WHAT HAPPENED TO THE THREE‐LEGGED CENTIPEDE GAME?

Abstract.  In the last two decades, several frameworks have been proposed to analyze the question of whether common knowledge of rationality is sufficient to justify the play of backward induction (BI) in games of perfect information. Three strands of literature have addressed this issue: the literature on equilibrium refinements, the literature on knowledge-based epistemology and the literature on interactive epistemology. This paper surveys seminal frameworks within the first two strands of research and assesses the extent to which they provide a satisfactory solution to the problem. These approaches are illustrated using a three-legged version of Rosenthal's centipede game, which is the classical example in the literature. The paper argues that some of these frameworks provide sensible answers to the riddle of BI or, at least, succeed in bringing the paradox to another level. The paper also points at consistency problems in the body of refinements of Nash equilibrium revealed by the surveyed literature.     

The Europeanization of organic agriculture and conflicts over agricultural policy

Organic agriculture was Europeanized through two EU regulations which defined and provided financial support for it. In transposing these regulations, member states have had to deal with political aspects of the conflict between mainstream and organic agriculture. A comparison of 13 new (including former socialist states) and old member states illustrates that the level of conflict had an impact only on the level of financial support transposed, while other aspects of transposition were explained by formal institutional preconditions. Low financial support was found in those member states with a high level of conflict or a low value-based level of conflict. Medium financial support was found in one new and one old member state characterized by medium level conflicts. High financial support appeared in three member states characterized by truly low level conflicts in terms of common organic and mainstream agriculture interests.     

Was there policy “reform”? Evolution of EU domestic support for processed fruits and vegetables

Policy “reform” in agricultural markets is often associated with less government regulation and expenditures, or a shift towards more efficient interventions. The European Union (EU) adopted major policy changes for processed fruits and vegetables in 2001 and again in 2008, and we employ a simulation model to examine the effects of the three policy regimes in place before and after each of the changes. Our analysis incorporates the heterogeneity of processing firms in the EU and considers how they responded to the different policy regimes. Simulation results indicate that the EU subsidies increased EU tomato production by 3.8% for the regime that began in 2008 and 9.1% for the regime that began in 2001 compared to no subsidies. The policy regime that was in place from 2001 through 2007 led to the greatest distortions in global processing tomato markets, in part because it directed more of the benefits to EU growers and less to EU processors and consumers. Thus changes in 2001 “reformed” policy by redistributing gains within the EU, while changes in 2008 “reformed” policy by reducing distortions in global markets.     

企业国际经营活动中常规资源获取的误区

随着全球竞争的加剧，企业不得不更多地从海外资源中创造竞争优势。过去研究国际经营的学者普遍认为企业进行海外投资的主要目标是获取战略资源创造竞争优势，但学者和企业家们往往忽视了对东道国常规资源获取的重要性。因此，本文从对东道国常规资源获取和利用的角度．对新时期企业的国际经营问题进行研究。     

国外公共财政支出向“三农”倾斜的经验及启示

文章主要对部分发达国家财政支农的经验进行梳理和归纳,虽然国外与我国的国情不同,但他们的一些做法仍可以为我国农村制度创新提供一些经验及启示。     

Recursive Nash bargaining over a productive asset

We propose an equilibrium concept (the recursive Nash bargaining solution) that describes the outcome of repeated negotiations between two rational agents under the assumptions that the state of the economic system under consideration changes according to the actions of the players and that neither party can make binding commitments to future behavior. This equilibrium is dynamically consistent but typically not Pareto-efficient. As an application, we compute the recursive Nash bargaining solution in a model of two heterogeneous agents bargaining over the use of a productive asset with constant gross rate of return and study how the time-preference rates and the elasticities of substitution affect the solution.     

产品内国内分工视角下的“经济全国化”

世界经济危机迫切要求实现中国产业结构升级。通过产品内国内分工,东部地区主要从事研发设计等现代服务业,劳动资本密集型产业转移到中西部地区,这样既实现了产业结构的整体升级,又维护了中国"世界工厂"的地位。产品内国内分工促进了中西部地区参与全国和世界分工过程,有利于缩小地区收入差距,是实现经济全国化,走向共同富裕的根本途径。     

利益与风险偏好差异:上市公司委托理财行为及对策的经济学分析

通过对上市公司决策主体分企业和个人两个层次的分析发现由于企业的内部控制者在委托理财行为中可以获得较大收益却无需承担失败的损失,加上长期的执法不力,他们与企业存在利益与风险偏好上的差异,从而解释了那么多的上市公司对风险很大的委托理财趋之若鹜的原因.要重构上市公司委托理财行为中的"共有信念",需要加大执法力度,且实现一定约束下的法律成本在用于制定新的法规和执行已有法规之间的优化配置;此外,通过提高企业控制人的分成比例,设立企业控制人的个人保证账户也可以减少企业控制人在委托理财中的违法违规行为.     

“两岸共同市场”的特殊构架与机制设计

“两岸共同市场”是基于两岸经贸合作已有的基础、区域一体化中“共同市场”模式的特征和当前海峡政治生态的特殊性相结合而产生的构想或概念性体制方案,它是符合两岸关系发展内在要求的体制构架。实现这一构架的关键在于构建持续、常规化的协调机制,以扩大两岸经贸交流的规模和领域,提升合作层次,实现两岸经济的有效融合和资源的优化配置。