Flexible Estimation of Copulas: An Application to the US Housing Crisis

Zimmer (‘The role of copulas in the housing crisis’, Review of Economics and Statistics 2012; 94 : 607–620) provides an interesting case study of the pitfalls of using parametric copulas to understand the US housing crisis in the latter part of 2000s. The original study by Zimmer (2012) employs a finite‐mixture copula to illustrate that the symmetry of the Gaussian copula may not be tenable, especially for US housing price data during the time period from 1975:Q2 to 2009:Q1. We undertake a replication of his study in a wide sense. First, we replicate the study by incorporating revised data and then extending the dataset to include the most recent data. Second, we implement a nonparametric copula estimator recently proposed by Racine (‘Mixed data kernel copulas’, Empirical Economics forthcoming) to the parametrically filtered data used in Zimmer (2012). Our replication finds that the application of the nonparametric copula to the same and extended filtered data provides an alternative flexible specification for copulas. However, the overall cautionary message of the flexible‐form copula espoused in Zimmer (2012) remains. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

DECISION THEORY UNDER AMBIGUITY

Abstract We review recent advances in the field of decision making under uncertainty or ambiguity. We start with a presentation of the general approach to a decision problem under uncertainty, as well as the ‘standard’ Bayesian treatment and issues with this treatment. We present more general approaches (Choquet expected utility, maximin expected utility, smooth ambiguity and so forth) that have been developed in the literature under the name of models of ambiguity sensitive preferences. We draw a distinction between fully subjective models and models incorporating explicitly some information. We review definitions and characterizations of ambiguity aversion in these models. We mention the challenges posed by some of the models presented. We end with a review of part of the experimental literature and applications of these models to economic settings.     

Instructor quality affecting emergency medical technician (EMT) preparedness: a LEADS project*

This represents one of a series of studies of the Longitudinal Emergency Medical Technician Attributes and Demographics Study (LEADS) being undertaken by the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). This secondary analysis of the LEADS database, which provides a representative sampling of EMTs throughout the United States, examines the effects of instructor quality on the level of preparedness of emergency medical technicians (EMTs). Results showed significant differences, based on instructor quality, in the ratings on ten dimensions of EMT preparedness for both EMT Basics and EMT Paramedics. Implications for HRD practitioners, adult educators and researchers are discussed.     

现代物流产业与区域经济竞争力提升的关系研究

结合区域经济一体化对我国物流行业发展的促进作用以及建设现代物流产业对于增强区域经济竞争力的重大意义,探讨了区域经济竞争力和现代物流产业存在的联系,并对如何通过发展现代物流产业增强区域经济竞争力提出了建议,对于提升区域经济竞争力具有参考价值.     

The effects of technology shocks on hours and output: a robustness analysis

We analyze the effects of neutral and investment‐specific technology shocks on hours and output. Long cycles in hours are removed in a variety of ways. Hours robustly fall in response to neutral shocks and robustly increase in response to investment‐specific shocks. The percentage of the variance of hours (output) explained by neutral shocks is small (large); the opposite is true for investment‐specific shocks. ‘News shocks’ are uncorrelated with the estimated technology shocks. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

篮球教学中加强大学生心理素质训练的对策

心理素质是衡量21世纪合格人才的重要尺度。作为培养高素质人才的重要基地，高校必须重视大学生的心理素质教育。试以大学生的心理素质训练为切入点，并通过在篮球教学中通过一般心理训练和心理加强过程训练，呼吸训练法，鼓励法，念动训练法等提高心理素质。为进一步探讨发展和提高大学生心理素质教育的研究提供了可行性。     

Real Asset Valuation under Imperfect Competition: Can We Forget About Market Fundamentals?

Real assets are usually valued by computing the stream of profits they can bring to a price‐taking firm in a liquid market. This method ignores market fundamentals by assuming that all the relevant information is included in the spot price. Our article analyses the bias resulting from such an approach when the market is imperfectly competitive. We propose a stylised two‐period model of the natural gas market with no uncertainty, focusing on strategic interactions between two types of oligopolistic players—pure traders and suppliers with downstream customers—who have access to storage. We show that the true value of storage capacity is not the same for traders and for suppliers. Comparing the latter value with the traditional price‐taking valuation reveals a systematic bias that tends to induce underinvestment.     

Modes of Foreign Direct Investment and Intellectual Property Rights Protection: Wholly‐owned or Joint Venture? Firm‐level Evidence from Taiwanese Multinational Manufacturing Enterprises

This paper finds evidence from Taiwanese manufacturing multinational enterprises (MNEs) for the period 2003–2005 to show that Taiwanese manufacturing MNEs are more likely to choose joint ventures (JVs) if intellectual property rights (IPRs) protection in the foreign direct investment (FDI) host country is strong. The estimation results suggest that if a country with an IPR strength similar to the level of Chile increases its IPR protection to the strength of Taiwan, the probability of forming JVs in that country will increase by 13.8%. One policy implication of this study is that developing countries can stimulate local participation by IPR reform.