Public spending, voracity, and Wagner's law in developing countries

An examination of the short- and long-term relation between government spending and output in 51 developing countries reveals evidence consistent with cyclical ratcheting and voracity reflected in a tendency for government spending to increase over time. The main components of government spending are procyclical in some 40% of countries. Output and government spending are cointegrated for at least one of the spending aggregates in 70% of countries, implying a long-term relationship between government spending and output consistent with Wagner's law. In contrast, prior studies have found only weak support for Wagner's law for developing countries, although somewhat stronger support for industrial countries.     

Japan's Negative Risk Premium in Interest Rates: The Liquidity Trap and the Fall in Bank Lending

Japan's interest rates have been compressed toward zero because of pressure coming through the foreign exchanges. Twenty years of current‐account surpluses have led to a huge buildup of claims – mainly dollars – on foreigners. Because of ongoing fluctuations in the yen/dollar exchange rate, Japanese financial institutions will only willingly hold these dollar claims if the nominal yield on them is substantially higher than on yen assets. In the 1990s to 2002 as US interest rates have come down, portfolio equilibrium has been sustained only when nominal interest rates on yen assets have been forced toward zero. One consequence is the now infamous liquidity trap for Japanese monetary policy. A second consequence is the erosion of the normal profit margins of Japan's commercial banks, leading to a slump in new bank credit and an inability to grow out of the overhang of old bad loans.     

医保改革面临挑战

当前,许多国家仍存在医疗服务可得性差、医疗成本高昂、公共卫生支出效率低下等问题,医保改革面临重大挑战。医保改革目标存在两难—既要改善人们的健康状况,又要控制支出成本,因而提高公共卫生支出效率是改善社会健康状况的最优选择。各国政府的干预形式和公共卫生支出水平因国别、时间等的不同而变化。财政状况较好的新兴经济体需在保证财政可持续的前提下扩大基本医保覆盖面;发达经济体则应注重提升公共卫生支出的效率并限制支出增长速度。     

Scheduling a capacitated single machine with time deteriorating job values

We address the scheduling problem with the following characteristics: (i) there is a single machine available, (ii) the machine has limited capacity, and (iii) job value deteriorates with time. The problem is motivated from several real world situations, such as, downloading process of web pages, and scheduling of multiplexes. Since the problem is NP-hard, we propose new heuristics based on a multiplicative piece-wise metric as an approximation of the slope of job value deterioration. Computational results show that the proposed heuristics perform better than other existing heuristics for similar types of problems.     

Fruit and Vegetable Consumers’ Behavior: Implications for Organized Retailers in Emerging Markets

The authors attempt to understand selected behaviors of fruit and vegetable consumers of mid-sized cities of a developing economy, which are important for any retailer to appreciate. The study was carried out in two mid-sized cities of the Orissa state of India with 100 respondents by using the specially developed questionnaire. Statistical tools were used to analyze the data. The study revealed that vegetables are consumed in greater quantity and purchased more frequently than fruits. Consumers attached more importance to credence attributes than to search and experience attributes while making their purchase decisions. Family income and consumers’ education were found to have significant influence on the consumers’ willingness to pay for graded and packaged products. Organized retailers can take cues from the findings of the study to decide about location, nature and quality of assortment, and their marketing strategies.