Money as Social Exergy

Synopsis It has been proposed that open thermodynamic systems will act to dissipate available energy gradients by self-organizing into coherent structures that, with time, evolve and develop into nested hierarchies – panarchies – that adapt to internal and external changes according to a characteristic adaptive cycle. This paper seeks to apply these ideas in the purely societal realm by investigating the role of money in economic systems. Money represents the value embodied in goods; a value that is separate from the exact nature of those goods. We suggest that money thereby liberates the ‘free value’ of economic desire and that this free value has properties analogous to energy. The result is the self-organization of structures and systems (‘econosystems’) that dissipate this ‘free value’. Econosystems act at different scales, and nested levels of econosystems form a panarchy, having effects that can be observed. In particular, it appears that money facilitates the creation of relationships between econosystem actors, increasing the connectedness of the econosystems that envelop those actors. We have identified a phenomenon whereby freed social value (i.e. money) can aggregate, or pool, at a larger econosystem scale in structures such as banks. These pools act as gradients that actors at the neighborhood scale can exploit for self-organization in the econosystem. Thus, econosystem actors appear to be freed from thermodynamic constraints by using money as a means of self-organization. However, because of these pools of aggregated social exergy, connectedness is increased at the larger scale of the econosystem. The potential consequence of this dynamic is that money may act to push larger scale econosystems toward a state of heightened vulnerability to collapse, while freeing smaller scale actors from apparent constraints. In this way, we propose that money acts to skew information feedback loops between econosystem actors and larger scale structures such as economies and ecosystems.      

Simulation driven inferences for multiply imputed longitudinal datasets*

In this article, we demonstrate by simulations that rich imputation models for incomplete longitudinal datasets produce more calibrated estimates in terms of reduced bias and higher coverage rates without duly deflating the efficiency. We argue that the use of supplementary variables that are thought to be potential causes or correlates of missingness or outcomes in the imputation process may lead to better inferential results in comparison to simpler imputation models. The liberal use of these variables is recommended as opposed to the conservative strategy.     

The Case of the Missing Pollution Haven Hypothesis

One particularly vexing puzzle for economists and policymakers over the past several decades concerns the empirical significance of the theoretically predicted pollution haven hypothesis. While neoclassical theory and conventional wisdom both surmise that local economies will suffer deleterious effects from stricter environmental regulations, empirical studies have largely failed to validate such claims. This study utilizes the method of matching to show that the impact of stricter regulation is heterogeneous spatially, varying systematically based on location-specific attributes. Previous studies that assume a homogenous response may therefore inadvertently mask the overall impact of more stringent regulations by pooling unaffected and affected regions.JEL Classification: Q25, Q28, H00, L51, R1The authors wish to thank to Michael Crew, Anthony Heyes, an anonymous referee, Werner Antweiler, Randy Becker, Wayne Gray, Shelby Gerking, Michael Greenstone, Vern Henderson, and Arik Levinson. Participants at various university seminars and conferences also lent useful insights to this line of research.     

中医体质辨识结合六味地黄汤治疗老年性阴道炎患者的临床效果

目的探讨中医体质辨识结合六味地黄汤治疗老年性阴道炎患者的临床效果。方法选取2017年6月至2018年6月沈阳市大众医院收治的老年性阴道炎患者104例作为研究对象,随机分为对照组和观察组,每组52例。对照组采用常规治疗方法,观察组在常规治疗基础上采取中医体质辨识结合六味地黄汤的治疗方法。比较两组的治疗效果,以及治疗前后症状体征改善情况、阴道健康状况。结果观察组治疗有效率为96.15%,高于对照组的73.08%,差异有统计学意义(P<0.05)。两组治疗前症状体征积分比较,差异无统计学意义(P>0.05);治疗后,观察组带下量(0.93±0.19)分、白带异味(0.65±0.24)分、阴道灼热(0.63±0.20)分、外阴瘙痒(0.71±0.25)分,低于对照组,差异有统计学意义(P<0.05)。两组治疗前阴道健康积分比较,差异无统计学意义(P>0.05);治疗后,观察组阴道黏膜(1.01±0.38)分、阴道湿润(0.95±0.33)分、阴道弹力(1.32±0.34)分、阴道pH值(0.67±0.36)分、阴道清洁度(0.54±0.25)分,低于对照组,差异有统计学意义(P<0.05)。结论在老年性阴道炎的治疗中,采取中医体质辨识结合六味地黄汤的治疗方法,能够提高治疗有效率,改善症状体征及阴道健康,临床效果显著。     

Nonresponse Bias and Stimulus Effects in the Dutch National Election Study

Bias is a much-debated issue in survey research. Answer effects (respondents claim to have behaved differently than they did in reality), nonresponse bias (nonrespondents differ on important variables from the respondents) and stimulus effects (by participating in a previous wave of a study, respondents change their behavior or attitude) can seriously distort the results of survey research. By using data from the 1998 Dutch National Election Study the authors show that the results of election research can indeed be affected by bias. Not only are significant effects found in the distribution of political attitude and voting behavior variables as a result of both nonresponse bias and stimulus effects, it is also shown that relations between variables change as a result of bias.     

上市公司偏好低现金股利政策的理论思考

上市公司偏好低现金股利政策,损害了中小投资者的利益,加剧了市场投机行为,降低了经营者的风险意识,已成为我国资本市场正常运行与健康发展的一大障碍。本文通过分析我国上市公司偏好低现金股利政策的负面影响和成因,据此提出相关的政策建议。     

上市公司过度融资行为及其治理研究

上市公司过度融资行为,严重损害了债权人和中小股东的利益,扰乱了证券市场的定价和运行秩序,阻碍了我国证券市场的健康发展。本文通过分析我国上市公司过度融资行为的负面影响和经济成因,提出相应的治理措施。     

既有结构可靠度的模糊算法

基于结构抗力和荷载效应的不确定性，提出了一种既有结构工程可靠度的模糊算法。该方法利用模糊算法可以反映客观事物因素的层次性，又便于比较和考虑各层次中诸因素作用的大小以决定可靠度。算例结果表明该方法简单实用，其模型可以很好地拟合真实的极限状态函数，是解决既有结构体系可靠度问题的有效方法。     

Heteroscedasticity and Non-Monotonic Efficiency Effects of a Stochastic Frontier Model

We consider a model that provides flexible parameterizations of the exogenous influences on inefficiency. In particular, we demonstrate the model's unique property of accommodating non-monotonic efficiency effect. With this non-monotonicity, production efficiency no longer increases or decreases monotonically with the exogenous influence; instead, the relationship can shifts within the sample. Our empirical example shows that variables can indeed have non-monotonic effects on efficiency. Furthermore, ignoring non-monotonicity is shown to yield an inferior estimation of the model, which sometimes results in opposite predictions concerning the data.     

发展微小企业的宏微观经济效应分析

从宏观层面看,微小企业发展特别突出的功能是向社会提供巨大的就业机会,而且,在经济增长、物价稳定和促进出口方面,微小企业做出了很大的贡献,同时也进一步地深化了财政货币政策效应。从微观层面看,微小企业发展最主要的边际贡献是有助于经济效率的提高,同时,在促进技术和制度创新、分配制度优化、消费结构合理化方面,也有很重要的作用。