对称性与东盟的机制化发展

《东盟宪章》的签署标志着东盟机制法制化和制度化的增强,对这一制度变迁的内在动力存在着不同的解释。根据功能主义的观点,东盟内部频繁的贸易活动导致了对国际机制的功能性需求,从而诱发了东盟国际机制的深化和发展。这一假设难以解释东盟对外贸易同样出现大幅增长趋势的同时,东盟与其他贸易大国之间的合作机制却仍然保持在比较低的水平上。作者通过引进行为体之间的对称性这一新的变量,进一步完善了经济增长和制度变迁相关性的解释。     

The Pareto-dominant strategy-proof and fair rule for problems with indivisible goods

We study the problem of allocating a set of indivisible goods among a set of agents when monetary transfers are not allowed. We consider two interesting cases of this problem: (1) the supply of each object is exactly one; and (2) the supply of an object may be greater than one. Our central requirements are strategy-proofness and ex post fairness. We propose a particular rule satisfying strategy-proofness and no-envy (as well as equal treatment of equals). For the first case, it Pareto dominates any other rule satisfying strategy-proofness and equal treatment of equals. For the second case, it Pareto dominates any other rule satisfying strategy-proofness and no-envy.     

Intermediaries,Credibility and Incentives to Collude

A seller contracts and potentially colludes with a certification intermediary. We investigate the intermediary’s incentives to collude, her pricing strategy, and the extent to which buyers rely on the intermediary’s announcements. The probability of collusion is an endogenous variable, determined by the intermediary’s pricing strategy. The extent to which the market relies on the intermediary’s reports, the certification price and the intermediary’s profit decrease as the intermediary becomes less patient. By making certification mandatory, the intermediary loses her ability to screen out low‐quality sellers, which increases the probability of collusion.     

The determinants of FDI in Turkey: A Markov Regime-Switching approach

This paper considers movements of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in Turkey, and therefore, to understand the dynamics of FDI, runs several nonlinear FDI equations in which the basic determinants of FDI in Turkey are determined through Markov Regime-Switching Models (MSMs). The statistical properties of Markov Regime-Switching time series models are more desirable than those of conventional time series or panel regression models. Through these properties of MSMs, i) one can observe structural changes, if they exist, in FDI equations through time, ii) if, in fact, the true FDI regression equation follows a nonlinear relationship, MSMs fit data better than the linear models. This paper eventually follows maximum likelihood methodology of Markov Regime-Switching Model (MSM) to search for the possible structural changes in level and/or trends and possible changes in parameters of independent variables of FDI–MSM equations through the transition probabilities. In conclusion, this paper yields the outcome that Turkish FDI growth equation has significant structural changes in level and trend and that has significant coefficient shifts in explanatory variables. These explanatory variables are Turkish GDP Growth, Labor Cost, the Electricity Price Growth, the growth in average prices of High Sulphur Fuel Oil, Cooking Coal, Steam Coal and Natural Gas, Export Growth, Import Growth, Discount Rate and Country Risk Indexes for Turkey, US and EU, respectively, within the time interval from 1988 first quarter to 2010 second quarter.     

HEALTH CARE PROVIDER CHOICE

In order to achieve an ‘optimal health system’, health policies should not only be focused on the supply of health care, but also take cognisance of the demand for health care. Studies of health care demand in South Africa are scarce due to considerable data limitations. This analysis attempts to fill this gap by combining two data sets (specifically, the GHS 2004 and IES/LFS 2000) in order to be able to utilize the wealth of information regarding health care utilization in the General Household Survey. The aim is to inform and encourage debate on how to incorporate demand side considerations in order to arrive at improved public health care in South Africa.