Hypothesis tests using data envelopment analysis

A substantial body of recent work has opened the way to exploring the statistical properties of DEA estimators of production frontiers and related efficiency measures. The purpose of this paper is to survey several possibilities that have been pursued, and to present them in a unified framework. These include the development of statistics to test hypotheses about the characteristics of the production frontier, such as returns to scale, input substitutability, and model specification, and also about variation in efficiencies relative to the production frontier.     

EMBEDDED MATRICES FOR FINITE MARKOV CHAINS

For an arbitrary subset A of the finite state space 5 of a Markov chain the so–called embedded matrix P _A is introduced. By use of these matrices formulas expressing all kinds of probabilities can be written down almost automatically, and calculated very easily on a computer. Also derivations can be given very systematically.     

2005年人民币汇率制度改革效应实证分析

本文发现，迄今为止人民币汇率的走势实际上是一个有“突变”现象的“随机游走”过程，这种“突变”可以解释为在严格外汇管制条件下人民币长期积聚的升值压力的一次释放；特别地，2005年7月21日的汇率改革是卓有成效的，它通过加快进口增长和减缓出口增长弱化了人民币进一步升值的压力。文章进而指出，在有效监控投机资金和预防投机冲击的国内机制建立之前，“爬行式钉住汇率”是我国当前汇率政策的最佳选择，而不是简单地放宽人民币对美元汇率的浮动范围。     

新古典经济学假设与组织理论

通过对新古典经济学假设的分析 ,证明组织的充分存在理由 :组织是经济人实现其目标的手段 ,组织理论应该成为新古典经济学假设的前提。首先 ,对新古典经济学假设进行全面分析并找出其不足。其次 ,分析组织存在的意义以及组织理论对新古典经济学假设的支撑和前提作用。     

探究“新零销售”模式下影响销售量的相关因素

在新零销售模式的推动下,客户越来越倾向于消费个性化的商品。为了精准预测客户的消费需求,论文以单款单色产品为研究对象,通过建立多元回归分析的数学模型,来探究影响商品销售量的相关因素。经过分析发现,除了一些定性因素外,定量因素对销售量也产生了一定的影响,其中实际花费总金额、实际销售单价、库存数等定量因素对销售量的影响较大,且各个变量之间具有相关性,所以电商平台应特别关注这三个变量的影响。     

Optimal Environmental Policy Differentials in Open Economies under Emissions Constraints

Is there a case for preferential treatment of the exposed sector in an economy when compliance to an aggregate emissions constraint induced by an international environmental agreement is mandatory? This question is being debated in many countries in the context of the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol. We address the issue in a general equilibrium framework and theoretically cover several market structures, including perfect competition, the large country case and oligopoly. We identify the conditions under which preferential treatment of the exposed sector is not warranted from the point of view of maximizing social welfare. In addition, we demonstrate that in the case of oligopoly, instituting a more stringent environmental policy on the exposed sector might be profit-enhancing for this sector. This finding lends theoretical support to a specific interpretation of the Porter hypothesis.     

A New Approach to Random Utility Modeling using the Dirichlet Multinomial Distribution

In this paper we introduce a new econometricapproach to analyzing recreational site choicedata, the Dirichlet multinomial model. Thismodel, which nests the standard conditionalmultinomial logit model, can accommodateover-dispersed data and may provide moreefficient estimators of coefficients andconsequent welfare measures than the standardconditional logit model, which is so widelyused in the Random Utility Model approach torecreation demand. We illustrate thisDirichlet approach using a data set of rockclimbers in Scotland, and study the impacts onper-trip consumers surplus of alternativemanagement strategies for popular rock climbingsites. Results show that the Dirichletmultinomial approach produces coefficient andwelfare estimates having smaller samplingvariability in this case. We also compareclassical welfare measures with their posteriorequivalents, which allow for welfare changes tobe dis-aggregated.     

Economic liberalization and welfare in a model with an informal sector

The paper reexamines the conventional results relating to inflow of foreign capital, removal of protectionism and structural reform programmes, in a small open economy in terms of a two-sector general equilibrium model with an informal sector. The paper shows that in the presence of labour market distortion and a protectionist policy, inflow of foreign capital may be desirable irrespective of the pattern of trade of the economy due to its favourable impact on welfare. But the welfare implications of tariff reductions and/or structural adjustment programmes, such as deregulating the formal sector labour market, depend crucially on the economy's trade pattern. The paper provides an answer to the question as to whether in a developing economy labour market reform and tariff reform should go hand-in-hand or whether one should precede the other for welfare improvement.
JEL classification: F10, F13, F21, O17.     

A simple random assignment problem with a unique solution

Summary. All agents have the same ordinal ranking over all objects, receiving no object (opting out) may be preferable to some objects, agents differ on which objects are worse than opting out, and the latter information is private. The Probabilistic Serial assignment, improves upon (in the Pareto sense) the Random Priority assignment, that randomly orders the agents and offers them successively the most valuable remaining object. We characterize Probabilistic Serial by efficiency in an ordinal sense, and envy-freeness. We characterize it also by ordinal efficiency, strategyproofness and equal treatment of equals. Received: October 5, 1999; revised version: December 20, 2000     

Probability of survival in a random exchange economy with dependent agents

Summary. In this paper I analyze the general equilibrium in a random Walrasian economy. Dependence among agents is introduced in the form of dependency neighborhoods. Under the uncertainty, an agent may fail to survive due to a meager endowment in a particular state (direct effect), as well as due to unfavorable equilibrium price system at which the value of the endowment falls short of the minimum needed for survival (indirect terms-of-trade effect). To illustrate the main result I compute the stochastic limit of equilibrium price and probability of survival of an agent in a large Cobb-Douglas economy. Received June 7, 2001; revised version: January 7, 2002 RID="*" ID="*" I would like to thank Mukul Majumdar and Thomas DiCiccio for helpful discussion and an anonymous referee for valuable comments and suggestions.