Rates of Return to Schooling in China

This study uses data from a 1988 survey of Chinese individuals to estimate rates of return to schooling in China. The Mincer-type rate of return to schooling was estimated at 4.02 percent in the rural areas and 3.29 percent in the urban areas; these are fairly low estimates compared with similar estimates in other countries. The rate of return to schooling for females was significantly higher than that for males in urban areas. In addition, members of the Communist Party in urban areas had significantly lower returns to schooling compared with non-members.     

Employee involvement in American corporations

At the direction of the U.S. Senate subcommittee on Governmental Affairs, the general Accounting Office (GAO) conducted a survey of employee involvement practices within American companies. The population consisted of top management within Fortune's 500 largest manufacturing and 500 largest service companies. An analysis of the data examined three broad areas relating to employee involvement: (1) the existing organizational programs and processes such as personnel practices, information sharing, and training; (2) the degree of corporate participation in specific employee involvement programs including the reasons for undertaking employee involvement programs, and the perceived barriers to the implementation of employee involvement programs; and (3) the perceived effect of employee involvement on organizational operation as measured by changes in indicators of performance and activities within the internal business environment.     

Mortgage-Backed Futures and Options

This paper empirically tests valuation models for the mortgage-backed futures-options contracts that traded on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) from June of 1989 until March of 1992. A simple contingent-claim model is shown to produce call option values on mortgage-backed futures (MBF) contracts that are unbiased estimates of actual futures-options prices. The ability of the MBF contract to hedge positions in current coupon Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA) securities relative to the effectiveness of cross-hedging GNMA positions with T-note and T-bond futures contracts is also examined.     

Net foreign assets of Dutch commercial banks: A comment

Conclusion The article provides a contribution to the discussion on the net foreign assets of the commerical banks, by drawing renewed attention to the possible passivity of the banking sector, which has gained topicality with the striking developments of 1989. Indeed, the banking sector may be considerably more reactive in regards to net foreign assets formation than has been assumed by various authors and in macroeconometric models on the basis of portfolio optimizing behaviour. However, due to the above-mentioned methodological and empirical shortcomings, Bakkers's study certainly does not provide the final answer to this question.     

专门化、多样化和中国地区工业产业增长的关系

本文通过分析中国29个省（除西藏外）的30个工业产业在1988－1997期间的数据。揭示了工业结构和经济增长之间的关系。本文除研究了传统的生产要素的影响外，重点探讨了产业专门化、专业多样化、竞争度和一省发展的初始水平等因素的作用。结果表明，一个产业外部工业环境的多样性和产业内的竞争度有利于产业的增长，但产业专门影响为负。工业结构对于增长的影响在很大程度上依赖于产业的性质及其地理位置。     

Fertility,Taxation and Family Policy*

Historically, there is clear evidence of an inverse relationship between female labour supply and fertility. However, the relationship across countries is now positive. Countries like Germany and Italy, with the lowest fertility, also have the lowest female participation rates. This paper analyses the extent to which this can be explained by public policy, in particular taxation and the system of child support. The results suggest that countries which have individual rather than joint taxation, and which support families through child care facilities rather than child payments, are likely to have both higher female labour supply and higher fertility.