Cournot competition in a differentiated oligopoly

This paper studies product-quantity equilibria in an oligopoly. Products are interpreted as “qualities” and each firm chooses a quality-quantity pair, simultaneously. It is well known that a pure-strategy equilibrium in product-price pairs does not exist in this model, but a pure-strategy equilibrium in product-quantity pairs exists. Furthermore, in an example widely studied in the literature, the equilibrium has nice asymptotic properties.     

Capital accumulation,income distribution and endogenous fertility in an overlapping generations general equilibrium model

A study is conducted in attempts to increase the understanding of the links between macroeconomic effects and causes of population growth in formulating policy. An overlapping generations general equilibrium model is employed aggregating household decisions about fertility, savings, and investment in the human capital of children with the objective of studying intertemporal relationships among population growth, income distribution, inter-generation social mobility, skill composition of the labor force, and household income. As a result of endogenous fertility, the equilibrium path attains steady state from the second generation. Income tax transfer, child taxation, and social security taxation policies are also examined in the paper. A structural explanation is given for the inverse household income-child quantity and negative child quality-quantity relationships seen in developing countries. In a Cobb-Douglas economy, these relationships hold in the short-run, potentially working over the long-run in other economies. Overall, the model shows that group interests may hinder emergence of perfect capital markets with private initiatives. Where developing countries are concerned, these results have strong implications for population policy. A policy mix of building good quality schools, or subsidizing rural education, introducing a formal social security program, and providing high-yield, risk-free investments, banking, and insurance services to the poor is recommended.     

Technical efficiency,allocative efficiency,and the impact of incentive regulation in telecommunications in the United States

Incentive regulation is now an important regulatory tool in the telecommunications industry in the United States. The objective of incentive regulation is to improve productive efficiency, enhance service quality and consumer welfare, and reduce the costs of regulation. The issue that is considered here is whether incentive regulation in the form of a price cap applicable to interstate access service to local loops has resulted in an increase in the technical efficiency and allocative efficiency of local exchange carriers (LECs). After discussing the reasons for adopting incentive regulation, the nature of price caps is explored followed by an overview of the methodology for measuring the effects of incentive regulation on productive efficiency. The results indicate that for changes in technical efficiency, there is a definite randomness between 1985 and 1993 with technical efficiency increasing in some years and decreasing in others. Subsequent to 1993, however, there is a consistent improvement in technical efficiency. Given that incentive regulation in the forin of price caps was implemented for LECs in 1991, it is likely that some portion of the improvement in technical efficiency subsequent to 1993 is attributable to incentive regulation. A pronounced upward trend in allocative efficiency is observed beginning in 1985. It is problematic, however, to attribute the improvement in allocative efficiency to the adoption of incentive regulation. It is more likely an artifact of the divestiture of AT&T although some indeterminant portion is probably associated with the implementation of price caps.JEL classification: L51, L96     

Mindshift: The mental revolution we are in

It is by now a commonplace to say that today the world is in the midst of a revolution as profound as any we have ever experienced. It is, however, much less of a commonplace to specify precisely of what this revolution consists. The contention of this article is that the revolution is more than a mere shift in our industrial or technological base. Fundamentally, it is a change in underlying mental attitudes—how we conceive of the world. It is thus a shift in our values but at the same time much more basic than this alone.This article describes the nature of the change that is occuring in mental attitudes. However, it does not do so in a traditional way. Primarily, it does it by means of a fable. The reason is that the shift we are experiencing is also in part a shift in our aesthetic vision, that is, in the styles of discourse that we use to describe reality. In short, different conceptions of the world require different stylistic forms. The full nuances of a new era can not be captured by the forms of the past.     

农业转型与资源替代

本文通过对发达国家农业生产中出现的化肥施用量相对减少这一趋势的探讨,分析了我国农业化肥施用现状,并通过对作物秸杆作为燃料获取能量与生产化肥所消耗能量的对比,说明从节省能量的角度来看,用有机肥部分替代化肥具有一定的合理性;指出在我国要实现肥料间的替代,首先要解决农村生活资料的替代问题。揭示出资源间的连锁替代是我国实现有机农业的关键。     

Russia and Eastern Europe: Is Transition Over?

Though it is still to early to assess the final outcome of transformation in Central and Eastern Europe, since 1995 there is a growing perception that the transition process is by and large completed in Central Europe and even in Eastern Europe. This is not yet the case where Russia is concerned. It is not just that the process began later; what happened there is still percieved as confusing and unclear, and hence gives way to very contrasting judgements. Hence emphasis is put on Russia in the following review essay.     

