An Experimental Analysis of Intertemporal Allocation Behavior

If the future is uncertain, optimal intertemporal decisions rely on anticipating one's own optimal future behavior as is typical in dynamic programming. Our aim is to detect experimentally stylized facts about intertemporal decision making in a rich stochastic environment. Compared to previous experimental studies our experimental design is more complex since the time horizon is uncertain and termination probabilities have to be updated. In particular the decision task is non-stationary as in real life which seriously complicates the task of diagnosing behavioral regularities. In this study we give some illustrative results and provide some general perspectives. Our main result is that subjects' reaction to information about termination probablilities are qualitatively correct.     

Intertemporal Equity and Hartwick's Rule in an Exhaustible Resource Model*

In a standard exhaustible resource model, it is known that if, along a competitive path, investment in the augmentable capital good equals the rents on the exhaustible resource (known as Hartwick's rule), then the path is equitable in the sense that the consumption level is constant over time. In this paper, we show the converse of this result: if a competitive path is equitable, then it must satisfy Hartwick's rule.     

基于卫生资源利用效率视角下的健康公平实现研究

面对卫生资源利用效率低下导致健康不公平的现实,从医疗资源利用效率角度运用数据包络分析方法,对我国31个省级行政区的卫生资源利用效率进行了比较分析。由各省份在技术效率、投入冗余和产出不足三个方面参差不齐的表现,提出了DEA非有效省份与DEA有效省份健康差距的缩小主要依赖于控制卫生机构规模、缩减不必要的资源配置、使卫生产出与需求保持平衡,并根据实际情况探索提高效率的途径,促进健康公平。     

Intertemporal Effects of Environmental Mandates

Environmental mandates can impose large costs on the businesses that must comply with them. Understanding the effects of those costs on production decisions may require a dynamic framework if environmental damages (and the costs of complying with mandates) depend on cumulative production or the passage of time. This paper focuses on the time dimension of general categories of fixed and variable costs arising from different types of mandates. The paper develops an optimal control model to predict how such costs may jointly affect current production rates, plant closure dates, and cumulative production. Theoretical results, derived from the comparative statics of the system of equations describing the solution to that model, identify circumstances in which the policy goals of greater production and greater environmental protection may not allways be at odds. Statements in this paper do not reflect the views or positions of the Congressional Budget Office     

Intertemporal production and intertemporal substitution in output supply and input demand

This article presents an intertemporal model of production with multiple inputs to investigate substitution opportunities facing firms over time. The firm’s intertemporal profit maximization problem is characterized with the familiar cost function, and various intertemporal substitution elasticities are delineated for output supply and input demand. The absence of intertemporal substitution in production can imply production smoothing, and allowance for intertemporal substitution in labour demand reinforces the prediction of the real business cycle model. For aggregate US manufacturing, we find substantial substitution in output supply and labour demand over time due to intertemporal changes in output price and wage rates.     

Intertemporal data and travel cost analysis

This paper considers the use of multi-year data in travel cost analysis. To exploit the information embedded within intertemporal data, two broad approaches are examined: multiple year cross sections and panel models. Multiple year cross sections can be used to detect trends, and to test for stability of behavior. Panel models can be used to control for unobservable factors that are individual specific. Unfortunately, the low intertemporal variability of travel cost data sets weakens the power of panel estimators. Using aggregate data from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, the stability of demand processes over the 1980–1986 period is investigated, as well as the problems inherent in using panel estimators in travel cost analysis.     

Intertemporal Choice,Saving and Investment,and Interest Rate: Contributions from a Neglected Hayekian Model

Hayek’s ‘Utility analysis and interest’ expounds a graphical model of intertemporal choice that has not received the attention it deserves. This model is important in that it can be used as a basic macroeconomic model and can therefore perform for the Austrian School the role that the Solow model plays for the standard neo-classical paradigm. This article provides an in-depth presentation of the Hayekian model, and then applies the model to key theoretical issues in macroeconomics; namely, the effects upon intertemporal equilibrium and upon the interest rate of a change in time preference, of the implementation of a technical development and of an increase in the supply of labor.     

Two Models of Intertemporal Price Discrimination

Received December 22, 2000; revised version received August 31, 2001     

效率、公平与区域协调发展

任何国家都存在由区域差异而导致的区域差距,政府的责任是要控制乃至缩小这种区域差距,实现区域的协调发展.改革开放以来我国的区域差距逐步扩大,这与中央政府区域政策目标在效率与公平上的孰为"优先"的偏差有关.本文认为,效率与公平是两个不同层次的概念,中央政府应该确立效率与公平兼顾的区域政策目标,并建议国家开征"统筹税",促进在效率与公平兼顾基础的区域协调发展.     

