International trade in a differentiated good: Trade elasticities in the world rice market

In many previous rice trade models, the commodity has been regarded as a homogeneous product. However, homogeneity is not an appropriate assumption, given the various types of rice that are traded and consumed. Parameters estimated from these models, therefore, do not reflect the real world market for rice and, hence, may mislead decision makers who use the results for policy evaluation purposes. This study uses an Armington approach to model the world rice trade as a differential good market and to derive trade elasticity parameters.     

鹿溪河漂流

“岸芷汀兰,郁郁青青……”．当我乘橡皮艇漂流在成都近郊鹿溪河上的时候,范仲淹的此句名言便一再地从我的脑海中欢快地蹦跳出来。此时正是初夏的五月．明丽的阳光透过两岸浓郁的林木,哗啦啦地照射在或急或缓的河流上,这条成都境内的岷江二级支流所凸现的波光粼粼,美仑美奂,着实让人心醉:散发着亲切泥土气息的河水涌动两岸倒     

发展中国远期外汇品种的优先次序

中国人民银行宣布自2005年7月21日起中国开始实行以市场供求为基础、参考一篮子货币进行调节、有管理的浮动汇率制度。这是中国在汇率形成机制市场化改革进程中迈出的重要的关键一步,这表明人民币汇率的变动将更加灵活、具有弹性。此后不久,央行在8月10日推出促进银行间外汇市场发展的重大举措,其中包括扩大即期外汇市场交易主体、允许开办银行间远期外汇交易、并允许符合资格的市场会员开展人民币掉期交易等。这意味着,在新的汇率制度下,政府正加快发展完善远期外汇市场的步伐,从而为市场主体提供更充分、有效的避险工具,避免汇率变动对实…     

新巴塞尔协议与我国的银行风险管理

新巴塞尔协议代表了国际银行业风险管理的发展方向,已经成为世界银行业风险管理的国际准则。文章分析了巴塞尔协议的制度变迁,结合新巴塞尔协议的基本框架,分析了新巴塞尔协议对我国的影响,提出了新巴塞尔协议下我国银行风险管理的制度选择原则。     

The Role of Holding Company Financial Information in the Insurer-Rating Process: Evidence From the Property-Liability Industry

We examine data for the year ended December 31, 1997 for 80 publicly traded property‐liability insurers that have Best financial strength ratings of their consolidated insurance‐operating subsidiaries. These firms employ a holding company structure, in which a parent owns the stock of multiple insurance‐operating subsidiaries. The operating subsidiaries prepare a consolidated annual report using the Statutory Accounting Principles (SAP), and an analogous set of financial statements based on the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) is released by the parent. We find that the financial characteristics important in determining ratings at the individual firm level—capitalization, liquidity, profitability, and size—are also important at the group level. Further, financial ratios from holding company statements are incrementally useful in the ratings' process, after group‐level ratios have been taken into account. Robustness tests based on a subsample of holding companies with minimal investment outside of the property‐liability industry reinforce our conclusion that parent company statements influence consolidated group ratings. However, our data do not allow us to separate the relative contribution of the GAAP model and underlying transactions to the ratings decision.     

Output-inflation tradeoffs in 34 countries

This article examines the responsiveness of real output to the variability of inflation and aggregate demand. In the manner of Lucas (1973), estimates of the output-inflation tradeoff are computed for a large sample of countries. This measure is then correlated with the variances of the inflation rate and the growth rate in nominal income. Because differences in inflation variance (and hence the tradeoff) are viewed as the outcomes of differences in demand variance, correlations between these two variables are also reported. Cross-time and cross-country results provide a good measure of support for Lucas and the notion that attempts to exploit the tradeoff weaken it.     

Het consulaatwezen

Rapport de la Commission chargée d'étudier l'organisation du corps consulaire français. (Mémorial diplomatique van 24 en 31Januari, 7 en 14Februari 1885).