Differential reporting in Germany - A historical analysis

Based on a contingent perspective of accounting change, this paper reviews the historical development of differential reporting in Germany, by drawing on primary and secondary sources. The main objective of the paper is to shed light on the driving forces and main influential parameters that have shaped the existing differential reporting framework. This historical approach supplies interesting insights for the current discussion on differential reporting in Germany produced by the EU Regulation on the application of International Accounting Standards.     

Monopoly Rents and Price Fixing in Betting Markets

Betting markets provide an ideal environment in which to examinemonopoly power due to the availability of detailed information on product pricing. In this paper we argue that the pricing strategies of companies in the U.K. betting industry are likely to be an important source of monopoly rents, particularly in the market for forecast bets. Pricing in these markets are shown to be explicitly coordinated. Further, price information is asymmetrically biased in favor of producers. We find evidence, based on U.K. data, that pricing of CSF bets is characterized by a significantly higher markup than pricing of single bets. Although this differential can in part be explained by the preferences of bettors, it is reasonable to attribute a significant part of the differential as being due to monopoly power.     

铁路运输客货管理机制的探讨

随着我国加入WTO和铁路全面参与运输市场竞争,必须尽快构建适应市场需求的铁路客货管理的动力机制和运作机制,以激发企业和员工搞好营销的内在活力,同时要构建铁路客运和货运的服务质量评价指标,以及相应的质量监督和考核管理办法,做到各项管理活而不乱、管而不死,使铁路客货运输服务质量不断提高,以满足不断增长的经济和社会发展需要。     

论中国旅游业的危机管理机制--以非典时期旅行社行业的救助与自救措施为例

非典给中国旅游业带来了强烈的冲击，作为旅游业的龙头，旅行社遭到了惨重的经济损失。在旅行社全行业处于极度萧条的时段内，政府出台了一系列的措施来扶持旅行社的发展，各旅行社也纷纷采取各种措施力图自救，无论是政府救助还是企业自救，在某种程度上都存在一定的不足之处。     

人才强国,关键在于培养和使用好人才

我国是一个人口大国，如何将我国的人口负担转化为人才资源优势，这是党和国家建设事业的关键问题。笔者认为人才强国战略的实施，关键在于培养和使用好人才，在于快出人才，多出人才和出好人才。为此，文章提出了一些人才使用的策略。     

The liquidity effects of foreign exchange intervention

This paper examines the effectiveness of foreign exchange intervention in a two-country, two-currency, general equilibrium model that allows for liquidity effects. Both sterilized and non-sterilized intervention operations have significant impacts on the allocation of liquidity in international financial markets. Whether intervention is successful in moving the exchange rate in the desirable direction depends upon the degree of sterilization of intervention and the intratemporal elasticity of substitution of the consumption goods. The model shows that there exist circumstances in which the response of exchange rate to intervention is ‘perverse’ as documented in the empirical literature.     

QUADRATIC TERM STRUCTURE MODELS FOR RISK-FREE AND DEFAULTABLE RATES

In this paper, quadratic term structure models (QTSMs) are analyzed and characterized in a general Markovian setting. The primary motivation for this work is to find a useful extension of the traditional QTSM, which is based on an Ornstein–Uhlenbeck (OU) state process, while maintaining the analytical tractability of the model. To accomplish this, the class of quadratic processes, consisting of those Markov state processes that yield QTSM, is introduced. The main result states that OU processes are the only conservative quadratic processes. In general, however, a quadratic potential can be added to allow QTSMs to model default risk. It is further shown that the exponent functions that are inherent in the definition of the quadratic property can be determined by a system of Riccati equations with a unique admissible parameter set. The implications of these results for modeling the term structure of risk-free and defaultable rates are discussed.     

关于上海地区屋顶绿化的思考

在上海市平面绿化工作已初见成效,大型公共绿地越来越多,城市越来越美之时,构建立体绿化 成为当务之急。本文通过对上海地区屋顶绿化的现状及存在的问题的阐述,结合绿化植物的选择和维护的一 些基本理论,展示了屋顶绿化广阔的发展前景。     

Block-Rate versus Uniform Water Pricing in Agriculture: An Empirical Analysis

In this article we adapt Burtless and Hausman's (1978) methodology in order to estimate farmers' demand for irrigation water under increasing block-rate tariffs and empirically assess its effect on aggregate demand and inter-farm allocation efficiency. This methodology overcomes the technical challenges raised by increasing block-rate pricing and accounts for both observed and unobserved technological heterogeneity among farmers. Employing micro panel data documenting irrigation levels and prices in 185 Israeli agricultural communities in the period 1992–1997, we estimate water demand elasticity at −0.3 in the short run (the effect of a price change on demand within a year of implementation) and −0.46 in the long run. We also find that, in accordance with common belief, switching from a single to a block-price regime, yields a 7% reduction in average water use while maintaining the same average price. However, based on our simulations we estimate that the switch to block prices will result in a loss of approximately 1% of agricultural output due to inter-farm allocation inefficiencies.