Poverty Reduction in China： The Contribution of Popularizing Primary Education

Using the instrumental variable model and the regression discontinuity approach,this paper explores how access to primary education affects the Chinese labor market and helps people to escape poverty.Several important findings are obtained.The popularization of primary education has significantly reduced poverty in China,especially in urban areas.In contrast,the Compulsory Education Law has not been well implemented for older children in rural areas.In addition,the labor market premium for completing primary education is much larger in urban areas than in rural areas.Poor rural school quality might explain this rural-urban disparity.Effort needs to be made to further reduce poverty by ensuring adequate financial resources for primary education in poor areas and improving school quality in rural China.     

Noise trading and prime and score premiums

This paper documents that a common element drives the time-series variation of the premium pricing of Primes and Scores. I argue that this common element is noise trading. The noise trading model of Delong, Shleifer, Summers and Waldmann (1990) predicts that returns on assets that are predominantly traded by noise traders will be correlated, since the misperceptions of noise traders are cross-sectionally correlated. Consistent with the noise trading hypothesis, changes in the average premium of Primes and Scores, which are predominantly traded by individual investors, are correlated with both changes in average discounts of closed-end funds and small firms returns. These empirical facts provide additional evidence that noise traders can affect security prices.     

Domain-independent approach to risk reduction

Abstract

The popular domain-specific approach to risk reduction created the illusion that efficient risk reduction can be delivered successfully solely by using methods offered by the specific domain. As a result, many industries have been deprived of efficient risk reducing strategy and solutions. This paper argues that risk reduction is underlined by domain-independent methods and principles which, combined with knowledge from the specific domain, help to generate effective risk reduction solutions. In this respect, the paper introduces a powerful method for reducing the likelihood of computational errors based on combining the domain-independent method of segmentation and local knowledge of the chain rule for differentiation. The paper also demonstrates that lack of knowledge of domain-independent principles for risk reduction misses opportunities to reduce the risk of failure even in a mature field like stress analysis. The domain-independent methods for risk reduction do not rely on reliability data or knowledge of physical mechanisms underlying possible failure modes and are particularly well suited for developing new designs, with unknown failure mechanisms and failure history. In many cases, the reliability improvement and risk reduction by using the domain-independent methods reduces risk at no extra cost or at a relatively small cost. The presented domain-independent methods work across unrelated domains and this is demonstrated by the supplied examples which range from various areas of engineering and technology, computer science, project management, health risk management, business and mathematics. The domain-independent risk reduction methods presented in this paper promote building products and systems characterised by high-reliability and resilience.     

Information reduction via level crossings in a credit risk model

This paper provides an alternative credit risk model based on information reduction where the market only observes the firm’s asset value when it crosses certain levels, interpreted as changes significant enough for the firm’s management to make a public announcement. For a class of diffusion processes we are able to provide explicit expressions for the firm’s default intensity process and its zero-coupon bond prices.      

Growth options and poverty reduction in Ethiopia – An economy-wide model analysis

This study focuses on which agricultural subsectors are important in Ethiopia’s economic growth and poverty reduction and what kind of agricultural and nonagricultural growth is needed to achieve the millennium development goal of halving the incidence of poverty by 2015. A spatially disaggregated, economy-wide model was developed, enabling the analysis of growth and poverty reduction linkages at national and regional levels using national household surveys, agricultural sample surveys, geographic information systems, and other national and regional data. The study reveals that agriculture can play a central role in decreasing poverty and increasing growth in Ethiopia. Within the agriculture, growth in cereals and other staple crops should receive priority. Agricultural growth also requires concurrent investments in roads and other market conditions. At the subnational level, similar growth rates within agricultural subsectors have different effects on poverty, necessitating regionally based strategies for growth and poverty reduction.     

Targeting agricultural research based on potential impacts on poverty reduction: Strategic program priorities by agro-ecological zone in Nigeria

Growing concern for poverty in the face of declining agricultural research budgets has increasingly required formal priority setting of public agricultural research in developing countries to ensure that scarce research resources are allocated in ways that will have the greatest impact on the poor. This paper assessed the potential impacts of alternative commodity research programs on poverty reduction in three agro-ecological zones of Nigeria and identified strategic agricultural research priorities in the three zones. The paper discusses the poverty reduction-based priorities and their role in facilitating dialogue between research managers and policymakers aimed at sharpening the focus of agricultural research to achieve poverty reduction objectives in Nigeria.     

不完备信息系统辐射源威胁等级判定

针对不完备信息系统条件下的辐射源威胁等级判定问题,提出了一种基于改进容差关系粗糙集（ITR-RS）的不完备信息系统辐射源威胁等级判定方法。该方法将粗糙集中的不完备信息系统理论引入辐射源威胁等级判定中,并构建一套完备的决策规则提取模型。此外,利用辨识矩阵实现对属性的约简,在降低系统所需处理数据量的同时,提高了算法的实时性;在容差关系粗糙集的基础上,提出一种改进的容差关系,在属性主、客权重相结合的基础上引入阈值来划分加权阈值容差类,得到更为合理、准确的决策规则。仿真试验及分析表明,与经典RS算法相比,所提算法的威胁等级判定正确率提高了23%,可用于信息系统不完备条件下的辐射源威胁等级判定。     

纺织企业节能减排技术创新的困境及对策研究——以宁波为例

通过对宁波纺织企业节能减排技术创新中面一临问题的调查分析,提出了促进宁波纺织企业节能减排技术创新水平的对策：实施财税激励政策以降低企业节能减排技术创新成本;促成纺织企业联盟以增强中小企业节能减排技术创新能力;建立政府干预与市场运作相结合的节能减排技术服务平台。     

布什政府的社会保障政策

党派对立不利于社会保障政策的稳定。美国克林顿政府的社会保障政策是财政预算余额的大部分用来补充社会保障资金,大力发展社区福利;美国布什政府的社会保障政策是通过减税来减少财政预算余额,社会保障私有化、发展灵活的职工养老金计划。     

智能电网实现低碳效益的作用机理

通过分析智能电网低碳效益的内涵,确定了碳的减排对于智能电网的重要性。分别从清洁发电、降低损耗及负荷整形三个方面探讨了智能电网低碳效益的实现路径。