Bonus pay for teachers,spatial sorting,and student achievement

Bonus pay policy for teachers in the U.S. is analyzed in this paper. We quantitatively argue that, because of the decentralized education finance system in the U.S., this policy may lead to higher teacher and household sorting across school districts. This then may lead to higher variance of achievement and lower mean achievement. Formally, we use an equilibrium political economy model of education at which households, heterogeneous in exogenously set income, and teachers, heterogeneous in exogenously set quality, are endogenously allocated across two school districts. Public education expenditures, which includes teachers’ wage payment and non-teacher related education spending, are financed through local income taxation. Income tax rate in each district is determined via majority voting. Achievement depends on the efforts chosen by teachers and non-teacher related education spending. Teacher efficiency wage per unit of quality is determined at the national teacher labor market. We first calibrate our benchmark model by matching certain statistics from the U.S. data. Then in a computational experiment, we introduce bonus pay for teachers which rises with average achievement. We find that for the recently observed level of average bonus pay (6.59% of average base salary), variance of achievement is 2.46% higher and mean achievement is 1.79% lower than the benchmark. Variance of achievement reaches its peak when average bonus pay is 14.06% and then it starts falling. Also, mean achievement always falls as average bonus pay rises.     

Quality-cum-price sorting

This paper provides new evidence on how export status relates to prices and product quality. Using firm-product-level data on production, exports and imports for a sample of Danish manufacturing firms, we present three key correlations. First, exported varieties are on average sold at lower prices relative to only domestically sold varieties. Second, exported varieties have higher quality measured by ‘demand residuals’ (i.e., they have larger sales conditional on price). Finally, exported varieties are produced using cheaper imported intermediates. We introduce the term ‘quality-cum-price sorting’ to describe this sorting environment. The observed sorting behaviour in terms of output quality and import prices works not just across firms, but also within multi-product firms across the product portfolio. In contrast, the negative exporter premium in terms of output prices vanishes once firm-level unobservables are accounted for—consistent with the idea that unobserved firm efficiency is driving the negative correlation.     

Measuring wage effects of plant size

There are large plant size–wage effects in the Nordic countries after taking into account individual and job characteristics as well as systematical sorting of the workers into various plant-sizes. The plant size–wage elasticities we obtain are, in contrast to other dimensions of the wage distribution, comparable to the plant-size effects in other countries such as the U.S. with completely different institutions of wage setting. We also investigate the consequence of measurement error associated with the common practice of using midpoints of plant-size classes to estimate the plant size–wage elasticity. Our results indicate that using size–class midpoints yields essentially the same results as using exact measures of plant size.     

Sorting,school performance and quality: Evidence from China

School choice reforms give talented students the option to sort out of low-performing schools but often leave disadvantaged students behind. This study shows how a Chinese city was successful in helping its low-performing schools to catch up by encouraging talented students to sort into these schools. The city identified eleven low-performing middle schools and guaranteed elite high school admission to their top ten-percent graduates. This study documents that the policy improved school performance by 0.19-0.26 standard deviations. Using data on lottery middle school assignment, I further test for potential mechanisms, including strategic sorting and improvement in school value-added.     

A filtered currency carry trade

In this paper, we document that the predictive capacity of forward discounts on future currency returns not only differs across currencies but also persists. We then propose a new currency carry trade strategy that relies on the differential predictive capacity of forward discounts. We find that the new strategy offers a significant amount of profit improvement over the conventional currency carry trade strategy. We also find that emerging market currencies provide relatively large profit opportunities. While both strategies show decreasing carry trade profits as FX markets get volatile, the relative outperformance of the new carry trade strategy tends to be found in stable periods but disappears in volatile periods. The superiority of the new carry trade relative to the conventional carry trade is robust to various specification changes.     

AHP在配送中心分拣策略中的应用

物流配送中心订单资料经过EIQ[1]分析处理后只能得到关于货物分拣策略的定性分析,文中采用层次分析法对分拣策略进行定量分新,将复杂的决策过程模型化、数量化.这为不同分拣模式的选择提供了数值依据,增强了决策的系统性、客观性和科学性,具有重要的理论意义和实战意义.     

A supplementary note to Questionnaire Sorting and Fuzzy Sorting

This note supplements the article “An exploration of Questionnaire Sorting and Fuzzy Sorting” (this volume). It relates to recent methodological improvements by Capra (2005), who introduced a factor analysis solution to cover set cluster analysis.     

关于系统测试设计的数学模型

在系统测试设计过程中,用概率论的相关知识,将系统出故障的概率与此系统的可靠性指标相比较,如果能够达到要求,则可投入市场;否则将采取措施,以降低系统出故障的概率．与此同时设计一个评价测试优劣的指标,以确定一组满足可靠性要求且成本最低的措施组合．     

Hedonic markets and sorting equilibria: Bid-function envelopes for public services and neighborhood amenities

Hedonic regressions with house value as the dependent variable are widely used to study public services and neighborhood amenities. This paper builds on the theory of household bidding and sorting across communities to derive bid-function envelopes, which provide a form for these regressions. This approach allows for household heterogeneity and multiple amenities, yields estimates of the price elasticity of amenity demand directly from the hedonic without a Rosen two-step procedure, and provides tests of hypotheses about sorting. An application to Cleveland area data from 2000 yields price elasticities for school quality and neighborhood ethnic composition and supports the sorting hypotheses.     

The young generations’ conceptualisation of cultural tourism: colonial heritage attractions in South Korea

This study investigates how the younger generation conceptualise cultural tourism attractions associated with modern history in contemporary South Korea. Particular attention in this study is given to heritage attractions built in the Japanese colonising past. By analysing data obtained through a Multiple Sorting Procedure, this study identifies the underlying facets of heritage attractions the younger generation consider to be important when appreciating the heritage attractions. This study examines the socio-psychological properties and meanings that the heritage attractions communicate with respect to young Koreans’ sense of national identity. This study found that a range of constructs emerged in understanding heritage attractions. Social and political meanings embedded in the heritage attractions become a key determinant in appreciating heritage attractions with respect to a sense of national identity. These findings from South Korea suggest invaluable messages that can inform our understanding of, and planning regenerating negative-natured heritage attractions for tourism in contemporary society.