Relative Guarantees

Many real-world financial contracts have some sort of minimum rate of return guarantee included. One class of these guarantees is so-called relative guarantees, i.e., guarantees where the minimum guaranteed rate of return is given as a function of the stochastic return on a reference portfolio. These guarantees are the topic of this paper. We analyse a wide range of different functional specifications for the minimum guaranteed rate of return, hereunder both so-called maturity and multi-period guarantees. Several closed form solutions are presented.     

Software for Learning and for Doing Statistics

The community of statisticians and statistics educators should take responsibility for the evaluation and improvement of software quality from the perspective of education. The paper will develop a perspective, an ideal system of requirements to critically evaluate existing software and to produce future software more adequate both for learning and doing statistics in introductory courses. Different kinds of tools and microworlds are needed. After discussing general requirements for such programs, a prototypical ideal software system will be presented in detail. It will be illustrated how such a system could be used to construct learning environments and to support elementary data analysis with exploratory working style.     

试论生态林业系统的时空观

生态林业系统具有时间、空间两个序列的开发前景。长周期,大跨度的生态林业生产可以分解为复合的短周期方式,使生态意识与经济效益有机结合。空间组合的多层次立体开发有效地利用了光、热、水、土资源,并获得最大生物量;地域组合着眼宏观,注重研究大型骨干及网络性生态工程问题。     

Believing in employment discrimination: The case of Forrest Mims,Scientific American,and title VII protection

This article reviews the law regarding Title VII employment discrimination protection from religious discrimination. The issues surrounding the principal legal protection in this regard are explored in the context of a recent controversial case in which an author, Forrest Mims, was not hired as a regular contributor forScientific American magazine, ostensibly because of his belief in the theory of creation over the theory of evolution. The definition of what constitutes a protected religious belief or practice is seen to have expanded over time. However, a belief in creationism is not necessarily seen as being tantamount to a religious belief under present legal interpretation of Title VII. The implications of this finding for future needed Title VII revision are discussed.     

营销角度的特许经营及其竞争法上的思考

特许经营是一种新型的销售方式,作为企业分销系统的构成要素,能够起到降低风险,沟通生产与消费的作用。然而在实际经营过程中也会出现许多诸如指定购买与搭售、联合定价、独占经营等违反竞争法的问题。为适应不断变化的竞争形势,应从竞争法的层面上对其加以规制。     

卡夫卡小说的思想与艺术特色散论

奥地利作家弗朗兹·卡夫卡小说的思想特色主要是深刻反映了资本主义社会的"人的异化"、暴露资本主义社会的腐朽专横和野蛮残忍及一些人的心理变态,艺术特点主要是表现主义、象征主义和超现实主义.     

公路建设中路线方案多属性决策方法的研究

路线方案的比选是公路建设项目前期的一项重要工作,直接影响着项目建设能否达到预期的目标以及项目投入运营中的使用效果,如行车的安全性、舒适性、快捷性等。进行路线方案比选时,要考虑路线的线形合理性、对周边地区环境影响,项目经济效益、施工难易等多种因素对影响。本文在分析路线方案比选复杂性的基础上,对多种决策方法进行对比,选择TOPSIS法作为路线方案的决策方法。算例的结果表明该方法应用的可行性和有效性。     

关于健全独立董事制度的若干思考

入世给我国中小企业的发展带来了机遇与挑战。培育核心竞争力是其抓住机遇 ,应对挑战 ,走向成功的关键所在。文章在分析了我国中小企业面临困境的基础上 ,提出了培育我国中小企业核心竞争力 ,促进我国中小企业发展的方法和措施。     

Efficient Liability Rules: Complete Characterization

Received May, 18, 2000; revised version received March, 19, 2001     

The “swing of the pendulum” from public to market support for science and technology: Is the U.S. leading the way?

The structure and financing of science and technology activities are undergoing a slow, but profound, change. This change can be briefly characterized as a shift from relying and supporting public science to a stronger emphasis on “market-based” incentives for science and technology. In this paper we analyze this shift in a historical perspective, discussing both the theoretical explanations and the empirical trends of the ongoing change. While we do not claim to provide a comprehensive and exhaustive identification of the causes of this shift, we argue that it is largely driven by the perception of a shift of the U.S. policy towards market-based, rather than publicly supported, incentives for science and technology. This, in turn—given the strong economic performance of the United States over the 1990s—has influenced policies in most OECD countries, especially in Europe.We conclude by analyzing the evolution of research in U.S. higher education and find two major trends: an increasing diversity in the number of institutions of different types other than universities and a steady and continuous public funding of the leading U.S. universities. This has allowed the construction of an infrastructure now used largely by the private sector, but it also noted that the United States has not compromised public support for core areas or in those fields in which there is a clear perception that market incentives are not sufficient for meeting the strategic targets of the U.S. policy. The implication is that there is a considerable policy diversity in the U.S. practice and that all aspects of this diversity should be considered when using the United States as a reference.