Demand for broad money and expenditure components in Japan: an empirical study

The main objective of the present study is to examine empirically the long-run relation of broad money demand and its determinants in Japan. In contrast with previous study, the present study considers various components of final expenditure demand as determinants that are final consumption goods, expenditure on investment goods and exports. Using quarterly data over the period 1973Q1–2000Q2, the results of the bounds test [J. Appl. Econ. 16 (2001) 289] indicate a stable long-run relationship between demand of real M2 and its determinants. The empirical results also highlight that different domestic demand components yields different effects on Japanese broad money demand behavior. The estimated unrestricted error-correction model appears to track the data well and the results have important policy implications.     

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     

滨海新区:环渤海区域经济发展的增长极

一、环渤海地区经济发展的现状与趋势 环渤海地区包括辽宁、河北、北京、天津、山东五省市,面积52.9万平方公里,占全国5.4%,人口2.27亿人,占全国17.5%,处于日渐活跃的东北亚经济圈的中心地带;自然条件优越,资源丰富,工业密集,产业现代化层次较高,工业基础雄厚,人力资源丰富,高新技术优势明显,具有较强的竞争能力和巨大的发展潜力.     

融资优序与行业管制——兼析中国上市公司“异常融资优序”现象

企业融资先通过内部资金进行,然后再通过银行借款或发行低风险的债券,最后才采用股票,这种融资的“先后顺序”是企业出于降低融资成本和防止剩余利润被分享所做出的理性选择,这就是融资优序理论。本文认为,寡头竞争所形成的行业进入壁垒为优序融资的实现提供了必须的市场环境,其资金使用方式能够优化资源配置,提高资金的使用效率。融资优序理论在发达市场经济国家得到了实践的验证,但在我国上市公司中却存在“异常融资优序”(Abnormal pccking Order)现象,即外部资金优于内部资金,外部资金中股权融资优于债权融资。其原因在于,中国市场经济不太完善,缺乏通过寡头竞争自发形成的行业进入壁垒。本文认为只有采取行业管制手段,设置一定的行业进入壁垒,才能实现优序融资,从而达到优化资源配置的目的。     

On the smoothness of optimal paths II: some local turnpike results

We study the local turnpike property for two classes of infinite-horizon discrete-time deterministic maximization problems which have common applications, e.g., optimal growth theory. We follow a functional-analytic approach and rely on an implicit function theorem for the space of the sequences which converge to zero. We shall assume the existence of an optimal path which is not necessarily a steady-state. Relying on material developped in Blot and Crettez (Decis Econo Finance 27:1–34, 2004), “On the smoothness of optimal paths” Decis Econ Finance, 21:1–34, 2004), we provide conditions under which a variation in the initial conditions (i.e., capital stock and discount rate) yields an optimal solution which converges toward a reference solution when time becomes infinite. We also provide new results on bounded solutions of difference equations. We gratefully thank the editor, Silvano Holzer, and two anonymous referees for remarks and advices on a previous version of this paper.     

Progressive stress accelerated life tests under finite mixture models

In this paper, progressive stress accelerated life tests are considered when the lifetime of a product under use condition follows a finite mixture of distributions. The experiment is performed when each of the components in the mixture follows a general class of distributions which includes, among others, the Weibull, compound Weibull, power function, Gompertz and compound Gompertz distributions. It is assumed that the scale parameter of each component satisfies the inverse power low, the progressive stress is directly proportional to time and the cumulative exposure model for the effect of changing stress holds. Based on type-I censoring, the maximum likelihood estimates (MLEs) of the parameters under consideration are obtained. A special attention is paid to a mixture of two Rayleigh components. Simulation results are carried out to study the precision of the MLEs and to obtain confidence intervals for the parameters involved.     

The Impact of Survey Methodology and Context on Central Tendency,Nonresponse and Associations of Subjective Indicators of Government Performance

A comparison is given of (ordinal) measures of trust in government institutions that were collected with the aim of facilitating comparisons between different modes and contexts of data collection. Statistical analyses reveal that the mode effect could amount upto a 10% change of item nonresponse and a 9% change of the level of trust, whereas the context effect could lead upto a 19% change of the bivariate associations of trust. The observed changes of both measures of central tendency and of associations affect conclusions of social scientific research in isolated studies, which implies that comparative studies are seriously hampered by bias related to mode and context, two sources of obscurity adding to the two other threats which are differences of sample source and differences of question phrasing.     

Bedeutungswandel der Internen Revision in der internationalen Literatur: Corporate Governance,Risikomanagement und Bilanzskandale

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