Higher Intensity,Higher Profit? Empirical Evidence from Dairy Farming in New Zealand

Over the last two decades there have been significant and well‐documented changes in the nature and structure of New Zealand dairy production. One particular feature has been a marked shift in the ‘input intensity’ of dairy farming systems through increased use of supplementary feed. These changes have generated debate about the impact of dairy farm intensity on the performance of farm businesses and the competitiveness of the New Zealand dairy sector. Using a novel econometric approach, we assess statistically the impact of three types of dairy farming systems on milk production and financial performance, using farm business data provided by DairyBase^®. Our empirical results show that higher input systems perform significantly better physically than lower input systems, but not financially. The disaggregated analysis suggests that the average treatment effects differ by region and performance quantiles.     

基础设施对中国经济增长的影响及机制研究——基于扩展的Barro增长模型

基础设施既可以作为特殊的资本存量直接促进经济增长,又可以通过促进投资和劳动力增加(增加生产要素数量)以及提高存量资本和劳动力的边际生产率(提高生产要素效率)间接促进经济增长。本文构建了一个扩展的Barro经济增长模型,并利用中国1992—2016年省级面板数据和中介效应模型对两条机制进行实证检验。结果发现:基础设施对经济增长具有促进作用,但对交通、能源、通信三类基础设施的影响以及在2008年金融危机前后均表现出异质性。直接效应呈动态上升趋势,中介效应则逐渐下降。针对异质性的原因,本文进一步采用非线性模型进行检验。结果表明我国基础设施对经济增长的促进作用主要表现为规模扩张型、数量型或外延型,而不是以质量型和内涵型为主的形式。能源和通信基础设施对经济增长的总效应具有规模效应,交通基础设施的规模效应不显著,但也对经济增长具有持续促进作用。这说明目前我国三类基础设施仍然具有较大投资潜力。其中的关键是要通过基础设施建设提高生产要素效率。     

An Empirical Study of International Spillover of Sovereign Risk to Bank Credit Risk

The severity and complexity of the recent financial crisis has motivated the need for understanding the relationships between sovereign ratings and bank credit ratings. This is the first study to examine the impact of the “international” spillover of sovereign risk to bank credit risk through both a ratings channel and an asset holdings channel. In the first case, the downgrade of sovereign ratings in GIIPS (Greece, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain) countries leads to rating downgrades of banks in the peripheral countries. The second channel indicates that larger asset holdings of GIIPS debt increases the credit risk of cross‐border banks, and hence, the probabilities of downgrade.     

我国省区环境污染资源损失及其外溢效应研究

测量环境污染损失和资源损耗的经济价值(环境污染资源损失)是制定环境资源政策的关键。为此,沿用世界银行2011年发布的方法测量了我国30个省区2004—2009年的人均环境污染资源损失,分析了它的区域分布特点并验证了其外溢效应的存在性。结果表明,我国省区间人均环境污染资源损失存在显著的正外溢效应。这种效应在空间上表现为损失程度相近的省区彼此集聚,在政策举措上表现为省区的环境资源政策行为相互模仿。这种外溢效应主要源于东部省区内部;其次源于中部与西部跨区之间;另外在中部省区内部以及东部与中部跨区之间也存在一定的正外溢效应。     

基于并联FIR滤波器组的Hammerstein预失真器

采用预失真技术对功率放大器的记忆非线性失真进行补偿的关键是预失真器建模的准确性,尤其是模型对功率放大器逆记忆特性的描述能力。针对目前预失真器模型对功率放大器逆记忆效应描述不充分的问题,提出了将查找表(LUT)级联一个具有并联结构的有限长单位冲激响应(FIR)滤波器组作为实现形式的Hammerstein预失真器,以提高传统Hammerstein预失真器的补偿性能,并采用一种两步算法对其参数进行辨识。仿真实验表明,提出的Hammerstein预失真器能更好地补偿带强记忆效应的功率放大器的非线性失真。     

Adjustment Process of the Price to Book Ratio for Regulated Utilities

This study tests whether shifts in the price to book ratio (PB) of electric utilities follow a partial adjustment rather than the pure adjustment process implied by the cost-plus pricing policy of regulation. The results for utilities are compared to benchmark results for manufacturing firms to highlight the similarity/dissimilarity in the time-series behavior of PB for regulated and non-regulated firms. It is shown that shifts in PB follow a partial adjustment process. The adjustment period is longer for utilities than for manufacturing firms and extends well beyond the average regulatory lag. Moreover, shifts in PB are associated with changes in future profits and investments.     

跨国直接投资对东道国就业的影响

跨国直接投资在促进东道国经济发展的同时，在很大程度上对东道国的就业产生影响，特别是在发展中国家。论文分析了跨国直接投资对东道国就业的直接影响与间接影响，并对国内外学者的研究进行了阐述，最后，论文分析了该领域内存在的不足。     

The Role of Financial Ratios in the Variance of Stock Trading Volume in Emerging Stock Markets

The study used quarterly panel data of 6 years from 2010 to 2015 of all companies listed on both Vietnamese stock markets including the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange and Ha Noi Stock Exchange, and on three leading industries consisting of insurance-banking, foodstuff, and real estate to explore the relationship among four key financial ratios and stock trading volume. Two models, fixed effects model (FEM) and random effects model (REM), with robust standard errors, were applied for this study. The key findings showed that earnings before tax on sales, debt on owner’s equity, and owner’s equity on total assets significantly influenced trading volume.     

Sensory Aspects of Retailing: Theoretical and Practical Implications

Sensory elements are an important aspect of both offline and online retail stores and can non-consciously influence consumer judgments and purchase behavior. In offline settings, ambient factors like scent, lighting, and music have been shown to influence customers’ shopping experiences and their buying behaviors. For online retail outlets, sensory factors related to color, display patterns, and layouts can have significant effects on consumer behavior. Sensory elements have strong managerial relevance since they can non-consciously influence behaviors and because they are relatively easy to change; for example, it requires minimal effort to change the lighting or the music at a physical retail store or the display pattern for an online store. The eight papers in this special issue address theoretical and practical issues related to how different sensory elements can strongly influence retail practices. These papers focus on underexplored topic areas and also on emerging technologies, which stimulate thoughts for further research in these areas.     

Well-being effects of self-employment: A spatial inquiry

Our paper presents an empirical analysis of entrepreneurial well-being using a large-scale longitudinal household survey from the UK that tracks almost 50,000 individuals across seven waves over the period 2009–2017, as well as a number of exploratory case studies. We contribute to the existing literature by investigating how entrepreneurial well-being varies across locations along the urban-rural continuum, and across wealthy-deprived neighbourhoods. We use a Coarsened Exact Matching (CEM) approach to compare the well-being outcomes of individuals who switch into self-employment from waged employment, and show that entrepreneurial well-being, in the form of job satisfaction, is significantly higher for those living in semi-urban locations, relative to those living in urban and rural locations. We argue that semi-urban locations provide an optimal combination of ease of doing business and quality of life. Our results also show that individuals in wealthy neighbourhoods who switch into self-employment experience higher job satisfaction than otherwise comparable individuals living in materially deprived neighbourhoods, although the latter experience greater levels of life satisfaction following the switch.