Study of Effective Corporate Tax Rate and Its Influential Factors: Empirical Evidence from Emerging European Markets

This article examines the driving factors of the effective corporate tax rate (ECTR) for a sample of companies listed on five Eastern European stock exchanges (Romania, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, and Slovenia), covering the period 2000–2016. The empirical research covers variables regarding firm characteristics (e.g., profitability, efficiency of assets, indebtedness, liquidity, and solvency), firm-level controls, auditing fees, and the statutory rate. The estimated panel data models provide support for a positive link between the ECTR and profitability, debt, capital and inventory intensity, firm size, and statutory rate, strengthening the validity of political cost theory. Further, the negative link between market capitalization and assets growth supports the idea of political power theory.     

Nature of comovements in US state and MSA housing prices

This study analyzes the time-varying nature and determinants of comovements in US housing prices using state and metropolitan statistical area (MSA) data. We employ dynamic factor models with time-varying loadings and stochastic volatility (DFM-TV-SV) to estimate the national, regional, and state factors. The time-varying factor loadings and stochastic volatility features enrich the dynamic factor model structures and are an effective tool to examine the comovements in housing prices. We find that the national factor is the dominant factor in explaining the movement of housing prices. The national factor accounts for 79% of the variation in state-level housing prices on average, with the greatest magnitude occurring during the housing boom and bust periods in many regions and states. We also find that the factors and synchronization effects are time-varying and heterogeneous across regions. The state-level housing prices contain higher national housing factor components in states with more diverse economies, higher wages and house prices, and lower unemployment rates. These findings shed light on the effectiveness of residential real estate diversification across the United States and the potential for elevated national housing risk amid economic downturns due to increased national housing price integration.     

How accurate is the integrated vendor–buyer continuous model?

The classic single-item, deterministic-demand, integrated vendor–buyer model is revisited. The decision problem may also be viewed as that of one centralized firm, dealing with a two-level EOQ-like supply chain with finite production rates. It is sought to optimize the production lot-size and the integral number of its shipments, in equal batches, from the vendor to the buyer. While the problem calls for discrete optimization techniques, we introduced a continuous model where one can take derivatives with respect to both variables. In this short paper, we establish a 98.5% lower bound on the accuracy of this continuous model.     

Combining Judgment and Models

This paper proposes a parsimonious and model‐consistent method for combining forecasts generated by structural microfounded models and judgmental forecasts. The method delivers along several dimensions. First, it improves the forecasting performance of the model. Second, it allows interpreting the judgmental forecasts through the lens of the model. Finally, it provides a framework to assess the informational content of the judgmental forecasters. I illustrate the proposed methodology with a real‐time forecasting exercise using a simple neo‐Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model and the Survey of Professional Forecasters.     

A jump-diffusion model for the euro overnight rate

In this work we introduce a jump-diffusion process for the euro overnight rate (the European over night index average) that is able to capture the main characteristics of this rate: (i) dynamics constrained to remain in the corridor of official rates fixed by the European Central Bank; (ii) mean reversion towards the official rate on main refinancing operations; and (iii) highly discontinuous pattern (with jumps), also without variations in the official rate. After calibrating the model parameters on historical data, we implement the model to price an overnight indexed swap. Finally, a comparison between our model and the most common short-term interest rate models is presented.     

Bayesian Evaluation of DSGE Models with Financial Frictions

We evaluate two most popular approaches to implementing financial frictions into DSGE models: the Bernanke, Gertler, and Gilchrist ( 1999 ) setup, where frictions affect the price of loans, and the Kiyotaki and Moore ( 1997 ) model, where they concern the quantity of loans. We take both models to the data and check how well they fit it on several margins. Overall, comparing the models favors the Bernanke, Gertler, and Gilchrist framework. However, even this model does not make a clear improvement over the New Keynesian benchmark in terms of marginal likelihood and similarity of impulse responses to those obtained from a VAR.     

Seasonal poverty in Madagascar: magnitude and solutions

Seasonal reductions in food consumption pull about one million Malagasy below the poverty line during the lean season. There they join the nine million more who remain chronically undernourished throughout the year. Because the seasonality of food shortages coincides with the increased prevalence of diarrhea and other diseases during the rainy season, the resulting lean season exacts a heavy toll in the form of increased rates of malnutrition and child mortality. Combining the results of recent field studies with a seasonal multi-market model, this paper measures the probable impacts of three common interventions aimed at combatting seasonal food insecurity. We find the most promising interventions to be those that increase agricultural productivity of the secondary food crops such as cassava, other roots and tubers, and maize.     

基于协同理论的复合型高技能电子商务人才培养模式创新与实践

以培养复合型高技能人才作为高职高专电子商务专业的目标已经成为了社会各界的共识,但是很多院校在培养复合型电子商务人才时,普遍出现了"复"而不"合"的问题。本文基于协同理论提出了复合型高技能电子商务人才培养的新框架,并从如何协同信息技术和经管知识以形成复合型知识结构、如何协同校企合作以形成复合型能力结构、如何协同专业教育和创新创业教育以形成复合型素质结构等角度进行培养方案设计,以期在理论和实践上为相关院校创新复合型高技能电子商务人才培养模式提供参考。     

Comparing Ranking and Contingent Valuation for Valuing Human Lives, Applying Nested and Non-Nested Logit Models

The aim of this paper is to investigate whetherrespondents perceive a discrete-choice contingentvaluation (DC-CVM) question differently from a rankingquestion. We combine the two approaches to valuepublic projects that try to prevent people from dyingprematurely. The combined valuation procedure enablesus to investigate the internal consistency of theutility structure between choices, applying nested andnon-nested logit models. If the preference structureis allowed to shift, the relative utility weights ofthe attributes differ between the valuation questions,and the willingness-to-pay (WTP) estimate from thecombined procedure changes.     

Environmental sustainability, nonlinear dynamics and chaos

Summary. This paper studies the possibility of nonlinear dynamics in a simple overlapping generations model with the environment – the John-Pecchenino (1994) model. We show that if people's concerns towards greener preferences and the maintenance efficiency relative to degradation are not sufficiently high, cyclically or chaotically fluctuating equilibria are more likely to exist; moreover, under a specific condition, a complicated topological structure might emerge. Our short-run analysis complements John and Pecchenino's long-run analysis and our findings suggest that the associated transition towards an environmentally sustainable state is not trivial. Received: September 10, 1996; revised version: October 2, 1997