The Role of a Firm’s Net Cash Payouts in Leland’s (1994) Model

We study the effects of introducing payouts on corporate debt and optimal capital structure in a structural credit risk model à la Leland (1994) . We find that increasing the payout parameter not only affects the endogenous bankruptcy level, which is decreased, but modifies the magnitude of a change on the endogenous failure level as a consequence of an increase in risk‐free rate, corporate tax rate, riskiness of the firm and coupon payments. This simple analytical framework is able to capture realistic insights about optimal leverage, spreads and default probabilities more in line with historical norms (if compared to Leland’s results) and closer to predictions obtained through more sophisticated models.     

转移成本、价格歧视与银行竞争——基于霍特林模型的实证分析

在银行业竞争中,转移成本能够锁定消费者,使银行能够对锁定的消费者定一个较高的价格,但是,转移成本也使银行对没有被锁定的消费者的竞争更加激烈。研究发现,转移成本的存在增加了银行的利润,并且转移成本越高,银行从信贷中获得的利润越高。但是,当存在存款市场和贷款市场竞争时,由于价格歧视的存在,银行的利润随着转移成本的增加而降低,转移成本没有给银行带来优势。     

产品差异、转移成本和市场竞争

文章通过在豪泰林空间差异模型的基础上结合转移成本构建的博弈模型,主要研究转移成本和产品差异的存在对于企业价格竞争和策略性行为的影响。文章发现纯策略价格均衡是否存在以及在位企业容纳还是遏制竞争对手的潜在进入,都依赖于转移成本相对于产品差异程度的大小。     

Estimating Distribution Costs with the Eaton–Kortum Model

Economists have mainly relied on input–output tables to calculate domestic trade costs for a relatively small number of developed countries. In this work we use an augmented Eaton–Kortum model to estimate the distribution costs of a group of consumption goods for 60 countries, which include both developing and developed countries. Our results show that developing countries are subject to much higher distribution costs, and that reductions in the distribution costs can result in large welfare gains.     

China’s Experience with Indexed Government Bonds, 1988–1996: How Credible Was the People’s Republic’s Anti-Inflationary Policy?

The People's Republic of China introduced indexed government bonds in the face of the inflation panic of 1988–89 and reintroduced them when inflation surged upward again in 1993. Measures of inflation expectations—as derived from the trading prices of these indexed bonds—suggest that the government gained credibility from its ability to contain inflation in 1989. But the government's failure to quickly halt the 1993–95 inflation led, by late 1994, to soaring inflation expectations and, ultimately, a heavy financial penalty for the government as the 1992 and 1993 bond issues matured while inflation was still high.     

转移成本、价格歧视和非对称寡头竞争

通过在Hotelling空间差异模型的基础上结合转移成本构建非对称企业竞争博弈模型.主要研究在非对称情况下,两企业在一致定价与价格歧视下竞争的均衡结果.还对两种不同定价体制下的均衡结果进行了比较,分析价格歧视是否强化竞争.研究发现价格歧视对竞争的效应是不确定的,很大程度受到两企业不对称程度的影响.     

Arrow’s theorem as a corollary

Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem is derived from a general result on social aggregation in ‘property spaces’ (S3 convex structures) obtained in prior work. In the derivation, the specific structure of Arrowian aggregation as an aggregation of weak orders plays a purely combinatorial role.     

网络零售业中交易成本与顾客价值创造模式

交易成本和顾客价值创造之间存在着较复杂的关联,网络零售业交易成本的降低并不总意味着顾客价值的提高,网络零售业的交易成本与顾客价值相互关系模式中存在四种具体情况,交易成本不是越低越能创造顾客价值,网络零售业企业应注重对顾客交易成本的具体分析。     

On Nations’ Size and Transportation Costs*

This paper develops a noncooperative Nash model in which a closed border is opened to trade between countries that differ in size and transportation costs. the paper suggests an explanation as to why economists have not convinced policymakers to lift all barriers to free trade. the questions we pose are: Who will gain as a result of opening the borders? Is free trade beneficial to the two parties involved? Do they both share equally in the fruits of free trade? Which country, large or small, benefits most? It is shown that free trade is not beneficial to both countries.     

服务失败情境下转换成本对顾客忠诚的影响研究

有关顾客忠诚的研究检验了服务情境下转换成本对顾客忠诚的影响作用,然而,服务失败情境下转换成本对顾客忠诚的影响作用却很少被提及。研究讨论服务失败情境下正面转换成本和负面转换成本对顾客忠诚的影响作用,对美发行业经历过服务失败的顾客进行调查,并且运用结构方程模型进行实证研究,得出以下结论:服务失败发生以后正面转换成本对顾客忠诚具有显著的正向影响,负面转换成本对顾客忠诚有显著的负向影响,这些发现对服务企业具有重要的指导作用。     

On a Variation in the Economic Performance of Migrants by their Home Country’s Wage

Although the economic performance of migrants in the receiving country undoubtedly depends on qualifications, it is also affected by inclinations. Given the probability of return migration, a behavioural link is established between the incentive of migrants to save in their country of destination and the prevailing wage rate in their home country. It is shown that migrants coming from a low‐wage country optimally save more than migrants from a high‐wage country. Policy and research implications suggested by this savings behaviour are alluded to.     

Anatomy of Russia’s market segmentation1

Based on a relationship between price difference and demand difference among locations, the role of various market frictions in causing segmentation of the Russian goods market is analysed. The spatial sample covers most of Russian regions (70 of the 89); the data are annual, spanning 1992 to 2000. Spatial disconnectedness of regions is found to be responsible for about 70 percent of the average price differential, while the rest is caused by ‘artificial’ impediments to market integration such as regional protectionism, organized crime and intra‐region shipping conditions.     

