A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CLOSED-END FUND DISCOUNTS AND EXPENSES

In this paper the role of expenses in explaining closed-end fund discounts is re-examined. A present value model is developed to illustrate the relationship between expenses and discounts. Earlier studies find that discounts are not related to management fees. In this paper, using a larger sample over a longer and different period and a better specification of the expense variable consistent with the model developed, discounts are found to be significantly related to expenses. The relationship between expenses and discounts holds in the presence of other control variables.     

Quality Competition and Social Welfare in Markets with Partial Coverage: New Results*

We use a vertical product differentiation model under partial market coverage to study the social welfare optimum and duopoly equilibrium when convex costs of quality provision are either fixed or variable in terms of production. We show the following new results. First, under fixed costs, the social planner charges a uniform price for the single variant that just covers costs of quality provision. Like the duopoly equilibrium, this socially optimal pricing entails a partially uncovered market, but a smaller share of the market is served compared with the duopoly equilibrium. Second, for the variable cost case, it is socially optimal to provide both high‐ and low‐quality variants, but market shares need not be equal. This differs from the result in fully covered markets. Third, in the duopoly equilibrium, the quality spread is too wide under variable costs relative to the social optimum. Under fixed costs, the duopoly produces two variants, but quality is too low relative to the social optimum, which has only one variant.     

利比亚危机下中国承包商的应对策略——不可抗力影响下的暂停、终止、索赔与没收保函风险防范

2011年2月,席卷阿拉伯世界的动乱在利比亚数个城市爆发,并迅速演变为政府和反政府力量之间的武装冲突。中国在利比亚至少有27个项目遭到袭击和抢劫。为此,中国政府在利比亚迅速而高效地组织了撤侨行动     

Comparison of Important Laws Governing the Macroeconomies of Taiwan and China

This is a comparative study of the important laws governing the macroeconomies of Taiwan and China. The laws are concerned with consumption, investment and fiscal and monetary policies of the government. Following similar studies on China, the present paper focuses on the case of Taiwan. Using annual data from 1961 to 2014 we find that the consumption function satisfies the permanent income hypothesis of Friedman and the investment function satisfies the accelerations principle as in the case of China. Money supply does not affect GDP but government expenditure has a positive effect on consumption and a negative effect on investment. These results are opposite to those obtained for China. Explanations of the differences are given.     

Asymmetric effects of housing wealth on college enrolment

We investigate the impact of housing wealth, credit availability and financial distress on college enrolment decisions. We find that housing wealth is negatively related to enrolment in public schools and positively related to enrolment in private schools. This evidence suggests that, on average, students substituted away from private schools towards public institutions during the recent financial crisis.