BEHAVIOURAL RESPONSE TO PLASTIC BAG LEGISLATION IN BOTSWANA

This paper investigates the use of charges and standards in dealing with a common externality, plastic litter from shopping bags in Botswana. The country passed a plastic bag legislation (effective 2007) to curb the plastic bag demand. Uniquely, the act does not stipulate the amount that the retailers had to charge for plastic bags, they, independently from one another, set different prices. We assessed the environmental effectiveness and efficiency of the plastic bag legislation by analysing consumers' sensitivity to the improvement of the plastic bag and related price charges. The introduction of the plastic bag legislation led to a significant decline in the consumption of plastic bags per 1,000 Botswana pulas of shopping. The partial success of the charges levied in Botswana was due to the constantly high prices of the bags.     

我国大米的供需态势:由库存与消费观察

采用多市场均衡模型,测算我国大米供给、需求以及库存方面的价格和非价格弹性,并对大米的生产、需求及库存量进行了预测。结果显示,大米单产的短期弹性为0.046,大米种植面积的短期弹性为0.161。农村和城市地区大米需求价格弹性分别为-0.115和-0.140,需求收入弹性分别为-0.157和-0.216。对大米产需及库存量预测显示,未来5～10年间,我国大米的总产量呈缓慢增长趋势,总消费量呈下降趋势,库存量保持平稳。     

Competitive bidding with a bid floor

We study competitive bidding with an explicit bid floor, motivated by minimum wage legislation and minimum labor standards. We derive the equilibrium strategies in, and compare the expected procurement costs among, the first‐price, second‐price, English, and Dutch auctions in a private‐cost model. For the English auction, we also consider a variant in which each seller can terminate the auction by jumping down to sell at the price floor. We find that the first‐price auction and the aforementioned jump‐down English auction lead to a lower expected procurement cost than under the second‐price auction and the standard English auction.     

THE DEMAND FOR FOOD IN SOUTH AFRICA1

Food consumption is an important issue in South Africa, given its relation to poverty and deprivation. With the pressing need to increase food security, understanding the determinants of the demand for food and having some estimates of the likely impact of price and income changes has become a vital task. There is, however, surprisingly little economic research on this topic and almost none in recent times. This paper provides a comprehensive empirical analysis of the demand for food in South Africa for the years 1970‐2002. It moves beyond the usual static modelling approach in using a general dynamic log‐linear demand equation and a dynamic version of the almost ideal demand system, to provide estimates of the short‐ and long‐run price and expenditure demand elasticities.     

Money,inflation, and output growth: Does the aggregate demand-aggregate supply model explain the international evidence?

Money, Inflation, and Output Growth: Does the Aggregate Demand-Aggregate Supply Model Explain the International Evidence? - Using annual post-war data for 32 countries, it is shown that output and the price level are positively related along the aggregate supply and negatively related along the aggregate demand curve. This implies that the negative correlation between inflation and growth simply means that the price level has been countercyclical as aggregate supply shocks domi-nated aggregate demand shocks. It is also shown that money growth has positive and permanent effects on inflation, but may affect output only in the short run: in the long run, money is probably neutral.     

不确定需求、垂直协调与电力市场结构

本文考虑一个在发电和零售环节均为完全竞争的电力市场。电力以事先确定的线性价格销售给用户,而电力总需求不确定。模型表明,如果企业的发电量与边际发电成本之间的协方差为正,即两个随机变量之间有正的线性关联度,那么在短期均衡中,垂直分离导致较高的电力价格和发电企业利润。在长期均衡中,垂直分离导致发电企业的过度进入,形成较高的电价和较低的社会福利水平。本文的结论对我国正在进行的电力体制改革有一定参考意义。     

Elasticity of demand for relative petroleum inventory in the short run

To better understand petroleum markets, the authors established the importance of the deviation of inventory levels away from a normal level, where the normal level is comprised of seasonal movement and a general trend. Since supply and demand for petroleum are less elastic to price in the short run than is inventory, it is this deviation or relative inventory level that plays the role of absorbing unexpected shifts in demand and supply. They demonstrated theoretically that the demand for relative inventory must be negatively related to price. They estimated the relative inventory levels and associated short-run price elasticity for several OECD countries and groups of countries, and found that short-run price elasticity of demand for relative inventory is negative and statistically significant, supporting the theoretical arguments.This work is partially sponsored by the Office of Strategic Petroleum Reserve, U.S. Department of Energy, and was presented at the Fifty-Second International Atlantic Economic Conference, Paris, France, March 2002.     

