财险市场价格竞争有效性研究

我国国内财产保险业务自1980年恢复以来虽然取得了很大成绩,但依旧存在较多问题,特别是市场集中度偏高,导致市场竞争长期处于低水平竞争状态。本文根据市场份额将我国财险公司划分为在位者与竞争者两类,应用Stackelberg博弈模型,对在位者与竞争者的保险价格竞争从单时期和多时期两个层次进行分析,得出在财险市场中,单纯的价格竞争是无效的,并建议从产品和服务的创新、投资、成本管理和客户信息搜集与管理四方面协助价格竞争的展开。     

The effectiveness of tax incentives in attracting investment: panel data evidence from the CFA Franc zone

In this paper we investigate to what extent tax incentives are effective in attracting investment in Sub-Saharan Africa. We test the neo-classical investment theory prediction that tax incentives, by lowering the user cost of capital, raise investment. Next to tax incentives, we also estimate the impact on investment of other investment climate variables that are under direct control of the government, such as the transparency and complexity of the tax system, and the legal protection of foreign investors. In developing countries these variables might be as important as or even more important than the tax variables themselves.     

新兴产业主题基金：受益政策红利

作为经济发展方向的基本纲领,＂十二五＂规划无疑具有重要的意义。对于基金而言,＂十二五＂除了政策意义,更重要的是引领着其未来的投资方向。     

影响国际货币政策协诟有效性的主客观因素

影响国际货币政策协调有效性的因素有很多,这些因素可以区分为客观和主观两个方面。其中,客观方面的因素主要有经济开放度、出口商定价方式、外部冲击、国际金融市场的完善程度、政策制定者信息、汇率传递速度、贸易结构的非对称性等;主观方面的因素包括市场主体理性预期、政策制定者动机、强势国家主导、搭便车行为和时间不一致性、经济运行的不确定性、中央银行外汇市场联合干预等。文章结合国内外研究文献对这些因素的影响机理进行评述。     

Prospect theory and the effectiveness of price limits

Assuming that traders are risk-neutral, Brennan (1986) shows that price limits are effective in improving the efficiency of futures contracts with limited accessibility to information because they obscure the exact loss when they are triggered. However, Brennan's (1986) model fails to explain why price limits also exist in contracts with abundant information like those of financial futures. We show that when traders are loss-averse, the effectiveness of price limits is strengthened even in the presence of precise information. Thus, our analysis provides a theoretical foundation explaining why price limits can be useful when market participants are not fully rational.     

Monetary-fiscal policy interactions and the price level:Background and beyond

The paper presents the fiscal theory of the price level in a variety of models, including endowment economies with lump-sum taxes and production economies with proportional income taxes. We offer a microeconomic perspective on the fiscal theory by computing a Slutsky-Hicks decomposition of the effects of tax changes into substitution, wealth, and revaluation effects. Revaluation effects arise whenever tax changes alter the value of outstanding nominal government liabilities by changing the price level. Under certain assumptions on monetary and fiscal behavior, the revaluation effect reflects the fiscal theory mechanism. When taxes distort, two Laffer curves arise, implying that a tax increase can lower or raise the price level and the revaluation effect can be positive or negative, depending on which side of a particular Laffer curve the economy resides. Jel Code: E31 · E52 · E62     

The relation between equity incentives and misreporting: The role of risk-taking incentives

Prior research argues that a manager whose wealth is more sensitive to changes in the firm?s stock price has a greater incentive to misreport. However, if the manager is risk-averse and misreporting increases both equity values and equity risk, the sensitivity of the manager?s wealth to changes in stock price (portfolio delta) will have two countervailing incentive effects: a positive “reward effect” and a negative “risk effect.” In contrast, the sensitivity of the manager?s wealth to changes in risk (portfolio vega) will have an unambiguously positive incentive effect. We show that jointly considering the incentive effects of both portfolio delta and portfolio vega substantially alters inferences reported in prior literature. Using both regression and matching designs, and measuring misreporting using discretionary accruals, restatements, and enforcement actions, we find strong evidence of a positive relation between vega and misreporting and that the incentives provided by vega subsume those of delta. Collectively, our results suggest that equity portfolios provide managers with incentives to misreport when they make managers less averse to equity risk.     