Some implications of anarchy for the distribution of property

A model of an anarchistic society is introduced and its implications for the distribution of income are considered. The economy is assumed to allocate one unit of an all-purpose completely divisible good to each individual in society. This initial distribution of income is changed through theft into a final distribution. The notion of equilibrium is introduced and the equilibrium distribution for a two-person example is displayed. Finally, the notion of orderly anarchy is discussed. An orderly anarchistic allocation of income is defined to be a distribution of income in which no effort is spent in stealing property from others. It is shown that every allocation in the core is an orderly anarchistic allocation and that the core is nonempty.     

皖苏工业制成品出口结构实证比较分析

安徽、江苏业已形成以工业制成品为主导的出口商品结构。但从内部结构上存在一定的相异性。2000-2009年,安徽工业制成品出口结构以6类为主导,江苏以7类为主导,且安徽相对江苏结构相对"匀质化"。在产品竞争力上,安徽、江苏均有部分产品表现出口竞争力,但具备稳定竞争力的产品类别较少。可能归结于国际市场动态需求变化、产品结构调整政策以及出口规模粘性,安徽绝大多数产品出口变化速度均高于江苏。如果结构调整是以提升产品技术附加值为目标,那么历经十年的出口结构调整使得原本具备相似工业制成品出口结构的两省已经表现出较大的不同,安徽相对江苏而言,有较高技术附加值的工业制成品出口比重较少。     

县域视角下的贫困、金融发展与经济增长*——基于系统GMM方法的再检验

本文以内生区域金融发展理论为基础构建动态面板模型,同时引入贫困因素进一步识别区域金融与经济的非线性关系,将实证对象细化到县域层面,运用系统GMM方法检验贫困与非贫困县域金融对经济增长影响的差异。本文研究发现,信贷层面上的金融发展对经济增长的推动效应普遍存在,而储蓄层面金融发展的效应则存在地区差异,非贫困县的储蓄与经济无关,贫困县的储蓄与经济增长负相关。因此本文指出,区域信贷配给和区域信贷创造理论更适于解释贫困地区的金融发展问题,贫困县域储蓄的负效应是本地储蓄外流和转化效率低下的结果,与我国银行业跨     

从自然资源经济学到可持续经济学

随着物质生活水平的快速提高,人类也面临着诸如森林退化、土地荒漠化、物种多样性丧失以及温室效应恶化等生存环境问题。可持续发展问题日益受到人们的关注,通过经济学的视角来研究可持续发展的可持续经济学得到了快速的发展。本文从经济学的角度界定了自然资源的概念,回顾了经济学对自然资源的研究历程,对自然资源经济学的起源、发展进行了评述;论证了自然资源经济学和可持续经济学的关系,指出在可持续发展问题研究中融合自然资源经济学和环境经济学的必然性,以自然资源经济学和环境经济学为重要元素的可持续经济学是可持续问题经济研究的高级阶段,文章进一步探讨了可持续经济学的分析框架、发展现状及存在的问题。     

Tax Evasion and the Time Consistency of the Government's Income Tax Policy

It is shown that it is not necessarily optimal for the government to tax capital income at a high rate even when capital is in fixed supply because the supply of capital for tax purposes may be elastic if capital income tax evasion occurs. An example is given where the wage tax rate is positive and greater than the interest income tax rate even though capital is in fixed supply. Conditions are also derived under which the capital income tax rate is lower in the closed-loop policy game, where capital is fixed, than in the open-loop game, where it is not.
JEL Classification Numbers: E61, H26.     

The Political Feasibility of Privatizing Old-Age Insurance

Though a transition to a fully funded pension system is favoured by many economists, it is not even considered by politicians in Germany. This paper examines the hypothesis that this is in accordance with the preferences of the population. By performing a dynamic CGE analysis referenda on pension policies are simulated. They show that a fully privatizing scheme is not politically feasible in Germany, however long the pre‐announcement period, if the alternatives are the current policy or a partially privatizing policy. This explains why a fully privatizing policy is not an issue in the political debate in Germany. In order to examine what are the reasons for this outcome, the German Bismarckian System is compared to a Beveridge‐System which is similar to the British pension system. Actually, in the latter case, a transition to a fully funded system is what the majority opts for in a dynamically consistent equilibrium. This is evidence that the future of the pension system depends on its history.     

The impact from changes in stock market valuations on investment: new economy versus old economy

This paper investigates whether there is a different impact from changes in ‘new’ and ‘old’ economy stock valuations on private investment for seven OECD economies. A vector autoregressive model is estimated for each individual country, using quarterly data over the period 1990–2000. It is found that the impact from changes in valuations of new economy stocks to investment is roughly the same in North America and in the United Kingdom as in continental Europe. By contrast, the impact from changes in old economy stock valuations on investment is, in general, larger in North America and in the United Kingdom than in continental Europe. Finally, the results suggest that in continental Europe the impact on investment from changes in the valuation of new economy stocks is bigger than for old economy stocks, whereas for North America and the United Kingdom, the impact is more similar.     