Income and Price Elasticities of China＇s Exports

The appearance of new product varieties and improvements in the quality of goods have both played key roles in the rapid growth of China's exports. However, these two important elements have not been formally integrated into the demand equations for China's exports. As we demonstrate in this paper, income elasticity will be underestimated if new varieties of goods and quality improvements are omitted in price index and quantity index calculations, which are necessary for estimating the export demand function. Moreover, the faster new product varieties enter export markets, the greater the underestimation will be. In this paper, we develop an export demand equation that takes into account new product varieties and improvements in quality, and then calculate the demand function for China's exports using the data from 1992 to 2006. According to our estimation, the short‐term income elasticity of demand for China's exports is approximately 2.34, and the short‐term price elasticity is approximately –0.65. Our estimation predicts an increase in China's export value in the case of an RMB appreciation or export rebate rates reduction in the short term, due to the low price elasticity of China's exports, whose absolute value is less than 1. Our findings are novel and could have significant policy implications.     

Potential demand and external trade

Summary Both in theoretical and empirical studies of international trade relative prices play a dominant role. Standard international trade theory asserts that under certain conditions the price mechanism may lead to an equilibrium between demand for and supply of goods from and to different countries. For short periods, some relevant conditions may not be fulfilled; in that case other adjustments such as changes in non price conditions may equate demand and supply or, alternatively, disequilibria may exist. Direct statistical evidence on non price conditions, excess demand and excess supply is scarce.This paper describes a partly indirect approach of the not price conditioned trade fluctuations. The basic model assumes that these fluctuations are largely dependent on pressure of demand, which is defined as the tension between potential demand and potential supply. In this way both exports and imports are divided in a potential component, dependent on relative prices, and a pressure induced component. The other main assumption is that actual domestic demand changes according to the demand function. Combining these relations, potential demand for domestic products is the sum of domestic demand and potential export demand minus potential import demand. Potential supply is assumed to be a constant fraction of the exogeneously given production capacity.The model is used for an iterative approximation of the changes in potential demand and pressure of demand for the Netherlands. For this purpose estimations for actual exports and actual imports of commodities are derived from the model. In the initial estimations, potential demand is approximated by means of actual demand, during consecutive rounds the results of the preceding stages are used. After three rounds the coefficients are stable. The values calculated for the yearly changes in potential demand are for most years in concordance with a priori expectations. For the reference period, the explanatory power of the computed pressure of demand is either of about the same quality as that of conventional pressure variables or better.     

短生命周期产品的订货与翻新库存决策模型

文章对短生命周期产品的销售商订货与翻新决策问题进行研究。假定产品的需求和售价随时间而下降,销售商仅在销售周期之初订货一次,九许顾客退货,退货服从泊松分布且定期进行翻新,翻新品作为服务性产品满足顾客的需求,未翻新的退货在销售周期末被处置,构建了订货与翻新库存决策模型,得到了期望平均利润函数,并给出了期望平均利润函教取最大值的条件及确定决策变量的求解方法。最后,对于具体例子,得到了最优的订货与翻新策略。参数影响表明,通过降低订货、翻新和处置的固定成本与变动成本以及服务性产品与退货单位时间的持有成本、确定合适的订货量或者提高期初产品售价等措施将有助于提升期望平均利润。     

Housing Supply,Demand and Price: Construction Cost,Rental Price and House Price Indices

Housing prices are subject to the impacts of supply as well as demand. While supply is affected by construction costs, demand is determined by the renting/buying considerations of the public. As a result, the construction cost index (CCI) on the supply side and the rental price index (RPI) on the demand side should be closely related to the house price index (HPI). The present study adopts three price indices of the Taiwan housing market, the CCI, the RPI and the HPI, and examines long‐term and short‐term correlations among the three indices. Empirical results indicate that the relationships among three indices are nonlinear. More interestingly, this article finds that the HPI stimulates changes in the CCI and the RPI, although construction costs and rent are viewed as fundamentals in the existing literature. This phenomenon is rather obvious when deviations of the latter two indices from the HPI are greater. The corrective behavior of the HPI is more notable under these circumstances.     

当前新疆农产品供求及价格形势的基本判断与对策建议

当前防止价格由结构性上涨演变为明显通货膨胀的任务依然艰巨,其中保证农产品供求平衡和价格平稳是稳定价格总水平的关键点。本文从国际国内宏观背景下分析了今后农产品供求关系将由总量平衡、丰年有余向农产品总量供给长期偏紧、农产品价格持续高位运行的格局转变。同时分析了影响农产品价格上涨的因素,提出了增加农产品供给和稳定农产品价格的对策建议。     

广东房价与地价的关系——基于2002～2010年数据的实证检验

我国房价与地价高居不下,给老百姓生活水平的提高造成很大的影响,到底是什么原因是房价高居不下。本文从房价与地价的关系入手,采用广东2002～2010年房屋销售价格指数和土地交易价格指数,对广东房价与地价关系的实证检验。Granger检验结果显示:短期而言,地价和房价是相互影响的;长期而言,房价决定地价。     

New Evidence on Export Price Elasticity from China and Six OECD Countries

This paper provides new evidence on export price elasticities by analyzing the cases of China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK and the USA over the period 1990–2012. Estimates have been made using panel data techniques for non‐stationary data. After demonstrating that long‐run relationships are stable to any structural break, it is found that exports are significantly determined by foreign demand, with long‐run income elasticity significantly higher than unity for China, Japan, Germany, the UK and the USA. Conversely, exports are price inelastic for most of the countries in the sample, in both the long run and the short run. The exception is France, whose export price elasticity is lower (higher) than unity in the short run (long run).     

