Is human and financial investment in Chinese universities effective?

To obtain high-quality human resources and to gain advantages in the context of global competition, countries are constantly promoting the development of higher education. Enormous human and financial resources were invested in this “battle”. However, the “inputs” consumed by universities are largely ignored. A major issue, evaluating how well a country's universities make use of input resources in their output path, is of economic and social significance. The focus of this study is to embed the concept of capacity utilization in education and to assess the university's performance. We construct an attainable output-oriented capacity utilization measurement model by taking into account the heterogeneity of the region. According to the usage of the input, we divide the decision making units into four areas and identify the causes of inefficiency. Thus, the methodology proposed in this study provides policymakers an applicable tool on differences in educational inputs across regions. To illustrate the method, we conduct an empirical analysis using data from 54 universities directly under the Ministry of Education in China.     

Evaluating the efficiency of Italian public universities (2008–2011) in presence of (unobserved) heterogeneity

In assessing the performance of universities, the most recent literature underlined that the efficiency scores may suffer from the presence of incidental parameters or time-invariant, often unobservable, effects that lead to biased efficiency estimates. To deal with this problem, we apply a procedure developed by [67]; for estimating the efficiency in Italian higher education through a multi-output parametric distance function. We show that models which do not consider unobservable heterogeneity tend to estimate divergent efficiency scores. We also study the determinants of efficiency; the findings provide a clue towards the expansion of pro-competitive policies in the Italian higher education sector, consistently with the interpretation that when market forces operate, there are benefits for university efficiency. When exploring differences in the performance of universities, by geographical areas, we claim that maintaining State-level policies can be detrimental for overall efficiency, and instead special interventions for universities in the South should be designed.     

Generalized least squares inference in panel and multilevel models with serial correlation and fixed effects

In this paper, I consider generalized least squares (GLS) estimation in fixed effects panel and multilevel models with autocorrelation. The presence of fixed effects complicates implementation of GLS as estimating the fixed effects will typically render standard estimators of the covariance parameters necessary for obtaining feasible GLS estimates inconsistent. I focus on the case where the disturbances follow an AR(p) process and offer a simple to implement bias-correction for the AR coefficients. The usefulness of GLS and the derived bias-correction for the parameters of the autoregressive process is illustrated through a simulation study which uses data from the Current Population Survey.     

Preventing HIV in injection drug users: exploring the tradeoffs between interventions

Injection drug users (IDUs) transmit the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) via both needle sharing and sex. Available interventions for this population have varying costs and effectiveness and focus on different risk behaviors. In this analysis, we look at two interventions. One is inexpensive, broad-based and provides modest risk reductions (street outreach (SO)); the other is narrowly focused, expensive and relatively effective (methadone maintenance). This analysis explores the effects of population risk behavior, intervention effectiveness, intervention costs, and decision constraints when allocating funds between these two interventions to maximize effectiveness. We develop a model of the spread of HIV, dividing IDUs into susceptibles (uninfected) and infectives, and separately portraying sex and injection risk. We simulate the epidemic in New York City for time periods from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, and incorporate the behavioral effects of two interventions performed singly or in combination to find the allocation that maximizes the number of infections averted in the IDUs and their noninjecting sex partners, assuming interventions have increasing marginal costs. We find that the optimal allocation nearly always involves spending the maximum allowable amount on SO. This result is largely insensitive to variations in risk parameters, intervention efficacy, or cost. The model's structure, however, makes clear that many factors contribute to this insensitivity, namely the scope of the interventions, the dual drug/sex nature of HIV risk in the population, the asymmetry of sexual risk for men and women, and the potential benefits to nonIDUs.     

