Reserves and cash flows under stochastic retirement

Uncertain time of retirement and uncertain structure of retirement benefits are risk factors for life insurance companies. Nevertheless, classical life insurance models assume these are deterministic. In this paper, we include the risk from stochastic time of retirement and stochastic benefit structure in a classical finite-state Markov model for a life insurance contract. We include discontinuities in the distribution of the retirement time. First, we derive formulas for appropriate scaling of the benefits according to the time of retirement and discuss the link between the scaling and the guarantees provided. Stochastic retirement creates a need to rethink the construction of disability products for high ages and ways to handle this are discussed. We show how to calculate market reserves and how to use modified transition probabilities to calculate expected cash flows without significantly more complexity than in the traditional model. At last, we demonstrate the impact of stochastic retirement on market reserves and expected cash flow in numerical examples.     

An economic evaluation of market development programmes for US dairy products

‘This study measured the effectiveness of US dairy export promotion programmes on increasing foreign demand and enhancing producers’ revenues. An import demand equation based on panel data was used to test whether export promotion has a positive and significant impact on US dairy exports. The effects of various promotion scenarios on the dairy market were then simulated, and benefit–cost ratios (BCRs) for these programmes were estimated. There were three key findings. First, the combined effort of public and private dairy export promotion expenditures had a positive and statistically significant impact on demand for US dairy products in the world market. The findings indicated that export promotion stimulated total dairy exports by 4.14 billion pounds, on average, per year, which represented 55.8% of total exports. Second, US dairy export promotion has been highly profitable for the nation’s dairy farmers. The calculated BCRs, based on assumed elasticity of supply, ranged from a low of 8.54 for the most elastic assumption to a high of 30.12. Third, from an optimality standpoint, dairy farmers are underinvesting in export promotion. The marginal BCRs ranged from a low of 3.79 to a high of 15.22, which means that, at the margin, increasing export promotion expenditures would be profitable for dairy farmers.     

药品平行进口的影响及政策取向分析

专利药品平行进口对药品专利权人及消费者利益产生不同的影响。根据药品平行进口产生的原因及我国的国情,我国应坚持区别对待的适度平行进口政策。     

农村宅基地使用权申请审批问题研究——基于地方立法文本的分析

地方立法中的申请审批条款在一定程度上决定着我国农村宅基地申请审批的实际状况。通过对地方立法文本中关于申请审批的立法模式和内容构成的统计分析，发现我国目前宅基地申请人的资格不一，审批中农村集体经济组织主体位置虚缺，而且宅基地立法层级很低，立法清理工作不及时。我国今后应明确农村集体经济组织成员的内涵，强化宅基地所有权人在审批中的作用，制定统一的《农村宅基地使用权法》。     

The Primacy of Space in Politics: Bargaining Rights,Freedom and Power in an İstanbul Neighborhood

This article explores and theorizes the ways in which urban space and political contestations are mapped onto each other. The ethnography illustrates the multifaceted transformations in a notoriously secularist neighborhood of ?stanbul, Te?vikiye, as it first turns into a high‐consumption locality in the post‐1980s, then into a high‐conflict urban space in the new millennium on the arrival of Muslim high‐spenders, particularly headscarved women. Aiming to fill the gap left by the absence of spatial analysis from political science and political sociology, I argue that the urban neighborhood becomes central for political contestation when both government and opposition fail to protect and secure liberties and rights. Now that devout Muslims are integrated into highly contested urban sites and share bourgeois lifestyles, ordinary people act in defense of their ‘sphere’ of freedom and privacy. This new territoriality is largely symptomatic of increasing fears of losing freedom, privacy and social status. This spatial defensiveness is reinforced by people's decreasing trust in, and increasing demands from, the state for the protection and security of their rights and liberties. My overarching argument is that exclusive attention to the bipolar clash between devout Muslims and secularists under the rubric of ‘neighborhood wars’ obscures multipolar conflicts around the discontents stemming from authoritarianism and democratization.     

论公诉中的量刑请求权

目前,我国司法实践中,刑事司法的不公多表现在量刑上,一些地方法院量刑畸轻畸重的现象比较突出,而且这种现象一旦发生,再行纠正比较困难。为解决这一问题,法律应明确规定检察机关的量刑请求权。目前,该项权利在实践中没有得到实体法与程序法的规制,多停留在制度设想上。为能够使量刑请求权具有操作可行性,有必要对该项权力实施的时间、方式以及程序做进一步研究,并协调好检察机关内外的各种关系。     

论购物佣金的法律治理

目前,旅行社扭曲的经营模式是以不合理的购物佣金为基础的,这种购物佣金也几乎必然损害旅游者权益.当前的治理方式主要有两种,即立法禁止与立法规范.但两者都没能解决问题,其共同的困境在于:第一,都是地方立法,受限于地方利益的顾虑,执法者不可能严格执法；第二,都过度依赖行政监管,但行政监管存在自身固有的不足.可行的解决思路是在旅游法中赋予旅游者一项合适的权利,通过旅游者有效的维权活动制约旅行社损害旅游者利益的佣金行为.购物反悔权正是这样一种合适的权利,它将迫使旅行社主动将购物佣金控制在旅游者可以接受的限度内,或者干脆放弃购物安排.此时行政监管的主要职责将转化为保障旅游者该项权利的顺利实现,借此形成市场主导、行政保障的治理模式.     

论药品专利和公共健康问题——以人权和“价值平衡”理论为视角

WTO建立的TRIPS协议将包括药品在内的一切发明都纳入可以给予专利保护的范围，这使发展中国家在解决本国因艾滋病、结核病和疟疾等传染病引起的公共健康问题时，和发达国家相关药品的专利保护之间产生冲突。从当前全球的公共健康现状出发，运用人权和“价值平衡”理论对此分析，可以得出这样的结论：作为基本人权，发展中国家人民的生命健康权应该优于知识产权加以保护。     

国外实施技术性贸易壁垒的新动向及我国的应对措施

技术性贸易壁垒(TBT)作为一种无形的非关税壁垒,正日益成为国际贸易中最棘手、最难应付的贸易障碍之一,并正在对我国的出口贸易产生显著的影响。而技术标准作为发达国家实施TBT的重要手段之一,已成为当今国际经济竞争的制高点。技术标准不仅是保护国内市场的标志,而且是争夺国外市场、提高国家竞争力的有力手段,是国家利益和价值观念的载体。近年来,发达国家为了保护自身利益、限制他国发展,纷纷制定和实施标准化战略。本文首先分析了现阶段美国、日本和欧盟的主要技术标准壁垒及其标准化战略的新动向,在此基础上,从宏观和微观两个层面提出了我国应对国外技术标准壁垒的战略措施。     

中国农民集体土地产权配置的实证辨析

在偏重公平价值的中国农民集体土地产权配置的基本框架下,任何追求效率的具体法律安排均无法避免与之发生内在冲突;无论是集体土地所有权的性质悖论、主体悖论还是土地承包经营权的性质悖论都是这种冲突的必然结果。要提高农业生产的效率,必须从实证的角度改革农民集体土地的产权配置,化解现存悖论;改革只能以明晰土地承包经营权的物权性质为切入点。