Alternative Methods of Increasing the Precision of Weighted Repeat Sales House Prices Indices

Weighted repeat sales house price indices have become one of the primary indicators used to identify housing market conditions and to estimate the amount of equity homeowners have gained through house price appreciation. The primary reason for the acceptance of this methodology is that it derives a location specific (typically, census division, state or metropolitan area) average change in house prices from repeated observations of individual house prices. It is this repeat attribute that allows repeat sales price indices to claim that it is a preferable index which does a better job of holding quality constant. The amount of time between the two observed prices for a single property is determined by when the home transacts. Some homes transact twice in a period of months and others do not transact for decades. It is likely that individual house price appreciation rates vary from the mean appreciation rate, as estimated by the index, in a systematic fashion. In general, the longer the time between transactions the more variance there is in individual house price appreciation. This paper extends this concept to include new dimensions. For instance, houses that appreciate faster than the mean, as estimated by the index for that location, may experience a different variation structure than homes that appreciate slower. This process can be viewed as an asymmetric treatment of the variance of house price appreciation around the estimated index. In addition, the variance of expensive and affordable homes may also be different and time varying. This paper finds evidence that adding the dimensions of price tiers and asymmetry to the variance estimate has merit and does affect the estimated index as well as homeowner equity estimates. Homeowner equity estimates are especially sensitive to these added dimensions because they depend on both the revised index and the estimated variances, which are specific to each dimension considered—time between transaction, asymmetry, and price tier.     

Managing the marketing budget in a cost-constrained environment

Marketing costs have been rising rapidly while both manufacturing and general management costs have been declining. As a result, those concerned with realigning corporate assets to maximize shareholder returns are requiring that marketers start proving their worth or be gradually starved of resources. Reflecting such pressures, marketing managers are being asked to provide more convincing evidence that planned marketing strategies will indeed yield more value for the company and its shareholders. Likewise, those charged with planning the marketing budget are being asked to more thoroughly justify requested budget increases. Whole new financial measures are needed for evaluating the relative productivity of specifically proposed marketing budget expenditures vis-à-vis shareholder value. The paper reviews several procedures that can help address these challenges and presents a detailed example of the application of one of the approaches.     

国有股减持与上市公司治理结构的转变

本文从我国国有上市公司的股本构成入手 ,分析了我国上市公司中的法人治理结构所存在的问题 ,相应地提出了几种减持国有股的解决方案     

Measuring and forecasting retail trade in real time using card transactional data

We build big data retail trade indicators for Spain using high-dimensional card transaction data from one of the country’s biggest banks. The resulting indicators replicate the dynamics of the Spanish retail trade indices (RTI), regional RTIs (Spain’s autonomous regions), and RTI by retailer type (distribution classes) released by the Spanish National Statistics Institute. The new indicators not only have a higher frequency (daily data) and higher geographical and sectorial breakdown but are also shown to improve nowcasting and forecasting power for the official RTI, making them key variables to monitor consumption.     

销售人员的激励模型

文章从激励的基本机制入手，把对销售人员的激励视为一个循环的回路，在整个过程中结合管理学的基本职能（计划、组织、领导、控制、协调），以系统的思维去促使这种激励以良性的姿态循环下去。文章还将激励模型运用于解决企业的现实问题，希望以此促进企业的发展。     

The Ethical Challenges of Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing

Genetic testing is currently subject to little oversight, despite the significant ethical issues involved. Repeated recommendations for increased regulation of the genetic testing market have led to little progress in the policy arena. A 2005 Internet search identified 13 websites offering health-related genetic testing for direct purchase by the consumer. Further examination of these sites showed that overall, biotech companies are not providing enough information for consumers to make well-informed decisions; they are not consistently offering genetic counseling services; and some sites even offer tests with little evidence of clinical value. This article aims to raise company and consumer awareness about the ethical concerns surrounding the direct-to-consumer marketing of health-related genetic tests. It also suggests ways that biotech companies can bring their services to the public in an ethically responsible manner, without increased regulatory oversight. Submitted for the Special Issue on Ethical Issues in Biotechnology.     

改革开放前我国营业税发展变迁

营业税政策的制定和改革是随着国家政治经济的发展而不断变化,文章重点阐述了改革开放前我国营业税政策的变迁。     

Laying off credit risk: Loan sales versus credit default swaps

How do markets for debt cash flow rights, with and without accompanying control rights, affect the efficiency of lending? A bank makes a loan, learns if it needs monitoring, and then decides whether to lay off credit risk. The bank can transfer credit risk by either selling the loan or buying a credit default swap (CDS). With a CDS, the originating bank retains the loan's control rights; with loan sales, control rights pass to the loan buyer. Credit risk transfer leads to excessive monitoring of riskier credits and insufficient monitoring of safer credits. Increases in banks' cost of equity capital exacerbate these effects. For riskier credits, loan sales typically dominate CDS but not for safer credits. Once repeated lending and consequent reputation concerns are modeled, although CDSs remain dominated by loan sales for riskier credits, for safer credits they can dominate loan sales, supporting better monitoring (albeit to a limited extent) while allowing efficient risk sharing. Restrictions on the bank's ability to sell the loan expand the range in which CDSs are used and monitoring is too low.     

当前长春市房地产走势

近几年长春市房地产市场出现了喜人的变化。文章总结了房地产的基本状况 ,并对 2 0 0 1年房地产的发展提出相应的对策。