Knowledge at work: Some neoliberal anachronisms

With a predilection for market solutions, neoliberalism upholds that the individual is generally the best judge of his or her interests. Yet markets are never universally applied as a mechanism of allocation and there are reasons, in principle, why capitalism will always have “missing markets.” Concentrating on the application and appropriateness of neoliberal theory to the workplace, this article argues that firms are not markets, despite some tendencies in modern theory to conflate the two. The employment contract is a key characteristic of modern firms, but neoliberal theory is often silent on the distinction between an employment contract and a contract for services, and largely ignores the asymmetrical rights of authority within contracts of employment. Furthermore, the social nature of knowledge represents a challenge to neoliberal theory and policy, because it sometimes makes it more difficult to define individual property rights. Accordingly, with the growth of the knowledge economy, neoliberalism to some extent is an anachronism.     

The Impact of the Tariff-Rate Quota on Imports of Sugar of the United States Economy

This study assesses the impact of the sugar tariff-rate import quota program on the United States economy. The analytical approach used in the study consists of a computable general equilibrium model composed of fourteen producing sectors, fourteen consuming sectors, six household categories classified by income and a government. A complete elimination of the sugar program will result in lower output by all producing sectors (by about $2.85 billion) but for all producing sectors besides the agtriculture-program crops, crude oil, and petroleum refining sectors are considered, output will actually increase (by about $2.98 billion), an increase in the consumption of goods and services (by about $197 million), and an increase in welfare (by about $121 million). The goverment realizes a reduction in revenue of about $15 million.     

Effect of Capital Flight on Investment: Evidence from Emerging Markets

Much of the discussion on international capital movements is directed toward studying the effects of foreign capital flows, whereas the implications of resident capital outflows (capital flight) from developing countries remain largely unanalyzed. Using a dynamic panel methodology for twenty-two emerging market economies between 1975 and 2000, this paper investigates the effect of capital flight on investment and how this effect changes with financial liberalization policies. The empirical findings indicate that capital flight reduces private investment dramatically but does not have any effect on public investment. However, no statistically significant impact of financial liberalization on the marginal effect of capital flight on investment is found.     

THE MEANING OF MARKET EFFICIENCY

Fama defined an efficient market as one in which prices always “fully reflect” available information. This paper formalizes this definition and provides various characterizations relating to equilibrium models, profitable trading strategies, and equivalent martingale measures. These various characterizations facilitate new insights and theorems relating to efficient markets. In particular, we overcome a well‐known limitation in tests for market efficiency, i.e., the need to assume a particular equilibrium asset pricing model, called the joint‐hypothesis or bad‐model problem. Indeed, we show that an efficient market is completely characterized by the absence of both arbitrage opportunities and dominated securities, an insight that provides tests for efficiency that are devoid of the bad‐model problem. Other theorems useful for both the testing of market efficiency and the pricing of derivatives are also provided.     

基于面板数据模型的商品住宅价格上涨作用机理及实证研究——以西部地区7个中心城市为例

商品住宅价格上涨过快的现象,引起了广泛关注。探寻商品住宅价格上涨的作用机理显得非常重要。利用面板数据模型,对西部7个中心城市2002-2008年的商品住宅平均价格的实证研究表明:西部中心城市商品住宅价格形成过程中,起到显著作用的有城镇居民可支配收入水平、商品住宅竣工面积和国内生产总值三个主要动力因素。     

Refinements and incentive efficiency in Walrasian models of insurance economies

The literature on Walrasian markets in large economies with adverse selection has used various equilibrium refinements, but has obtained no general incentive efficiency of equilibrium, namely when cross-subsidies are needed for efficiency. We show that the same refined equilibria may also be incentive inefficient even when general mechanisms that allow for such cross-subsidies are priced and can be traded. In the process, we also prove existence of some type of forward induction equilibria in this context.     

What is the magnitude of fixed–mobile call substitution? Empirical evidence from 16 European countries

This paper investigates the degree of fixed–mobile call substitution (FMCS) within different European countries. We use quarterly data from 2004 to mid-2010 on 16 mainly Western European countries. By applying dynamic panel data techniques, we are able to estimate short- and long-run elasticities of the telecommunication usage prices on the fixed-line call demand. The own-price and cross-price elasticities found give strong empirical evidence for substitutional effects towards mobile services. In particular, the estimated cross-price elasticities of the mobile price on the fixed-line call demand are relatively large compared to other studies.     

A new strategy using term-structure dynamics of commodity futures

The term structure of commodity futures is important information for traders and investors. Traditional term-structure strategies are static; they tend to use the slope of term structure at a given moment. Instead, our trading strategy uses the change of term structure and generates statistically significant return. It also produces significant abnormal return in excess of the traditional two factors, i.e. the returns from static-slope strategy and daily momentum. Thus, its return includes orthogonal information or excess return that standard static-slope and momentum strategies cannot explain. This suggests a novel risk factor in the asset class of commodity futures or robust trading opportunities.     

The liquidity cost implications arising from the attraction of regional primary listings: Evidence from West Africa

This study reviews the liquidity costs for firms in outlying regions in primary listing on a centralized stock exchange. Using a unique hand-collected sample comprising all listed firms from across West Africa we find evidence that firms from outlying regions do have higher illiquidity costs although these can be mitigated from improvements in transparency that are associated with increasing familiarity amongst investment community of central exchange. This evidence has implications regarding the integration of stock exchanges in developing regions where this is likely to result in a greater concentration of liquidity mitigating intended optimal redistribution of capital and resources.     

动力煤期货交割模式探索

介绍了国内首次动力煤期货交易的背景及交易过程,指出了本次交易实现了动力煤期货交易的"三大探索""三大保证"和"两大结果",并对本次交易进行了深入的分析。