Measurement error and panel data1

The underidentification of linear models with measurement error does not necessarily extend to panel data models, as has been shown by GAiliches and Hausman (1986). We discuss and extend some of their results for a simple case and address particular issues concerning identification and asymptotic variances.     

经济发展水平、产业结构与碳排放强度——中国省级面板数据分析

利用我国29个省市自治区1995—2007年的面板数据,本文分析了二氧化碳排放强度同经济发展水平及产业结构之间的关系。通过多项计量检验,比较了不同计量模型之后,笔者选取了能够修正面板异相关和自相关的可行的广义最小二乘法(FGLS)模型。研究表明,(1)碳强度同人均GDP之间存在"N"形关系。(2)第二产业比重同碳强度存在正相关关系,即第二产业比重越高,二氧化碳排放强度就越高。(3)对经济发展与碳排放之间关系进行的情景分析表明,如果产业结构不改变,没有实施另外的政策,经济增长速度本身难以引致碳排放强度的大幅下降,2020年二氧化碳排放强度下降40%~45%的目标难以实现。     

Dynamics of Child Malnutrition in Rural and Small‐Town Ethiopia

Improving the status of malnourished children, and preventing children from becoming malnourished, lies at the heart of several of the Sustainable Development Goals. While many cross‐sectional studies examine correlates of stunting, they largely cannot identify drivers of change in stunting. We use two waves of panel data from Ethiopia and incrementally larger sets of fixed effects to control for time‐variant observable characteristics and time‐invariant unobservable characteristics. After controlling for these potential confounders, our analysis reveals that many factors that are associated with stunting in the cross‐section do not impact stunting dynamics. We also estimate individual fixed‐effects regressions, separately, according to baseline stunting status. We find evidence suggesting that while improved societal conditions drive many children out of a stunted state, certain exogenous factors may lead previously healthy children to become stunted. Overall, policymakers and practitioners would be wise to consult research utilising both cross‐sectional and panel data analyses in order to more effectively target already stunted children as well as vulnerable children who may be at risk of becoming stunted.     

An innovation to improve health outcomes in Amajuba district,KwaZulu-Natal,South Africa

Systems’ thinking places high value on understanding the context. This study focused on the collection of disaggregated data in order to understand the context, to facilitate improvement of health outcomes. The aim of this article was to assess the implementation of municipal ward-based health data collection (disaggregated data) and health care workers’ perceptions of this data collection process. This cross-sectional study used mixed methods in Amajuba district. The participants were professional nurses at the Primary Health Care level. Of the 131 respondents, 123 (93.9%) collected municipal ward-based health data, and found it useful. Opportunities for improving data collection were identified. Disaggregation of the data at ward level contributes to a better understanding of the target population’s health, assists planning for health needs and enables provision of targeted interventions in order to improve health outcomes, to prevent financial regression and waste of health resources.     

入境旅游:基于引力模型的实证研究

本文利用传统的国际贸易引力模型,考察了影响中国入境旅游的一些因素,包括经济发展水平、绝对距离、地理与文化上的差异性(共同性)、是否属于同一个贸易区,以及国家之间是否免签证等.我们发现,这些因素对解释变量具有明确的影响,但影响最大的是绝时距离和经济发展水平.在上述基础上,我们考察了入境旅游对几个主要变量的扰动所形成的响应路径.     

Cost Efficiency of International Tourist Hotels in Taiwan: A Data Envelopment Analysis Application

This paper uses the data envelopment analysis approach to measure cost, allocative and overall technical efficiencies of international tourist hotels (ITHs) in Taiwan during 1997–2006. There are three outputs, three inputs, three input prices and four environmental variables in the empirical model. The cost inefficiency of these hotels is from overall technical inefficiency. International tourist hotels in Taiwan have an average efficiency of 57%. Chain systems, non-metropolitan areas and occupancy rate have significantly positive impacts on all efficiency scores of Taiwan's ITHs. The distance from the nearest international airport significantly worsens their efficiency scores.     

Performance Analysis of Lodging REITs in Relation to Market Segments

This article examines the financial performance of lodging real estate investment trusts (REITs) in relation to their market focus. Secondary data were collected for from 2004 to 2008 from lodging REITs that were traded on major U.S. stock exchanges. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used to assess the efficiencies of market segments to generate financial performance. The results showed that two lodging REITs were consistently efficient during the study period relative to other lodging REITs. In particular, lodging REITs investing and/or operating in one or more relatively similar market segments and those focusing on the upper-upscale segment were more efficient than others. This study could provide managers, owners, and investors of lodging REITs preliminary evidence of the relationship between market segments and firm performance. This article also proposes a framework for future investigations to assess the performance of REITs.     

EDI and the Internet in the E-Business Era

This article presents cost effective guidelines to assist hotels of all sizes with the usage of electronic data interchange (EDI) in the Internet e-business era. The evolution of web-based EDI makes it easier for hotels of all sizes to support their business processes with traditional EDI technology, but without the extensive capital outlay in computer hardware and software. This is an attempt to encourage investment in basic EDI technologies before implementing more sophisticated applications. The focus is to allow hotels of all sizes to improve their competitive advantage with successive EDI technological advances.     

Accessing Tourists’ Unconscious Associations about International Destinations: Data Fuzzification of Reaction Times in the Implicit Association Test

Starting with the proposition that shorter reaction time implies stronger implicit preference, this study assesses destination-related top-of-mind awareness (TOMA) by examining respondent reaction time to specific destination icons. A total 87 college students were recruited to complete self-report surveys and computer-based implicit association tests (IAT). The results show that participants’ responses vary depending on the two measures (i.e., self-report surveys and IATs). Through a data fuzzification method, the study demonstrates that the IAT would enhance our understanding of tourist TOMA, particularly related to familiarity issues. The implications of the study pertain to destination marketing are fully discussed.     

Immigration and international inbound tourism: Empirical evidence from Australia

Immigration can potentially influence tourism flows. However, in spite of the vast number of studies on tourism demand modelling, the immigration-tourism linkage has not received much attention in the empirical literature. This paper seeks to address this gap. A dynamic demand model is developed and estimated using data from 1980 to 2008 for the 15 main markets of Australia. The explanatory variables included are income, own price, price of a substitute destination, airfare and immigration. The estimation results empirically establish the connection between immigration and inbound tourism. The short run and long-run immigration elasticities generated are 0.028 and 0.09 respectively. Additionally this paper demonstrates that omission of prices of substitutes affects the value of the own price elasticity of demand. The results have implications for future research and for stakeholders who can improve the efficiency of their planning exercises by taking into account additional information on immigration trends.