Is it one break or ongoing permanent shocks that explains U.S. real GDP?

The relative importance of permanent versus cyclical shocks to GDP has been found to depend on the presence or absence of a single break in mean growth. We estimate unobserved components models conditional on a trend break having occurred in any specified quarter and use the Bayesian model averaging to combine the conditional estimates. We estimate a break occurred around 2006:1. Allowing for a break significantly reduces estimates of trend variance. However, enough spread remains in the posterior distribution to indicate that available data does not definitively settle the question of the relative importance of trend versus cycle.     

Cross-hedging strategies between CDS spreads and option volatility during crises

This paper presents a joint analysis of the term structure of credit default swap (CDS) spreads and the implied volatility surface for five European countries from 2007 to 2012, a sample period covering both the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and the European debt crisis. We analyze to which extent effective cross-hedges can be performed between the credit and equity derivatives markets during these two crises. We find that during a global crisis a breakdown of the relationship between credit risk and equity volatility may occur, jeopardizing any cross-hedging strategy, which happened during the GFC. This stands in sharp contrast to the more localized European debt crisis, during which this fundamental relationship was preserved despite turbulent market conditions for both the CDS and volatility markets.     

Comparing efficiency of holding business model and individual management model of airports

This research compares the efficiency of holding business model to individual management model of airports, employing some robust non-parametric partial frontier-based methods to compare the statistical distributions of efficiency, under different scenarios, to find out which group of airports yields better global performance. The comparison between groups will follow a Malmquist index decomposition, which seems to be the most appropriate tool for within- and inter-group performance comparison. For this purpose, a sample of 145 airports from three continents is utilized. The results provide evidence that European airports are the most productive ones, and within this cluster, the individual management model presented a significant frontier shift with respect the holding cluster frontier, meaning that the former is much more productive than the latter.     

An integrated academic literacy approach to improving students’ understanding of plagiarism in an accounting course

Plagiarism in higher education is a widespread and complex issue. Students' understanding of plagiarism differs as a result of combining their prior learning about referencing with their current experience of institutional policies and generic resources. Plagiarism was identified as a major learning issue in a core second-year undergraduate accounting course at an Australian university. The purpose of this field study was to implement and evaluate an educative, integrated, discipline-specific intervention designed to address this learning issue. In the study, the theoretical and practical components of understanding plagiarism are identified as conceptualisation and application. Evaluation of students’ questionnaire responses pre and post the implementation of the intervention showed an improvement in their understanding of plagiarism, both conceptually and in the application of their knowledge. Furthermore, students’ reflections evidenced that they perceived positive changes in their understanding of plagiarism post intervention.     

A number‐of‐modes reference rule for density estimation under multimodality

We consider kernel density estimation for univariate distributions. The question of interest is as follows: given that the data analyst has some background knowledge on the modality of the data (for instance, ‘data of this type are usually bimodal’), what is the adequate bandwidth to choose? We answer this question by extending Silverman's idea of ‘normal‐reference’ to that of ‘reference to a Gaussian mixture’. The concept is illustrated in the light of real data examples.     

Raising the bar (4)

This editorial summarizes and comments on the papers published in issue 11(4) so as to raise the bar in applied spatial economic research and highlight new trends. The first paper deals with common factors and spatial dependence in the error term specification of a production function model. The second paper sets forth a New Economic Geography (NEG) model with production activities that vary in their complexity, so as to analyse the impact on specialization patterns across different regions. The third paper measures the efficiency of local public investments using a relatively unknown econometric technique in which the time span over which the variables in the regression equation are measured is increased by one time period every run. The fourth paper adopts a conditional quantile regression approach to determine the impact of people employed in informal jobs on the wage distribution in Colombia and five of its regions. Finally, the last paper proposes and tests two new Bayesian variable selection approaches for spatial econometric models.     

The trend of the Gini coefficient of China (1978–2010)

ABSTRACT

This study proposes a new approach to analyse the effects of an overlap term on the calculation of the overall Gini coefficient and estimates China’s Gini ratios since the adoption of the economic reform and open-door policies. A decomposition of the Chinese Gini coefficient for 1978–2010 reveals that the key factor contributing to income inequalities is the income disparity between rural and urban inhabitants. We further investigate the features of this income inequality between rural and urban areas and employ statistical approaches to evaluate the effects of urbanisation and rural-to-urban average income on nationwide income inequality. The results show that accelerating the pace of urbanisation is mainly responsible for decreasing China’s income disparity. Drawing on these results, we conclude with suggestions for related policies.     

我国社会保障支出的地区差异分析

文章首先运用GE指数分解法,分析我国社会保障支出区域差异及贡献率;然后运用GINI系数分解法,分析社会保障各项支出对总体差异的贡献率。结果表明:三大区域总体、区域内及区域间的差异基本呈下降趋势,期间略有起伏,但区域内差异远远大于区域间差异;东部、中部和西部地区差异变动趋势不一致,且对总体差异的贡献率差别较大;社会保障各项支出的贡献率差异较大,其中社会保障补助支出成为总体差异的主体因素。文章最后对实际测算结果作进一步分析,并提出相应的政策建议。     

基于VAR模型的江苏省投资、消费与经济增长实证分析

本文利用江苏省1980年到2007年经济数据,在VAR模型的基础上,运用协整检验、格兰杰因果检验、脉冲响应分析和方差分解的方法对江苏省的投资、消费与经济增长之间的关系进行实证分析。结果发现,投资、消费和经济增长之间具有长期均衡关系,江苏省地区生产总值的增长与投资和消费都具有双向因果关系,消费对经济增长的贡献度比投资更大。因此,通过提高居民收入水平,才能刺激消费,促进江苏经济健康发展。     

基于ISE的供应链联盟企业间信息集成共享系统

在供应链管理实践中,信息共享不仅能促进合作企业间的相互信任,还能加快供应链整体对市场变化的响应速度。因此,文中首先从供应链战略联盟企业间信息共享的障碍入手,分析实现这种信息共享的客观约束条件。基于此,根据集成开发环境(Integrated Develop Environment,IDE)的理论构造出供应链集成共享环境(Integrated Share Environment,ISE)。最后,建立一个供应链战略联盟集成共享系统,该系统能够实现供应链上所有企业信息系统的集成以及企业内、外部信息资源的共享,从而有效解决供应链战略联盟企业间信息共享问题。