Falling Rate of Profit and Mass of Profits: A Note

This paper shows that the mass of profits may be strictly increasing even when the rate of profit is strictly decreasing. Thus, a recent ‘long-wave version’ of the falling rate of profit theory of crisis is called into question.     

Price-Cost Margins and Profit Rates in New Zealand Electricity Distribution Networks Since 1994: the Cost of Light Handed Regulation

From 1994 to 2003, New Zealands corporatized electricity lines networks operated with no industry regulator, but under the spotlight of mandatory information disclosure. As a result there exists a large body of detailed, audited and publicly available accounting data on the financial performance of these businesses. Using that data, this paper finds that price-cost margins have widened substantially since deregulation. We estimate the extent to which light-handed regulation has allowed profits to exceed the levels which would have been acceptable under the old rate-of-return regulatory framework, and find that the answer is about $200 million per year, on an ongoing basis.We thank colleagues at Victoria University, and two anonymous referees for this journal, for constructive comments on this paper. Any remaining errors are entirely our responsibility.JEL classification: D21; K23; L11; L43; L51     

Prices and output in the Mexican economy Emperical testing of alternative hypotheses

This paper derives and compares alternative formulations of price and output formation for the Mexican economy over the period 1961–1981. A structuralist type model with working capital is found to dominate its monetarist and keynesian counterparts. A breakdown of the causes of inflation is offered, and some simulations are carried out to highlight some trade-offs among real wages, the real exchange rate, real interest rates and output.     

Subsidies as an alternative to the Australian tariff

A subsidy is said to be able to achieve the same objective(s) as a tariff with less resource misallocation and greater visibility to taxpayers. The ORANI general equilibrium model is used to explore the practical difficulties of defining what are the subsidy alternatives to a tariffand to examine the significance of particular subsidy alternatives to specific tariff policies. The conclusion is reached that it is unwise to speak of the subsidy alternative to the tariff without specifying precisely what tariff policy and what subsidy alternative to the tariff one has in mind.     

Note on a model of Chinese national income determination

A macroeconomic model of Chow (1985) explaining aggregate consumption by the permanent income hypothesis of Robert Hall and aggregate investment by the accelerations principle was found to fit Chinese annual data from 1952 to 1982 well. This note shows that the same model can successfully explain Chinese annual data from 1978 to 2006.     

金融部门利润与平均利润——基于资本功能维度的分析

虽然金融部门利润不是产业利润,但是它唯一的源泉还是生产过程中工人的活劳动.在金融部门执行不同功能的资本,其获得利润的方式各不相同,与平均利润的关系也大相径庭.实证分析表明:金融化之后,美国金融部门参与利润分配的份额明显提高;总体上,金融部门的利润率超过了平均利润率.不同于传统的榨取方式,金融业资本通过对收入和剩余价值的转移而获得超额利润.金融产品的低成本性和强创新性,也是金融部门能保持超额利润水平的重要原因.在实体经济利润长期停滞的条件下,金融部门利润率提高既是金融化的原因也是进一步金融化的结果.     

Shang inquiry as an alternative to Delphi: Some experimental findings

A new group judgment method known as Shang is presented as an alternative to Delphi. Shang is structured to avoid Delphi problems associated with convergence pressures and response commitment while incorporating Delphi advantages. The new method is evaluated through an experiment comparing it with a control method and two Delphi techniques, one using point estimates and one using distributional estimates. Findings indicate that Shang is generally superior to Delphi in producing accurate numerical estimates from the judgments of a group of experts.     

高誉性质能否视为超额利润辨析

本文认为将商誉的性质定义为超额利润，阻碍商誉会计理论与会计的发展，由于超额利润与商誉不具有强相关关系，视超额利润为商誉的性质，只能人为割裂各类要素在超额利润形成中的相互渗透作用；导致商誉的定义与具体的确认和计量的标准不符，导致会计信息的不对称。     

技术性贸易壁垒与出口的边际效应——基于产业贸易流量的检验

本文以1995—2008年WTO成员TBT通报构造了进口覆盖率作为技术性贸易壁垒的量化指标,并基于全球105个国家产业层面的双边贸易数据和HMR两阶段重力模型,就技术性贸易壁垒对出口的边际效应进行了实证检验。整体检验结果发现,作为成本增加型壁垒,技术性贸易壁垒同时影响了贸易国出口的变动成本和固定成本,由此影响了贸易国出口量的调整和出口概率的变动。分组检验结果发现,技术性贸易壁垒对国际贸易流量的影响存在明显的国别差异和行业差异。     

Delegating decision rights for anticipated rewards as an alternative to corruption: An experiment

We study experimentally whether anti-corruption policies with a focus on bribery might be insufficient to uncover more subtle ways of gaining an unfair advantage. In particular, we investigate whether an implicit agreement to exchange favors between a decision-maker and a lobbying party serves as a legal substitute for corruption. We find that even the pure anticipation of future rewards from a lobbying party suffices to bias a decision-maker in favor of this party, even though it creates negative externalities to others. Although future rewards are not contractible, the benefitting party voluntarily compensates decision-makers for partisan choices. In this way, both earn more at the expense of others. Thus, the outcome mirrors what might have been achieved via conventional bribing, while not being illegal.     

