Deleveraging in a Highly Indebted Property Market: Who does it and are there Implications for Household Consumption?

A distinguishing feature of the period preceding the 2007/2008 financial crisis was the sizeable increase in private sector debt observed across many countries. A key component of household liabilities is mortgage debt and with many countries experiencing persistent increases in house prices from the mid‐1990s, a marked increase in this aspect of household leverage was observed. While aggregate statistics across countries confirm reductions in personal debt levels in recent years, relatively few sources of micro data are available to examine the nature of the deleveraging process at the household level. In this paper, using a unique dataset, we examine deleveraging amongst a representative sample of mortgaged Irish households. We identify the characteristics of households engaged in deleveraging and find that it is those households who can afford to deleverage who do. Furthermore we find some tentative evidence to suggest that the decision to deleverage has negative implications for household consumption.     

R~2、异常收益与交易的信息成分

在CAPM回归中,低R^2的公司的价格是否更有效地反映了公司的特质信息在学术界始终存在争论。在R^2与公司特征变量的横截面检验基础之上,我们通过一个零成本投资组合考察了两个竞争性的理论。结果发现,（1）R^2与公司信息环境有显著关系,而且对于市场信息反应不够有效的公司,R^2会更低;（2）低酽股票组合短期的异常收益有更明显的时间序列可预测性和横截面风险,这说明在我国股市,低群代表了资产价格中更大的噪音成分;（3）股票的R^2与其价格中所包含的信息不对称或逆向选择成分呈负相关。     

Growth,Convergence, and Social Cohesion in the European Union

The aim of this paper is to analyze the economic and social cohesion in the European Union. There are different factors to explain the convergence process and besides, empirical findings are not conclusive. To the European Union, GDP per head interregional differences have decreased for certain periods but it has remained unchanged or even increased for others periods. The second report on the economic and social cohesion indicates that some decades are necessary to eliminate regional differences. These differences in regional GDP are mainly explained by differences in their productive structures, degree of innovate activity, communications structures, which depend on the relative level of transport infrastructures, and manpower qualifications. This analysis allows us to obtain some conclusions to the economic policies and the social cohesion. A preliminary version of this paper was presented in the 57th International Atlantic Conference, held in Lisbon, Portugal, March 10–14, 2004.     

Uncertain spatial demand and price flexibility: A state space approach to duopoly

Sufficient conditions for a unique price equilibrium, in terms of the uncertainty distribution and the state contingent consumer distributions, are given for spatial duopoly. Also considered are efficiency and endogenous locations for the symmetric case and comparative statics on price flexibility.     

Child labor,urban proximity,and household composition

Using detailed survey data from Nepal, this paper examines the determinants of child labor with a special emphasis on urban proximity. We find that children residing in or near urban centers attend school more and work less in total but are more likely to be involved in wage work or in a small business. The larger the urban center, the stronger the effect is. Urban proximity is found to reduce the workload of children and improve school attendance up to 3 h of travel time from the city. In areas of commercialized agriculture located 3 to 7 h from the city, children do more farm work. Urban proximity effects are accounted for by a combination of local labor supply and demand conditions, most notably the local importance of agriculture, the education level of the parents, and the local wage rate. Child servants, which represent a small proportion of all children, work much harder than other children and appear particularly at risk.     

中国企业研发经费投入现状及国际比较

企业是开展创新活动的重要主体,加强企业研发经费投入对提升企业技术创新能力至关重要。本文基于《欧盟产业研发投资记分牌(2019)》和调研数据,从研发经费投入及结构视角分析了我国企业创新活动现状,并与世界主要创新型国家进行了国际比较分析。研究发现:我国企业研发经费投入规模不断扩大,企业已经是研发经费投入主体和执行主体;相比国有企业,民营企业更具研发投资动力,是企业研发经费投入主体;我国企业研发经费投入增速较高,但研发经费投资规模和强度低于世界主要创新型国家;我国企业科学研究经费布局明显低于世界主要创新型国家,严重制约企业自主创新能力提升;我国企业基础研究占比偏低与创新特性、企业使命、发展阶段、企业能力、体制机制等因素有关,新时代应重点引导和激励更多企业向"爱迪生象限"和"巴斯德象限"跃升。     

Big Players in Slovenia

The subjectivism of Austrian economics helps to explain the statistical fact of long memory in asset prices. The theory of Big Players is an Austrian approach to understanding the effects of discretionary policymaking in markets. It leads to implications that can be tested with statistics. In particular, Big Players induce herding and, thereby, an increase of persistence in asset prices. A recent episode in Slovenian monetary theory provides a case study. This case study adds to a set of similar studies, all tending to support the theory of Big Players.     

Is Private R & D Spending Sensitive to Its Price? Empirical Evidence on Panel Data for Italy

In this paper empirical evidence is presented on theelasticity of private R & D spending on its price. Acensored panel-data regression model with random effectsis applied to a balanced panel of 726 Italian firms overthe 1992–1997 period. Implied estimates point out thatItalian firms' response to policy measures (including taxcredits), aimed at reducing the user cost of R & D capital,is likely to be substantial (1.50–1.77). Furthermore, wealso find that the elasticity of R & D spending is higherin recession (2.01) than in expansion (0.87).     

Agglomeration economies and university program creation in the knowledge economy

Existing academic literature on the relationship between agglomeration economies and university activities is both under-theorized and relatively sparse in terms of empirical examination. This paper addresses each of these voids by contributing and analyzing a market model of pro-revenue education program creation such as graduate-level executive business education (e.g. EMBA) that reveals some intriguing characteristics. For instance, it shows that demand for these pro-revenue programs is inelastic and therefore uniquely determines their availability. More specifically, we show that through agglomeration economies these types of education programs are more likely to emanate from universities located in metropolitan areas and from less academically prestigious universities. Regression analysis of a cross-section of national public universities lends support to important facets of our formal model by suggesting that agglomeration economies continue to increase the probability of offering EMBA programs through a city size of approximately 2.12 million and that the probability that a given business school will offer an EMBA is negatively related to the academic prestige of the institution to which it is affiliated.     

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND NON‐MONOTONIC SPATIAL TRANSITIONS

The purpose of the present study is to analyse non‐monotonic spatial changes accompanying economic development. A dynamic two‐region model with endogenous human capital and converging processes to its long‐run equilibria is investigated. The main focus of the present study is to investigate how the level of migration cost influences the shape of a converging process. From the analysis of the model, population distribution draws an inverted‐U‐curve to describe economic development when the cost of migration is low enough. Also, the transition of interregional income inequalities is an inverted‐U when migration cost is at an intermediate level.