THE TREATMENT OF INTEREST AND NET RENTS IN THE NATIONAL ACCOUNTS FRAMEWORK1

The contention in this paper is that the present method of treating interest and net rents as transfers rather than as payments for services provided creates problems in the measurement of production by industry and that the difficulties encountered in explaining the treatment of interest items in the different tables of the National Accounts are even more apparent when one views the National Accounts framework as an integrated reflection of economic reality. It is argued that the lending of money arises from the stretching out of the production and consumption process, and the interest charges constitute a charge for the administrative services and risk involved. This is somewhat analagous to the charges for hiring out real goods and services. A similar case is made for the treatment of rents with the exception of imputed net rent where it is contended that economic risk is incurred only when production is undertaken for sale and that there should be no entrepreneurial return where the production is for the use of the owner-producer. It is suggested that an alternative treatment of interest and rents as payments for services is more realistic. Its adoption in the National Accounts would eliminate the need for imputations now made to account for the production of financial intermediaries, as well as the unconvincing explanations put forward for the present treatment of interest on consumer and public debt. Finally, it would serve to integrate the production accounts with the financial flows and the related financial structure.     

POLITICALLY CONTESTABLE RENTS AND TRANSFERS*

A rent or transfer is politically contestable when policy decisions are subject to influence by potential beneficiaries and losers. This paper studies contestablility of rents and transfers when contenders place different valuations on the politically allocated prize. Asymmetric valuation inhibits participation by low-valuation contenders. The model explains the phenomena of small numbers of active participants in contests to exercise political influence and low lobbying and other influence-seeking outlays relative to the value of politically allocated prizes.     

通货膨胀问题国外研究进展与评述

20世纪70年代以来通货膨胀的频发,成为严重困扰世界各国经济运行的主要难题之一,引发了众多国外学者对通货膨胀的广泛关注以及从宏观层面到微观基础层面的深入研究。本文主要从通货膨胀的福利成本、通货膨胀的不确定性、持续性和通货膨胀目标制四个方面入手,着重回顾与评论20世纪90年代尤其是21世纪以来的国外学者研究通货膨胀问题的成果,以期在把握通货膨胀问题研究的进展中,总结治理经验与合理借鉴应对政策。     

THE DETERMINANTS OF COMMERCIAL PROPERTY PRICES AND RENTS

This paper develops a theoretical model of price and rent determination in the commercial property market. Prices and rents are assumed to adjust to ensure market clearing. A series of theoretical relationships are derived between prices and rents and a number of exogenous variables. These are then subjected to empirical testing for three types of property: industrial property, shops and offices. The results indicate employment is an important influence on price, especially for industrial property. In most cases, price and rent are also found to be sensitive to interest rates and residential property values.     

REVIEWS AND COMMENTS

With the intent of stimulating discussion, this section is reserved for book reviews, comments, and letters; your input is welcome. By nature, this material may be subjective, reflecting the opinions of the authors; your responses are therefore encouraged.     

NOTES ON DEVELOPING COUNTRIES AND THEIR STATISTICS

Statistics for developing countries often are misunderstood and misinterpreted because the published data do not distinguish between the economically modern and the traditional sectors. The purpose of economic development is to move a nation from the traditional, or largely non-monetary, subsistence agriculture type of life, to the modern or money oriented and technologically developed type. Statistics of national accounts, the economically active (the working force), and other topics often fail to be useful for economic development purposes because they are presented for the totality of the country and do not show the modern-traditional sectors separately.
In addition, data are often misinterpreted and used incorrectly because the development economists do not understand the nature of the data—how they were collected and what they really signify. This point is illustrated with the economically active statistics. Finally, a plea is made for more statistics and information about families.     

存贷款利差定价分析

存贷款利差合理水平取决于违约率、损失率、流动性风险、资本缓冲与信贷类资产的比率,以及无风险基准利率。银行业内部管理水平不足和存贷款市场的总体失衡会导致利差水平扩大和提高。我国当前的存贷款利差水平相对于其合理水平而言过低,不仅不利于银行业长期健康发展,而且也对整个金融体系累积了巨大的体系性风险。     

INTEREST AND INFLATION ACCOUNTING

This paper analyses the treatments proposed by Chapter XIX (Annex B) of the 1993 SNA and the manual Inflation Accounting published by the OECD (Peter Hill) as alternatives to the traditional recording of nominal interest. Real interest and interest prime (annex B) are relevant for different purposes. Their amounts are not the same to the extent that actual compensation and full required compensation for inflation differ. The recording of negative real interest is not compatible with the exclusion of holding gains/losses from the SNA current accounts. The accounting treatments in Inflation Accounting (capital transfers, additional lending/borrowing, no nominal holding gains/losses) and Annex B (nominal holding gains/losses, no capital transfers, no new lending/borrowing) are contrasted.     

EFFECTS OF STOCHASTIC INTEREST RATES AND VOLATILITY ON CONTINGENT CLAIMS*

We investigate the effects of stochastic interest rates and the volatility of the underlying asset price on contingent claim prices including futures and options prices. The futures price can be decomposed into the forward price and an additional term; the options price can be decomposed into the Black‐Scholes formula and several additional terms by applying the asymptotic expansion approach of the small disturbance asymptotics developed by Kunitomo and Takahashi (1995, 1998, 2001, 2003a, 2003b). The technical method is based on a new application of the Malliavin‐Watanabe Calculus or the Watanabe‐Yoshida Theory on Malliavin Calculus in stochastic analysis. We illustrate our new formulae and their numerical accuracy.