Do Germans Save to Leave an Estate? An Examination of the Bequest Motive

I investigate whether a bequest motive for savings influences the post-retirement wealth trajectories of German households. Two measures of the bequest motive are studied: the existence of children as the main group of potential heirs and the respondents' declared intention to bequeath. While having children has no significant impact on households' wealth trajectories, stated bequest intentions are associated with considerable heterogeneity in wealth holdings. The main conclusion from this study is that both the pure life-cycle model and the life-cycle model with bequest motives provide a valid basis for a theory of household wealth accumulation once the heterogeneity of preferences is acknowledged.
JEL classification : D 91; J 14     

我国建筑业全生命周期价值链的应用研究

长期以来,我国建筑业缺乏对全生命周期价值链管理的整体关注,价值链中各个环节相互脱节,没有共同的价值目标,导致了成本较高的现状。本文旨在通过对建筑业全生命周期价值链的分析,拓展我国建筑业成本管理的关注面。并通过工程总承包模式对现有价值链进行优化,把勘察、设计、施工归集在同一个主体下管理,提高用户对建筑产品的满意度,降低产品成本。     

基于产业集群生命周期理论的研究与探讨

对产业集群生命周期的正确认识与划分在区域产业集群的持续发展中有着重要的意义。本文首先对产业集群的概念及产业集群生命周期的理论进行了系统的回顾，接着重点对其相关研究成果进行了归纳，主要从产业集群发展动力与演进路径进行了阐述，最后提出了有待深入的相关研究与展望。     

Life-cycle funds: Much Ado about Nothing?

The core idea of life-cycle funds or target-date funds is to decrease the fund's equity exposure and conversely increase its bond exposure towards the fund's target date. Such funds have been gaining significant market share and were recently set as default choice of asset allocation in numerous defined contribution schemes or related old-age provision products in several countries. Hence, an assessment of life-cycle funds’ risk-return profiles – that is, the probability distribution of returns – is essential for sustainable financial planning of a large group of investors. This paper studies the risk-return profile of life-cycle funds in particular compared to simple balanced or lifestyle funds that apply a constant equity portion throughout the fund's term instead. In a Black–Scholes model, we derive balanced funds that reproduce the risk-return profile of an arbitrary life-cycle fund for single and regular contributions. We then analyze the accuracy of our results under more complex asset models with stochastic interest rates, stochastic equity volatility and jumps. We further show that frequently used ‘rule of thumb approximations’ that only take into account the life-cycle fund's average equity portion are not suitable to approximate a life-cycle fund's risk-return profile. Our results on the one hand facilitate sustainable financial planning and on the other hand challenge the very existence of life-cycle funds since appropriately calibrated balanced funds can offer a similar (often dominating) risk-return profile.     

产品生命周期成本的演进及其对成本管理的启示

本文重点分析了产品生命周期成本概念的演进过程，提出了产品的企业生命周期成本、用户生命周期成本和社会生命周期成本，并在此基础上分析了这三者之间的关系及其对企业成本管理的启示。     

经济条件、人口特征和风险偏好与城市家庭的旅游消费——基于国内24个城市的家庭调查

旅游者的旅游消费支出对旅游产业的发展至关重要。它是旅游者的经济条件、人口特征和行为特征等因素共同作用的结果。但国内现有的研究由于多采用宏观数据,缺少描述旅游者人口和行为特征的微观数据,对旅游消费支出的影响因素分析有失偏颇。文章采用2010年对中国24个城市的居民家庭进行调查收集到的旅游消费数据,综合考虑家庭的经济条件、人口特征和行为特征,以家庭为单位,采用广义线性模型定量研究了影响家庭旅游消费支出的影响因素。研究表明:除家庭资产和收入外,家庭对收入的预期显著影响家庭的旅游消费,这解释了旅游产业对宏观经济的变动比较敏感的原因。它折射的宏观经济意义是显而易见的:当经济不景气时,旅游业可能是率先遭受冲击的产业。反之,当经济向好发展时,旅游业也往往蒸蒸日上。以户主年龄作为代理变量,调查还发现城市家庭的旅游消费与家庭生命周期密切相关,当户主年龄在25~34岁时家庭旅游消费支出达到高峰。此外家庭的风险偏好也显著影响家庭的旅游消费支出。借鉴美国消费金融调查用分类变量测度风险厌恶的方法,文章发现风险厌恶程度越高的家庭越愿意将大部分收入用于储蓄,从而相应地减少旅游消费支出。由于家庭承受的风险多数无法对冲,因此提高风险厌恶程度较高的家庭的旅游消费,恐怕单靠旅游产业自身还无法解决,需要保险业等相关产业共同努力来创造一个较好的旅游产业发展环境。     

变电站主设备LCC招标评标动态模型及应用

基于变电站主设备服役周期长、运维费用高、故障风险大、残值高等特点,在变电站主设备全寿命周期费用结构分解的基础上,结合动态成本计算模型,重点构建了变电站主设备LCC招标评标动态模型,并应用于变电站主设备的招标评标打分计算。最后,通过特高压工程1000KV变压器招标采购算例,验证说明了LCC招标评标动态模型能全面反映变电站主设备的全寿命周期成本费用,有助于从源头上统筹处理好安全、效能和周期成本三者的关系,有助于最优采购方案的选取。     

Social Security and personal saving: 1971 and beyond

Feldstein (1996, 1974) reported that Social Security in the U.S.A. reduced personal saving (“saving”) in 1992 (1971) by $416 ($61) billion. I reestimate his life-cycle consumption specification using data from the latest NIPA revision, correct his calculations, and find that the implied reduction in 1992 (1971) saving is now $280 ($22) billion, 48% (16%) of actual net private saving, with a standard error of $114 ($14) billion. If structural breaks around WWII and the 1972 Social Security amendments (which raised real per capita SSW by 22%) are allowed, and the market value of Treasury debt included in the specification, the reduction in 1971 and 1992 saving attributable to Social Security is at most 0.55 times its standard error, and 12% of net private saving. I then reestimate the preferred specification of Coates and Humphreys (1999), allowing for these structural breaks and relaxing other restrictions. The implied effect of Social Security on saving is again statistically zero. First version received: September 2000/Final version received: September 2001 RID="*" ID="*"  I thank Les Oxley for pointing out that correcting for AR(1) residuals is not a categorical imperative but a cultural relative, in which case common factor restrictions are crucial.     

Why Do Some Households Save So Little? A Rational Explanation

This paper offers an explanation for the puzzle of low wealth holdings among a significant fraction of the elderly. Instead of invoking irrational, nonrational, or nonoptimal behavior to resolve the puzzle, it is shown that widespread low wealth holdings are consistent with a rational life-cycle model of saving with uncertain lifetime and borrowing constraint. When there is uncertainty about the length of life, it is optimal for some individuals to save little and exhaust their wealth early. The characteristics of these individuals are derived. The simulation results support that the model can account for low wealth holdings as well as early terminal wealth depletion. The analysis also rejects the common perception that uncertain lifetime reduces dissaving. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: D11, D91, E21, I12, J14.     

构建油田企业单项资产全寿命周期效益评价体系的思考

目前油田企业的资产管理方面存在诸多问题,如油气资产折旧、折耗及报废不合理,资产闲置严重,资产管理制度不完善及管理责任不够明确等问题。随着勘探开发的不断深入和企业自身的滚动发展,为了节减成本提高资产经营效率,油田企业需加强自身资产的管理。对于如何才能全面反映资产整个寿命周期各个阶段的管理状况,应该采用何种分析方法,评价指标、评价方法和评价标准进行构建评价体系等本文做了进一步的思考与探讨。