Competition Policy: What are the Costs and Benefits of Measuring its Costs and Benefits?

Summary  Competition authorities are increasingly measuring the effects of their enforcement actions, seeking a robust justification for the proliferation of competition policy. We highlight the importance of identifying the right counterfactual against which to measure effects, and set out the relevant categories of costs and benefits. We then explore how a balance can be struck between the benefits and inherent limitations of these measurement exercises. Relatively crude analyses of cartel action benefits can be sufficient to achieve public legitimacy for competition policy. Assessing the effects of merger and conduct inquiries is often ambiguous, but could be used to improve decision-making processes. Director and Managing Consultant, respectively, at Oxera, Oxford and London. The valuable comments of Fod Barnes, Kerry Hughes and an anonymous referee are gratefully acknowledged. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors alone.     

灌区配套与节水改造的设计体会

伊犁河流域现有灌溉面积678万亩。其中列入国家级大型灌区的有5个,现有灌溉面积为424万亩,在工程建设中的主要设计体会有：制定经济合理的规划设计方案,设计遵循因地制宜、统筹兼顾的原则,建筑物设计新颖别致、运行方便,尽量利用原有结构改建、降低工程造价,因地制宜规划设计渠道,为高寒地区湿陷性黄土地带渠道建设总结经验。     

浅析我国服务业的库存问题及应对策略

服务业在整个经济中的地位是衡量一国经济结构合理程度、国际竞争力强弱、经济社会发展协调水平等的重要评判指标之一。与中国经济快速持续发展相比,服务业发展落后的短腿现象却日益突出,而服务业的库存管理问题更是落后。     

Determinants of Current Account Imbalances in 16 OECD Countries: An Out-Of-Sample Perspective

We employ panel data as well as country-specific models to uncover empirically the determinants of current account imbalances. We find evidence of slope heterogeneity likely rendering the fixed-effect estimator inconsistent. Mean group estimation is followed to overcome the latter difficulty. Both estimation techniques are evaluated by means of in- and out-of-sample criteria. The mean group estimator outperforms the fixed-effect approach and, moreover, only three economic variables are found to impact on the current account balance significantly. These are the government budget balance, the domestic output gap and the changes of the terms of trade. We finally propose a parsimonious dynamic model of the current account, including only these variables and illustrate that it has similar predictive accuracy as country-specific benchmark models. JEL no. F32, C23, C53     

优化化工过程 提高综合效益

化工行业是我国国民经济的支柱产业之一,其发展直接关系到整个国民经济的繁荣,化工工业具有原料,产品,工艺,技术多方案性的基本特征,这种多方案性深刻蕴含着经济的盈亏,社会效益的大小与环境保护的优势,即综合效益。本文有效的利用优化技术解决化工工业中的实际问题,增加综合效益。     

论有效金融监管与我国金融现代化

有效金融监管是指金融监管当局为实现维护金融体系稳定和鼓励市场创新目标而进行的效率和效果并重的金融监管。基于对国际经验教训和我国金融现代化基本特征的现实考虑，我国应通过对金融监管体制的审慎调整与变革，通过树立风险为本的监管理念、构建和混业经营相适应的金融监管组织体系、加速培育有效金融监管的外部条件等措施，不断加强有效金融监管，稳步推进金融现代化，并以此促进我国经济发展的现代化。     

基于粗糙集理论的决策树方法在贷款客户信用评估中的应用

决策树是数据挖掘中常用的分类技术，其生成的规则便于决策者理解和应用。然而面对较多的属性且含有冗余和噪声属性的记录集生成的决策树时，无法删除冗余属性，造成运算过程复杂。本文旨在通过应用粗糙集理论，将其与决策树方法进行结合，对属性进行约简，降低运算复杂度，并生成相对简化的规则形式，并将其应用到银行个人贷款客户信用评估之中。     

Tourism as an alternative source of regional growth in Portugal: a panel data analysis at NUTS II and III levels

The role of tourism is of vital economic importance, particularly for small countries with a privileged geographical location and favourable weather conditions. This paper examines the importance of tourism as a conditioning factor for higher regional growth in Portugal by employing the conditional convergence hypothesis of Barro and Sala-i-Martin, associated with the endogenous growth theory. The panel data estimation approach provides evidence of the positive impact of tourism (through the accommodation capacity) on the growth in per-capita income among the Portuguese regions, increasing the rate of convergence. Therefore, tourism can be considered as an alternative source for stimulating higher regional growth in Portugal, if the supply characteristics of this sector are improved.