Diffusion of mobile telephony in India: An empirical study

Diffusion of new technology is an important driver of economic growth. In this paper, diffusion of mobile telephony in India is studied. There is a vast diffusion potential in this country which needs to be exploited efficiently and in a rational way. This paper investigates the social, technological, economical and political (STEP) factors that have influenced the diffusion process of mobile telephony especially the diffusion speed. The epidemic model, which is widely employed in the diffusion studies of mobile telephony, is used for the study. The data is fitted into logistic, gompertz, and bass models by nonlinear least squares and it is found that gompertz model best describes the diffusion process of mobile telephony in India. The study reveals that competition and government intervention played a significant role in accelerating the diffusion speed of mobile telephony by making the technology affordable. It is found that mobile telephony is a substitute for fixed line telephony in India. The findings will be useful in taking managerial decisions with respect to factors in forecasting and controlling the diffusion process of emerging technologies.     

A reformulation of the technological progress function

In its actual construction, the ordinary technological progress function is concluded to be theoretically defective, because, among other things, (1) it is not in keeping with the dynamic perspective in which technological change occurs, (2) it leaves unaccounted the nonlinearities involved in the learning process, and what is even more important, (3) it is not stochastically specified. Furthermore, it is unsuitable for long-term prediction from time-series data because it ignores a “limit of learning”, which is approached if not reached. Empirically also it is found to be grossly inadequate. A reformulation of the technological progress function is developed here by way of a solution to some of these problems and it is applied to a variety of cases. The role of availability of knowledge and complexity in engineering design process is also investigated in a preliminary way by means of two a priori hypotheses developed in the main body of the paper. Directions of further research are indicated.     

劳动力异质性与中国最低工资标准就业效应分析

最低工资是当今世界各国广泛应用的经济政策,也是经济学家关心的议题。我国的最低工资标准偏低,且执行程度欠佳,所以我国的最低工资覆盖情况实际上符合部分覆盖的假设。同时由于我国劳动力的异质性以及最低工资制度的实施,导致未覆盖部门的低技能劳动力就业增多,而覆盖部门的高技能劳动力就业比例增多,总的就业效应方向并不明确。     

辛普森悖论与利他行为的进化

利他行为是自然界和人类社会中广泛存在的现象。但长期以来人们无法解释对行为者本身不利的利他行为如何能避免在自然选择中被淘汰。群体选择理论对此提出了一个解释,即尽管由于利他者相对于利己者处于不利的位置,利他者在每一个群体中的频率都会下降,但利他者在总体中的频率却有可能上升。这种看似不可能的现象被称为辛普森悖论。通过对辛普森悖论的阐述,建立了一个群体选择模型,运用模型的结果对正处于社会转型期的我国片面注重个体利益,忽视集体利益的现状进行了分析。     

Asymptotic efficiency of the pivotal mechanism with general project space

It is shown that the government surplus generated by applying the pivotal mechanism is generically small per capita if the number of participants is sufficiently large. The result is valid whether the project space is finite or infinite. It also implies that the pivotal mechanism is asymptotically efficient in most cases, for the amount of surplus is a measure of inefficiency in the economic environments to which the mechanism is applicable.     

内城旅游项目开发初探--英国伯明翰国际会议中心区的建设经验及其对我国启示

文章简要回顾了英国伯明翰国际会议中心区(ICC)的建设背景与概况,对其环境、社会和经济影响进行了总结,认为项目虽然有力改善了城市环境,提升了城市形象,但也出现了问题。在此基础上,结合我国的实际情况,就大型旅游系列项目的建设进行了评述。指出城市大型旅游项目风险大、投资长,其论证必须科学、客观、全面,对其论证至少要关注以下几个问题:建设区位的选择;政府政策的研究;城市文脉延续;城市中心绿色斑块的引入。     

环境规制强度、企业规模对技术创新质量的影响

运用2007-2016年中国工业企业省级面板数据建立门槛回归模型,分别以企业规模和环境规制强度为门槛变量,研究环境规制强度、企业规模与环境规制强度交互项对技术创新质量的影响。结果表明：以企业规模为门槛变量时,东部、中部和西部地区环境规制强度与技术创新质量间存在单门槛效应。当企业规模低于门槛值时,东部地区环境规制强度能够有效促进技术创新质量提升,中西部地区促进效果并不显著;当跨越门槛值后,均可有效促进技术创新质量提升,并且东部地区促进效果增强;以环境规制强度为门槛变量时,东部、中部和西部地区环境规制强度与技术创新质量间存在单门槛效应;当环境规制强度低于相应门槛值时,东部地区促进效果显著,而中西部效果不显著;达到门槛值后,促进效果均显著,但东部地区促进程度稍有减弱;企业规模会间接影响环境规制强度对技术创新质量的促进作用。