The impacts of governance and institutions on inbound tourism demand: evidence from a dynamic panel data study

This study explores the impact of governance and institutions on inbound tourism demand in Malaysia using a dynamic panel data approach for 45 tourism source countries over the period 2005–2015. The results show that institutions play a very important role in explaining the behaviour of inbound tourism demand. To obtain a better picture, we investigate the response of international tourists to disaggregated institutional quality. We find that international tourists are more concerned about political stability, governmental effectiveness, regulations, laws, and corruption than voice and accountability. Therefore, policymakers should focus on ways to improve institutional quality to significantly increase international tourist arrivals.     

技术创新、金融创新与经济增长——基于中国省际面板数据

本文从实证分析层面对金融创新、技术创新与经济增长之间的作用关系进行探讨。基于我国 2000~2015 年省级面板数据,采用GMM估计方法,利用动态面板模型进行实证检验。结果表明：技术创新对经济增长的影响显著为正,单独的金融创新对经济增长起抑制作用,二者的交互作用则对经济增长起显著性正向作用。脱离实体经济的金融创新将抑制经济增长,也会间接阻碍技术创新对经济增长的影响。本文结合当前经济形势,从金融机构与创新企业相接轨共同提高创新水平、培养创新型人才等角度提出建议。     

证券投资风险预测的E-Bayes估计

本文给出了E-Bayes方法,以上海证券个股五粮液52个连续交易日的收盘价格为例,建立数学模型进行分析和预测,预测结果与市场实际值相当吻合。与灰色系统理论中的GM（1,1）预测模型相比,本文提出的方法预测的精度更高,计算量小。不仅适用于经济系统的分析与预测,也适用于其它系统的分析与预测。     

金融发展影响能源消费结构吗?——跨国经验分析

金融发展经常被认为是经济增长的一个重要推动因素.同样的,金融发展也可能会影响能源需求.金融发展可以通过促进金融系统发展、带动经济增长并促进产业结构调整这样的传导途径,使能源消费结构发生变动.本文对全球55 个国家23 年(1985～2007)的面板数据库的研究发现,金融发展的确会影响能源消费与需求,进而影响能源消费结构的变动.实证结果表明,金融发展会促进"化石燃料"能源和替代能源消费的增加,减少可再生能源的消费,对能源消费结构的改善有着一定的促进作用.所以,在制定能源相关政策和对高能耗部门进行产业调整时,要考虑金融发展的影响.     

Sewers,wastewater and newspapers: the early environmental debate on water pollution in Turku,Finland, 1887–1934

Abstract

A century ago, city dwellers became increasingly aware of urban environmental problems caused by the waste products of industry and the growing population. Like elsewhere in Europe, water pollution became an acute issue also in the city of Turku, in south west Finland, The sewer system built after 1895 discharged all the municipal and rapidly increasing industrial wastewater untreated into the River Aura in the centre of the city, As a result, the quality of the river water worsened rapidly, and the first complaint on this was published in the local newspaper in 1899. In this study we document the press debate on river water quality and wastewater problems in the local newspapers of Turku for the period from 1887 to 1934, when the plan for a wastewater treatment plant was finally completed (the plant was, however, not built until 1966). The failure of the city administrators to present any solution to the river pollution problem caused the first major public environmental debate in the city at the turn of the 20^th century. Our results show that (1) sewers were recognized by newspapers as the primary cause of worsened river water quality, (2) the necessity of a wastewater treatment plant was understood long before the actual plan was drawn up, (3) the local industries were hardly ever criticized in public for water pollution, and (4) the initiative for improvements was considered to be the responsibility of the city administrators. The debate in the local press was often hectic, many decades before the 1960s, when the environmental debate is commonly said to have started.     

省际人力资本存量的估算——以江苏省为例

知识经济时代,人力资本对经济发展的作用越来越被人们重视,但对人力资本的如何度量的研究却相对薄弱,本文以江苏省为例,通过估算江苏省各级受教育程度人员总数、各级受教育程度人员的从业率,计算出各级受教育程度的从业人员数,再用受教育年限法估算出了江苏省人力资本存量,并对江苏省人力资本的发展状况和人力资本结构等进行了简要的分析。     

International Linkages among Stock Markets of Malaysia and Its Major Trading Partners

This study empirically examines the short- and long-run dynamic causal linkages between Malaysia and its major trading partners (the United States, Japan, Singapore, China, and Thailand) based on a two-step estimation, Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) and Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) during the period 1992–2008. The study documents that the stronger the trade ties among the countries, the higher the degree of comovements among their stock markets. The Japanese stock market, to some extent, is found to be more important than the United States over these markets. In designing stock market policies, each country should take into consideration of any shocks in its major trading partners.     

Are microfinance markets monopolistic?

Do microfinance institutions (MFIs) operate in a monopoly, monopolistic competition environment or are their revenues derived under perfect competition markets? We employ the Panzar–Rosse revenue test on a global panel data to assess the competitive environment in which MFIs of five selected countries operate: Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Peru and Philippines, over the period 2005–2009. We estimate the static and the dynamic revenue tests, with analyses of the interest rate and the return on assets. We control for microfinance-specific variables such as capital-assets-ratio, loans-assets and the size of the MFI. The analyses also account for the endogeneity problem by employing the fixed-effects two-stage least squares and the fixed-effects system generalized method of moments. Our results suggest that MFIs in Peru and India operate in a monopolistic environment. We also find weak evidence that the microfinance industry in Ecuador, Indonesia and Philippines may operate under perfect competition.     

THE IMPACT OF GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURE ON GROWTH: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM A HETEROGENEOUS PANEL

This paper investigates the impact of government expenditure on growth, in a heterogeneous panel, for a sample of developing countries. Using generalized method of moments techniques, we show that countries with substantial government current expenditure have strong growth effects, which vary considerably across the nations.     

Hyperbolic Discounting and Consumer Patience: The Case of Korea

ABSTRACT

In this article, we test whether the consumption pattern in Korea exhibits a time-inconsistent discounting behavior compared to the conventional exponential discounting. We derive the quasi-hyperbolic Euler equation and estimate it using the generalized method of moments (GMM). The estimation results show that Korean consumers exhibit a time-inconsistent quasi-hyperbolic discounting behavior in general, but the pattern of inconsistency in consumption behavior, in particular the degree of impatience, depends on the estimation period, in particular whether it includes financial crisis periods in 1997–98 and 2008–11.