农业灾害经济:周期波动与综合治理

本文认为,农业是国民经济的基础,也是最易受各种自然灾害影响的脆弱产业。近30年来,农业灾害与粮食产量的关联发展,揭示了农业灾害经济具有周期波动性和显著的区域分异规律,灾害是影响我国粮食安全的重大因素。为此,应当将减轻农业灾害和保障农业生产者的风险收益作为国家解决"三农"问题的重要方面,加强对农业灾害的综合治理,通过调整农牧业生产的区域布局、强化工程减灾措施与技术减灾措施、在丰歉年之间平准粮价、建立农业政策保险等,达到减轻农业灾害损失并维护农业生产者利益的目的。     

我国农业保险问题之理论探索

农业是一个抵御自然灾害能力极差和在市场中处于被动地位的“双弱质产业”，但是我国农业保险却起步较晚，而且覆盖面小、保险能力低。本文在分析我国农业保险现状的基础上提出：通过加强农业保险的法制建设、加快农业保险经营体制的改革和加大国家财政对农业保险的支持力度，建立和完善我国的农业风险保障机制，促进农业的健康持续发展。     

China's Regional Trade and Domestic Market Integrations

The global economic crisis in 2007 forced China to move from export‐led growth to promoting domestic demand. The move is significant, but the success of this new growth strategy depends critically on the level of domestic market integrations. In this paper, we use the methodology proposed by Anderson and Wincoop to examine China's domestic market integrations. We find evidence of border effects at both national and regional levels with significant regional differences, but they are smaller than some earlier studies suggest. Income growth, lower transportation costs, and higher intra‐industry trade all have positive effects on China's regional trade. Among the factors affecting regional trade, a better business environment has the largest positive impact on lifting China's domestic trade between regions, especially in intermediate goods, suggesting that improving business environment should be the priority of government at all levels in China.     

Convergence of bank competition in Central and Eastern European countries: do foreign and domestic banks go hand in hand?

Following the massive entry of foreign banks into the Central and Eastern European (CEE) banking markets, one may wonder whether their competitive behaviour differs from that of their domestic counterparts, possibly leading to the segmentation of these markets at the regional and national levels. We find that the competitive behaviour of foreign and domestic banks differs, with foreign banks having less market power until the recent financial crisis and more market power after this financial turmoil. Despite this difference, banks tend to behave similarly, and their market power converges to a similar level. The tendency towards similar competitive behaviour is observed at the regional and national levels and for both foreign and domestic banks, although foreign institutions that enter these markets through the acquisition of domestic banks have slightly more market power. Our findings suggest the regional integration of CEE banking markets and no segmentation between foreign and domestic institutions.     

Growth,unemployment and labour market institutions: evidence from a cross-section of EU regions

The responsiveness of unemployment to growth is an issue of ongoing political and academic interest. Economic growth is supposed to be the key to increase labour demand and reduce unemployment. Departing from Okun's law, most research on the unemployment intensity of growth has focused on national disparities and the role of labour market institutions. Empirical evidence at the regional level is scarce. We investigate differences in regional labour market responsiveness and their potential determinants for a cross section of European regions. The data set covers the NUTS 2 regions in the EU15 for the period 1980 to 2002. Following a spatial modelling approach interaction among neighbouring labour markets is taken into account. Our findings point to substantial differences in labour market effects of output growth among European countries and regions. Both national labour market institutions and regional characteristics, such as structural change explain a significant part of these disparities.     

How natural disasters affect the evolution of grain markets: evidence from 18th-century China

Market is the foundation of modern society. However, how did market evolve? Previous research has explored the impacts of spatial distance and transportation conditions on market integration. This article argues that natural disasters also played a crucial role in the evolution of market integration in China, particularly in the grain market. When natural disasters occur, governments’ relief measures and merchants’ arbitrage activities will gradually promote interconnectivity among local grain markets. In this article, China’s major grain monthly price data set from 1746 to 1795 and the Chinese historical disaster records dataset from 1696 to 1795 are used to analyse the impact of natural disasters on grain market integration. The empirical results show that natural disasters have a significantly positive effect on the integration of the grain market. The findings continue to hold after controlling the traffic conditions, grain varieties and lag effect. This study proposes a new perspective for understanding the evolution of the grain market.     

