Information Consumption and Asset Pricing

We study whether firm and macroeconomic announcements that convey systematic information generate a return premium for firms that experience information spillovers. We use information consumption to proxy for investor learning during these announcements and construct ex ante measures of expected information consumption (EIC) to calibrate whether learning is priced. On days when there are information spillovers, affected stocks earn a significant return premium (5% annualized) and the capital asset pricing model performs better. The positive effect of the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee announcements on the risk premia of individual stocks appears to be modulated by EIC. Our findings are most consistent with a risk‐based explanation.     

Political Polarization Affects Households' Financial Decisions: Evidence from Home Sales

Political identity and partisanship are salient features of today's society. Using deeds records and voter rolls, we show that current residents are more likely to sell their homes when opposite-party neighbors move in nearby than when unaffiliated or same-party neighbors do. This is especially true when the new neighbors are politically active, consistent with an animosity between parties mechanism. We conclude that affective polarization is not limited to purely political settings and affects one of the household's most important financial decisions, their home transactions.     

学生专业社团在高职示范建设中的建设与发展

近年来,结合专业出现的学生专业社团成为新的社团类型,在高职示范建设的过程中,如何用示范建设标准正确引导学生专业社团的建设与发展,对于丰富学生校园文化生活,更好地培育高素质、高技能应用型人才,具有十分重要的意义。本文从分析高职院校示范建设中注重专业型学生社团建设的意义入手,指出了学生专业社团在示范建设中的功能定位,探讨学生专业社团建设的基本思路,为开展学生专业社团活动提供对策。     

Distributional Impact of Government Outlays on the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme in 2001–02

In recent years outlays on the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme have increased rapidly, prompting both attempts by government to reduce growth in outlays and renewed interest in the characteristics of the beneficiaries of the Scheme. This article uses a microsimulation model to analyse the distributional impact of Australian Government outlays on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, by such characteristics as family income, family type, age, sex and lifecycle group. We find that there are pronounced distributional effects by such characteristics as income, age and sex, with both older and poorer Australians receiving far greater PBS benefits than younger and more affluent Australians.     

RESIDENTIAL PHOTOVOLTAIC ENERGY SYSTEMS IN CALIFORNIA: THE EFFECT ON HOME SALES PRICES

Relatively little research exists estimating the marginal impacts of photovoltaic (PV) energy systems on home sale prices. Using a large data set of California homes that sold from 2000 through mid‐2009, we find strong evidence, despite a variety of robustness checks, that existing homes with PV systems sold for a premium over comparable homes without PV systems, implying a near full return on investment. Premiums for new homes are found to be considerably lower than those for existing homes, implying, potentially, a trade‐off between price and sales velocity. The results have significant implications for homeowners, builders, appraisers, lenders, and policymakers. (JEL R31, D12, C33)     

The Development of Aquaculture in Central Thailand: Domestic Demand versus Export-Led Production

Expansion of aquaculture in Central Thailand since the 1970s is intimately linked to growth in other sectors of the local and national economy, and to participation in global trade. Thailand's agro-industrialization has led to the diversification of agriculture in the Central Region and the co-development of aquaculture. Production of domestic aqua-products is largely positive for consumers, farmers and the environment. By contrast, intensive production of shrimp for export has been characterized by periods of boom and bust resulting from disease outbreaks and international competition. At the farm level this has translated into surges of profit followed by overcapitalization, debt and environmental degradation.     

Debating the Politics of Land Occupations

This essay reviews a provocative but flawed volume of case studies of land occupations in Africa, Asia and Latin America and critically examines the arguments advanced by Moyo and Yeros in their introduction and co-authored chapter on Zimbabwe. The editors' core proposition is that the agrarian and national questions are linked in the periphery of capitalism because industrial transformation is incomplete, 'disarticulated' forms of accumulation predominate and dependent states are unable to exercise true sovereignty. The chief agent of struggles for agrarian reform, and the social base of rural social movements that occupy land as a key tactic, is identified as 'the semiproletariat'. The political characteristics of these movements are discussed in the introduction, three continent-wide overviews and several case studies. Most chapters tend not to support the editors' arguments, and sometimes contradict them. These arguments are in any case reductionist and over-schematic. The categories 'semi-proletariat' and 'peasantry' are often elided, and differences of conditions and trajectories are seldom acknowledged. A tendency to economism vitiates discussion of the politics of land. These problems are also in evidence in the chapter on Zimbabwe.     

激光星间通信中不同光学终端的研究

光学终端在激光星间通信中扮演着重要的角色.研究了单个光学望远镜及光学望远镜阵用作激光星间通信中的光学终端时的系统性能,从电磁辐射入手,分析比较了单个光学望远镜及光学望远镜阵的增益及光学接收终端的方向图与相关参数的关系.仿真不仅论证了激光星间通信需要极精确的指向角度,而且得出结论:使用光学望远镜阵作为激光星间通信系统的光学终端具有更大的优势.