Deposit insurance and bank regulation in a monetary economy: a general equilibrium exposition

Summary. It is commonly argued that poorly designed banking system safety nets are largely to blame for the frequency and severity of modern banking crises. For example, underpriced deposit insurance and/or low reserve requirements are often viewed as factors that encourage risk-taking by banks. In this paper, we study the effects of three policy variables: deposit insurance premia, reserve requirements and the way in which the costs of bank bailouts are financed. We show that when deposit insurance premia are low, the monetization of bank bailout costs may not be more inflationary than financing these costs out of general revenue. This is because, while monetizing the costs increases the inflation tax rate, higher levels of general taxation reduce savings, deposits, bank reserves, and the inflation tax base. Increasing the inflation tax rate obviously raises inflation, but so does an erosion of the inflation tax base. We also find that low deposit insurance premia or low reserve requirements may not be associated with a high rate of bank failure.Received: 2 January 2002, Revised: 1 March 2003JEL Classification Numbers: D5, E5, G1.B. D. Smith: Sadly, our co-author, colleague and dear friend, Bruce D. Smith, died on July 9, 2002.     

基于BP神经网络的征地区片综合地价评估

文章提出了征地区片综合地价的BP神经网络系统的基本构造,并在充分考虑城市规划和生活水平对征地区片土地价格影响的基础上,对神经网络的评估系统进行了设计.给出了征地区片综合地价评估的指标体系及特征指标的量化计算公式.以雅安市雨城区最新的征地区片综合地价为基础,利用改进的BP神经网络模型对它们进行了训练和模拟,取得了良好的模拟结果,证明了ANN法用来测算征地区片综合地价的可行性和先进性.     

农村宅基地流转中存在的问题与完善对策——以攸县农村宅基地流转的实地调查为例

通过结合攸县农村宅基地流转的相关调查与实际概况分析,宅基地流转方式分为出租、出售、征地置换三种。由于农村宅基地流转具有特殊性,使农村宅基地流转中存在许多问题,如流转缺乏合理的资源配置,缺乏合乎需求的法律支撑,缺乏明确的法律途径纠纷解决机制,流转缺乏灵活的宅基地利用方式以及切实可行的管理体制等。因此,必须以＂地尽其用＂作为基本出发点和总体思路,完善我国农村宅基地的流转法律制度。     

土地价格与企业创新——来自微观数据的证据

近年来,中国土地出让价格迅速攀升,对企业行为产生了重要的影响。本文利用土地交易的微观数据,采用工具变量的方法研究了土地价格上涨对于工业企业创新的影响。研究发现土地价格上涨会减少企业申请专利的数量。其原因在于地价上涨缩紧了企业的资金约束,并影响了企业的资源配置,造成企业减少研发投入。异质性研究表明,高地价对位于产业园区的企业、国有企业的不利影响更小,但是对创新型试点城市中的企业的抑制作用更强。     

Environmental regulation and trade pattern：a case of China

As a growing number of countries, including both developed and developing countries, have in recent yearstaken environmental regulation at different levels, a question of great concern has been raised： can the regulation alterthe existing trade volume and trade pattern, and ultimately drive pollution-intensive industries to countries with low-levelregulations or even those without regulations at all？ Starting from the three different propositions concerning therelationship between environmental regulation and trade pattern, this paper applies cointegration analysis and errorcorrection model to empirically testing the relationship between environmental regulation and trade in China during theperiod of 1985-2005. Our empirical results indicate that in the short run the collection of pollution discharge fees bearsa positive impact on the export share of clean products of total exports. Thus, higher pollution discharge fees raise theratio of clean products exports to total exports. This further indicates that more stringent environmental regulationpromotes the exports of clean products. In the long run pollution discharge fees are positively correlated with the exportshare of clean products but negatively associated with their import share. Such correlations imply that environmentalregulation tends to facilitate the international specialization in line with comparative advantages.     

Cost-effectiveness analysis of sequential biologic therapy with ixekizumab versus secukinumab as first-line treatment of moderate-to-severe psoriasis in the UK

Aims: Patients with psoriasis often undergo treatment with a sequence of biologic agents because of poor/loss of response to initial therapy. With the availability of newer agents like ixekizumab and secukinumab, there is a need for cost-effectiveness analyses to better reflect current clinical practice. This study aimed to assess the cost-effectiveness of a sequence of biologic therapies containing first-line ixekizumab vs first-line secukinumab in patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis in the UK.

