Open Market Operation Effectiveness in China

This paper examines the effectiveness of target rate guidance in open market operation by the central bank in China (PBOC). We find that target rate change in open market operation is effective in adjusting the short-term Treasury rates. The target rate changing direction is more effective than the target rate changing level. There is no significant asymmetry in the effectiveness between the target rate increase and target rate decrease. We also document that the effectiveness of the target rate is conditional on liquidity operation of the same direction, especially when they both aim to loosen the monetary policy. Furthermore, consecutive operations with higher intensity appear to be more effective in adjusting the market interest rate.     

How do stakeholder interactions influence national food security policy in the Caribbean? The case of Saint Lucia

Increasingly, multi-stakeholder processes have been recognized as being necessary to the development of public policies seeking to promote systemic innovation in response to complex and multidimensional challenges, such as household food security, rural development, and environmental change. Saint Lucia, a small island developing state located in the Caribbean, has been grappling with a wide range of agriculture, food and nutrition security challenges with varying degrees of policy success. Recognizing the significance of the challenge, this paper explores the nature of the stakeholder interactions surrounding the development of Saint Lucia’s 2009–2015 National Agricultural Policy and considers some of the implications for food and agriculture-related policy outcomes. Results reveal a general lack of supportive conditions for effective multi-stakeholder processes, including low stakeholder participation levels, conflicting roles of different forms of social capital in the interactions between stakeholders, and missing “boundary” organizations capable of facilitating a transition towards more flexible and adaptive institutions, enhanced knowledge exchange and learning, and greater trust among stakeholders in the policy network. Future avenues for research and development are subsequently identified.     

Can negative interest rates really affect option pricing? Empirical evidence from an explicitly solvable stochastic volatility model

The profound financial crisis generated by the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the European sovereign debt crisis in 2011 have caused negative values of government bond yields both in the USA and in the EURO area. This paper investigates whether the use of models which allow for negative interest rates can improve option pricing and implied volatility forecasting. This is done with special attention to foreign exchange and index options. To this end, we carried out an empirical analysis on the prices of call and put options on the US S&P 500 index and Eurodollar futures using a generalization of the Heston model in the stochastic interest rate framework. Specifically, the dynamics of the option’s underlying asset is described by two factors: a stochastic variance and a stochastic interest rate. The volatility is not allowed to be negative, but the interest rate is. Explicit formulas for the transition probability density function and moments are derived. These formulas are used to estimate the model parameters efficiently. Three empirical analyses are illustrated. The first two show that the use of models which allow for negative interest rates can efficiently reproduce implied volatility and forecast option prices (i.e. S&P index and foreign exchange options). The last studies how the US three-month government bond yield affects the US S&P 500 index.     

高校创业教育的运行体制探讨

创业教育的运行体制在高校的创业教育中起着至关重要的作用。为了更好地开展创业教育，很多高校对创业教育的运行体制做过不同的尝试，取得了很多有价值的经验。从剖析各高校开展创业教育所采用的运行体制入手，揭示当前高校创业教育运行体制中存在的突出问题，有针对性地提出高校有效开展创业教育所应采取的运行体制构建模式。     

A comparative multidimensional evaluation of conservation agriculture systems: A case study from a Mediterranean area of Southern Italy

To avoid the current paradoxes of the global agro-food system it is necessary to define and implement a viable agricultural sustainable model, combining satisfaction of food needs and land preservation. A possible solution can be found in a holistic production system consistent with a sustainable development model, designed to satisfy diverse “local” economies. The conservation agriculture (CA) could be a part of this model, as it includes a set of best practices available to preserve agrarian soil and its biodiversity. Briefly, we cover the CA background in Europe followed by the evaluation of its impact in terms of private/public interest, using the sustainability’s metric.To test the viability of a model based on CA in “local conditions”, we compare economic performance of different conservation practices (i.e. minimum and no tillage) to that of conventional agriculture in a typical Mediterranean environment – Collina Materana – in Southern Italy (Basilicata region). Our findings suggest that: i) CA can actually be a viable alternative to conventional systems; ii) in Mediterranean agricultural areas CA has yield advantages especially during dry years, when conservation techniques increase water supply to crops; iii) public support is needed to direct farming choices in fact without financial incentives these practices would be not widely accepted and diffused; iv) European policy makers have to recognized the positive benefits of CA and pay them as ecosystem services in the framework of Good Agricultural Environmental Conditions and the present CAP subsidies.     

宁夏地区数字图书馆运行与管理中存在的问题及解决思路

本文分析了宁夏地区数字图书馆的发展现状,剖析了当前宁夏数字图书馆运行与管理中某些方面存在的问题,并依据自己的认识,结合实际和自身工作经验,针对存在的问题提出一些解决思路。     

企业经营风险的成因分析及其控制

从根本上讲,企业经营活动的核心问题,就是要在收益和风险之间寻找最佳的平衡点。深入分析企业经营风险的成因,在此基础上提出有效控制经营风险的对策建议,可供企业经营者参考和借鉴。不同企业的经营风险各有其不尽相同的成因,就其一般性因素来看,可分为企业外部因素和企业内在因素两方面。然而,尤其重要的是,必须结合企业自身特点,从偿债能力、运营能力和盈利能力三个方面对公司面临的经营风险做出评估。通过对某市电力设备公司经营风险的实证分析,研究发现,预测、确定经营风险具体存在于哪个环节,可以为防范经营风险奠定基础。与此相应,通过对企业经营风险进行实证分析,可帮助企业掌握控制经营风险的一般策略,以及与其发展状况相匹配的控制经营风险的具体方法。     

Reorganizing School Lunch for a More Just and Sustainable Food System in the US

Public school lunch programs in the United States are contested political terrains shaped by government agencies, civil society activists, and agri-food companies. The particular organization of these programs has consequences for public health, social justice, and ecological sustainability. This contribution draws on political economy, critical food studies, and feminist economics to analyze the US National School Lunch Program, one of the world's oldest and largest government-sponsored school lunch programs. It makes visible the social and environmental costs of the “heat-and-serve” economy, where widely used metrics consider only the speed and volume of service as productive work. This study demonstrates that such a narrow understanding of the labor of lunch devalues care and undercuts the potential for school food provisioning to promote ecological and feminist goals. Further, it proposes a “high road” alternative and outlines an agenda for reorganizing school food provisioning to maximize care in all its dimensions.     

Modelling innovation support systems for regional development – analysis of cluster structures in innovation in Portugal

The present article offers a concise theoretical conceptualization and operational analysis of the contribution of innovation to regional development. The latter concepts are closely related to geographical proximity, knowledge diffusion and filters and clustering. Institutional innovation profiles and regional patterns of innovation are two mutually linked, novel conceptual elements in this article. Next to a theoretical framing, the article employs the regional innovation systems concept as a vehicle to analyse institutional innovation profiles. Our case study addresses three Portuguese regions and their institutions, included in a web-based inventory of innovation agencies which offered the foundation for an extensive database. This data-set was analysed by means of a recently developed principal coordinates analysis followed by a Logistic Biplot approach (leading to a Voronoi mapping) to design a systemic typology of innovation structures where each institution is individually represented. There appears to be a significant difference in the regional innovation patterns resulting from the diverse institutional innovation profiles concerned. These profiles appear to be region specific. Our conclusion highlights the main advantages in the use of the method used for policy-makers and business companies.