Insurance,self-protection,and the economics of terrorism

This paper investigates the rationale for public intervention in the terrorism insurance market. It argues that government subsidies for terror insurance have the effect of discouraging self-protection and limiting the negative externalities associated with self-protection. Cautious self-protective behavior by a target can hurt public goods like national prestige if it is seen as “giving in” to the terrorists, and may increase the loss probabilities faced by others by encouraging terrorists to substitute toward more vulnerable targets. We argue that these externalities in protection are essential for normative analysis of government intervention in insurance markets and may also explain why availability problems in this market have engendered much stronger government responses than similar problems in other catastrophe insurance markets.     

Insurance development,banking activities,and regional output: evidence from China

This paper applies panel cointegration tests and panel vector error correction models to investigate the interrelationship among the banking sector, insurance market, and regional output based on the samples from 25 Chinese provinces. We first find that there is a fairly strong long-run cointegrating relationship among real GDP, banking credit, and real insurance premiums. Second, both insurance markets (life and non-life) and the banking sector have a positive effect on real output. Third, we determine that banking activities and economic growth exhibit long-run and short-run bidirectional causalities. Fourth, there is fairly strong evidence in favor of the hypothesis for the long-run bidirectional causal relationships between insurance premiums and economic growth, taking into account the critical channel of the banking sector. Finally, we provide some beneficial suggestions for investors and policy-makers.     

Revisiting structural change and market integration in late 19th century American capital markets

This article draws on a variety of time series tools to more deeply explore issues surrounding the emergence of a national capital market in the late 19th century. Our focus is on the timing of the emergence of a national capital market. Rather than relying on the absolute narrowing of regional interest rate differentials, which is a common approach in this literature, we use Gregory and Hansen cointegration tests, which allow us not only to test for cointegrating relations in the interest rate series but to identify unknown structural change dates as a byproduct. We also use dynamic conditional correlations to determine the dates at which regional interest rate correlations began increasing. Our results suggest that structural changes are centred around the year 1900, which is consistent with Sylla's argument that the lowering of capital requirements by the Gold Standard Act of 1900 increased bank entry and competition and facilitated regional capital market convergence.     

Tropical cyclones and post-disaster reconstruction of public infrastructure in developing countries

When natural disasters destroy public capital, these direct losses are exacerbated by indirect losses arising from reduced private output during reconstruction. These may be large in developing countries that lack access to external finance. We develop a general equilibrium model of a small open economy that highlights the relation between public infrastructure and private capital, to examine the effects of natural disasters and alternative reconstruction paths. Calibrating the model to data from the Caribbean Catastrophic Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF), we examine alternative post-disaster financing mechanisms including reserve depletion, budget reallocation, sovereign disaster insurance, debt and taxation. Disaster insurance is shown to play a limited role in financing reconstruction, while budget re-allocations are potentially damaging especially if they cannibalize operations and maintenance expenditures. Absent donor grants or concessional borrowing, tax financing – where feasible – remains the least damaging financing instrument, particularly if the country risk premium on external debt is high.     

The impact of natural disasters on household income,expenditure, poverty and inequality: evidence from Vietnam

Natural disasters are expected exacerbate poverty and inequality, but little evidence exists to support the impact at household level. This article examines the effect of natural disasters on household income, expenditure, poverty and inequality using the Vietnam Household Living Standard Survey in 2008. The effects of a natural disaster on household income and expenditure, corrected for fixed effects and potential endogeneity bias, are estimated at 6.9% and 7.1% declines in Vietnamese household per capita income and expenditure, respectively. Natural disasters demonstrably worsen expenditure poverty and inequality in Vietnam, and thus should be considered as a factor in designing poverty alleviation policies.     

我国保险业增长分析

本文通过基本面分析和动态模型分析 ,研究我国保险业增长的状况、路线和动力 ,并从消费角度建立了保险业和宏观经济因素之间的长期和短期模型 ,结果表明 ,保险增长源于保险业自身的扩张、国民可支配收入增长和市场经济体制改革。     

新疆财产保险市场若干问题探析

新疆财产保险市场在发展中存在市场规模较小、经营主体少，保险产品种类单一，保险公司竞争不规范等问题。因此，应通过规范市场竞争、优化产品结构、加强业务宣传、提升管理水平等措施来完善新疆财险市场的发展。     

中国银行业市场准入承诺水平的测度与比较研究

中国银行业全面对外开放的承诺水平现已成为国内外金融界、监管当局和众多学者普遍关注的焦点.为探究中国银行业市场准入的承诺水平与以市场准入为前提的国民待遇承诺水平,本文在对其进行模型构建的基础上,分别对中国银行业全面对外开放的市场准入和国民待遇承诺水平进行了测度与比较.研究结果表明:从"纵向"来看,中国银行业全面对外开放后的市场准入承诺水平和国民待遇承诺水平比过渡期间均有大幅提高,相对而言,国民待遇承诺水平的提高幅度更大一些;从"横向"来看,全面对外开放后中国银行业的市场准入承诺水平仍不高,且与发达国家或地区差距较大,而国民待遇承诺水平与其它发达国家或地区已无差异;相对于市场准入承诺水平与国民待遇承诺水平比较协调、匹配的发达国家或地区而言,我国银行业的市场准入承诺水平与国民待遇承诺水平相比,二者还很不均衡.     

