Price–Cost Margins and Structural Change: Sub-Contracting within the Salmon Marketing Chain

Some recent studies have benefited from advances in time series econometrics in order to evaluate price transmission mechanisms along the marketing chain. Due to the length of time series, structural changes may affect the evaluation of price–cost margins. In the case of the fresh salmon trade between Norway and France, the gross margin between producers and retailers has changed in level between January 1988 and December 1999. This article accurately identifies the date of a structural change using a range of recent ADF testing procedures (Gregory–Hansen tests, forward and backward recursive tests), before looking for the causes of the change through a survey. Two major factors can be identified: the product form and the marketing channel. Interestingly, both the increasing level of processing and the development of supermarket chains have resulted in a new role for the intermediaries, shifting from mere commercial intermediation to sub‐contracting for the big retailers.     

Austrian Economics and Public Choice

The Review of Austrian Economics -     

词汇化探索

词化过程是语言领域的自然过程,是一个类似写作过程的(thinking aloud)过程,而且具有基因特点;词化过程是认知过程中语言的自然过程,其结果是词权的确立。     

Special issue on advanced methods to measure tourism impacts. Editors’ introduction

Portuguese Economic Journal -     

数字普惠金融对高技术制造业创新韧性的影响——基于系统GMM与门槛效应的检验

基于2011—2019年中国内地30个省份面板数据,运用系统GMM和门槛效应模型,检验数字普惠金融对高技术制造业创新韧性的影响以及消费升级和研发投入强度的门槛效应。结果表明,数字普惠金融及其覆盖广度、使用深度和数字化程度均对高技术制造业创新韧性具有显著正向影响;消费升级、研发投入强度分别在数字普惠金融对高技术制造业创新韧性的影响中表现出单一门槛效应和双重门槛效应。进一步的地区异质性研究发现,数字普惠金融仅对中西部地区高技术制造业创新韧性起到提升作用,消费升级在东部和中西部地区分别表现出双重门槛效应与单一门槛效应,研发投入强度在东部和中西部地区均表现出单一门槛效应。研究结果有助于丰富数字普惠金融应用于高技术制造业相关研究,为高技术制造业利用数字普惠金融提升创新韧性提供实践启示。     

Editors’ note

Portuguese Economic Journal -     

A stochastic dominance approach to the measurement of discrimination

This note suggests a bridge between stochastic dominance (Rothschild and Stiglitz, 1970 [17], 1973 [18]), inequality measurement (Atkinson, 1970 [1]) and discrimination measurement (Gastwirth, 1975 [10]). Discrimination orderings are defined and illustrated through discrimination curves, in the same spirit as stochastic dominance analysis. The main result, which links the second order discrimination curve and the Gastwirth discrimination index, also generalizes the equivalence between Generalized Lorenz dominance and second order stochastic dominance.     

Mortality transition and differential incentives for early retirement

Many studies specify human mortality patterns parametrically, with a parameter change affecting mortality rates at different ages simultaneously. Motivated by the stylized fact that a mortality decline affects primarily younger people in the early phase of mortality transition but mainly older people in the later phase, we study how a mortality change at an arbitrary age affects optimal retirement age. Using the Volterra derivative for a functional, we show that mortality reductions at older ages delay retirement unambiguously, but that mortality reductions at younger ages may lead to earlier retirement due to a substantial increase in the individual?s expected lifetime human wealth.     

Assessing the technology contribution to value added

Technology and knowledge are two key components for economic growth; however, the two concepts are not consensually defined. This paper proposes a model to assess and quantify the technology contribution to the value-adding process. The methodological approach implied building an operational concept for technology that is independent of the concepts of knowledge and capital. As such, technology could be interpreted and quantified as an input parameter in a new production model. This model interprets and assesses, separately, the value contributions of the uses of technology, of knowledge and of capital in a production process, defining the Technology Index for that process. The model is applied to manufacturing sectors of seven European countries, quantifying their respective dependences on technology. A comparison of the Technology Index proposed here is made with the OECD's Technology Intensity factor, arguing that the former reflects the technology dependence better that the latter. Accordingly, a criterion for classifying the economic sectors' dependence on technology is proposed. A main contribution from this study is an objective classification criterion for technology dependence of firms and economic sectors. It also provides an easy benchmark procedure for knowledge and capital dependence between firms and sectors.     

基于数值模拟下的中国外汇储备潜在损失分析

外汇储备余额持续积累加剧了外汇储备资产潜在损失的进一步扩大。文章通过对中国外汇储备积累方式的分析,认为造成外汇储备损失的主要路径有三个:冲销债券的利息支付、国际短期资本的投机和人民币对美元汇率升值。在此基础上,文章数值模拟了不同路径下的外汇储备潜在损失,得出以下结论:一是人民币过快升值会加重我国外汇储备损失,应根据我国金融市场的发展状况,逐步改革汇率体系,令人民币更富弹性;二是改变中国外汇储备管理模式,从以往的被动型、防御型模式变成主动型、投资型模式,一方面逐步放松资本账户管制,允许个人和机构海外投资,另一方面加大中国的主权财富基金——中国投资公司的投资力度和规模,通过市场化手段获得更高收益。