Enhancing adaptive transfer of cross-cultural training: Lessons learned from the broader training literature

Drawing insights from the broader training literature, we argue that evaluation of cross-cultural training effectiveness should adopt comprehensive criteria, including cognitive, skill-based, and affective learning outcomes as well as adaptive transfer. We propose that the integration of an error management supplement in cross-cultural training can enhance trainee acquisition of self-regulation skills and self-efficacy that facilitate adaptive application of learning to novel cultural situations. In addition to the traditional error management training designs (i.e., positive error framing), the current paper describes additional design elements to promote acquisition of cognitive strategies, prevent premature automaticity, alleviate concerns about error occurrence during learning, and enhance readiness to transfer. In addition, we offer propositions regarding the effects of the supplement on learning and transfer outcomes, along with implications for future research and practice on cross-cultural training.     

中国输出了“通货紧缩”或“通货膨胀”?

本文首次采用最新发展的有向无环图等技术方法,对中国是否输出通货紧缩以及是否输出通货膨胀这一问题展开综合性、系统性的研究。研究结果表明,在通货膨胀的国际传递中,作为世界第一大经济实体的美国发挥着主导作用,与此同时,无论是在中国通货紧缩时期还是在通货膨胀时期,中国对各主要贸易伙伴国物价水平的冲击均十分微小,因此,中国并非全球通货紧缩或通货膨胀的引发因素。在此研究过程中,最新发展的有向无环图技术等方法的综合运用,在很大程度上增强了本文分析结论的可靠性与合理性。     

An empirical analysis of international labour migration in the Philippines

This study empirically investigates the impact of economic, demographic, and political factors on the size of emigration from the Philippines. In 2007, overseas workers from the Philippines sent remittances in excess of US$14 billion annually to their families back home. Although these remittances are an important source of foreign exchange and play an important role in economic development, the determinants of emigration in the Philippines are not well established. A simple unrestricted error correction model of migration was specified and estimated using data spanning the period 1975–2005. Results indicate that the level of unemployment, adult literacy and population density are the key determinants of emigration in the Philippines. The result also indicates that government instability impacts negatively on emigration in the Philippines. The policy implications of the results are discussed.     

Forecasts of US short-term interest rates: A flexible forecast combination approach

This paper develops a flexible approach to combine forecasts of future spot rates with forecasts from time-series models or macroeconomic variables. We find empirical evidence that, accounting for both regimes in interest rate dynamics, and combining forecasts from different models, helps improve the out-of-sample forecasting performance for US short-term rates. Imposing restrictions from the expectations hypothesis on the forecasting model are found to help at long forecasting horizons.     

Comparing face-to-face meetings, nominal groups, Delphi and prediction markets on an estimation task

We conducted laboratory experiments for analyzing the accuracy of three structured approaches (nominal groups, Delphi, and prediction markets) relative to traditional face-to-face meetings (FTF). We recruited 227 participants (11 groups per method) who were required to solve a quantitative judgment task that did not involve distributed knowledge. This task consisted of ten factual questions, which required percentage estimates. While we did not find statistically significant differences in accuracy between the four methods overall, the results differed somewhat at the individual question level. Delphi was as accurate as FTF for eight questions and outperformed FTF for two questions. By comparison, prediction markets did not outperform FTF for any of the questions and were inferior for three questions. The relative performances of nominal groups and FTF were mixed and the differences were small. We also compared the results from the three structured approaches to prior individual estimates and staticized groups. The three structured approaches were more accurate than participants’ prior individual estimates. Delphi was also more accurate than staticized groups. Nominal groups and prediction markets provided little additional value relative to a simple average of the forecasts. In addition, we examined participants’ perceptions of the group and the group process. The participants rated personal communications more favorably than computer-mediated interactions. The group interactions in FTF and nominal groups were perceived as being highly cooperative and effective. Prediction markets were rated least favourably: prediction market participants were least satisfied with the group process and perceived their method as the most difficult.     

Scoring rules and survey density forecasts

This article provides a practical evaluation of some leading density forecast scoring rules in the context of forecast surveys. We analyse the density forecasts of UK inflation obtained from the Bank of England’s Survey of External Forecasters, considering both the survey average forecasts published in the Bank’s quarterly Inflation Report, and the individual survey responses recently made available to researchers by the Bank. The density forecasts are collected in histogram format, and the ranked probability score (RPS) is shown to have clear advantages over other scoring rules. Missing observations are a feature of forecast surveys, and we introduce an adjustment to the RPS, based on the Yates decomposition, to improve its comparative measurement of forecaster performance in the face of differential non-response. The new measure, denoted RPS*, is recommended to analysts of forecast surveys.     

Electricity price forecasting: A review of the state-of-the-art with a look into the future

A variety of methods and ideas have been tried for electricity price forecasting (EPF) over the last 15 years, with varying degrees of success. This review article aims to explain the complexity of available solutions, their strengths and weaknesses, and the opportunities and threats that the forecasting tools offer or that may be encountered. The paper also looks ahead and speculates on the directions EPF will or should take in the next decade or so. In particular, it postulates the need for objective comparative EPF studies involving (i) the same datasets, (ii) the same robust error evaluation procedures, and (iii) statistical testing of the significance of one model’s outperformance of another.     

FDI、对外贸易与经济增长的协整性研究——以山东省为例

关于利用外资、进出口贸易与经济增长关系的研究一直以来备受关注,但近年来的研究大多致力于两者间关系的独立性研究,其结果往往会使得理论与实证研究的解释力受到影响。对于多个同阶序列变量之间是否存在长期稳定的均衡关系的研究,协整理论具有重要的应用,其既可充分利用信息资源,还有效避免了“伪回归”问题。另外鉴于不同区域问经济发展模式、发展水平的差异性,各经济要素之间的关系也不尽相同,本文采用山东省1984～2007年间24年的统计数据,对该省的外商直接投资、进出口贸易与经济增长之间的相互关系进行了协整性检验和误差修正模型分析,总结得到有关结论：山东省利用外资、进出口贸易与其经济增长之间存在长期均衡关系,但具有区别于其他地区的自身特点。最后,针对山东经济的协调发展提出了若干政策建议。     

汇率波动率与中国对主要贸易伙伴的出口

本文研究汇率波动率对中国向三个主要贸易伙伴美国、欧盟和日本出口的影响。通过协整检验,误差修正模型和Granger非因果检验等方法估计变量间长短期的关系。研究表明,中国向美国和欧盟的实际出口与实际汇率波动率存在长期显著的负相关关系,而中国向日本的出口与汇率波动率无关。短期内汇率波动率只影响中国向美国的出口,对向欧盟和日本的出口没有影响。     

Efficient estimation of forecast uncertainty based on recent forecast errors

Multi-step-ahead forecasts of the forecast uncertainty of an individual forecaster are often based on the horizon-specific sample means of his recent squared forecast errors, where the number of past forecast errors available decreases one-to-one with the forecast horizon. In this paper, the efficiency gains from the joint estimation of forecast uncertainty for all horizons in such samples are investigated. If the forecast uncertainty is estimated by seemingly unrelated regressions, it turns out that the covariance matrix of the squared forecast errors does not have to be estimated, but simply needs to have a certain structure, which is a very useful property in small samples. Considering optimal and non-optimal forecasts, it is found that the efficiency gains can be substantial for longer horizons in small samples. The superior performance of the seemingly-unrelated-regressions approach is confirmed in several empirical applications.