Seller Financing of Consumer Durables

Sellers of consumer durables often provide financing to customers. This paper shows that when customers desire consumption smoothing and when financial markets are imperfect, a seller can find it optimal to offer a menu of deferred-payment plans. A monopolist seller price discriminates among customers with different intertemporal income profiles by making such menu offers, and the interest rate on the seller credit can be significantly lower than the market borrowing rate. Seller financing can be an equilibrium outcome in a game where sellers and banks with market power choose payment plans and interest rates strategically.     

Product Market Imperfection and the Two‐sector Harris–Todaro Economy

This paper examines the ramifications of market imperfection for a dual economy in the context of the two‐sector Harris–Todaro model with the agricultural (manufacturing) sector under perfect competition (monopoly). Based on a utility function of constant elasticity of substitution variety, it demonstrates (i) existence of a unique equilibrium at which the consumer price ratio and the producer price ratio are synchronized; (ii) several fundamental properties of the model (crucial to extended research on this subject area); (iii) contrary to an earlier result obtained under an oligopolistic manufacturing sector, trade liberalization for a small economy may be immiserizing.     

The Impact of Enterprise Size on Employment Tribunal Incidence and Outcomes: Evidence from Britain

Employment Tribunals are the formal means of adjudicating disputes over individual employment rights in the UK. This article hypothesizes that, because small firms favour informality over formality, they are more likely (i) to experience employee claims than large firms; (ii) to be subject to different types of claims; (iii) to settle prior to reaching a formal Tribunal; and (iv) to lose at a Tribunal. Data from the 2003 Survey of Employment Tribunal Applications are used to examine these hypotheses. They are generally supported, although in relation to the third there was no size effect. Furthermore, our results show that firms that have procedures and follow them are more likely to win than those firms that do not have any procedures. Recognizing the benefits of informality, while also ensuring that small firms follow proper standards of procedural fairness, is a policy dilemma that has yet to be resolved.     

建设项目可持续性后评价指标体系研究

建设项目可持续性后评价是可持续发展理论在项目评价领域中的具体应用,是建设项目后评价体系中的重要组成部分,同时也是建设项目后评价体系中较新的内容。结合建设项目可持续性的特征及后评价的理论,构建了建设项目可持续性后评价的指标体系。     

Another direct proof of the Gibbard–Satterthwaite Theorem

This paper provides a new and direct proof of the Gibbard–Satterthwaite Theorem based on induction on the number of individuals.     

反身性理论对物流企业安全管理的启示

运用社会理论-反身性理论来构建动态的安全反身性思考模式.基于该模式,从行为活动的特性和风险感知能力两方面分析了可能诱发安全生产风险的主要影响因素,并指出了安全反身性思考在物流企业安全管理实践中存在的局限性,以及对当前物流企业安全文化建设过程中的作用机制,为现代物流企业安全管理提供了一个新的理念视角.     

Teen families,welfare transfers,and the minimum wage: evidence from Canada

Abstract This study evaluates the impacts of welfare transfers and the minimum wage on teen family formation by pooling provincial data from Canada between 1990 and 2005. OLS estimates suggest that welfare transfers have had limited impact on teen births. On the other hand, a 10% increase in the minimum wage is significantly correlated with a 3%–5% rise in teen birth rates. This finding is explained by further regressions, which reveal that an increase in the minimum wage is significantly associated with (1) higher earnings among male teens, (2) an increase in teen marriage rates, and (3) an increase in fertility among married teens but not among unmarried females. Finally, estimates based on the 2003 and 2005 waves of the Canadian Community Health Surveys demonstrate that married teens are more likely to engage in sex as well as unprotected intercourse in comparison with single teens.     

Patent Statistics as an Innovation Indicator? Evidence from the Hard Disk Drive Industry

We assess the usefulness of patent statistics as an indicator of innovation, using a direct measure of innovation in the hard disk industry (1976–1998). Three findings emerge: (i) patents “predict” innovations better than a random guess, and a simple refinement makes them more useful; (ii) conditional on actually innovating, conglomerates and larger firms patent more than specialised startups and smaller firms; and (iii) patent reforms seem to make the patent–innovation relationship nonstationary. These results suggest that researchers should use caution when comparing patents of different types of firms and across years.     

普通高中学分制改革:问题与对策

普通高中学分制改革与现行高考制度、教育资源、教师的课程素养之间存在的矛盾,是普通高中学分制改革面临的主要问题。合理划分教育行政管理部门和高等院校在高考制度中的权与责,追加专项教育经费投入,统整现有教育资源,实现教育资源校际共享,加强普通高中教师培训,是解决这些问题的有效办法。     

中国超市业市场结构分析

在我国超市业迅速发展的背后,内资超市发展的不足和缺陷也逐渐显露出来,超市企业之间的竞争手段也有趋同现象,导致企业毛利下降.本文从我国超市业的市场结构入手,旨在对我国超市业的发展方向和趋势做一些探讨.