Lies,damned lies and statistics: the accuracy of survey responses

That survey research is error prone is not a new idea and different varieties of non-sampling error have been investigated in the literature as well as consideration being given in many statistics textbooks to the issue of sampling error. The paper here considers research upon corporate environmental reporting. It compares information provided by corporate environmental reports with information that survey respondents claim their organization’s environmental report contains. This enables the accuracy of the claims to be assessed. Consideration is given to two different industries the Water industry and the Energy industry. Errors due to inaccurate reporting by survey respondents are shown to be relatively infrequent and respondents appear just about as likely to claim they report information that they do not, in fact, report as to fail to indicate that they report information that is, in fact, actually reported.     

入世以来两岸经贸关系发展中的问题及其影响

入世6年来,两岸经贸快速发展,但台湾在祖国大陆贸易和利用外资中的地位不断下降。两岸经贸关系至今仍未实现正常化,这对两岸经济发展均带来不利的影响。     

振兴东北老工业基地的高端人才支撑——关于沈阳市职业经理人队伍建设的思考

在现今经济发展日新月异的社会,企业作为社会财富的创造者和社会经济运营的最基本细胞,始终处于社会中坚地位。职业经理人队伍就是为企业而生,因企业发展需求而发展壮大的,并成为企业巨轮的船长主宰着企业的前途与命运。本文采用用事实说话的方法,围绕着沈阳市职业经理人队伍建设核心议题,从沈阳城市振兴的人力资源建设出发,结合国内外对这一问题的认识和研究,叙述了沈阳城市职业经理人队伍现状,深入分析了队伍建设面临的问题,指出了职业经理人应该具备的职业素养和个人修为,从企业、政府、社会以及猎头公司角度探讨了加强队伍建设的方法,试图寻求一条加强城市职业经理人队伍建设的有效路径。     

Environmental Taxation and Vertical Cournot Oligopolies: How Eco-industries Matter

This article specifies what an optimal pollution tax should be when dealing with a vertical Cournot oligopoly. Polluting firms sell final goods to consumers and outsource their abatement activities to an environment industry. It is assumed that both markets are imperfectly competitive. Thus, the tax is a single instrument used to regulate three sorts of distortions, one negative externality and two restrictions in production. Consequently, the optimal tax rate is the result of a trade-off that depends on the firms’ market power along the vertical structure. A detailed analysis of Cournot-Nash equilibria in both markets is also performed. In this context, the efficiency of abatement activities plays a key-role. It gives a new understanding to the necessary conditions for the emergence of an eco-industrial sector.      

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.     

金融危机下的我国财政风险测度

次贷危机影响了我国的经济和财政态势,经济增长放缓使得财政的收支压力逐步凸显,风险增大。本文采用在国际上得到广泛采纳的风险指标法对我国当前的财政风险状况进行了度量,结论是短期内风险虽有所增加,但仍处在可控范围内;中长期则需要对政策作出适当调整,以降低未来的风险。     

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