Accounting for the business cycle: Nominal rigidities, factor heterogeneity, and Austrian capital theory

An Austrian interpretation of the New Keynesian small menu cost model of the business cycle is proposed. Austrian and New Keynesian business cycle theories share the feature that the cycle is generated by rigidities which prevent the economy from adapting instantaneously to changing conditions. Austrian business cycle theory is capital-based, focusing on credit expansion which artificially lowers interest rates and causes an investment boom and unsustainable business expansion. In contrast, the New Keynesian small menu cost model of the business cycle is based on nominal rigidities which prevent markets from clearing. Small menu costs introduce dichotomous behavior, where firms find it locally optimal to avoid instantaneous output price adjustments in the face of the cost, but this local optimum results in economy-wide output and employment fluctuations which are much greater in relative magnitude. The small menu cost model of the business cycle is extended and reinterpreted in light of Austrian business cycle theory with heterogeneous, multiply-specific capital, thus providing a rigorous formalization of the Austrian business cycle. The Austrian interpretation of this New Keynesian model fortuitously addresses several of its shortcomings. JEL classification B53, E12, E23, E32     

The Effects of Public Ownership and Regulatory Independence on Regulatory Outcomes

We examine the effects of public ownership and regulatory agency independence on regulatory outcomes in EU telecommunications. Specifically, we study regulated interconnect rates paid by entrants to incumbents. We find that public ownership of the incumbent positively affects these interconnect rates, and suggest that governments influence regulatory outcomes in favor of incumbents in which they are substantially invested. However, we also find that the presence of institutional features enhancing regulatory independence from the government mitigates this effect. In order to study regulatory independence, we introduce a new cross-country time-series database—the European Union Regulatory Institutions (EURI) Database. This database describes the development of institutions bearing on regulatory independence and quality in telecommunications in the 15 founding EU member states from 1997 to 2003 *We thank Laurent Pipitone for superb research assistance. Geoff Edwards thanks the Sasakawa Foundation and the Institute of Management, Innovation and Organization at the Haas School of Business for generous financial assistance, and London Business School for non-financial support. Leonard Waverman thanks the Global Communications Consortium for support     

Regulatory and environmental effects on public transit efficiency: a mixed DEA-SFA approach

This paper assesses the impact of regulatory and environmental factors and statistical noise on the efficiency of public transit systems within a DEA-based framework. Using a panel of Italian companies, we implement a DEA-SFA mixed approach based on [H.O. Fried et al. (2002) Journal of Productivity Analysis, 17(1–2), 157–174] to decompose DEA inefficiency measures into three components: exogenous effects, managerial inefficiency and stochastic events. Besides providing evidence on the determinants of input-specific efficiency differentials across companies, the results point out that managerial skills play a minor role, and emphasize the relevance of regulatory policies aimed at replacing cost-plus subsidization with high-powered incentive contracts as well as improving environmental conditions of public transit networks.      

基于“消亡模式”的并购企业文化整合

并购企业的文化整合方式有多种模式选择。在论述“消亡模式”文化整合及其适应条件下,对并购企业采取“消亡模式”文化整合的过程和方法进行了探讨;提出了从全新的心智模式上升为企业的规章制度,并形成新的企业文化过程中,管理职能所起的特定作用;结合联想并购IBM全球PC业务案例,进行了应用分析。     

论会计事项的认定与会计确认

符合确认标准的会计事项是会计确认的对象,会计确认是会计事项进入财务会计系统的第一道关口,两者关系十分密切,本文对会计事项作了科学界定,并针对不同事项的认定说明其对会计确认对象、观点和时间的影响,为科学合理地确认会计事项提供了理论指导。     

采购物流管理及成本控制

采购物流是企业的基础物流，文章系统介绍了采购物流管理的内容．重点从采购计划的制定和商品采购实施两个阶段对采购物流进行成本分析，针对企业采购物流流程，全方位、多环节入手提出了成本控制的具体方法．指出了采购监控的重点，具有较强的实用价值和可操作性。     

面向CRM的数据挖掘应用

近几年来，信息在企业发展中的关键地位得到了越来越多的关注，赢家往往是那些能成功收集、分析、理解信息并根据信息决策的企业，而新型电子商务的关键是它与消费者之间的关系。本文研究了数据挖掘技术在客户关系管理（CRM）中的运用，讨论了企业如何理清和客户之间的关系。     

The conservative equal costs rule, the serial cost sharing rule and the pivotal mechanism: asymptotic welfare loss comparisons for the case of an excludable public project

We examine the asymptotic behavior of two strategyproof mechanisms discussed by Moulin for public goods – the conservative equal costs rule (CER) and the serial cost sharing rule (SCSR) – and compare their performance to that of the pivotal mechanism (PM) from the Clarke–Groves family. Allowing the individuals’ valuations for an excludable public project to be random variables, we show under very general assumptions that expected welfare loss generated by the CER, as the size of the population increases, becomes arbitrarily large. However, all moments of the SCSR’s random welfare loss asymptotically converge to zero. The PM does better than the SCSR, with its welfare loss converging even more rapidly to zero.     

我国企业应用作业成本法面临的问题及对策

随着高科技在企业中的应用、市场竞争的加剧和顾客需求的多样化,作业成本法在我国企业应用的客观条件越来越成熟,对其展开的理论研究也必然有着广阔的空间和潜力。笔者从探讨应用作业成本法的实现途径与寻求解决作业成本法应用环境中存在问题的可行办法入手,以期对作业成本法在我国企业的应用有所帮助。     

基于价值链思想的作业成本法研究

首先,论述了基于价值链思想的成本管理方法如何弥补传统成本管理方法存在的诸多局限性;而后,对基于价值链思想成本管理的具体应用——作业成本法(ABC)进行研究,对其传统模型加以改进;同时,对存在的主要问题构建简单数学模型加以解决。