新工具：新兴市场货币

新兴市场货币（以下简称新兴货币）这一概念是最近一轮全球经济增长中衍生出来的,可交易的新兴货币约十来种。除了我们在此讨论的相对流动性较好、交易比较活跃的“金砖四国”的货币,墨西哥比索、南非兰特、土耳奇里拉都是交易较活跃的新兴货币。     

西洋南瓜UGU生产的成本效益分析

本文通过成本效益分析方法对尼日利亚拉各斯市的西洋南瓜UGU生产利润及其影响因素进行了分析。文中通过“滚雪球”式抽样方式选取了60个南瓜瓜农，多数接受调查的瓜农在31～45岁之间，男女性分别为56．7％和43．3％，他们多数（68．3％）没有接受过正规教育。60％的接受调查者其生产成本较低，其成本每月不到1500奈拉。多数接受访问者其收入高于成本。南瓜生产在促进农民脱贫中起到了重要作用。研究表明教育水平、与推广机构的联系以及耕作经验对南瓜生产具有积极作用。因此，应促进瓜农与推广机构的联系以提高瓜农的收入，同时对于那些没有种植经验的瓜农也要给予帮助。     

如何使售后服务产生效益

为产品提供服务已是众多制造公司越来越重要的业务。耐用品制造商——无论是生产电梯、制冷器、安全系统还是交通设备,都发现售后的产品安装、配置和维修收入已经占到总收入的30％或更多,并且此比例还在上升。在某些行业,服务市场的规模已达到产品市场的四至五倍。     

振动应力筛选

本文介绍了振动应力筛选技术,讨论了建立振动应力筛选的益处,应考虑的主要问题以及应牢记的关键因素。     

Fix the process, not the problem

In 1983, a paper company was on the verge of filing Chapter 11 for a subsidiary, a mill acquired two years earlier that was losing more than $1 million a month. One year later, the paper mill was just about breaking even. Today it is a highly profitable operation. What happened? Everyone at the mill became a problem solver. Both managers and mill workers learned to take the initiative not just for identifying problems but also for developing better ways to fix problems and improve products. The key to the mill's success: a multiyear learning process in which employees developed four progressively more sophisticated problem-solving loops: Fix-as-fail-solving problems after they occur. prevention-keeping problems from occurring. Root causes-discovering what is truly causing a problem. Anticipation-solving problems before they occur and finding innovative solutions to customers' problems. Drawing on the paper mill's experience, the authors illustrate the four loops and suggest ways managers can help this organizational learning process move ahead. Paradoxically, a key to becoming a faster, smoother running operation is to start slow and avoid the temptation to jump to root-cause problem solving before you truly understand what your problems are or have freed up the resources to go after them.     

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.     

Implementing clinical IT in critical care: keys to success

Ensuring the success of a clinical information system in critical care requires careful selection of the right system to address the unique needs in this area. In addition, the methodology used for implementation must include key stakeholders, ensure nursing and physician leadership, understand and improve clinical processes, and provide ongoing training and support. These guidelines can be applied to the implementation of any clinical information system. They provide the opportunity to demonstrate value and benefits from CIS in critical care and beyond.     

“嫌贫爱富”抑或“扶危济困”:农户民间放贷选择偏好研究

基于合约、借方和贷方三方面特征设计农户民间放贷离散选择实验,依据陕西、山东两省289户农户实验数据,构建效用相互依赖模型考察农户民间放贷选择偏好的内在机理,采用Mixed Logit模型探究农户选择偏好及其异质性来源。研究结果表明,农户民间放贷选择中经济理性与道义理性偏好并存。其中,经济理性体现为农户偏好向亲戚或信用水平较高的借方放贷,农户手头资金紧张时放贷意愿减弱;道义理性体现为农户偏好向经济情况比自己差、曾与自己有过互动经历且用途为生活性应急需求的借方放贷,农户拒贷有压力时放贷意愿增强。进一步研究发现,农户民间放贷选择偏好存在异质性,表现为受教育程度会强化放贷农户经济理性偏好,家庭收入会强化放贷农户道义理性偏好,风险偏好型放贷农户的道义理性偏好更弱,而山东省放贷农户的经济理性和道义理性偏好均高于陕西省。     

Work and common health problems

This paper reviews the evidence on the relationship between work and health. It concludes that, overall, the beneficial effects of work outweigh the risks of work, and are greater than the harmful effects of long-term worklessness. That contrasts with increasing trends of sickness absence, long-term incapacity and ill-health retirement attributed to common health problems. It suggests that there needs to be a fundamental shift in how we think about common health problems and work--in health care, the workplace and society.