Materials and methods: A Markov model with a lifetime horizon was developed to compare the cost-effectiveness of ixekizumab and secukinumab treatment sequences: ixekizumab → ustekinumab → infliximab → best supportive care (BSC) vs secukinumab → ustekinumab → infliximab → BSC. The model used monthly cycles, and included four health states: trial period, treatment maintenance, BSC, and death. At the end of the trial period, responders transitioned to maintenance therapy; non-responders transitioned to the next biologic in the sequence. An annual discontinuation rate of 20% was assumed for maintenance therapy.

Results: The ixekizumab sequence provided cost savings of £898 (£176,203 vs 177,101) [year 2015 values] and gained 0.03 more quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs: 1.45 vs 1.42) vs the secukinumab sequence over the lifetime horizon. Probabilistic sensitivity analysis showed an 89.8% likelihood that the ixekizumab sequence would be cost-effective at a threshold of £20,000 per QALY gained.

Limitations: The analysis used list prices for drugs rather than confidential, preferentially priced Patient Access Scheme costs. In addition, efficacy input data were based on a network meta-analysis, as there were no head-to-head trials comparing ixekizumab and secukinumab.

Conclusion: First-line treatment with ixekizumab as part of a specific sequential biologic therapy for moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis in the UK provided slight advantages in cost savings and QALYs gained over a similar treatment sequence initiated with secukinumab. In view of the small magnitude of these differences, factors such as patient preferences (e.g. for number of injections) and long-term safety (e.g. related to time on the market) may also be important for clinical decision-making.     

Price Effects of Across-State Regulation of U.S. Electric Utilities

Investor-owned utilities (IOUs)serving multiple states are subject to multiple publicservice (utility) commission (PSC) regulation. Focusing on relative rates of an IOU across PSCsisolates regulatory effects. This analysis examines38 such multistate IOUs from 1995. For theresidential-commercial customer comparison, electedPSC commissioners, Republican-appointed commissioners,PSC jurisdiction over municipally-owned utilities (anindirect IOU competitor), and IOU home-state statusare associated with a higher relative rate, whereasmore PSC employees per capita and population densityare associated with a lower relative rate. Thecommercial-industrial comparison results are largelyreversed, but are similarly robust.     

养老基金投资的谨慎人规则及其在我国社保基金投资管理中的适用

与数量限制模式相比,谨慎人规则的监管模式有利于养老金管理机构根据基金的状况和市场状况确定基金投资政策,提高基金资产分散风险和获取更高投资收益的能力。目前,我国在全国社保基金投资运作中逐步引入谨慎人规则的时机业已成熟,相关法律应逐步放宽对社保基金的投资品种的限制,拓宽投资渠道,主要发挥理事会在社保基金投资运作和风险控制中的核心作用,由理事会根据证券市场的情况独立决定社保基金的投资政策,并通过委托投资合同和委托投资方针,对社保基金投资管理人的投资品种及各品种的比例进行约束。     

International production chains and the pollution offshoring hypothesis: An empirical investigation

Most analyses of the impact of heterogeneous environmental policy stringency on the location of industrial firms have considered the relocation of entire activities – the well-known pollution haven hypothesis. Yet international enterprises may decide to only offshore a subset of their production chain – the so-called pollution offshoring hypothesis (POH). We introduce a simple empirical approach to test the POH combining a comprehensive industrial mergers and acquisitions dataset, a measure of sectoral linkages based on input-output tables and an index score of environmental policy stringency. Our results confirm the impact of relative environmental policy stringency on firms’ decisions to engage in cross-country M&As. Our findings also indicate that environmental taxation have a stronger impact on international investment decisions than standards-based policies. Further, we find that transactions involving a target firm operating in a sector upstream of the acquirer are more sensitive to environmental policy stringency, especially when that sector is highly pollution-intensive. This empirical evidence is consistent with the pollution offshoring hypothesis.     

基于模糊模型识别的石碑坪镇土地整理社会生态效益评价

研究目的：建立土地整理社会生态效益评价指标体系,量化各指标并对其评价方法进行研究。研究方法：文献资料法、模糊模型识别法、定性与定量相结合。研究结果：（1）构建评价体系指标,其中大多数指标能够准确量化;（2）基于定性与定量的模糊模型识别方法对社会生态效益做出了整体的科学判断。研究结论：该案例的社会效益属于A3类（非常显著）、生态效益属于B2类（比较显著）。因此,模糊模型识别方法在土地整理社会生态效益评价中具有广阔的应用前景。