Limits to government debt sustainability in OECD countries

The recent euro area sovereign debt crisis has shown the importance of market reactions for the sustainability of debt in advanced economies. This paper calculates endogenous government debt limits given the markets assessment of the probability to default. The estimated primary balance reaction function to growing debt has the “fiscal fatigue” property (a loosening fiscal effort makes the primary balance insufficient to support rising debt) at high debt levels. The combination of this feature of the primary balance reaction function with the market interest rate reaction to growing debt determines the government debt limit beyond which debt cannot be rolled over. An application to OECD countries over the period 1985 – 2013 with a model-based risk-premium shows that current debt limits are high for most of the OECD thanks to particularly low risk-free interest rates. It also shows for some countries that current debt levels are not sustainable without a change in government behaviour. Most importantly, the framework illustrates the state contingent nature of debt limits and therefore the vulnerability of governments to a change in macroeconomic conditions and to market reactions. Last, computations with an estimated interest rate reaction to public debt illustrate that debt limits are lower in the euro area than in other countries because of a sharper market interest rate reaction to rising debt.     

大城市劳动力供需平衡与外来劳动力就业政策研究——以上海市为例

文章在经济转型和大城市人口调控背景下,研究了上海劳动力资源供需平衡趋势与外来劳动力需求情况。研究显示,在上海经济保持一定的增长速度下,2015-2020年外来劳动力需求量在700-856万人之间,这使大城市在对待外来劳动力上处于尴尬境地,一方面面临着经济发展对外来劳动力的依赖性,另一方面面临着大城市人口调控的压力。目前上海劳动力市场中外来劳动力与本地劳动力在就业岗位、工资待遇、社会福利等方面仍存在一定的差异。外来劳动力与本地劳动力在岗位上更多的是一种优势互补关系,对外来劳动力歧视有悖于社会公平理论,同时政府的强行调控政策也不利于劳动力市场的发展。政府的职责应该是尽可能地创造出健康、有序、公平的市场秩序,让市场在调节劳动力供需和结构性短缺上发挥决定性作用。     

Cyclically‐Neutral Generational Accounting

This paper introduces a key methodological innovation into generational accounting. By incorporating cyclically‐adjusted balances into the forward‐looking budget projections underlying the concept, we isolate pure policy effects, which render comparisons of the fiscal sustainability indicators obtained across time and countries truly meaningful. We also show that a demographic effect and a debt effect may drive fiscal sustainability measures over time, and establish a routine to control for these effects in the generational accounting framework. An empirical application for Spain illustrates that our proposed decomposition of indicators is empirically relevant. Standard generational accounting suggests that fiscal sustainability in Spain improved substantially in preparing for EMU. However, calculation of the pure policy effects reveals that this has not been the case.     

Currency intervention and the global portfolio balance effect: Japanese lessons

This paper extends the analysis of Bernanke et al. (2004) to show that the official Japanese purchases of foreign exchange in 2003–04 seem to have lowered long-term interest rates not only in the United States, but in a wide range of countries, including Japan. It seems that this decline was triggered by the investment of the intervention proceeds in US bonds and that global portfolio rebalancing spread the resulting decline in US dollar yields to bond markets in other currencies, thus easing global monetary conditions. We also show that the global portfolio balance effect is detectable in the response of yields to large Japanese intervention in data before and after 2003/04, though the effect is weaker. While our findings contribute to a growing body of work that points to common responses across bond markets to official portfolio shifts in the form of large-scale bond purchases (“quantitative easing”), our analysis has the advantage of focusing on a pure portfolio shock.     

Time heals many wounds – explaining the immediate and delayed effects of message sidedness

This study investigates the immediate and delayed effects of advertising messages including both positive and negative information. A two-sided message has a negative effect on message attitudes due to two mediating variables with trade-off effects: valence and balance. These two variables are also responsible for the alignment of the effect of sidedness on message attitudes and purchase intentions over time: the negative effects of two-sided messages are neutralized over time because negative information is reevaluated, improving the valence of the message. The results explain the negative effects of message sidedness that have been found in prior research and they show that a two-sided message in advertising is not necessarily inferior to a one-sided message despite unfavorable short-term effects.     

发达经济体中央银行资产负债表管理及对我国的启示

中央银行资产负债表既是表示自身财务状况的会计报表,也是中央银行法定职责履行情况的综合反映。近年来,央行资产负债表正逐步成为公众评价货币政策效果、形成政策预期的重要渠道,同时,各国央行也更加关注自身资产负债表的持续健康问题。本文通过分析2006年以来部分发达经济体央行的资产负债表规模和结构变化,重点揭示了其防范和降低资产负债表风险所采取的控制措施,以期为央行更好地开展资产负债表管理提供参考。     

论供热空调系统中水力平衡技术的应用

文中阐述了暖通空调水系统中选用水力平衡阀的原因,并介绍了水力平衡阀的特性及各种水力平衡阀在暖通空调系统中的应用,提出解决水力平衡的若干方法。     

离子-电子法配平氧化还原反应式的简易方法

用离子-电子法配平氧化还原反应方程式时,无论在什么介质下反应,配平时先按酸性介质进行配平,然后再根据实际介质,采取在反应式两边添加一定数量OH-的方法进行转变。该方法化难为易,易于掌握,特别是对于在碱性和中性介质中进行复杂的氧化还原反应方程式的配平尤为简便快捷。     

美元贬值下的人民币汇率制度选择

2002年以来，美元汇率持续贬值，对世界经济及我国经济产生了重大影响。对人民币实质汇率水平也产生了重大影响，人民币实质汇率水平的决定除了取决于美元趋势外，主要还受国内宏观经济的变化趋势、国际收支的变化趋势的影响。为此，我国应在保持人民币汇率稳定前提下，尽快培育和完善人民币汇率市场，形成机制，增强汇率杠杆对经济的调节作用，推动外汇市场的管理创新，增强交易主体的竞争力。     

论“互惠性”假设对“经济人”假设的非理性冲击——基于委托代理模型的分析

互惠性偏好是行为经济理论中的一个重要研究领域,对传统的理性＂经济人＂假设提出了现实性的挑战。借助于激励理论中的委托--代理模型,通过互惠性假设下与＂经济人＂假设下的博弈均衡解的对比分析可知,新古典体系中的最优契约均衡存在着帕累托改进的可能。互惠性行为下的经济收益可以大于自利性行为下的经济收益,经济个体可以通过经济行为的调整与分配机制的变更来获取更大的利益,并促进组织利益、群体利益与社会利益的扩张。研究表明,长期在经济理论中居于主导地位＂经济人＂假设在现代经济社会中的实践性日渐衰退,包括＂互惠性＂假设在内的非理性假设存在着较高的现实意义。互惠性理论的提出不仅动摇了传统经济理论的基础,也促进了管理理论与管理行为的变革。互惠性理论从一个侧面为行为经济学提供了坚实的理论基础,巩固了行为经济学在现代经济理论中的卓越性地位。