Environmental Taxation and Vertical Cournot Oligopolies: How Eco-industries Matter

This article specifies what an optimal pollution tax should be when dealing with a vertical Cournot oligopoly. Polluting firms sell final goods to consumers and outsource their abatement activities to an environment industry. It is assumed that both markets are imperfectly competitive. Thus, the tax is a single instrument used to regulate three sorts of distortions, one negative externality and two restrictions in production. Consequently, the optimal tax rate is the result of a trade-off that depends on the firms’ market power along the vertical structure. A detailed analysis of Cournot-Nash equilibria in both markets is also performed. In this context, the efficiency of abatement activities plays a key-role. It gives a new understanding to the necessary conditions for the emergence of an eco-industrial sector.      

Competition Policy: What are the Costs and Benefits of Measuring its Costs and Benefits?

Summary  Competition authorities are increasingly measuring the effects of their enforcement actions, seeking a robust justification for the proliferation of competition policy. We highlight the importance of identifying the right counterfactual against which to measure effects, and set out the relevant categories of costs and benefits. We then explore how a balance can be struck between the benefits and inherent limitations of these measurement exercises. Relatively crude analyses of cartel action benefits can be sufficient to achieve public legitimacy for competition policy. Assessing the effects of merger and conduct inquiries is often ambiguous, but could be used to improve decision-making processes. Director and Managing Consultant, respectively, at Oxera, Oxford and London. The valuable comments of Fod Barnes, Kerry Hughes and an anonymous referee are gratefully acknowledged. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors alone.     

Determinants of Current Account Imbalances in 16 OECD Countries: An Out-Of-Sample Perspective

We employ panel data as well as country-specific models to uncover empirically the determinants of current account imbalances. We find evidence of slope heterogeneity likely rendering the fixed-effect estimator inconsistent. Mean group estimation is followed to overcome the latter difficulty. Both estimation techniques are evaluated by means of in- and out-of-sample criteria. The mean group estimator outperforms the fixed-effect approach and, moreover, only three economic variables are found to impact on the current account balance significantly. These are the government budget balance, the domestic output gap and the changes of the terms of trade. We finally propose a parsimonious dynamic model of the current account, including only these variables and illustrate that it has similar predictive accuracy as country-specific benchmark models. JEL no. F32, C23, C53     

RSS技术的应用和发展趋势探讨

RSS是以XML为基础,用于为内容整合客户端提供选择性的、汇总过的Web内容的技术规范。由于RSS具有简单、规范、通用、容易自动生成等特点,因此越来越多的网站也采用这种方式来发布最新信息。本论文先阐述RSS及其相关技术,接着提出RSS阅读器的一个具体实现,最后对RSS的发展趋势进行深一步的探讨。     

Tourism as an alternative source of regional growth in Portugal: a panel data analysis at NUTS II and III levels

The role of tourism is of vital economic importance, particularly for small countries with a privileged geographical location and favourable weather conditions. This paper examines the importance of tourism as a conditioning factor for higher regional growth in Portugal by employing the conditional convergence hypothesis of Barro and Sala-i-Martin, associated with the endogenous growth theory. The panel data estimation approach provides evidence of the positive impact of tourism (through the accommodation capacity) on the growth in per-capita income among the Portuguese regions, increasing the rate of convergence. Therefore, tourism can be considered as an alternative source for stimulating higher regional growth in Portugal, if the supply characteristics of this sector are improved.     

基于Panel—Data模型的山东省区域旅游问题研究

旅游业已被公认为“朝阳产业”、“无烟工业”，是集吃、住、行、游、购、娱为一体的综合性很强的产业，其光明的发展前景已为世人所公认。旅游业对其相关产业的牵动比例为1：4，可以充分带动地方经济的发展，发展潜力很大。本文运用了山东省17地市的国内旅游情况的合成数据，通过建立完整的计量模型，进行计量分析，进而发现各地市每增加一万人次的旅游者，对该地区的旅游经济的影响存在一定的差异，并且对于差异进行聚类分析，得出全省各地市的不同属类，为山东省日后旅游市场的更好发展提出了一些相应的建议。     

A market model of analysts’ opinions to explain changes in the dispersion of opinions

The demand for and supply of analysts’ opinions in this model yield an equilibrium that demonstrates how the information content of the opinions reacts to changes in exogenous parameters. The model also shows how changes in the parameters make analysts’ opinions more or less dispersed; for example, a decline in investor risk aversion, a decrease in market volatility, and an increase in information costs can lead to analysts’ opinions becoming more similar. Recognizing how exogenous factors can affect the supply and demand of analysts’ opinions gives additional insights into questions concerning what may appear to be herd behavior by analysts and also the relationship between forecast dispersion and information content. (JEL: G29, C71)     

国库现金对货币供给政策的影响机制及证据:基于中国中央银行经理国库制度背景的研究

随着近年来国库现金的迅速增加,万亿国库现金波动对中央银行货币供给政策的影响日益突出。本文在中国中央银行经理国库的制度背景下,通过构建国库现金与货币供给的理论分析框架所做的研究表明,国库现金与基础货币、货币供应量都存在稳定的反向关系,国库现金的增减将导致基础货币和货币供应量的收缩和扩张。本文进一步以中国2000~2006年月度时间序列数据进行的经验分析显示,国库现金与各层次货币供应量之间存在长期的协整关系,国库现金是引起货币供应量变化的Granger因,国库现金的正向冲击导致货币供应量产生显著的负向反应,货币供应量由于国库现金增减而产生收缩和扩张效应。基于研究结论,本文根据当前中国具体情况提出了若干政策建议。