥之不去。特别是未…     

学会共处：“双不赢”未必“双输”——也说大学的“土政策”

作者认为,在新的社会变动中,在一些领域,比如高校,尝试学习与各类不习惯的新社会行为并与观念不同之人(以及作为法人的机构)"共处",恐怕是身处变革之中的个人和群体不得不走之路.     

Collateral equilibrium,I: a basic framework

Much of the lending in modern economies is secured by some form of collateral: residential and commercial mortgages and corporate bonds are familiar examples. This paper builds an extension of general equilibrium theory that incorporates durable goods, collateralized securities, and the possibility of default to argue that the reliance on collateral to secure loans and the particular collateral requirements chosen by the social planner or by the market have a profound impact on prices, allocations, market structure, and the efficiency of market outcomes. These findings provide insights into housing and mortgage markets, including the subprime mortgage market.     

Aid, Volatility, and Growth Again: When Aid Volatility Matters and When it Does Not

In previous papers the authors have argued that aid is likely to mitigate the negative effects of external shocks on economic growth (i.e. that aid is more effective in countries which are more vulnerable to external shocks). Recently an important debate has emerged about the possible negative effects of aid volatility itself. However, the cushioning effect of aid may involve some volatility in aid flows, which then is not necessarily negative for growth. In this paper the authors examine to what extent the time profile of aid disbursements may contribute to an increase or a decrease of aid effectiveness. They first show that aid, even if volatile, is not clearly as pro-cyclical as is often argued, and, even if pro-cyclical, is not necessarily destabilizing. They measure aid volatility by several methods and assess pro-cyclicality of aid with respect to exports, thus departing from previous literature, which usually assess pro-cyclicality of aid with respect to national income or fiscal receipts. The stabilizing/destabilizing nature of aid is measured by the difference in the volatility of exports and the volatility of the aid plus export flows. Then, in order to take into account the diversity of shocks to which aid can respond, they consider the effect of aid on income volatility and again find that aid is making growth more stable, while its volatility reduces this effect. They finally show through growth regressions that the higher effectiveness of aid in vulnerable countries is to a large extent due to its stabilizing effect.