Equilibrium Partner Switching in a Bargaining Model With Asymmetric Information

We study a model in which the seller of an indivisible object faces two potential buyers and makes an offer to either of them in each period. We find that the seller's ability to extract surplus from them depends crucially on the value of the cost of switching from one buyer to the next. If the seller is pessimistic about the buyers' valuations and there is a switching cost, however small, then the market is a natural bilateral monopoly; the second buyer is never called on. If the switching cost is zero, or if the seller is optimistic, then switching, and possibly recall of the original buyer, may occur.     

转换成本视角下的东亚货币博弈研究

作者从国际货币替代的转换成本理论视角.运用数理分析和博弈论方法,定性与定量相结合,研究东亚各国货币博弈榕局.货币合作对东亚国家是共赢博弈;中日两国与东亚其他国家呈现"智猪博弈",中国和日本从货币合作中将获得更大收益;中日两国当前是类"斗鸡博弈",在货币合作中,中日围绕货币主导权的竞争不可避免.中国要积极推进东亚货币合作和人民币国际化进程,力争成为东亚主导货币.     

Sentimental fools: a critique of Amartya Sen’s notion of commitment

Commitment is problematic because one sometimes pursues it against one’s interest. To solve it, the paper proposes a distinction between ‘non-binding’ and ‘binding’ commitments. Non-binding commitment is about ambition, such as becoming a great chef, which bolsters welfare in the pecuniary sense as well as self-respect. In contrast, ‘binding commitment’ is about honesty. While it diminishes welfare, it augments self-integrity. The neoclassical view reduces both commitments to interest, while the multiple-self approach separates both commitments from interest. The separation permits the confusion of sentimental fools, who enter commitments without regard to interest, with rational sentimentalists, who take interest into consideration.     

The Efficiency Impact of the Chinese Industrial Reforms in the 1980’s

A stochastic frontier production function is used to estimate the effect of partial and gradual reforms in the 1980’s in each of seven state-owned manufacturing industries. Reform-induced gains in technical efficiency were significant in all sample industries although not always substantial enough to motivate industry-wide productivity growth. The bonus system had speedy and impressive efficiency effects, but there is no consistent evidence on the effectiveness of other reform measures, including greater output autonomy, partial exposure to market influences, and the possibility of dismissals for malfeasance. Equalization of marginal factor returns across firms was observed in some industries, which may be considered as evidence of improved allocative efficiency in response to the reforms.     

An empirical evaluation of China’s monetary policies

This paper investigates the responsiveness of the Chinese government’s monetary policies in terms of the money supply and interest rates to economic conditions and the effectiveness of these policies in achieving the goals of stimulating economic growth and controlling inflation. We analyze the responsiveness and effectiveness by estimating the Taylor rule, the McCallum rule, and a vector autoregressive model using quarterly data in the period of 1992-2009. The results show that, overall, the monetary policy variables respond to economic growth and the inflation rate, but the magnitudes of the responses are much weaker than those observed in market economies. Money supply responded actively to both the inflation rate and the real output and had certain effects on the future inflation rates and real output. The official interest rates, on the other hand, responded passively to the inflation rate and did not respond to the real output. They do not have any effect on future inflation rates and real output either.     

Coping with Technology Divergence Policies and Strategies for India’s Industrial Development

Recent studies on innovation have demonstrated the relationship between technology and growth. However, as most of them are centered on the experience of the highly industrialized nations, a different approach to technology policy must be taken. As late industrializers, developing countries lag in adopting foreign technologies. Institutional factors and economic policy also influence the diffusion process. With decentralized decision making, the coexistence of diverse technologies in a given industrial branch is inevitable. Consequently, social costs tend to be high because of duplication of efforts, reduced learning opportunities, and adoption of inefficient technologies. This article examines the coexistence of diverse technologies leading to technology fragmentation in India’s steel industry. Recent innovative behavior in the Japanese and Korean steel industry indicates that the effects of fragmentation can be contained through a policy of “system integration.” This is an institutional process by which industry-specific applications of scientific knowledge are fused with basic research itself. This demands a forward-looking policy that rejuvenates older industries, such as steel, in socially acceptable ways and organically creates new knowledge for national development and social welfare.     

Incremental and Average Control Costs in a Model of Water Quality Trading with Discrete Abatement Units

This paper answers three questions related to the discrete nature of pollution abatement: (i) does a source’s incremental control cost (as defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) necessarily exceed its average control cost, (ii) is incremental control cost a better approximation of a source’s willingness to pay for abatement credits than average control cost, and (iii) exactly how does trading in discrete and continuous abatement markets differ? We find that the answer to the first two questions are both “no”, suggesting that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency needs to refine its reliance on incremental control cost as the sole measure upon which to assess the financial feasibility of water quality trading. In answer to the third question, we show that the outcome of bilateral trading in the presence of discrete abatement is determined by comparing the gains from trade associated with the full sequence of possible “sunk cost trading” scenarios. For the most common case where trading partners’ average control cost curves “cross,” the trading outcome with discrete abatement is inherently sensitive to the initial allocation of abatement responsibilities.     

The driving forces behind China’s growth1

The main objective of this article is to disentangle the determinants of the Chinese economic growth that occurred from 1965 to 2000. We have explored, first, the time series properties of the growth rates of gross domestic product and labour productivity with an extended battery of unit‐root tests. Then, in a multivariate setting, we use the VAR model methodology to provide evidence that physical and human capital accumulation, R&D expenditure, openness and competitiveness are the main drivers of output, labour productivity and total factor productivity growth in the long run. Additionally, we also show that although China has not yet converged to its long‐run equilibrium, it is in the process of catching up. These results are more consistent with some versions of the endogenous growth models than with Solow‐type models of growth, since they support active strategies of economic policy to stimulate economic growth and catching up with more advanced economies.