认清房地产投资的风险

房地产市场正在变得越来越有吸引力,与股市和债市相比,它具有较小的波动性和可观的收益。在21世纪之初的几年内,房地产已经成为市场上的明星。     

Communities Of Practice, Foucault And Actor-Network Therory

The paper discusses some of the main contributions to the theory of communities of practice (COP theory), especially as it relates to organizational learning. The paper does not attempt a full overview but concentrates on the notion of power relations. Early COP theory was formulated as part of situated learning theory, and promised to work on issues of social context and unequal power relations. Foucault's work and actor-network theory (ANT) is introduced and forms the basis of a constructive critique of COP theory. The paper argues that COP theory and ANT can enrich each other and together make a stronger contribution to our understanding of organizational learning. Specifically, these perspectives question the value in viewing organizations as formal, canonical entities as far as learning and change are concerned.     

Least squares, preliminary test and Stein-type estimation in general vector AR(p) models

In the general vector autoregressive process AR ( p ), multivariate least square estimation (LSE)/maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) of a subset of the parameters is considered when the complementary subset is suspected to be redundant. This may be viewed as a special case of linear constraints of autoregressive parameters. We incorporate this nonsample information in the estimation process and propose preliminary test and Stein-type estimators for the target subset of parameters. Under local alternatives their asymptotic properties are investigated and compared with those of unrestricted and restricted LSE. The dominance picture of the estimators is presented.     

The coming of age of major giving

The beginning of the 21st century may well usher in a golden age of major gifts. Not only are those donors born at the beginning of the twentieth century distributing their wealth, but ‘Baby boomers’ and ‘Generation X’ are accumulating significant assets at much younger ages. Each generation appears able and willing to make larger donations to charities. By rethinking major gifts strategy charities can benefit from the increasing wealth and affluence.Copyright © 2000 Henry Stewart Publications.     

Competition for goods in buyer-seller networks

Abstract. This paper studies competition in a network and how a network structure determines agents' individual payoffs. It constructs a general model of competition that can serve as a reduced form for specific models. The paper shows how agents' outside options, and hence their shares of surplus, derive from “opportunity paths” connecting them to direct and indirect alternative exchanges. Analyzing these paths, results show how third parties' links affect different agents' bargaining power. Even distant links may have large effects on agents' earnings. These payoff results, and the identification of the paths themselves, should prove useful to further analysis of network structure.