A contingent claim analysis of a rate-setting financial intermediary

Realizing that a financial intermediary's lending, treated as an investment opportunity, is like a financial call option clarifies the role of uncertainty. We argue that the portfolio-theoretic approach and the firm-theoretic approach have important linkages that can be used to demonstrate the contingent claim analysis of a rate-setting financial intermediary. Borrower-intermediary-lender relationships between the portfolio-theoretic combined volatilities and the firm-theoretic rate-setting modes under the Black-Scholes valuation are investigated, and the conclusions depend upon the portfolio composition redistribution effect. The effect of changes in the open market security rates on the loan rate and deposit rate settings depend on the borrower-intermediary-lender relationship, portfolio risk, and management of rate-setting strategy. Moreover, movements in open market security rates are not necessarily transmitted to the loan lender and deposit absorber.     

The powerless yet relevant third: a three-player ultimatum/dictator game with earned funds and roles

We report the first experiment to pair a three-player ultimatum/dictator game with a real effort task. The inclusion of the real effort task shifts the standard for division from simple egalitarianism towards relative performance; even in treatments in which roles and funds are exogenous. Additionally, we find proposers overcompensate themselves relative to their effort, and this additional compensation comes at the expense of powerless (third) players. Individual characteristics predict the nature of a proposals. Lastly, we find that responders’ choice to accept is based on their own and the powerless third party’s compensation.     

Shifting from pay-as-you-go to individual retirement accounts: A path to a sustainable pension system

With aging demographics and generous pension programs, the sustainability of the pay-as-you-go (PAYG) public pension system has been often questioned and has motivated policymakers to enact reforms in many countries. Although mandatory funded Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) appear to be a solution to this unsustainable system, existing reforms usually take place within the PAYG system by reducing pension benefits. This paper evaluates the effects of PAYG reforms as well as reforms that switch to the IRA system. Our analysis shows that PAYG reforms outperform IRA reforms in many aspects. In fact, PAYG reforms achieve higher GDP and yield higher welfare in the long run. The transition to the steady state is also found to be less volatile for PAYG reforms. While PAYG generally places a larger burden on future generations, the positive welfare effect of cross-subsidization dominates the welfare loss. Our findings may explain why pension reform is a controversial issue in most countries and why we rarely observe a shift to the IRA system.     

A dirty deed done dirt cheap: Reporting the blame of a national reform on local politicians

This paper tests the hypothesis that upper-level governments can transfer the accountability of the costs of a reform to a lower one. The reform of the school week in France provides the ground for a verification of the attribution of accountability hypothesis, as it was nationally decided and locally implemented, right before a municipal election. The results confirm that local incumbents have taken the blame of the reform, especially in larger cities. In this case, thus, the cost of the reform is borne twice by the lower level of government, financially and politically. So doing, the central government does a dirty deed to the local ones, for a very cheap cost. That mayors who have announced a boycott of the reform have received electoral gains confirms that some local politicians expected to be the fall guys, bearing the brunt of the costs of the reform.     

Shifting theories: partial perspectives on the household

There is a neglect of networks within cooperative conflict models,which arises because of the patriarchal households assumed.But households are not the same everywhere, because their structureis dependent upon social context, and they are a sub-systemof wider social relations and realities. Understanding households(in this paper female-headed households) requires us to studythe varied contexts in which households are situated and thesocial relations of individuals within these institutions. Usingcontributions from feminist economics and realist social theory,this paper shows how these frameworks can explain the diversityof social reality in household formations and relations.     

