Fiscal policy,wealth divergence,and lifetime utility

Using a two-country dynamic optimization model where the less patient country decumulates and the more patient one accumulates wealth, we analyze spillover effects of lump-sum and consumption taxes. A lump-sum tax on a country definitely harms the other country through a change in the rate of interest. A lump-sum tax on either country always improves the less patient country's asset position. A consumption tax has no spillover effect, although it is Pareto-inferior. Applying these results into a closed-country context with heterogeneous agents, we also discuss policy implications of a discriminatory tax.     

Existence of a competitive equilibrium in a one sector growth model with heterogeneous agents and irreversible investment

Summary. We prove existence of a competitive equilibrium in a version of a Ramsey (one sector) model in which agents are heterogeneous and gross investment is constrained to be non negative. We do so by converting the infinite-dimensional fixed point problem stated in terms of prices and commodities into a finite-dimensional Negishi problem involving individual weights in a social value function. This method allows us to obtain detailed results concerning the properties of competitive equilibria. Because of the simplicity of the techniques utilized our approach is amenable to be adapted by practitioners in analogous problems often studied in macroeconomics. Received: September 13, 2001; revised version: December 9, 2002 RID="*" ID="*" We are grateful to Tapan Mitra for pointing out errors as well as making very valuable suggestions. Thanks are due to Raouf Boucekkine and Jorge Duran for additional helpful discussions. We also thank an anonymous referee for his/her helpful comments. The second author acknowledges the financial support of the Belgian Ministry of Scientific Research (Grant ARC 99/04-235 “Growth and incentive design”) and of the Belgian Federal Goverment (Grant PAI P5/10, “Equilibrium theory and optimization for public policy and industry regulation”). Correspondence to: C. Le Van     

On local indeterminacy and endogenous cycles in Ramsey models with heterogeneous households

It is well-known that endogenous cycles can occur in Ramsey models with heterogeneous households and borrowing constraints. In this note, we address the issue of robustness in the more general case of endogenous labor supply and we explain the occurrence of local indeterminacy under progressive taxation.

Evidence on the contrarian trading in foreign exchange markets

This paper investigates the existence and price impacts of contrarian behavior in the foreign exchange markets. By utilizing a nonlinear behavioral model where the chartists and fundamentalists coexist, evidence obtained from two sample periods significantly supports the existence of contrarian trading in the British pound, the Japanese yen and the German mark markets. The contrarian trading can only partially offset the price impacts of trend-followers, therefore the price impact of the chartists as a whole is destabilizing. The ability that the contrarians can counterbalance the extrapolation of the trend-followers differs across markets. Traders in the BP market have the highest tendency to contrarian strategy, which in turn contributes to the least deviations of the BP exchange rates departing from its PPP fundamentals. The fundamentalists' confidence in trade fades during large misalignments, which make the mean reversion function of the fundamentalists weak under the circumstances. We find the magnitudes of interventions will be affected by the price impacts of contrarians and their abilities on market stabilization.     

河北省农村税费改革与基础教育经费筹资渠道的变化

农村税费制度改革的提出不是从基础教育经费筹集问题开始的,也不是以保持教育经费投入为出发点和归属点的,而是旨在减轻农民负担,增加农民收入。但是,农村税费改革与农村基础教育经费的筹集关系极大,它直接关系到农村基础教育的稳定与发展。本文从保证基础教育经费投入稳定和增长这一角度,分析税费制度改革前后农村基础教育经费数量和筹资渠道的变化,探讨税费改革对基础教育经费投入所带来的新问题及解决办法,以确保巩固农村税费改革的成果以及农村义务教育的顺利实施。     

利用卫星账户测算旅游业增加值研究

旅游业是一个涉及人们多方面消费需求的的综合性行业，旅游业的发展对国民经济的许多相关行业产生影响，使这些行业产生了新的“增量”。本文从界定旅游直接和间接相关产业以及对应的产品入手，通过建立旅游卫星账户，提出了计算旅游业增加值的方法并应用于广西旅游增加值的测算。     

顾客满意策略与顾客满意营销

在情感消费时代，企业不再以质量达标、自己满意为经营理念，而是以顾客满意、赢得顾客高度忠诚为经营理念。企业营销策略不再以争取或保持市场占有率为主，而是以保持顾客份额和顾客忠诚为主。而顾客满意策略正是企业获取顾客“货币选票”的制胜法宝。以顾客至上为理念，让顾客参与产品设计、提供全程高附加值的服务、个性服务、培育顾客忠诚，是CS时代顾客满意营销的主要策略。     

试述用异或算法来实现计算机软件外壳加密的程序

计算机软件产品是一种知识密集的特殊产品,生产一个软件产品需要大量的人力物力,生产难度大,成本高,周期慢。但是,软件产品的复制却是相当的容易。这就导致了非法复制、盗版软件之风的泛滥。加密是目前保护知识产权的一种有效方式。但任何加密软件都可能被破译、我们不能因噎废食。加密与解密,是矛和盾的关系,要想防止被解读,必须提高加密技术。本文利用异或算法对文件的关键代码节来实现了这种加密,防止通过使用Soft-ice或者其他的调试软件来对程序进行反汇编,阻止分析源程序,以此来实现对软件的保护。     

MONETARY POLICY IN A NON‐REPRESENTATIVE AGENT ECONOMY: A SURVEY

It is well known that central bank policies affect not only macroeconomic aggregates, but also their distribution across economic agents. Similarly, a number of papers demonstrated that heterogeneity of agents may matter for the transmission of monetary policy to macro variables. Despite this, the mainstream monetary economics literature has so far been dominated by dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models with representative agents. This paper aims to tilt this imbalance towards heterogeneous agents setups by surveying the main positive and normative findings of this line of the literature, and suggesting areas in which these models could be implemented. In particular, we review studies that analyse the heterogeneity of (i) households’ income, (ii) households’ preferences, (iii) consumers’ age, (iv) expectations and (v) firms’ productivity and financial position. We highlight the results on issues that, by construction, cannot be investigated in a representative agent framework and discuss important papers modifying the findings from the representative agent literature.     

Modeling and supporting task-oriented group processes: Purposeful complex adaptive systems and Evolutionary Systems Design

Evolutionary Systems Design (ESD) is a universal general problem solving, formal modeling, design framework for purposeful complex adaptive systems (PCAS) and processes, i.e., task-oriented group processes. These processes constitute policy making, group decision, negotiation, and multiagent problem solving with human and/or artificial agents. ESD is also a framework for computer group support systems (GSS) that support these processes. The ESD general framework can be applied to define and solve specific problems. In this article the ESD framework is presented and illustrated by example. The article provides background for ESD computer implementations discussed in two other related articles (Lewis and Shakun 1996; Bui and Shakun 1996).