Historical resources, uncertainty and preservation values: An application of option and optimal stopping models

State agencies and private historical organizations frequently acquire historical sites with unknown characteristics. In this paper, we provide two approaches to evaluating the preservation decision. In the first approach, we show that a historical site which is not permanently preserved provides citizens with a certain flexibility whose value can be measured as an option on the maximum between the current real estate value and the preservation value. In the second approach, we assume that the organization has an infinite planning horizon and chooses the optimal sale date. Using a contingent valuation estimate of the public's willingness to pay for preservation of a specific historical site and the real estate price, we provide simulation values of the preservation option value and the optimal stopping rule.     

避税法律性质要论

避税,多指纳税人利用税法规定的缺漏或不足,通过某种公开的或形式上不违法的方式来减轻或规避其本应承担的纳税义务的行为.对于避税的法律性质问题学界一直存在着诸多不同意见.由于避税在整体上具有合法性,而在局部上具有违法性,所以可视其为局部违法行为.     

全面落实科学发展观 努力建设创新型行业 促进保险业又快又好地发展

2005年，在党中央国务院的正确领导下，保险业以邓小平理论和“三个代表”重要思想为指导，坚持以科学发展观为统领，以优化发展结构、转换经营机制和转变增长方式为切入点，保险业务平稳健康发展。2005年全年保费收入4927.3亿元，同比增长14％；保险公司总资产15225．9亿元，比年初增加3240．1亿元。当前，国际国内形势的发展变化要求保险业必须又快又好地发展，经济社会发展为保险业发展提供了广阔空间。今后应着力解决好速度、效益、诚信和规范经营问题，切实增强自主创新能力，积极防范化解风险，努力加强行业基础建设，促进保险业稳定持续健康快速发展，更好地为全面建设小康社会和构建社会主义和谐社会服务。     

Marketed tax avoidance: an economic analysis∗

Recent years have witnessed the growth of mass-marketed tax avoidance schemes aimed at the middle (not top) of the income distribution, with significant implications for tax revenue. We examine the consequences for the structure of income tax, and for tax authority anti-avoidance efforts, of tax avoidance of this type. In a model that allows for both demand- and supply-side considerations, we find that: there is an endogenous threshold income below which taxpayers do not avoid, and above which they avoid maximally; the per-dollar price of tax avoidance is decreasing in income under progressive taxation; endogenous adjustments in the price of avoidance make supply less responsive to anti-avoidance activity than thought previously; and avoidance may drive a non-monotone relationship between tax rates and tax revenue. These findings suggest that new approaches to anti-avoidance, beyond legal enforcement, might be needed.     

Allocative vs. technical spectrum efficiency

Achieving allocative and technically efficient spectrum management is a key aspect of deregulatory reforms in several OECD countries. However, reform legislation offers few clues as to how these objectives should rank when they conflict with one another. An ‘innocent’ prior acquisition of service-neutral spectrum at an efficiently run auction may prove allocative efficient but fail to be technically efficient if the spectrum is left fallow in the short term. Accountability for the productive usage of a public resource and pressures from short-term political cycles may induce regulators to mandate some minimal level of activity. Two plausible regulatory responses are considered: use it or lose it clauses and spectrum trading incentives. The former favours technical efficiency whilst the latter promotes allocative efficiency. The argument is formalised in a simple economic model buttressing the roles of uncertainty and transaction costs to assert the primacy of allocative efficiency over technical efficiency.     

An optimization approach for brass casting blending problem under aletory and epistemic uncertainties

A critical process in brass casting is the determination of the materials and their quantities to be added into the blend. The reason of being critical is the uncertainty about metal percentages in scrap raw materials. In this paper, the aleatory and epistemic uncertainties, which are modeled by using probability and possibility theory, respectively, have been handled simultaneously in a blending optimization problem for brass casting and a solution approach that transforms the possibilistic uncertainties into probabilistic ones is proposed. A numerical example is performed by the data supplied from MKE brass factory in Turkey. The results of the example have showed that the proposed approach can be effectively used for solving blending problem including aleatory and epistemic uncertainties in brass casting and other scrap based production process.     

应对不确定性：危机传播管理的博弈与创新

现代危机具有的不确定性让危机传播面临更大的挑战,不确定性越大,危机就越来越难以被预测,社会管理者就失去了观测和制定传播计划的主要依据,这令作为公共危机传播管理者的政府经常面临两难选择。危机的不确定性很大一部分来源于媒体融合环境的不确定性,这使现代危机传播的整个过程也变得不确定。政府作为现代危机传播者,必须对危机传播过程中的不确定性有充分的认识,在危机传播和应对的过程中灵活博弈,把握传播机会,创新传播方法。     

How to improve scenario analysis as a strategic management tool?

Scenarios are claimed to support strategic decision makers. They are especially effective in dealing with uncertainties. This paper addresses some drawbacks of the conventional scenario method, which is especially directed at handling these uncertainties, and indicates possible avenues for methodological adaptations. We take the approach, which rests in the Shell tradition, as exemplary for our discussion on the mainstream scenario methodology. This approach has some limitations when it comes to dealing with simultaneous trends and countertrends, and trends or clusters of trends that are not thought of beforehand, especially the methodological requirements of causality and consistency, which might be limiting factors in this respect. This paper indicates alternative ways for scenario construction. It discusses the use of either recombinant scenarios, context scenarios, or inconsistent scenarios and/or combinations of these scenarios. These options explicitly incorporate the notion of ‘paradoxical trend’ as the codriver of future developments into the methodology.     

Assumptions on Fertility in Stochastic Population Forecasts*

In recent years Statistics Netherlands has published several stochastic population forecasts. The degree of uncertainty of the future population is assessed on the basis of assumptions about the probability distribution of future fertility, mortality and migration. The assumptions on fertility are based on an analysis of historic forecasts of the total fertility rate (TFR), on time‐series models of observations of the TFR, and on expert knowledge. This latter argument‐based approach refers to the TFR distinguished by birth order. In the most recent Dutch forecast the 95% forecast interval of the total fertility rate in 2050 is assumed to range from 1.2 to 2.3 children per woman.     

不确定性、财务状态与财务行为

本文认为不确定性是主观和客观的不同状态,风险是主观认识偏离客观状态的结果。财务的功能就在于如何正确分析、识别财务状态,相机选择财务行为,使财务行为与财务状态保持动态协调一致,以保持财务政策的时间一致性。