Global imbalances and dynamics of international financial markets

We provide an overview of the special issue “Global Imbalances and dynamics of international financial markets”. This special issue, which is associated with the 7th International Finance Conference, features research papers dealing with the impact of global imbalances, market complexity, and the impact of the recent global financial crisis on the conduct of monetary policies, financial market dynamics, financial stability, and risk management models.     

论现代予力砼结构设计概念的发展

简述50余年来预应力砼概念发展阶段和予力概念的形成，以及予力结构的特点和设计方法的开拓。     

谈桥梁裂缝在道桥工程中的影响

本人结合多年参与公路桥梁现场施工工作实践,对部分桥梁在建设过程中常见的一些裂缝类型进行归类总结,通过查找原因分析问题,才能让我们真正地了解各种裂缝的引发成因,进而制订防范措施,达到预防布控之目的。     

建筑空间限制条件下运用空心无梁楼盖设计实例分析

如今随着我国建筑技术的不断发展成熟,空心无量楼盖设计技术已经得到了比较广泛的应用,但是在施工过程中还存在一些问题需要注意。     

Government intervention,sectoral productivity growth and structural transformation

This article examines the long-term impact of government intervention and sectoral productivity on structural transformation. We construct a multi-sector Dynamic General Equilibrium model that explicitly incorporates government intervention as a force of structural transformation. The government affects the economy through taxation and lump sum transfers. We show that in the steady state, a reduction in the tax rate and an increase in sectoral productivity will decrease the agricultural employment share, and when nonhomotheticity of preference is strong enough, these changes can also increase the share of services employment.     

Effects of the structural change on transaction costs between North America natural gas spot markets

Threshold cointegration between market pairs before and after the potential structural break associated with the shale gas revolution is examined. Pairwise transaction costs differ between the pre- and post-break periods. During the post-break period, five of seven pairwise transaction costs decrease, while the remaining two pair-wise transaction costs increase relative to the pre-break period. Alterations in natural gas flows as the result of the shale gas revolution partially explain the changes in transaction costs.     

LM cointegration tests allowing for an unknown number of breaks: implications for the forward rate unbiasedness hypothesis

This article extends the Lagrange multiplier (LM) cointegration test proposed by Westerlund and Edgerton (WE 2007) by allowing for an unknown number of breaks. Monte Carlo simulations provide two main results. First, a loss of power in the LM cointegration tests is detected when potential multiple breaks are ignored. Second, the modified testing procedures do not affect the asymptotic distribution and major properties of the tests of WE under the null, but noticeably increase their testing power in presence of multiple breaks. We also provide empirical applications of the proposed tests for the forward rate unbiasedness hypothesis (FRUH). The results reveal that the FRUH does hold when the effects of the multiple structural breaks are taken into account.     

Dynamic R&D choice and the impact of the firm's financial strength

ABSTRACT

This article investigates how a firm's financial strength affects its dynamic decision to invest in R&D. We estimate a dynamic model of R&D choice using data for German firms in high-tech manufacturing industries. The model incorporates a measure of the firm's financial strength, derived from its credit rating, which is shown to lead to substantial differences in estimates of the costs and expected long-run benefits from R&D investment. Financially strong firms have a higher probability of generating innovations from their R&D investment, and the innovations have a larger impact on productivity and profits. Averaging across all firms, the long-run benefit of investing in R&D equals 6.6% of firm value. It ranges from 11.6% for firms in a strong financial position to 2.3% for firms in a weaker financial position.     

The Measurement and Structural Modeling of the Reasonableness of Workplace Accommodations

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) guarantees protection from discrimination for persons with a disability. The ADA requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for persons with physical and mental disabilities unless doing so would produce undue hardship on the organization. Fifteen years after the passage of the ADA, the question as to what is a reasonable accommodation remains controversial, especially for some types of disabilities. In this study, a reasonable accommodation scale is proposed and tested using structural equation modeling in hopes that such a scale will aid the courts and organizations in determining what is reasonable. Individuals’ level of awareness of disability issues is also examined in the model to examine the relationship between awareness and willingness to accommodate. Results indicate acceptable fit of the model to the data and provide support for the proposed scale. Furthermore, the relationship between awareness of disability issues and willingness to accommodate was significant. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Unemployment persistence in OECD countries after the Great Recession

The 2008 economic downturn in the United States resulted in a wave of contractionary effects across many OECD countries. This paper investigates the pattern of the unemployment persistence in the United States and other 28 OECD countries before and after the Great Recession. To detect possible changes in the pattern of unemployment persistence, we employ a mean bias-corrected estimation of the persistence parameter with a rolling window of five years. In addition, we estimate the most likely date of change in the trend function of unemployment to test whether there was any significant change in the pattern of unemployment persistence after the Great Recession. We find significant evidence of a structural break and hysteresis in unemployment rates, with a persistence parameter close to unity, across the United States and other 28 OECD countries. Besides, bootstrap permutation tests show that all half-lives and impulse response functions have significantly changed after the Great Recession. Therefore, our findings call for structural reforms aimed at improving labor market performance, to prevent upward shifts in unemployment across OECD countries from becoming permanent.