Regímenes de producción y relaciones laborales en el sector chino del automóvil

Las huelgas en el sector del automóvil acaecidas en China en 2010 suscitaron reformas sustanciales de las relaciones laborales en la provincia de Guangdong. A partir de una investigación empírica exhaustiva en empresas líderes de ensamblaje y en sus suministradoras, el autor construye una tipología de los regímenes de producción para analizar los cambios actuales de las relaciones laborales. Este marco ayuda a entender y a conceptualizar la diversidad creciente de regímenes en la industria china automotriz y la segmentación de la fuerza de trabajo a lo largo de la cadena de suministro. Se concluye con un análisis de las perspectivas de reforma ulterior.     

INTEREST RATE CORRIDOR,LIQUIDITY MANAGEMENT,AND THE OVERNIGHT SPREAD

We analyze the determinants of the overnight spread (the spread between the Borsa Istanbul overnight repo interest rate and the average funding rate of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey [CBRT]) using data from both the conventional and the new monetary policy episodes. We empirically document that the overnight spread has recently been influenced by various factors that are directly or closely related to the liquidity policy of the CBRT. (JEL E43, E52, C24)     

What preconceptions and attitudes about engineering are prevalent amongst upper secondary school pupils? An international study

In the Netherlands, as well as in many other countries, there is an increasing interest in implementing education about engineering as a part of general education at the upper secondary school level. In order to know what pupils at that level think about engineering, a study has been done to investigate their attitude towards and their concept of engineering. This study was done not only in the Netherlands but also in 39 other countries. In the preparation of the study, pupils were asked to draw concept maps of what they thought engineering was about. In the quantitative main part of the study, pupils were asked to respond to 33 Likert-type attitude items and 32 concept-items of the same type. A factor analysis was done in order to reveal the dimensions in the pupils’ attitude and concept. In contrast to studies carried out amongst students in lower secondary school levels, a fairly clear concept about engineering was found. The gender differences relating to engineering, found in lower secondary education, were not found in upper secondary education. The prevalent attitude of students towards engineering indicated a fairly positive image of engineering.     

Reversal of Monday returns

This paper elaborates an interesting aspect of the Monday anomaly: Monday returns are relatively more likely to reverse over the subsequent days. We document that, although the Monday low-return anomaly disappeared, the subsequent reversal of Monday returns remains robust to date. The reversals, measured over a five-day horizon, are pervasive across international stock markets, reasonably stable over time, significant following both positive and negative Monday returns, and not confined to extreme Monday returns. Trading strategies designed to exploit these reversals earn economic profits. We examine potential explanations for the reversal of Monday returns using trading flows data of investor types from Korea. All predictions of the Foster and Viswanathan [J. Finance, 1993, 48, 187–211] model are confirmed: volatility is higher, trading volume is lower, market depth is lower and price impact costs are higher on Mondays. The model implies lower price quality on Mondays, but does not specifically predict reversal of Monday returns. We show that the trading intensity of international/institutional investors is lower on Mondays. This appears to make the market relatively more susceptible to individual investors’ trading, which is negatively correlated with international/institutional investors. Thus, Monday returns are relatively more likely to reverse during the subsequent days of the week when institutional investors trade more aggressively.     

What Accounts for the Changes in U.S. Fiscal Policy Transmission?

Using vector autoregressions on U.S. time series for 1957–79 and 1983–2004, we find government spending shocks to have stronger effects on output, consumption, and wages in the earlier period. We try to account for this observation within a DSGE model featuring price rigidities and limited asset market participation. Specifically, we estimate the structural parameters of the model for both periods by matching impulse responses. Model‐based counterfactual experiments suggest that most of the changes in fiscal policy transmission are accounted for by increased asset market participation and the more active monetary policy of the Volcker–Greenspan period.     

Income distribution and exchange in a dynamic search model

This paper studies the link between income distribution and trade mechanisms in a dynamic search model with two-sided asymmetric information. Buyers and sellers have imperfect information about the income levels of the other group. Furthermore, asymmetry of information about incomes is the source of price dispersion. In such a frictional environment, we capture the effects of a change in inter- and intra-class income distribution on the trade mechanism, which is represented by the expected trade volume and the flux of buyers and sellers in the market.     

Knowledge Types in Technology

Starting with the distinction of natural science, engineering science ("technology") and engineering practice ("technics"), the paper will stress the difference between technological and technical knowledge. The first part will discuss the relationship between science and technology, arguing that technology is a genuine type of knowledge rather than "applied science". In technics, however, even technological laws, as transformations of scientific laws, cover a certain part of knowledge only. The greater part of technical knowledge includes technical know-how, functional rules, structural rules, and socio-technological understanding, which is just developing in our times. The classification of knowledge types will be used for determining which kind of knowledge may seem appropriate to general technological education.     

The Effects of Oil Supply and Demand Shocks on U.S. Consumer Sentiment

This paper investigates how the University of Michigan's Index of Consumer Sentiment responds to oil price shocks. While oil supply shocks play only a limited role, the effect of aggregate demand shocks is positive for the first few months and negative thereafter. A typical other oil demand shock has a significant negative impact for up to 2 years. By studying the responses of individual survey questions, we find that expectations of future inflation and a change in real household income as well as perceived vehicle and house buying conditions are the main transmission channels of oil supply and demand shocks.     

基于改进F-N曲线的滑坡可接受风险水平研究

滑坡灾害的可接受风险水平是滑坡领域的重要研究内容之一,它常常用F-N曲线直观地表示风险频率与后果之间的关系,然而这种传统方法的参数由人为确定,主观性强,缺乏理论依据,且同一个参数不能适用多个地区和风险.以滑坡灾害的相关规范为依据,用风险矩阵的方法做衔接,绘制出3种决策态度下的滑坡灾害可接受风险的F-N曲线.相比传统的方法,改进后的F-N曲线避免了以上缺陷,使得滑坡灾害可接受风险水平的确定更加精准,同时该方法也可运用到其他领域的相关规范,来研究其可接受风险水平.