The Asynchronous Leontief Model

The traditional dynamic Leontief model is synchronous: every vertex acts simulaneously. A model with delays of action has been proposed, but it still remains synchronous. In this paper we propose an asynchronous version of the model that allows realistic computations. We furnish an algorithm and a program.     

It is not a flat world after all: Tax repatriation costs and cash value

US corporations have accumulated record‐high amounts of cash, and most of it is trapped in foreign accounts. This study tests the hypothesis that the marginal value of cash decreases in the presence of tax repatriation costs, as these costs are a strong indication that part of the cash is trapped abroad. Cash abroad is not readily available to the company because it is subject to an additional layer of tax before it can be used or distributed. Moreover, uncertainty surrounds the potential use of foreign cash, and research documents that firms holding high amounts of cash abroad are likely to invest in negative net present value activities. Finally, possible changes in tax regulation are an additional source of uncertainty. Consequently, foreign cash should be worth less than domestic cash. Using a large sample of US firms drawn from COMPUSTAT during the 1991–2012 period, the analysis suggests that shareholders value an extra dollar of cash at $1.086. However, this result changes dramatically when the change in cash is interacted with the tax cost of repatriating the earnings. That is, the marginal value of cash decreases significantly in the presence of tax repatriation costs, and shareholders discount cash when it is likely to be held abroad. This study contributes to the literature on cash holding by investigating whether tax repatriation costs affect the value of corporate cash. Moreover, the findings show that there are important economic consequences linked to the phenomenon of cash accumulation in foreign countries and therefore provide regulators with a sound foundation on which to take additional actions to require more disclosure of and transparency in the actual location of firms’ cash holdings.     

A Dynamic Leontief Model with Non-renewable Resources

In this paper we study a generalization of the dynamic Leontief input–output model. We extend the standard dynamic Leontief model with the balance equation of non-renewable resources. Obviously, the non-renewable stocks will decrease, exploiting primary resources. In this study we examine the controllability of this extended model by taking the consumption as the control parameter. Assuming balanced growth for both consumption and production, we investigate how long these scarce resources will cover the input needs of production and how the lifetime of the system depends on the balanced growth rate and on the consumption. In doing so, we apply classic results from control theory and on eigenvalue problems in linear algebra.     

The Second Eigenvalue of the Leontief Matrix

According to Frobenius, a positive matrix possesses a unique positive eigenvector which belongs to a positive eigenvalue. This eigenvalue is of the largest absolute magnitude and the matrix admits no other positive eigenvector. If an arbitrary positive vector is repeatedly premultiplied by such a matrix, then the result tends towards this positive eigenvector. It is the second largest eigenvalue that determines the speed of convergence. The estimate of the second eigenvalue of a purely random flow coefficient matrix shows that its expected absolute magnitude declines monotonically with the size of the matrix. Hence, the larger the system is the faster is the convergence. A prescribed exactness of the eigenvector (of equilibrium prices or quantities) will be reached after a few—perhaps just a couple of—iterations in a large system.     

A Consistent Formulation of the Leontief Pollution Model

We consider the environmental Leontief model, which is an input–output model augmented by pollution-generation and pollution-abatement sectors. Two formulations of this model, dating back to Leontief's work in 1970, can be found in the literature. One formulation treats an exogenously given vector of the tolerated level of pollutants (environmental standards) as a negative variable on the right-hand side of the model. The other formulation supposes that each industry eliminates a given proportion of the pollution that it creates, so that the proportions of gross pollutants which are subject to treatment by each sector enter as given parameters. Even in the case when the levels of production and abatement in the two different model formulations are equal, the solutions of the dual or price model are different for cases where some net pollution is left untreated. First, the analytical relationship between the two price models is established. Secondly, both models formulated in a linear programming framework are extended by imposing emission charges (effluent taxes) for untreated pollution. Finally, it will be shown how to estimate the level of emission charges for both model formulations such that they provide the same levels of production and abatement, as well as the same shadow prices. This is illustrated by a numerical example.     

The Leontief Pollution Model: A Systematic Formulation

In a recent article in this journal, Qayum offered a reformulation of the Leontief pollution model. Here, a systematic formulation of this model is offered which integrates the numerical examples of both Leontief and Qayum.     

The spatial structure of production with a Leontief technology

The structure of the optimal spatial pattern of production is studied when there are interdependencies among production units which can be described by a Leontief technology, and when there is a single marketplace of final demand, the CBD. Transportation cost is proportional to distance. It is shown that the various goods are produced in rings which can be ranked by distance from the CBD independently of the levels of final demand. Furthermore shipment of goods for meeting intermediate and final demand can only be in the direction of the CBD and no shipment of goods towards the periphery can occur. A finite algorithm is given for the construction of the optimal pattern and for determining a system of f.o.b. prices and land rents which sustain it as a competitive equilibrium.     

芭比 美女未必“通吃”

＂芭比还会回来吗？＂在上海淮海路550号的芭比旗舰店门口,一位小女孩问她的妈妈。女孩的妈妈笑笑,没有回答。因为她没有答案,美泰可能也没有答案。答案在时间那里……     

Reconsideration of Non-negative Solutions for the Augmented Leontief Model

We consider the Leontief model augmented with pollution-generation and pollution-abatement sectors. The conditions to ensure the existence of non-negative solutions for the total output and for the vector of abatement activities, depending on the exogenously given final demand and environmental standards, are presented. They are extensions and modifications of the conditions for a single pollutant derived, for example, by Miller and Blair.     

