Replacing the Stability and Growth Pact?

The euro-zone division between a single, federal monetary system and separate national fiscal systems is troublesome. The attempt to deal with it via the Stability and Growth Pact has not succeeded. Any hopes that the function of stabilizing asymmetric shocks might be shifted to the federal centre have been dashed by the referendums. I argue that the main concern over the event of a failure of a nation state in the euro-area to meet its debts is the contagious effect that that would currently have on its domestic financial intermediaries. So the proper response would be to enforce significant incremental capital requirements on financial institutions' holdings of such debt.Financial Market Group London School of Economics—United Kingdom. Presidential Address at the Sixty-First International Atlantic Economic Conference, March 15–19, 2006 Berlin, Germany. Presidential Address at the Sixty-First International Atlantic Economic Conference, March 15–19, 2006 Berlin, Germany. My thanks are due to Peter Kenen, Jacques Melitz, Warren Mosler, Waltraud Schelke and Randy Wray and to the editors of this journal fortheir most helpful suggestions, corrections, and advice. All remaining errors are my own.     

Non‐parametric Modelling of Spatial Price Relationships

We apply non‐parametric methods to a consideration of price transmission processes within US egg markets at the turn of the nineteenth century. Gordon (National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 7833, 2000) labelled this as an era of ‘Great Inventions’ which contributed to the subsequent years of significant productivity growth and noted that the development of mechanical refrigeration and transportation technologies played an important role in this growth. Our models present certain advantages relative to parametric models traditionally employed in price transmission analyses. We compare results derived from local polynomial modelling with those obtained using non‐linear threshold models. Both techniques suggest that US egg markets were interrelated at the turn of the nineteenth century. However, non‐parametric techniques often suggest a higher degree of price transmission than that implied by threshold models. Results also suggest that threshold models may have difficulties in adequately capturing price relationship dynamics, especially when these are of a highly nonlinear nature.     

Price clustering on the limit-order book: Evidence from the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong

We examine the clustering pattern in trade and quote prices on the electronic limit order book of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (SEHK). Earlier research into clustering focuses on transaction prices only. We study clustering on quote prices over a maximum of five queues on the limit order book. We observe an abnormally high frequency of even and integer prices in trade and quote prices for all tick size groups on the SEHK. The deeper quotes display stronger clustering than the best quotes, indicating that the farther away the quotes are from the best queue, the less information they carry. Our analysis further reveals that an extremely fine tick size itself works as a binding constraint to hinder the price resolution process. We also find that short sale prohibition imposed on the majority of stocks listed on the SEHK causes a significant bias in clustering towards the ask side of the limit order book. This implies that a short sale prohibition impairs efficient price discovery in the market.     

Optimum Currency Areas Under Inflation Targeting

Several countries face the choice between targeting inflation independently and entering a monetary union that targets inflation. The present paper extends the theory of optimum currency areas to deal with this choice. In contrast to the conventional theory, countries might form more of an optimum currency area the more asymmetric supply shocks are.     

我国电力价格问题分析与改革建议

本文首先从经济学角度分析了自然垄断行业的定价,回顾并分析了中国20世纪80年代以来的电价改革,指出了前两次改革的得失,然后针对中国的电力定价机制,分析了现行电价存在的问题,最后从政府和企业两个方面提出了相应的措施。     

Stochastic Conditional Intensity Processes

In this article, we introduce the so-called stochastic conditionalintensity (SCI) model by extending Russell’s (1999) autoregressiveconditional intensity (ACI) model by a latent common dynamicfactor that jointly drives the individual intensity components.We show by simulations that the proposed model allows for awide range of (cross-)autocorrelation structures in multivariatepoint processes. The model is estimated by simulated maximumlikelihood (SML) using the efficient importance sampling (EIS)technique. By modeling price intensities based on NYSE trading,we provide significant evidence for a joint latent factor andshow that its inclusion allows for an improved and more parsimoniousspecification of the multivariate intensity process.     

资源性商品价格暴涨原因探析

近年来,促使资源性商品价格暴涨的原因可从根本原因、物质原因、金融原因、技术原因以及基础性支撑原因等几个方面进行分析,这些因素在近期仍将存在,将继续支撑资源性商品价格上涨.     

芦笋的综合加工利用

综述了芦笋的营养价值和生理功能,介绍了从植株废弃物中提取芦丁、多糖、菝葜皂甙元、种子油等活性物质的工艺;同时对芦笋种子的营养成分进行了分析评价.     

自卸汽车加伍德式举升机构优化设计数学模型

文章建立了自卸汽车加伍德式举升机构优化设计数学模型,给出了其优化设计目标函数min(KO)=min[(XG·DAEC)/(DOEC·DAEB)]和其评价指标α=Pmax/P-1,并介绍了约束条件的给出方法以及本优化设计数学模型的应用注意事项,为企业的自卸汽车设计提供了一套良好的设计方法。     

住宅价格的评估方法研究

本文介绍了在成熟住宅市场上广泛使用的两种基本住宅价格评估方法:效用价格法和重复销售价格,比较了两种估价方法的优缺点,并针对我国现状,指出加强住宅价格评估实证研究的意义。