论水资源可持续利用的公平与效率

本文强调公平和效率是可持续发展的重要内容之一。论述了水资源可持续利用的公平与效率原则。指出了我国水资源在时空分布和开发利用上既不公平也无效率。要实现水资源利用公平与效率还需解决好几个问题。     

Prudence, Intertemporal Substitution, and Savings under Uncertainty

This paper derives the relations between the coefficient of absolute prudence, the equivalent precautionary premium, risk aversion to concentration, and the normality and shift of current consumption under uncertainty, without the time-separable utility assumption. Examples show that Kimball's coefficient of absolute prudence does not fully characterize precautionary saving or saving behavior under uncertainty. It is proved that, whereas a higher rate of intertemporal substitution and a larger coefficient of absolute prudence imply more savings when current consumption is normal, a larger coefficient of intertemporal substitution and a smaller coefficient of absolute prudence imply more savings when current consumption is inferior. Received July 17, 2001; revised version received November 20, 2001     

福利经济学视角下的效率与公平

效率与公平问题是当前社会讨论的热点话题,关于效率与公平的内涵、关系以及组合模式,国内理论界众说纷纭.笔者试从一个新的视角--福利经济学的角度--来重新阐释效率与公平问题.笔者认为:第一,既要重视收入分配公平,又要重视社会公平;第二,实现效率与公平的最优组合需要市场和政府双管齐下;第三,我国当前应实行效率与公平并重的原则.     

股权结构对股权代理成本的影响——来自中国上市公司的实证检验

股权代理成本可细分为两种:一是股东与经营者之间的利益矛盾而引起第一类股权代理成本;二是控股股东与中小股东之间的利益冲突而引起的第二类股权代理成本。在理论分析和研究假设基础之上,本文建立了两个回归模型来分别检验我国上市公司的股权结构对两类股权代理成本的影响,并提出通过调整和完善上市公司的股权结构来降低其股权代理成本的建议。     

初次分配中效率与公平关系探讨

初次分配中效率与公平不是孰轻孰重的关系,初次分配中的效率本身具有公平性质。针对初次分配中存在的不公现象,处理好效率与公平的关系具有紧迫性和现实性。要对影响初次分配中效率与公平关系的因素进行分析,区分产生收入差距的合理因素和不合理因素,通过完善社会主义市场经济体制、真正落实社会主义初级阶段的分配制度、制定并严格执行国家在微观经济领域制定的法律法规等措施,正确处理初次分配中效率与公平关系。     

Household Demand, Network Externality Effects and Intertemporal Price Discrimination

This paper examines the optimality of intertemporal price discrimination when network externality effects are present in the consumption of a durable good. We conduct our study in two settings. In a model with two household types, utilities are dependent on the cumulative proportion of households that have purchased the durable good. Next, in a model with a continuum of household types, we extend the analysis to the case where households consume both a durable good and a stream of non-durable goods. We show that in both settings, the presence of network externalities facilitates a sales strategy with intertemporal price discrimination.     

Efficiency First or Equity First? Two Principles and Rationality of Social Choice

This paper formalizes two different principles to socially rank allocations under efficiency-equity trade off. The efficiency-first social preference relation ranks an allocation x higher than an allocation y if and only if (i) x is Pareto-superior to y or (ii) x and y are Pareto-noncomparable and x is equity-superior to y. The equity-first social preference relation reverses the order of application of the two criteria. We show that the efficiency-first relation may have a cycle, whereas the equity-first relation is transitive. We also characterize and compare the sets of maximal elements for these social preference relations in the Edgeworth box and examine the nonemptiness of the sets. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: D71, D63, D61.     

The Mutual Intertemporal Benefits from Depletable Resource Use

For the two-period case, the author offers a graphical proof of the proposition that the dynamically efficient allocation of a depletable, nonrenewable resource allows higher net benefits to users in both time periods than any other allocation. Unlike the pedagogical technique of numerical illustration used heretofore, the result is more general and does not require numerical specification of the model's parameters.     

经济公平与社会公平协调过程中的微观主体伦理道德行为探析

市场经济条件下，经济公平与社会公平是一对难以磨合的矛盾。传统观点认为，在促进经济公平与社会公平协调发展过程中政府必须发挥作用。笔者认为，市场经济中的微观主体(个人和企业)在经济公平与社会公平协调发展中，同样能够发挥作用。微观主体要发挥这样的作用，前提是，一要“君子爱财，取之有道?”；二要有道德责任感。     

演化模式、临界因素与我国公平和效率的关系判定

正确处理公平和效率的关系已成为社会经济发展的重要前提,本文从公平和效率的性质界定入手,提出从历史的角度看,两者之间呈现出一种波浪式演化的对立统一关系,并对决定和制约这一演化规律的临界因素进行了深入分析,在此基础上对我国的公平和效率关系进行了总体界定,认为我国已进入了公平和效率的正相关区间,必须进一步加大公平调节的力度。