Minimum wage and employment in the fast food industry

Recent empirical studies on the impact of minimum wage legislation generate results that are inconsistent with conventional economic theory. Employing a methodology that compares affected with unaffected areas, these investigations indicate that employment levels are not adversely affected by the imposition of a minimum wage. Two studies in particular focus on the fast food industry. Although one study has come under attack for improperly measuring employment, an interesting theoretical question remains. This paper derives the demand for labor function of a fast food outlet facing price and profit margin constraints dictated by the company. The results of a minimum wage constraint are consistent with current empirical literature.     

Short-run energy-economy interactions in Egypt

This paper discusses the short-run adjustment mechanism of the Egyptian economy to changes in the domestic price of oil. The effects of oil price increases have been analysed in the framework of a short-run macroeconomic model with an explicit treatment of energy. The results suggest that a reduction in petroleum use induced by a rise in the price of oil will impose difficult adjustment problems for the economy in the short run in terms of increase in inflation, fall in the share of wage income and sharp output losses. The analysis also indicates that energy demand management through appropriate petroleum pricing strategy cannot bring about desirable impacts on the economy unless efforts are made to reduce cost pressures originating from other energy sectors.     

具有微观基础的上海市住宅价格影响因素研究

文章根据特征价格模型和1120个上海市新建住宅交易样本建立了上海市住宅价格指数,并以此为基础修正CREIS上海指数得到上海同质住宅价格指数,从而有效的排除了住宅微观属性差异对价格波动的影响。以1995—2010年上海市宏观经济数据为样本,从供给、需求、宏观、投资4个方面选取16个社会经济指标,通过主成分分析得到影响上海市住宅价格的4个主成分,选取主成分代表指标求出其与上海同质价格指数的回归方程。研究结论认为,宏观经济发展是上海市住宅价格波动的主要影响因素,和供求因素共同决定了住宅价格,投资因素对与住宅价格波动并无显著影响。     

The Demand for Money in Brunei

Based on data for the 1974–95 period this paper estimates demand for narrow money and broad money in Brunei using the error-correction specification. Short-run and long-run elasticities are estimated with respect to real income, interest rate, expected price level and liquidity. Narrow money is quite responsive to changes in real income and interest rate in both the short and long terms. Broad money is income inelastic regardless of the time horizon, however, it is interest inelastic in the short run but interest elastic in the long run. Price elasticity of money demand is negligible in the short run but quite significant in the long run. Changes in the proportion of commercial bank assets placed in foreign money markets do not seem to affect demand for narrow money but their effect on the demand for broad money is both direct and significant.     

Road transport productivity in the sixteenth‐century Low Countries: the case of Brabant, 1450–1650†

Though there is a consensus that transport plays a central role in economic development, for the period before the eighteenth century there is a lack of strategic information for assessing the importance of road transport productivity changes in economic development. Transport prices in particular are crucial missing pieces of the puzzle. Sources rarely reveal information that meets the standards of reliable price history. However, it is possible to create a reliable transport price series on the basis of the transport of millstones to ducal mills in Brabant. Assessing the impact of the ‘transport productivity changes’ that can be inferred from this transport price series is a hazardous exercise. Moreover, as Masschaele has observed, land transport prices closely match general agricultural price trends. Land transport was essentially an agricultural service, determined both by cost (especially horse provender) and income effects. Transport price inflation was not demand‐led. However, while transport did not impede urbanization and economic growth, conversely, in sixteenth‐century Brabant—a highly urbanized region that experienced considerable growth in the volume of land transport—no significant land transport productivity gains were achieved.     

Short selling and stock prices with regime switching in the absence of market makers: The case of Japan

This paper investigates the relation between short selling and stock price at an aggregated market level. In order to study the differential impact of market microstructure on short selling, the data from Japanese stock markets are used. Both traditional regression and Markov switching models are used to compare Japanese results to those of U.S. and to admit non-stationary relation between short selling and stock price, respectively. Particularly, relatively long period (1978–2002) of analysis including bullish and bearish periods gives a good testable bed for studying the effect of short selling on stock price according to market condition. The empirical findings reveal that percentage change of short interests has a statistically significant positive relation with stock returns. It gives regulators policy implication that short selling is not a destabilizing activity, but an acceptable form of trading even in the absence of market makers. And short selling information cannot be used as an indicator for predicting future stock markets.