Firms navigating through innovation spaces: a conceptualization of how firms search and perceive technological,market and productive opportunities globally

The main contribution of this paper is a theory-based conceptual framework of innovation spaces, and how firms must navigate through them to innovate. The concept of innovation systems - at the regional, sectoral and national levels - have been highly influential. Previous literature developing the concept of innovation systems has stressed the importance of institutions, networks and knowledge bases at the regional, sectoral and national levels. This paper primarily draws upon an evolutionary and Schumpeterian economics perspective, in the following three senses. The conceptualization of 'innnovation spaces' focuses upon how and why firm search for innovations is influenced the opportunities within certain geographical contexts. This means that the firm create opportunities and can span different context, but they are influence by the context in term of the access, flow and co-evolution of ideas, resources, technology, people and knowledge, which help stimulate business innovation in terms of products, process and services. The paper concludes with an agenda for future research and especially the need to focus on globalization as a process of intensifying linkages across the globe.     

基于面板数据的农业气象灾害对中国粮食产量的影响分析

中国是自然灾害频繁发生的国家,粮食生产受自然灾害影响极大。在各类自然灾害中,大概70%以上是气象灾害引起的。根据中国近30年的粮食产量统计资料,引入变截距双对数模型在不同阶段农业气象灾害对粮食产量的影响进行计量分析,结果表明,农业气象灾害对粮食产量的负面影响均较显著,并且农业气象灾害对粮食产量影响的程度呈不断下降的趋势。     

Computers,Input-Output,and the Future

While all regions are exposed to natural hazards, most disasters (such as droughts, earthquakes, extreme temperatures, floods, slides, storms, volcanoes and wildfires) tend to occur in developing regions. Underdeveloped countries and poor people concentrate the un-natural impact of natural hazards, deepening the existent inequalities within and across countries. The paper analyzes the empirical evidence on the incidence of disasters and maps worldwide disaster risks, to then assess the factors as to why disaster risk concentrates on certain people, areas and countries. It uses a conceptual framework on the links among risk, vulnerability, and impacts to understand the multi-dimensionality of disaster effects and the increasing challenges that countries have to overcome in the face of climate change.     

经济结构约束下中小保险公司发展对经济增长的影响

大量研究发现保险业活动可以影响经济增长,但对于保险业的结构特征和区域差异对经济增长是否有作用却鲜有涉及。本文运用中国31个省份（直辖市）在1999-2008年间的面板数据,利用固定效应模型和系统广义矩方法进行了计量分析。我们发现保险业活动、结构以及保险业结构与经济结构的匹配对经济发展具有显著的影响：中小保险公司市场份额的提高有利于经济增长;保险业结构与经济结构匹配时会促进经济增长,反之则会抑制经济增长。本文还构建了相对保险深度指标对全国样本进行分类,发现不同区域保险业结构与经济结构的协同效应对经济增长的影响规律存在一定的差异。     

人口老龄化对经济发展影响研究进展

人口结构的变化必然会对社会经济发展带来影响,尤其会对现有养老保障体系以及劳动力市场产生深刻影响。本文从养老保障体系、劳动力市场以及老年人经济福利等方面对人口老龄化带来的挑战及机遇以及如何应对老龄化的理论和政策研究进行了系统的梳理和分析,呼吁对于中国老年人消费偏好的特殊性、中国老年人储蓄行为的特殊性以及中国老年人资产处置决策的特殊性进行深入的研究。     

International Integration, Risk and the Welfare State

How does international integration affect the welfare state? Does it call for a leaner or an expanded welfare state? International integration may affect the distortions caused by welfare state activities but also the risks motivating social insurance mechanisms. This paper addresses these potentially counteracting effects in a fully specified intertemporal two–country stochastic endowment model, focusing on the implications when product market integration reduces trade frictions across national product markets. It is shown that lower trade frictions may increase the marginal costs of public funds, which gives an argument for reducing (steady–state) public consumption. However, tighter integration of product markets unambiguously leads to more variability in private consumption, and this gives a case for expanding the social insurance provided via state–contingent public sector activities (automatic stabilizers). JEL classification: E30; F10; H11