On Hypothesis about the Second Eigenvalue of the Leontief Matrix

If an arbitrarily positive eigenvector is repeatedly premultiplied by a positive matrix, then the result tends towards a unique, positive (Frobenius) eigenvector. Brady has demonstrated that the expected absolute magnitude of the estimate of the second largest eigenvalue of a positive random matrix (with identically and independently distributed entries) declines monotonically with the increasing size of the matrix. Hence, the larger the system is, the faster is the convergence. Molnár and Simonovits examined Brady's conjecture in the case where entries of a stochastic matrix are close to 1/n. We prove this hypothesis for any stochastic and positive matrix.     

Superlative index numbers: not all of them are super

This paper shows that just because superlative index numbers approximate each other to the second order does not necessarily imply that they are numerically similar. In fact, the spread between the largest and smallest superlative indexes sometimes even exceeds that between Paasche and Laspeyres indexes. This result has significant implications for the index number literature. It shows that the economic approach does not by itself solve the index number problem, since it does not tell us which superlative index should be used. It may be necessary to combine the economic and axiomatic approaches to arrive at an answer.     

The Dynamic Leontief Model and the Theory of Endogenous Growth

This paper shows that the dynamic Leontief model can be interpreted as a linear model of endogenous growth. The long-term rate of growth is determined within the economic system - either as the outcome of the saving and investment behaviour of agents or as the outcome of some planner's maximization of some objective function.     

Optimization in a Dynamic Leontief Model with Restricted Value Growth

The purpose of this paper is to develop a dynamic Leontief model of an msector economic system in which the production of all goods requires one time period and one primary factor, but no capital stocks of any good, and in which the total value of outputs from all sectors is required to grow at a specified rate in each period. The requirement of a fixed rate of total value growth is less restrictive than the familiar condition of balanced growth across all sectors, and it permits the definition and analysis of interesting finite-period optimization problems. Specific results of the paper include the following: (1) the proof that a value-added maximization problem with an unrestricted initial state will experience consumption in exactly one sector in each time period, and willyield an optimal value function which is linear in the variables that describe the terminal state of the system; (2) the development of an efficient Dantzig-Wolfe procedure for analysis of the total value-added maximization problem where both the initial and terminal states are specified; (3) the derivation of testable properties that will guarantee the attainability of a specified target state from a specified initial state of the system; (4) a formal comparison of some basic characteristics of total value growth and balanced value growth.     

The weighted average cost of capital is not quite right

A firm's cost of capital used in discounted cash flow analysis is commonly calculated as a weighted average of the after tax costs of the firm's various sources of financing (equity, debt, preferred stock). Its use implies that for investment projects earning precisely the WACC the cash (in)flow is exactly sufficient to reward all the suppliers of finance with their respective costs of capital. However, the necessary cash flow (normal profit) implied by the WACC is inadequate to provide the cash flows to the individual sources of financing when they are considered separately. This note discusses the problem (WACC is a linear approximation of a nonlinear relationship) and presents a modification of the WACC which is conceptually superior to the WACC as commonly calculated.     

陈丹青 "我是知青,没上过学,不懂外语"

1979往事 第一次打电话给陈丹青,他说自己很快将去美国办画展,没有时间接受采访,而且也从不接受电话采访.第二次打电话给陈丹青,再次说明来意,陈丹青在电话中友善而简单地回答了记者的几个问题.     

University technology transfer office business models: One size does not fit all

Technology transfer processes enable universities to increase their positive impact on society by pursuing their entrepreneurial mission in several ways. By analyzing quantitative and qualitative data collected in a longitudinal dataset of 60 U.S. universities during the period 2002–2012, this article identifies four types of technology transfer business models that may generate economic and non-economic linkages that need to be evaluated. Findings reveal that business models that leverage high-quality research (i.e., catalyst) and startup creation (i.e., orchestrator of local buzz) are associated with higher economic performance. This study contributes to the emergent literature on university business models and provides suggestions to policymakers to incorporate a business model typology in university evaluation programs.     

The approximation capabilities of the minflex-Laurents,translog, and generalized Leontief forms

This paper compares the approximation capabilities of the minflex-Laurents translog and minflex generalized Leontief cost functions with their translog and generalized Leontief counterparts in Monte Carlo experiments. The minflex Laurent specifications generally provided closer approximations to underlying technical and economic parameters. Imposition of nonlinear restrictions on some of the parameters of the minflex Laurent models yielded measurable improvement in estimated elasticities of substitutions, returns to scale, and rates of technical change.The refereeing process of this paper was handled through E. Appelbaum.     

A Property of the Leontief Inverse and its Applications to Comparative Static Analysis

We arbitrarily choose a submatrix of order 2 in the Leontief inverse matrix B . If a main diagonal element in the submatrix is a main diagonal element in B , then the determinant of the submatrix is non-negative; in particular, if the two main diagonal elements in the submatrix are all the main diagonal elements in B , then the determinant of the submatrix is greater than or equal to 1. This property can be used in the comparative static analysis for the input-output model. For example, when the change only occurs in one sectoral final demand or one corresponding row of the input coefficient matrix, which leads to a change of this sectoral gross output, the equivalent conditions that the absolute value of the rate of change of this sectoral gross output is larger than or equal to all other sectoral change rates and larger than at least one sectoral rate of change are shown. It is impossible to derive the exact results for the comparative static analysis if the property is not applied. A previous fault confirms this point.     

严冬虽肃杀 毕竟近阳春

发端于美国并迅速向世界蔓延的金融危机,着实令人感到严冬般的寒冷. 金融危机使世界经济受到重创,当然中国也未能幸免.因此,我们对于这场危机的危害性要有足够的认识,千万不可掉以轻心,但也不能悲观失望、束手无策,而是要鼓足勇气,坚定信心,积极应对.