Transparency and trust: the case of the European Central Bank

We examine how the transparency of the European Central Bank’s monetary policy affects the amount of trust that the citizens of the European Union have in this institution. We use nearly half a million individual responses from the European Commission’s Eurobarometer survey from 2000 to 2011 and estimate probit regressions with sample selection. We find that transparency exerts a non-linear effect on trust. Transparency increases trust, but only up to a certain point; too much transparency harms trust. This result is robust to controlling for a number of macroeconomic conditions, financial stability transparency measures, and economic and socio-demographic characteristics of respondents, including examining respondents in European Union countries that do not use the euro and addressing clustering issues.     

Factors influencing bank risk in Europe: Evidence from the financial crisis

We use a dynamic panel data model to analyze bank-specific and macroeconomic determinants of bank risk for a large sample of commercial banks operating in the euro area. The selected time span, from 2001 to 2012, considers the impact of the on-going financial and economic crisis on the Eurozone banking system. Our results indicate that capitalization, profitability, efficiency and liquidity are inversely and significantly related to bank risk. However, the recourse to wholesale funding by banks seems to increase their risk. We also find that less-concentrated markets, lower interest rates, higher inflation rates and a context of economic crisis (with a falling GDP) increase bank risk.     

The (home) bias of European central bankers: new evidence based on speeches

Speeches are an important vehicle for central bankers to convey individual views on the preferred policy stance. In this article, we employ an automated text linguistic approach to create an indicator that measures the tone of the 1,618 speeches delivered by members of the Governing Council (GC) during the period 1999M1–2014M4. We then relate this variable to euro area and national macroeconomic forecasts. Our key findings are as follows. First, inflation and growth expectations have a positive and significant impact on the hawkishness of a speech. Second, different growth expectations across the euro area and different preferences significantly explain discrepancies across speakers. Third, the voiced preferences of presidents of the national central banks (NCBs) largely coincide with the level of independence their central banks had at the time of the Maastricht Treaty. However, in general, there are not much differences between members of the Executive Board and the NCB presidents. Fourth, we find some evidence that central bankers adjust the gist of their speeches depending on whether they talk at home or abroad and before or after a GC meeting. Finally, differences in central banker preferences are the key source of variation in their speeches before the financial crisis.     

欧盟对华贸易摩擦现状及对策探析——基于政府宏观视角

伴随着中欧经贸关系的发展，特别是在欧债危机的背景下，欧盟对华频繁使用反倾销、反补贴、技术性贸易壁垒的贸易救济措施，成为制约我国产品出口欧盟市场的羁绊。我国政府从宏观层面出发，通过开展经济外交、运用WTO争端解决机制等措施寻求贸易摩擦应对之道。     

Uneven landscapes and city size distributions

This paper proposes a new model generating city size distributions that asymptotically follow the log-normal distribution. The log-normal distribution is consistent with Zipf’s law in the top tail, which is known to hold for many countries in different periods. The key feature of our model is that it can express city size as a product of multiple random factors (e.g., climate, geographic features, and industry composition). Each factor alone need not generate Zipf’s law. Our model provides a justification for classical urban economics models that have been criticized for not delivering Zipf’s law, since a single model typically represents only one factor among many present in reality.     

European Spa World

SUMMARY

In this paper, we describe an international project for developing ‘Wellness Tourism’ across four regions of central Europe. The paper examines this project from the virewpoint of knowledge management and the partnerships involved in this project.     

相辅相成相得益彰--学习江泽民同志德治与法治并重新理念的体会

该文认为江泽民同志提出法治与德治并重的新理念,是对马列主义、毛泽东思想、邓小平理论的创新与发展,也是以江泽民同志为核心的第三代领导集体对治国方略的重大提升.作者结合自身技术监督工作的实践,谈了执法人员在工作中坚持法治与德治并重的体会.     

World consumer lifestyles databook

A case is made that the adoption of IT in European retailing is inhearntly conservative and is not characterized by the rapid revolutionary change sometimes argued to be the case. Reasons are suggested for the slow rate of integration of IT into retail management process and the limited range of applications in use operationally. These reasons are considered as within the nature of IT and within the culture of retailing. The impact of IT in retailing is considered in respect of cost reduction, improved asset productivity, changing internal relationships and the changing external relationships of retailers. Some areas of potential research are listed.     

论执法人员在执法活动中的失误及其补救

执法人员在执法过程中造成的失误 ,给公民、法人和社会组织的合法权益造成了损失。究其原因是多方面的 ,既有主观的 ,也有客观的。主观方面表现为执法人员素质低下 ,对法律、法规的理解不透 ;客观方面表现在法律不健全及各方面的干扰 ,造成了执法方面的失误。因此 ,就要求我们对执法人员造成的失误要及时补救 ,这样做才能体现社会主义法制的优越性 ,树立执法机关的形象 ,维护公民、法人和社会组织的合法权不受侵害     

新时期我国人权理论和人权事业的新发展

党的十一届三中全会为我们国家加强民主法制建设和发展人权事业指明了方向,揭开了新的篇章。文章着重阐述了邓小平推进民主宪政、保障和发展人权的思想,江泽民关于实行依法治国方略,强调生存权和发展权是最基本的人权的思想,以胡锦涛为总书记的党中央提出以人为本的科学发展观。这些理论对于推进和保障人权,全面发展人权事业具有重大指导意义。