Carbon offsets as an economic alternative to large-scale logging: a case study in Guyana

The objective of this study is to analyze the economic viability of carbon-offset projects that avoid logging in Guyana's forests. The results of this case study illustrate the cost effectiveness of alternative land-use options that reduce deforestation and associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This analysis demonstrates that using Guyana's rainforests for climate change mitigation can generate equivalent revenue to that of conventional large-scale logging without detrimental environmental impacts. At a 12% discount rate, the break-even price for carbon is estimated to be about US$ 0.20/tC. This estimate falls toward the low range of carbon prices for existing carbon offset projects that avoid deforestation.     

中国商业银行的利润效率:1994-2010年——基于随机前沿替代利润函数方法的实证分析

本文运用随机前沿替代利润函数方法对我国十四家商业银行1994-2010年的利润效率进行了实证分析,结果表明,股份制商业银行样本期的平均利润效率高于大型商业银行样本期的平均利润效率.商业银行的产权性质、入世以及上市分别与商业银行的利润非效率呈负向关系.充分说明入世、国有商业银行的股份制改造及银行上市提高了我国商业银行的利润效率.     

上市公司利益转移研究--基于冀东水泥的案例研究

本文以案例的方式分析了缺乏制衡和约束的大股东通过盈余管理获取利益,并通过资金直接占用、关联交易、盈余管理等手段转移利益。通过数据分析发现,随着外部监管的加强,大股东转移上市公司资金的动机并未减弱,只是手段更加隐蔽。     

考虑成本利润率的供应链优化与协调

文章研究了以成本利润率为目标优化函数,在收益共享契约下,构建单一供应商和单一零售商构成的供应链优化与协调模型.建立未提供收益共享契约和提供收益共享契约、零售商风险中性和风险规避的不同情形下的决策模型,给出不同情况下的最优订货量及实现供应链协调的收益共享系数的区间范围.研究认为:收益共享契约下的零售商最优订货量大于未提供收益共享契约下的最优订货量;不论是否提供收益共享契约,利润最大化为优化目标的零售商最优订货量均高于以成本利润率最大为优化目标的最优订货量;此外,研究给出了零售商的最优订货量与收益共享系数的关系.     

A Note on the Environment as a Factor Affecting Student Performance in Principles of Economics

This study examines the environment in which students live and function as a determinant of performance in the first course in economics. The author concludes that the student's living arrangement does influence the stock of economic knowledge at the end of the course and observes a surprising, if tentative, consequence of students having taken a course in high school economics.     

Payments for environmental services as an alternative to logging under weak property rights: The case of Indonesia

Decentralization reforms in Indonesia have led to local communities negotiating logging agreements with timber companies for relatively low financial payoffs and at high environmental cost. This paper analyzes the potential of payments for environmental services (PES) to provide an alternative to logging for these communities and to induce forest conservation. We apply a game-theoretical model of community-firm interactions that explicitly considers two stylized conditions present in the Indonesian context: (i) community rights to the forest remain weak even after decentralization, and (ii) the presence of logging companies interested in the commercial exploitation of the forest. Intuition may suggest that PES design should focus on those communities with the lowest expected payments from logging deals. However, we show that these communities may not be able to enforce a PES agreement, i.e., they may not be able to prevent logging activities by timber companies. Moreover, some communities would conserve the forest anyway; in these cases PES would not lead to additional environmental gains. Most important, the introduction of PES may increase a community's expected payoff from a logging agreement. A failure to consider this endogeneity in expected payoffs could lead to communities opting for logging agreements despite PES, simply allowing communities to negotiate better logging deals. Our results indicate that PES design is a complex task, and that the costs of an effective PES system could potentially be much higher than expected from observing current logging fees. Using data collected in Indonesia on actual logging fees received by communities, we illustrate how the theoretical results could be used in empirical analysis to guide PES design. Our results are likely to be useful in other cases where local people make resource use decisions but have weak property rights over these resources, and where external commercial forces are present. The results highlight the importance of understanding the details of the local context in order to design PES programs appropriately.     

Nominalising the numeric: an alternative to mathematical reduction in economics

Mathematical reduction in economics is the attempt to reducereasoning about human economic behaviour to the logic of numbersand numerical relations. The method of numerics shows how, insimple cases, the mathematical and non-mathematical componentsof economic theory can be both formally distinguished and integrated.However, in its compressed idiomatic form, this method treatsnumerics (the numerical terms in measuremental expressions)as determinatives (numerical adjectives) rather than as substantives.This paper shows how the numeric can be nominalised or giventhe grammatical status of a substantive. The method of numericsis then used to explore the fundamental flaws of mathematicalreduction in economists' efforts to achieve logical rigour inthe formalisation of economic theory.