The effect of monetary policy on real estate price growth in China

Using quarterly data from 1998:Q1 to 2009:Q4 and monthly data from July 2005 to February 2010, this paper examines the impact of key monetary policy variables, including long-term benchmark bank loan rate, money supply growth, and mortgage credit policy indicator, on the real estate price growth dynamics in China. Empirical results consistently demonstrate that expansionary monetary policy tends to accelerate the subsequent home price growth, while restrictive monetary policy tends to decelerate the subsequent home price growth. These results suggest that Chinese monetary policy actions are the key driving forces behind the change of real estate price growth in China. We also show that hot money flow does not have a significant impact on the change of home price growth after controlling for the money supply growth. Finally, a bullish stock market tends to accelerate subsequent home price growth.     

Customer anger at price increases, changes in the frequency of price adjustment and monetary policy

While firms claim to be concerned with consumer reactions to price increases, these often do not cause large reductions in purchases. The model developed here fits this by letting consumers react negatively only when they become convinced that prices are unfair. This can explain price rigidity, though its implications are not identical to those of existing models of costly price adjustment. In particular, the frequency of price adjustment can depend on economy-wide variables observed by consumers. This has implications for the effects of monetary policy and can explain why inflation does not fall immediately after a monetary tightening.     

美国货币市场与联储救市政策工具的实施效果

金融危机爆发后,美国货币市场流动性几近枯竭,为重启和恢复货币市场功能,美联储新增多种政策工具向金融机构提供了大量流动性。该文重点分析了这些政策工具的设计意图及实施效果,指出实施救助后,美国货币市场运行趋于正常,但除短期国债市场外,其他子市场的融资量尚未恢复到危机前水平;美国货币市场的表现再现了美国实体经济的问题,而要解决这些问题,单靠联储的货币政策是远远不够的。     

美国应对资产泡沫的货币政策及其启示

本文分析了美联储应对20世纪90年代美国股市泡沫的货币政策,认为美联储成功之处在于泡沫破灭之后进行的强有力干预,其对资产价格给予的密切关注也得到普遍认可,但是美联储在泡沫形成时期奉行的不干预政策则一直饱受争议。本文进一步指出,由于美国和美元的特殊地位,美联储的政策不具有普适性。从美国应对资产泡沫的货币政策中,我国央行可以得到以下启示:除了要密切关注资产价格外,还需要对资产价格实行对称干预,同时干预手段要多样化,政策措施也要连续,只有这样才能成功地干预资产泡沫。     

The history of employment-based health insurance: the role of managed care

The author describes the history of how the employment-based health benefits system has evolved. Specifically, he examines how we got where we are today, the success of managed care, the shortcomings of the managed care system and challenges that the managed care system will face in the future. He concludes that, despite substantial improvements in the quality of medical services provided, employers have a long way to go before they are truly purchasing the highest quality health care at the most efficient prices.     

Public/private health care: The British scenario

The issue of public versus private health care is too often treated as an ideological issue, with each side unwilling to discuss common problems of cost containment and quality control which have to be faced, no matter what the financial framework. Thus, cost containment will worry the administrators of insurance funds just as much, if not more, than health service administrators. Health care is not, in the economist's sense, a perfect market; it cannot and does not remain unregulated. So what is at issue is whether regulation is carried out by government, by insurance companies, or by the professions, and what the balance between them shall be.

These and other lessons are drawn from a series of studies describing the workings of insurance systems in a number of countries, in Europe, as well as the United States, Canada and Australia. The findings of the book ‐ The Public/Private Mix for Health, edited by Gordon McLachlan and Alan Maynard, and published this autumn by the Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust ‐ are too rich to be summarised here. What follows is an extract from the final chapter containing the editors’ own reflections on the material they have brought together.     

The health care market: can hospitals survive?

Does it sound familiar? Resources are scarce, competition is tough, and government regulations and a balanced budget are increasingly hard to meet at the same time. This is not the automobile or oil industry but the health care industry, and hospital managers are facing the same problems. And, maintains the author of this article, they must borrow some proven marketing techniques from business to survive in the new health care market. He first describes the features of the new market (the increasing economic power of physicians, new forms of health care delivery, prepaid health plans, and the changing regulatory environment) and then the possible marketing strategies for dealing with them (competing hard for physicians who control the patient flow and diversifying and promoting the mix of services). He also describes various planning solutions that make the most of a community's hospital facilities and affiliations.     

Ethical values: the real crisis in health care

This author argues that the growth of apathy and greed and loss of ethical values in the current health care delivery system is due to the change in the foundation of the expectations between the consumer and the provider of health care. The agendas of the "third parties" involved with the provision of health care has caused confusion in the mind of the consumer and loss of autonomy for the health care provider. A historical perspective is provided that includes discussion of the issues of culpability for the current outcomes. Finally, the author discusses possible remedies to the current system.