The Shifting Geopolitics of Water in the Anthropocene

This forum responds to recent calls to hypothesize a geopolitics of the Anthropocene by examining how our notions of geopolitics of water may shift in the context of this new and, at times, divisive framework. The Anthropocene describes the geological epoch in which humans are the dominant actor in the global environmental system and has been a concept that is not without controversy. Taking the Anthropocene as an epistemological divergence where nature can no longer be viewed as separate from humanity, this forum asks how moving away from understanding hydraulic systems as essentially stable to understanding them as unstable and profoundly influenced by humans changes our understanding ofthe geopolitics of water. Collectively the contributions to this forum illustrate that formulating a water geopolitics of the Anthropocene requires 1) moving beyond a focus on fluvial flows to consider other forms of water; 2) broadening our understanding of the actors involved in water geopolitics; 3) examining new geopolitical tactics, particularly those grounded in law; 4) engaging critically with new and emerging forms of visualization and representation in the geopolitics of water, and; 5) examining how the notion of the Anthropocene has been used towards geopolitical ends and worked to elide different positionalities.     

关于将有限合伙制度引入我国农村中介组织的法律思考

中国传统的农村中介组织是以农民自我服务、自我经营为主的合作经济组织.随着农村改革的深入,农业市场的不断扩大和复杂化,暴露了管理制度不健全、组织结构不合理、产权关系不明确等制度缺陷.把有限合伙这一企业组织形式引入农村中介组织,可以弥补原有制度的不足,实现制度创新,使得农村中介组织在内部和外部关系上明确权利、义务,从而促进"三农"的和谐发展.     

Shifting the strategic paradigm: the case of the catalytic converter

The formulation and implementation of technology strategies by firms are closely and critically interrelated with the rate and direction of technological advance. Policy has an increasingly important role in this technology strategy process, such as in the provision of increasingly stringent guidelines for paths of developement, as in the case of environmental legislation on the reduction of undesiable automotive exhaust emissions. Drawing on evidence from the automotive industry, with a particular focus on catalytic converter technology, this paper considers the paradigmatic qualities of firms' technology strategies. It examines aspects of shifts in strategic paradigms and their technological and organizational effects. It is particularly concerned with the interrelation between firm strategy and government policy, and the integration of environmental pressures into the firms processes that ultimately determine paths of technological development and competitive performance in the automotive industry.     

金融科技与企业"脱实向虚"——来自中国A股上市公司的证据

金融科技对促进企业高质量发展至关重要.基于中国A股上市公司数据,通过综合探讨金融科技对企业"脱实向虚"的影响,研究发现,金融科技的发展显著抑制了企业"脱实向虚".机制检验表明,金融科技通过竞争效应和成本效应两个渠道影响了企业"脱实向虚"行为;即金融科技使得企业投资金融资产的收益率和企业财务管理费用下降,从而促进了企业对实体经济的投资,抑制了企业"脱实向虚".此外,相比于国有企业、中西部地区的企业和处于市场化程度较低地区的企业,金融科技对非国有企业、东部地区的企业和处于市场化程度较高地区的企业"脱实向虚"的抑制作用更为明显;而且,金融科技的发展主要抑制了企业对投机性金融资产的投资,对企业保值性金融资产投资的影响并不明显.因此,应不断加大对金融科技的支持力度,积极发挥大数据、人工智能等技术对金融科技的支撑作用,同时给予中西部地区一定的政策优惠,进而不断提升金融科技对实体经济的赋能作用.     

Mark-up Pricing and the Forward Shifting of the Corporate Income Tax

Abstract
The framework used to test the hypothesis of forward income tax shifting is based on a simple mark-up pricing model and follows the methodology of Beath (1979). In this framework indications of forward tax shifting are inferred if the gross mark-up varies in order to achieve a targeted net of tax mark-up. Empirical results derived support the hypothesis and suggest significant forward corporate income tax shifting in Australian manufacturing companies over the data period 1968 to 1990.     

Shifting the paradigm: Value in feminist critiques of economics

“Critique” of the Neoclassical paradigm in economics is a vital intellectual contribution in its own right. The prevailing wisdom and last word in economics, enforced by the socializing experiences of young would-be economists, is that if you can’t build a better theory immediately, without resources or access to debate and discussion, you have no right to criticize the existing paradigm, This requirement cuts off challenge and debate in economics, strongly deters the development of alternative theories, and leads to a weaker, less interesting economic science.