COVID-19, commuting flows,and air quality

Fossil-fuel burning transportation methods significantly contribute to air pollution. During the COVID-19 pandemic, South Korea experienced a 10-20% decline in commuting flows, even without government-mandated stay-at-home orders. This paper quantifies the impact that decreased commuting flows have on PM_2.5, PM₁₀, NO₂, CO, and SO₂, using municipality level commuting data. We find that a 1% decrease in commuting flows decreases air pollutants by 0.08-0.17%, after controlling for seasonality and time-varying local production. The effect was higher in regions with high initial pollution, and people recognized air quality improvements. These results emphasize the importance of encouraging cleaner transportation methods after the pandemic.     

涉农贷款中新担保措施的合法性及有效性分析

为防范涉农贷款违约风险,部分农村信用联社积极探索,创新出债权文书公证方式、以人身险保险金担保债权等担保方式,以确保债权得到切实维护.这些新担保方式一定程度上增加了农村贷款供给,但存在法律风险.本文着重对这些新措施、新方法的合法性及有效性进行了探讨.     

Exploring impact factors of shippers’ risk prevention activities: A European survey in transportation

This paper reports results of a survey examining the impact factors for shippers to implement risk prevention activities. A regression analysis illustrates the relations between risk and quality related impact factors and the shippers’ ability to implement risk prevention activities. The study identifies the corporate risk culture and product vulnerability as main impact factors for the implementation of prevention activities in transportation. This paper will be beneficial for transportation managers considering the implementation of risk prevention activities in the transportation field, and will support further empirical research in the transportation management and supply chain risk management research area.     

Effects of carbon emission reduction policies on transportation mode selections with stochastic demand

We are witnessing more frequent extreme weather events due to the global warming. There is an urgent need for governments, industries, general public, and academics to take coordinated actions in order to tackle the challenges imposed by the climate change. It is essential to incorporate the environmental objective in the transportation mode selection problem as transportation is a main contributor to carbon emissions. With this in mind, our paper studies the retailer’s ordering and transportation mode selection problem using stochastic customer demand and investigates the optimal ordering and transportation mode selection decisions under different carbon emission reduction policies. Our analytical results reveal that there are some important transportation mode shifting thresholds under different carbon emissions reduction policies. These findings do not only help firms to make optimal decisions under different carbon emission reduction policies but also support policy makers to develop effective policies on carbon emissions reduction.     

Shipping route choice across geographies: Coastal vs. landlocked countries

This paper investigates how geography and transportation costs influence the decisions by shippers of which port of export to use. Using a large sample of disaggregated shipments originating from several countries in Europe, we show that European logistics networks exhibit a low level of international integration that affects shipping route choice. Furthermore, we find significant differences in shipping behaviors across landlocked and coastal countries, with shippers in landlocked countries avoiding long land transportation, crossing borders readily, and placing more value on transportation infrastructure. These findings have implications in designing port competitiveness strategies and economic development policies in landlocked countries.     

Analyzing the spatial–temporal evolution of a gateway’s hinterland: A case study of Shanghai,China

This paper analyzes the spatial–temporal evolution of the attractiveness of a country’s gateway for its international trade, using Shanghai as an example. The attractiveness is regressed on the transportation facilities and geographical conditions. Seaport development is found to have a major positive impact, followed by inland waterway, highway, and airport development. These positive impacts decrease with the need for highway haulage and with the distance from Shanghai—showing an inverse U-shape distribution. Rail appears to have a U-shape distribution, implying a low application of multimodal transportation. A geographical pattern for the impacts of different transportation modes is delineated.     

Risk-based capital for credit insurers with business cycles and dynamic leverage

This paper develops a risk-based capital pricing model for credit insurance portfolios held by a vulnerable insurer. The model accounts for business cycles using a two-state Markov switching model, and allows for dynamic leverage adjustment by the insured firms. The new proposed model, which incorporates risk-based capital practice, is better for both the insurer and the insured firms. Based on the risk-adjusted performance metric, we found that the insurer is better off insuring short- and medium-term loans in expansion and steady states, while it is better off backing both short- and long-term loans in recessions. Our results also emphasize that macroeconomic uncertainty significantly impairs the creditworthiness of the insurer and insured firms.     

互助担保基金的创新模式——ESMGF模式、运作机制

中小企业的不断发展,使其对资金的需求也越来越大,仅凭自身积累已远远不能解决问题。然而,由于中小企业自身及金融系统等多方面的原因,融资难的问题日益显现,成为阻碍中小企业发展的主要因素。为解决上述问题,设计了一种以产业集群为单位,由地方政府、协作银行、集群中小企业三方共同出资,共同承担风险,联合再担保机构的互助担保基金创新模式——嵌入再担保的互助担保基金(Embedded Se-curity Mutual Guaranteed Fund,ESMGF)。     

Greening transportation fleets: Insights from a two-stage game theoretic model

The greening of organizational transportation fleets, especially trucks and automobiles, has gained increasing attention by companies in a variety of industrial sectors. The reasons for this concern and attention are due to regulatory and competitive pressures, but also increasing costs of fossil-fuels. Surprisingly the amount of research and modeling for fleet management overall has been rather limited, with the focus on managing green vehicle investments virtually non-existent. In this study we develop a two-stage game theoretic model that helps evaluate, from both policy and organizational perspectives, the implications of greening of transportation fleets. Various parameters are evaluated including factors such as innovations in green vehicle technology, levels of service differences, cost of fuel, adjusting tax policy, regulatory compliance requirements, and adaptation costs. This evaluation provides practical insights into actions that could be considered by regulators and organizations to encourage environmental investments.     

银行业务地域特征和银行机构集聚

由于交通成本和信息成本的存在,银行业务呈现出一定的地域特征。不同的地域特征使得各个地区适合集聚的银行业务也存在差异。地方政府应该根据经济发展水平、金融业务资源禀赋、地理环境和金融生态环境等因素的实际情况,选择合适的政策措施,促进银行业务和银行机构的集聚。