Wisdom or Widgets: Whither the School of ‘Business’?

The development of quantitative methods has proved to be invaluable in contemporary academic life; it has opened up the world to empirical studies. Yet there is a cost. 'The mind of man,' writes John Dewey, 'is taken captive by the spoils of prior victories' (Gummere, 1988, p. 25). In the social sciences, and particularly in the business area, quantitative methods have become a fetish and have led to the crowding out of non-empirical work. 'Wisdom or Widgets' examines the implications of this disturbing phenomenon.     

QUALITY DISCLOSURE AND COMPETITION*

We analyze costly quality disclosure with horizontally differentiated products under duopoly and a cartel, and characterize the effect of competition on disclosure and welfare. We show that expected disclosure is higher under a cartel than under duopoly, and the welfare comparison depends on the level of disclosure cost: when the disclosure cost is low, welfare is higher under a cartel than duopoly, but when the disclosure cost is high, welfare is higher under duopoly. In either market structure, disclosure is excessive in terms of total surplus, but insufficient in terms of consumer surplus.     

Tests of a Deferred Tax Explanation of the Negative Association between the LIFO Reserve and Firm Value*

Guenther and Trombley (1994) and Jennings, Simko, and Thompson (1996) document a negative association between a firm's last-in, first-out (LIFO) reserve and the market value of its equity. In this paper, we test a deferred tax explanation of this negative association. Specifically, we argue that investors, conditional on adjusting inventory to as-if first-in, first-out (FIFO), estimate a firm's future LIFO liquidation tax burden as its LIFO reserve multiplied by the appropriate corporate tax rate and include this tax-adjusted LIFO reserve in the valuation of a LIFO firm's net assets. On the basis of this argument, the tax-adjusted LIFO reserve is in effect an estimate of an off-balance-sheet deferred tax liability and, as a result, we predict a negative association between the tax-adjusted LIFO reserve and market value of equity. We test our deferred tax explanation by estimating a valuation model in which a firm's market value of equity is expressed as a function of the firm's assets, liabilities, deferred tax liability, and tax-adjusted LIFO reserve; the model is estimated separately in years preceding and following the reduction of tax rates mandated by the US Tax Reform Act of 1986. Test results provide strong support for the deferred tax explanation of the negative association between a firm's LIFO reserve and the market value of its equity.     

WTO与中国农地政策调整

本文首先从WTO对中国农地利用的影响入手,对当前的中国农地政策进行了深入地剖析并指出了其不协调部分,同时给出了今后农地政策的调整方向.     

INSOLVENCY AND RISK-TAKING IN THE THRIFT INDUSTRY: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FUTURE

This paper puts the current problems facing the thrift industry, Federal Home Loan Bank Board, and Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation into historical perspective. It discusses the development of federal deposit insurance and regulation of depository institutions. The paper discusses causes of the recent financial difficulties faced by thrift institutions and the policy responses to those problems. It then examines the effect of the recent 511 thrift failures on the risk-taking behavior of institutions and the Bank Board's policy responses to risk-taking. Finally, the paper suggests possible responses to the large and growing number of insolvent institutions that have an economic incentive to pursue extremely risky portfolio opportunities.     

考虑零售商多任务参与下的供应链激励合约研究

运用多任务委托代理模型研究零售商产品销售和市场知识共享两项工作任务的最优激励合约后得出,若两项工作任务的成本函数之间相互独立,那么激励相容条件下两项工作任务的最优业绩报酬也是相互独立的,且最优激励因子是各项任务下制造商边际收益的增函数、是零售商绝对风险规避系数、各项任务边际成本变化率和业绩方差的减函数,同时提出了效率风险的概念;而如果两项工作任务的成本函数是相互依存的,那么在激励相容条件下,产品销售任务的最优激励合约是“门槛型激励合约”,并定量地给出了零售商的“门槛激励条件”,最后结合模型结论从理论上解释了供应链企业间普遍存在的一些现实问题。     

海门市土地利用结构优化研究

在对海门市土地利用现状分析的基础上。结合当地社会经济发展的需求和有关规划控制指标。借助灰色线性规划模型求解未来该市土地利用结构优化数据。寻求符合社会，经济和生态三效益的土地利用规划方案。并在实施中取得了较为满意的效果。     

农村交通基础设施建设的农民增收效应研究——来自中国西部地区乡镇数据的证据

文章以2006—2014年中国西部11省区市汇总的乡镇层面面板数据为例,来考察农村交通基础设施的存量（有效路网密度）和流量（投资）对农村居民收入的共同影响,并从作为农村居民收入主要构成的工资性收入和家庭经营纯收入两种角度来探析农村交通基础设施影响农村居民收入的主要机制。结果显示,交通基础设施存量对农村居民人均纯收入及其两大主要构成均具有一定的显著促进作用,但流量层面对农村居民收入总体的影响不显著。分省来看,则发现了交通基础设施影响农民收入增长的异质性,各地区因自身发展条件和对交通的依赖性差异,导致其收入效应各不相同,同时流量的作用相对存量而言依然较弱,且异质性更为明显。分省异质性的存在表明,西部地区内部各省发展差异不可忽视,寻求农村交通基础发展推进农民增收的路径也应因地制宜。     

加入WTO对土地利用规划管理的挑战与对策研究

土地利用规划管理作为一项政府职能，作为实施和落实土地利用规划的手段，在我国加入WTO后，其管理人员的素质和观念、管理的模式、管理的机制和法规等必将面临新的挑战，同时也将面临着各方面的机遇，在此基础之上，论文阐述了加入WTO后我国土地利用规划管理的基本原则及对策，包括规划管理体制的改革、规划管理方式的转变、规划管理的手段的调整、规划管理政策的健全等各方面的内容。     

独立分销商的双向购销模式及其实施策略研究

针对现阶段我国电子产品制造业中存在的供应短缺和库存冗余问题，提出了一种独立分销商对客户的双向购销模式，分析了该模式中的短缺采购服务、回购和调剂冗余库存服务两大职能，并根据我国特定的行业环境研究了双向购销模式在我国的实施策略。