Lagrangean conditions for consumers with nonrepresentable preferences

A Lagrangian characterization of the solutions of the consumer problem is provided when preferences are not representable by a continuous utility function.     

Public-Choice Analysis of a New International Organization: The International Sea-Bed Authority

The usefulness of the public-choice approach for a better understanding of international organizations can be demonstrated by applying it to the analysis of the structure and functions of a new international organization, the International Sea-Bed Authority, established in 1994, after two decades of negotiations under the auspices of the United Nations, with the aim to control the oceans' mineral resources beyond the limits of national jurisdictions (which have been proclaimed by the U.N. Assembly common heritage of mankind). First, the reasons for establishing this organization, whose basis is the common heritage of mankind nature of ocean resources, are examined under two aspects: 1) definition and protection of property rights; 2) environmental control of sea-bed mining activities. Secondly, the organization's decisionmaking system is presented, including such features as the assembly, council with chamber voting, finance committee with decision by consensus, features that balance the voting power of members and protect those countries that bear the financial responsibility for the budget. Finally, some comments are offered about more general aspects of the theory of international organizations: the bureaucracy (and diplomacy) of these organizations as well as the interdependence among international organizations, which opens the way to forms of international logrolling and makes it advisable for countries not to exit from these organizations, even when they have no primary interest in them.     

Incidence,effects, dynamics and routes out of overqualification in Europe: a comprehensive analysis distinguishing by employment status

This study aims to improve our understanding of overqualification by incorporating distinctions in employment status (i.e. self-employed workers, private employees and public employees) in the analysis of the incidence, effects, dynamics and routes out of overqualification. To this end, we apply discrete choice – ordered and nonordered – and count models to the data obtained from the European Community Household Panel for the EU-15. Our results indicate that the incidence of overqualification varies by employment status, where self-employed workers report the lowest occurrence. Furthermore, this analysis suggests that overqualification is a permanent phenomenon and demonstrates that successful pathways out of overqualification differ by employment status. The implications of these results for education and labour market policies are also discussed.     

中国企业对外投资风险管理研究

中国企业对外投资发展迅速,但是面临着体制性的风险和商业性的风险,因此在体制方面需要理顺中国对外投资管理体制,调整中国对外直接投资管理体系,降低体制性风险。企业需要建立对外投资风险管理体系、制定风险防范和管理策略,在此过程中充分发挥政府、行业协会等外部机构的作用。     

行为金融学理论综述

证券市场上的种种异象使得人们对主流金融学产生了质疑，行为金融学应运而生。投资者心理和套利限制构成了行为金融学的两大支柱。行为金融学所提出的观点更加切合现实，而且对很多异象都做出了合理的解释。另外行为金融学还建立了自己的模型——行为组合模型与行为资产定价模型，从而成为挑战主流金融学的最大力量。     

用马斯洛需求层次理论对“炫耀经济”的分析

一、“炫耀经济”的由来。自从凡勃伦在1899年出版了《有闲阶级论》以来，“炫耀消费”逐渐引起了社会的注意，“炫耀消费理论”从而也慢慢发展起来，而如今为满足“炫耀”这一心理需求而进行的生产、服务等各种经济活动越来越多，于是“炫耀经济”就这样形成了。凡勃伦认为，用有意脱离生产活动来表现自己拥有财富和权力的有闲阶级的消费就是炫耀消费。他把炫耀消费定义为这样一种类型的社会行为，即通过消费让他人明了消费者的金钱力量、     

Does IMF Support Accelerate Inflation Stabilization?

This paper analyzes the effects of International Monetary Fund (IMF) arrangements on the timing of inflation stabilization programs. By providing financial support that may allow the reduction of inflation without incurring politically unacceptable economic costs, the IMF can hasten stabilization. But, since support can also reduce the costs of inflation, it may instead delay it. Empirical results obtained for 10 countries that suffered from chronic inflation fail to support the hypothesis that IMF financial assistance accelerates stabilization. Rather, they indicate that other factors have a greater impact on the timing of stabilizations: greater fragmentation of the political system delays stabilization, while a higher level of inflation hastens it. JEL Classification Numbers: E63, E31, F35     

Income Inequality and Health: Do the Equivalence Scales Matter?

The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between income inequality and health in the European Union countries using new data from the European Community Household Panel (ECHP). The heterogeneity of the households has been approached using different equivalence scales. A variety of different model specifications were tried using different dependent variables such as life expectancy at birth and child mortality. The results give support to the influence of income inequality on health indicators using aggregate data and panel techniques, and show the sensitivity of the Gini index to the equivalence scale considered.     

Modeling Cyclical Asymmetries in GDP: International Evidence

This paper models asymmetric behavior in GDP growth in the USA, Germany, France, and Japan. It develops smooth transition autoregressive models and interprets nonlinear dynamics in terms of cyclical asymmetries. A procedure for defining data-based, qualitative cyclical regimes from the estimated models is proposed, and generalized impulse response functions are computed to assess to what extent the response to a shock changes over different phases of the cycle.