中国工业企业动态演化效率研究：所有制视角

不同所有制企业陆续进入、退出市场以及在市场中展开竞争,是中国渐进式改革在企业层面的一个重要特征。本文借助中国工业企业数据库(1998~2007年),在VDF总量生产率增长分解框架下,测度了不同所有制企业的动态演进效率。研究发现国有企业在总量上的效率贡献最大,民营企业在增量上的效率贡献则最大。经济总量上,内部效率提升环节对总量生产率贡献最大,而增量上,退出环节对总量生产率贡献最大,表明中国经济已经走上了一条内生增长、创新驱动与优胜劣汰的发展道路。进入环节无论在何种情况下效率贡献均为负,说明中国依然是一个进入门槛较高的国家。不同所有制企业对总量生产率的贡献与企业生命周期有关。本文对澄清我国企业改革的所有制误区,推进混合所有制经济改革与寻找经济增长新动力有着重要的理论价值与现实意义。     

基于风险机制的旅游地复合系统的收益模型分析

旅游地复合系统中很多企业在采用相互合作的形式,广泛地采用了基于投资额的分配方法。该方法简单易于操作,但是却没有考虑到各个主体所承担的风险的大小。本文将分析系统中各主体的承担的风险大小,建立相关的数学模型,就系统的收益风险进行实证研究。     

The status of academic women in the 1990s No longer outsiders, but not yet equals

This paper reexamines the status of women in the academic labor market relative to men to determine how much progress has been made in achieving equity. Two questions will be addressed here: (1) do men and women have equal access to faculty employment in higher education, and (2) are they equally successful with regard to traditional career goals and compensation? Analyses are conducted on the educational attainment of women, their representation among faculty, their time allocation and research productivity, and their success in academia as represented by their rank attainment and earnings. While the results show that women have made considerable strides in entering the academic labor market, there is still an unexplained gap between men and women in terms of their earnings and career progression.     

Does organization capital matter? An analysis of the performance implications of CEO power

Chief executive officer (CEO) power reflects the ability of the CEO to influence the firm's decision-making. Whether the CEO of the firm could manage the firm’s investment assets to support maximizing the efficiency of resource allocation is an important issue. As previous studies found, organization capital is a key intangible asset that improves the firm’s production efficiency and affects long-term performance. This study explores how CEO power affects organization capital investments and how it further affects the efficiency of firm resource allocation. We use the following three variables to measure CEO power: CEO founder, CEO-only insider and CEO duality. Our results indicate that the level of CEO power can influence a firm’s value by controlling the organization capital. When the firm’s CEO is also the founder, the CEO will attempt to increase investments in organization capital to create growth opportunities for the firm, which will therefore increase the firm's value. Specifically, when the company is in financial distress, the powerful CEO's increasing in organizational capital investment will expose the company to greater risk of loss of intangible assets. This result may further increase the company's price volatility.     

The effects of higher education policy on the location decision of individuals: Evidence from Florida's Bright Futures Scholarship Program

Over the past two decades, numerous states have adopted merit-based aid programs to subsidize higher education for in-state students. One of the main objectives of these programs is to increase the stock of educated labor in the state by retaining those whose education is subsidized. This study provides evidence on the extent to which such a program in Florida has affected the location decision of college-educated Florida natives. The analysis utilizes a difference-in-difference approach and data from the Census and American Community Survey (ACS). The results indicate that those eligible for the program are significantly more likely to locate in Florida after completing their education than those who were not eligible. These results are robust to a number of alternative specifications, including a comparison with neighboring states.     

资源、环境与农业发展的协调性——基于环境规制的省级农业环境效率排名

论文在采用单元调查评估法对中国农业分省污染排放量进行核算的基础上,应用考虑非合意产出的非径向、非角度SBM方向性距离函数模型对1979~2008年环境规制条件下分省农业技术效率进行实证评价,综合考察转型期各省农业发展与资源、环境的协调性程度。环境问题在很大程度上仍然是一个发展问题,在资源、环境的刚性约束下,加快转变农业发展方式已经刻不容缓。     

污染排放约束下中国农业水资源效率的区域差异与影响因素

应用数据包络分析（DEA）构建了非径向方向性距离函数模型,采用全要素水资源效率的测度思路,对污染排放约束下中国分省及区域的农业水资源效率进行了测度,并采用Bootstrap断尾回归模型对污染排放下农业水资源效率的影响因素进行了实证研究。2011年、2012年全国农业平均用水效率分别为0.693、0.671,全国一半以上的省份未达到生产前沿。在八大区域中,北部沿海和黄河中游地区的农业水资源效率最高,西北和东北地区的农业水资源效率处于低水平。在诸多影响因素中,农田水利建设和环境规制对于提升我国农业水资源效率具有显著的促进作用,而水资源丰裕程度对其则具有显著的负面影响。