罕见的怀孕犀牛化石

9月29日,山东山旺国家地质公园古生物化石陈列馆展出一件世界罕见的长2.7米、高1.7米,怀有身孕的无角犀牛化石。这件怀胎待产的犀牛化石是在保护地质遗迹、修建硅藻土页岩剖面时发掘出土的世界上第一件完整而又怀孕的犀牛化石,距今约1800万年。上世纪七八十年代山旺山东鸟、齐鲁泰山鸟等鸟类化石的发现,填补了中新世时期的空白,从而成为国际上中新世生物建阶的重要依据,被称为“世界古生物化石宝库”。2001年末,“山旺国家自然保护区”被批准为国家地质公园后,国家先后投入2000万元对1.2平方公里的山旺国家地质公园核心区域的地质遗迹进行了…     

Produktgarantien und Aktienkrise — Implikationen für die Kapitalanlagepolitik von Lebensversicherungsunternehmen

The present contribution analyzes the implications of two central factors influencing the asset allocation decision of (German) life insurance companies, the development of the equity market on one hand and the interest rate guarantees included in traditional life insurance products on the other. The adverse development of share prices in 2000–2002 implies the necessity to consider not only ?normal“ volatility but also worst case-developments for the purpose of risk control. Formally this is done by using the risk measures value-at-risk and conditional value-at-risk. The specific ?myopic“ nature of interest rate guarantees in German life insurance products, which are granted on a yearly basis implies — beyond the general control of the shortfall risk with respect to the guaranteed interest rates — the necessity to per-form the asset allocation on a yearly basis to be in conformity with the time horizon of the liabilities.On the basis of a quantitative approach corresponding model calculations are performed. Thereby not only a pure market valuation is considered but also institutional peculiarities (hidden reserves, accounting norms) of German life insurance companies. The possibility of a riskless one-year investment, either based on market values or on balance sheet values, is revealed to be crucial for giving interest rate guarantees on a yearly basis.     

Branding and relationships: Customer and supplier perspectives

This paper explores and investigates the role of branding within financial services. Specifically, the study aims to assess the importance of branding and its associated elements including brand image and brand experience in the relationships that exist between consumers and their financial brands. It aims to achieve this through research, which identifies gaps between the managerial and consumer perspectives on branding in relationships in retail financial services. It is well established that the characteristics of services are different from those of manufactured goods and that service personnel play a central role in the services experience. Moreover, the concept of relationship marketing within services proclaims the importance of one-to-one relationships between businesses and customers as well as relationships between consumers and their brands. Drawing from the fields of brand management, relationship marketing and services marketing, this research aims to investigate the perceptional differences between consumers and suppliers in relation to the importance of branding in financial service relationships. The research findings indicate that brand experience appears to be far more salient than brand image in shaping and building meaningful and lasting brand perceptions and promoting customer retention.     

Mature Australian consumers' adoption and consumption of self-service banking technologies

The slow diffusion of self-service banking technologies (SSBTs) into the mature consumer market necessitates research to understand better this growing section of the population and the diversity that exists within this market. This research analyses the 50+ market through a segmentation approach based on the level of use of SSBTs. Three segments were identified: non-users, low users and medium-to-high users of SSBTs; these are profiled by frequency of use and demographic variables. The medium-to-high user segment embraces a range of SSBTs and uses credit cards to facilitate their financial activities. Non-users and some low users prefer the customary way of conducting transactions and enjoy the personal interaction with the bank employee. These two segments do, however, have a moderate level of credit card use. Finally, a small percentage of diffusion discontinuance was identified in this study of the mature consumer market.     

BEA's Regional Economic Accounts Program: Recent and Planned Improvements

This article highlights recent improvements and plans for further improvements to each of BEA’s major regional economic accounts programs. The improvements focus on the acceleration of release of the estimates and on the preparation of new and extended estimates. There also is a brief discussion on BEA’s research effort to improve the regional accounts.JEL Classification E010     

Sudden change in a model of small firm growth

A catastrophe theory model of small firm growth allows for an abrupt change in small firm size. The model permits only smooth changes in the endogenous independent variables, turnover and profitability, yet allows sudden changes in the level of assets, the size variable. But not all growth paths suggested by the mathematics are likely to be met in the real world. Nevertheless, there are feasible phases of steady growth as well as feasible phases during which jumps occur.     

我国内部控制规范建设历程及现实思考

本文从我国内部控制规范建设历程的回顾入手,总结出我国在内部控制规范建设方面的特点,进而结合我国的现实情况提出在借鉴国际先进经验,尽快完善内部控制规范体系的基础上进一步优化内部控制环境,推进内部控制规范的实施的建议。