Urban development patterns in Indonesia

The author examines recent urban development in Indonesia. "Analysis of urban developments in Indonesia has been hampered in the past by weak data. Recently, the National Urban Development Strategy (NUDS) project has generated a set of improved data. This paper aims at elaborating and supplementing the NUDS study. After a discussion of definitional problems, an analysis is carried out of urban growth rates at the provincial level. Private investment is shown to be a principal determinant of urban growth rates. Other significant determinants are rural immigration and the present level of urbanisation. Private investment is shown to be strongly biased towards provinces with large urban areas. In addition, polarisation is studied at the level of individual cities. It is found that a period of rapidly increasing polarisation has come to an end during the last decade."     

农村工业:印度农村发展战略的组成部分

印度政府为了解决日益增多的农村劳动力的就业问题,现正大力促进其农村工业的发展。农村工业亦称农村基础工业,小型农村工业,农业工业,乡村工业,村舍工业和分散工业等等。名称虽不一,但实际都是指所需信贷不超过2.5万卢比的企业。它雇用手工业工人,利用当地可以得到的自然资源和工匠的技能,在乡村和小城镇中从事制造、加工、保养、维修等小规模工业活动。虽然农村工业仅包括各种各样的初级加工业(如农产品加工业、采矿业等)。     

Giving mergers a head start

Mergers with substantial business overlap face a barrier to speedy integration: Antitrust regulations limit the information companies can share before a deal closes. But as Dow Chemical and Union Carbide found, premerger planning by "clean teams" of former employees can help merging companies hit the ground running.     

Making a successful transition to cash balance. Using employee choice and financial education

As employee work patterns change, the need for flexible plan design has increased. Hybrid plans such as cash balance plans offer a plan design variation that incorporates elements of the traditional defined benefit plan as well as those of defined contribution plans. This article examines plan design trends and discusses both negative and positive reactions to those trends. Finally, the solution of offering choice to plan participants is suggested, and the issues that must be considered are discussed.     

浅议我国移动支付产业发展路径选择

随互联网的普及和移动商务的速发展,移动支付作为一种兴支付方式,具有传统的现金支付无可比拟的方便、快捷、安全等优势,越来越受到广大用户的青睐.目前,由于3G网络发展及整体支付环境的改善,移动支付在国内正处于大发展前夜,2亿的支付宝用户和7亿的手机用户都是移动支付的潜在用户,而且移动支付在未来2年将迎来爆发式增长,2012年交易规模可能将超过1000亿元.     

STOCK MARKET CRASH AND EXPECTATIONS OF AMERICAN HOUSEHOLDS

This paper utilizes data on subjective probabilities to study the impact of the stock market crash of 2008 on households' expectations about the returns on the stock market index. We use data from the Health and Retirement Study that was fielded in February 2008 through February 2009. The effect of the crash is identified from the date of the interview, which is shown to be exogenous to previous stock market expectations. We estimate the effect of the crash on the population average of expected returns, the population average of the uncertainty about returns (subjective standard deviation), and the cross-sectional heterogeneity in expected returns (disagreement). We show estimates from simple reduced-form regressions on probability answers as well as from a more structural model that focuses on the parameters of interest and separates survey noise from relevant heterogeneity. We find a temporary increase in the population average of expectations and uncertainty right after the crash. The effect on cross-sectional heterogeneity is more significant and longer lasting, which implies substantial long-term increase in disagreement. The increase in disagreement is larger among the stockholders, the more informed, and those with higher cognitive capacity, and disagreement co-moves with trading volume and volatility in the market.