Commodity chain systems and the housing market

A system of gross substitutes, referred to here as a chain system, is analyzed and the results applied to the housing market. The stability conditions and comparative statics properties of the system are examined in detail. One of the results is that a specific numerical magnitude is of special importance to the system's stability and comparative statics behavior. Implications of the analysis for the housing market and for government policy are discussed.     

Compulsory impasse procedures: recent American experience

According to Ronald Miller, impasse procedures for public sector negotiations in the United States have produced mixed results. While most unions in the public sector do accept arbitration, this outcome may have been achieved by a pattern of arbitration awards which are largely favourable to the unions.     

中国资本市场改革中的难点

中国资本市场,按照现在的说法,是一个新兴加转轨的市场,所谓新兴,我们的历史不长;所谓转轨,我们在双重体制下运行,还有很多的改革工作需要进行。按理说中国的资本市场是在中国的改革开放的过程中建立的,应该按照市场经济的方式来运作,但是事实上,由于我们双轨的存在,或者说双重体制的存在,使得资本市场从始建的那天开始就带有了相当多的计划机制的色彩,从而资本市场也进入了一个改革的过程。中国的资本市场需要调整品种结构我们这个资本市场,有时候又被称为证券市场。实际上,许许多多场合人们讲到资本市场的时候头脑中的概念只有一个叫股票,…     

Technology and collective agreements: some recent Scandinavian developments

New technology and its effects on work and employment has been a major issue in Scandinavia for several years. This article evaluates progress made between employers and trade unions subsequent to legislation passed in the 1970s concerning co-determination, the quality of working life and the work environment.     

Learning from experience in the stock market

New evidence suggests that individuals “learn from experience,” meaning they learn from events occurring during their lives as opposed to the entire history of events. Moreover, they weigh more heavily recent events compared to events occurring in the distant past. This paper analyzes the implications of such learning for stock pricing in a model with finitely lived agents. Individuals learn about the rate of change of the stock price and of dividends using a weighted decreasing-gain algorithm. As a result of waves of optimism and pessimism, the stock price exhibits stochastic fluctuations around the rational expectations equilibrium. Conditional on the historical path of dividends, the model produces a price–dividend ratio which is in line with the evidence for the last century, except for the “dot-com” bubble in the 1990s.     

Commodity and asset demands with and without quantity constraints in the labour market

This paper reformulates the consumer's decision-making problem in a temporary framework with and without quantity constraints in the labour market in such a way as to define a complete demand system which includes consumption, labour and saving. Then, based on American and Canadian data (1948–1980), this extended complete demand system is estimated using a priori theoretical properties. Quantity constraints in the labour market cannot be rejected, and marginal propensities to consume out of labour income are very different from the marginal propensities out of non-labour income. Temporal separability is rejected and Slutsky conditions are preserved.     

The labor market consequences of experience in self-employment

Many public policies are designed to encourage self-employment. However, because self-employment experiences are typically brief, it becomes important to understand the long-term consequences of entering and then leaving self-employment. Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), we examine the effects of brief self-employment experience on subsequent labor market outcomes. We find that, relative to continued wage employment, brief spells in self-employment do not increase—and probably actually reduce—average hourly earnings upon return to wage employment. We also find that those who experience self-employment have difficulty returning to the wage sector. However, these consequences are small compared to similar experiences in unemployment.     

新一轮征地制度改革反思

现行征地制度亟待改革,这是决策界和理论界的共识,但到底应如何进行改革,却颇有争议.首先分析了新一轮征地制度改革的路线之争,并遗憾地指出:现在的改革思路具有某种不彻底性.在对不彻底的改革思路导引下的改革现实进行全景式扫描的基础上,分析了征地制度现实改革存在的三个严重问题.最后,提出了对新一轮征地制度改革的建议.     

FKI:以全球经验和资源服务中国市场——访FKI Logistex中国业务总监郭小君

FKI公司是一家总部设在英国的大型跨国企业,在其物流、能源、五金和吊装设备四大业务板块中,物流是最重要的一个领域.作为世界最大的自动化物料处理解决方案供应商之一,FKI物流自动化系统公司(FKI Loqistex)可以提供高速分拣与输送系统、码垛机、自动存取系统(AS/RS)、订单执行系统、物流相关软件和控制系统、RFID以及行李处理与扫描方面的整套尖端技术和产品,能够为机场、邮政、快件包裹、制造业、仓储与配送等领域的广大客户提供包括规划设计、产品制造和系统集成在内的整体解决方案.     

Youth minimum wage reform and the labour market in New Zealand

This paper analyses the effects of a large reform in the minimum wages affecting youth workers in New Zealand since 2001. Prior to this reform, a youth minimum wage, applying to 16–19 year-olds, was set at 60% of the adult minimum. The reform had two components. First, it lowered the eligible age for the adult minimum wage from 20 to 18 years, and resulted in a 69% increase in the minimum wage for 18 and 19 year-olds. Second, the reform raised the youth minimum wage in two annual steps from 60% to 80% of the adult minimum, and resulted in a 41% increase in the minimum wage for 16 and 17 year-olds over a two-year period. We estimate the impact of this reform by comparing average outcomes for these two groups of teenagers, before and after the change, to those for 20–25 year-olds, who were unaffected by the reform. We find no evidence of adverse effects on youth employment immediately following the reform, but some weak evidence of employment loss by 2003. We also find evidence of a 10–20% increase in hours worked following the reform for employed 16–17 year-olds, and up to a 10% increase for employed 18–19 year-olds, depending on the specification adopted. Combined, wage, hours, and employment changes lead to significant increases in labour earnings and total income of teenagers relative to young adults. However, we also find evidence of a decline in educational enrolment, and an increase in unemployment, inactivity, and benefit receipt rates, suggesting that while the minimum wage reform increased the labour supply of teenagers, this increase was not matched by as large an increase in employment.     

Capital structure,product market competition and firm performance: Evidence from South Africa

This paper investigates the relationship between capital structure and firm performance, paying particular attention to the degree of industry competition. The paper applies a novel measure of competition, the Boone indicator, to the leverage-performance relationship. Using panel data consisting of 257 South African firms over the period 1998–2009, this paper examines the effect of capital structure on firm performance and investigates the extent to which the relationship depends on the level of product market competition. The results suggest that financial leverage has a positive and significant effect on firm performance. It is also found that product market competition enhances the performance effect of leverage. The results are robust to alternative measures of competition and leverage.     

我国高校会计改革的思考:来自美国的经验

本文首先讨论了我国高校会计核算中存在的问题,然后总结了美国高校会计从基金报告模式转变成净资产报告模式的经验。在借鉴美国高校会计改革经验的基础上提出了我国高校会计改革的重点和主要内容。     

我国交通运输改革发展的经验与展望

改革开放30年来,在中国特色社会主义伟大旗帜指引下,在党中央、国务院的正确领导下,我国交通运输坚持改革开放,实现了跨越式发展和历史性巨变。——公路通车总里程和公路密度比1978年增长3倍多,高速公路从无到有,达5.39万公里,居世界第二;