Average cost and marginal cost pricing in Marshall: Textual analysis and interpretation

Abstract

This paper proposes a textual analysis of Marshall's theory of firm pricing behavior under competitive conditions. Average cost and marginal cost pricing theories have very distinct origins as they are rooted, respectively, in the classical and marginalistic theory of competition. I analyze to what extent and under which circumstances the two theories joined in the work of Alfred Marshall; and I argue that, even though only partial evidence can be found to support the adoption of the notion of marginal cost pricing by Marshall, he developed some concepts, such as the distinction between short and long periods and the notion of quasi-rents, which turned out to be fundamental for the joint acceptance of marginal cost and average cost pricing principles by the Marshallian school.     

Performance of moving average trading strategies over varying stock market conditions: the Finnish evidence

This article examines the profitability of dual moving average crossover (DMAC) trading strategies in the Finnish stock market over the period 1996 to 2012. It contributes to the existing technical analysis literature by comparing for the first time the performance of DMAC trading portfolios of individual stocks to the performance of index trading strategies based on trading on an index that consists of the same stocks. The results show that their relative performance varies over time, whereas previous studies have documented outperformance of index trading strategies over trading strategies of stock portfolios. Moreover, the great majority of 3020 DMAC strategies examined in this article outperform the corresponding buy-and-hold (B and H) strategy for both trading targets (i.e., OMX Helsinki 25 index and individual stocks included in the index) in out-of-sample tests. In addition, the decomposition of the full-sample-period performance into separate bull- and bear-period performance shows clearly that the outperformance of DMAC strategies over B and H strategy is mostly attributable to their better performance during bearish periods.     

平均替代率、目标替代率与养老金压力估计

虽然传统现收现付制承诺了目标替代率不变,但一般并非以平均替代率来衡量。一个从较高平均替代率水平转轨而来的制度中,大多数情形下平均替代率是逐渐下降的,只有当平均替代率下降到远低于目标替代率水平时,平均替代率才有可能趋向稳定或出现上升。中国城镇职工基本养老保险的平均替代率已经处于低位,近年来观测到的平均替代率水平不断下降的现象是制度转轨的必然现象。测算表明,如果假定平均替代率水平维持目标替代率水平保持不变,将高估制度维持资金平衡所需的缴费率水平和资金缺口,并将改变制度盈余的根本性质。     

Non-parametric determination of real-time lag structure between two time series: the ‘optimal thermal causal path’ method

We introduce a novel non-parametric methodology to test for the dynamical time evolution of the lag–lead structure between two arbitrary time series. The method consists of constructing a distance matrix based on the matching of all sample data pairs between the two time series. Then, the lag–lead structure is searched for as the optimal path in the distance matrix landscape that minimizes the total mismatch between the two time series, and that obeys a one-to-one causal matching condition. To make the solution robust to the presence of a large amount of noise that may lead to spurious structures in the distance matrix landscape, we generalize this optimal search by introducing a fuzzy search by sampling over all possible paths, each path being weighted according to a multinomial logit or equivalently Boltzmann factor proportional to the exponential of the global mismatch of this path. We present the efficient transfer matrix method that solves the problem and test it on simple synthetic examples to demonstrate its properties and usefulness compared with the standard running-time cross-correlation method. We then apply our ‘optimal thermal causal path’ method to the question of the lag-dependence between the US stock market and the treasury bond yields and confirm our earlier results on an arrow of the stock markets preceding the Federal Reserve Funds’ adjustments, as well as the yield rates at short maturities in the period 2000–2003. Our application of this technique to inflation, inflation change, GDP growth rate and unemployment rate unearths non-trivial lag relationships: the GDP changes lead inflation especially since the 1980s, inflation changes leads GDP only in the 1980 decade, and inflation leads unemployment rates since the 1970s. In addition, our approach seems to detect multiple competing lag structures in which one can have inflation leading GDP with a certain lag time and GDP feeding back/leading inflation with another lag time.     

Interpreting Permanent Shocks to Output When Aggregate Demand May Not Be Neutral in the Long Run

This paper studies a popular statistical model of permanent and transitory shocks to output using a set of arguably more plausible structural assumptions. One way to structurally interpret the model is by assuming aggregate demand has no long‐run output effect. However, many economic theories are inconsistent with that assumption. Instead, we reinterpret the statistical model assuming a positive shock to aggregate supply lowers the price level and in the long run raises output while a positive shock to aggregate demand raises the price level. Under these assumptions, a puzzling finding from the empirical literature implies that a positive aggregate demand shock had a long‐run positive effect on output in pre–World War I economies.     

中国人口文化素质的空间格局、演变及其影响

随着我国经济逐渐从要素和资本投入推进转变为知识创新推进,人口文化素质对我国各地区经济发展的影响将会越来越大,因此,研究我其空间格局及其演变对实现各地区人口和经济的协调发展具有重要的意义.文章以人均受教育年限为切入点,以省级行政区为单元,从地理学的视角对其进行了一定的分析.结果显示:①我国人口文化素质的空间格局为:东北高、西南低,并依次呈现出高、中、低三级阶梯.②我国31省市人口文化素质分布的标准差、级差和基尼系数都是先略有缩小后扩大,表面整体差异将继续存在;人口文化素质重心在研究期间一直往地理中心方向移动,表明东北部与西南部间的差距在逐渐缩小;空间自相关性呈微弱波动起伏,表明宏观格局基本稳定.③人口文化素质对经济发展的影响可分为四类,分别是良好促进、严重制约、微弱促进和微弱制约.     

贵州城镇居民收入分配影响消费需求的实证分析

中国国内对于收入差距影响消费需求实证研究的总体结论是,收入差距的扩大对消费需求有抑制作用,具体到贵州省,现阶段城镇居民收入差距的扩大对城镇居民消费需求也存在抑制作用。由于贵州省收入水平偏低,这一抑制作用现阶段还不算严重,但随着经济的发展,人们收入水平的上升,收入差距对消费需求的不利影响将会越来越严重。     

农业现代化的规律性与中国农业的现代化

20世纪以来的100多年,世界农业发展的基本趋势和主要特征是高度的商业化、资本化、规模化、专业化、区域化、工厂化、知识化、社会化、国际化交织在一起,极大地提高了土地产出率、农业劳动生产率、农产品商品率和国际市场竞争力。历史经验表明,农业现代化的实质和核心是化"农",就是农民比重大幅减少、农业比重大幅下降、城市化水平大幅提高的过程,资本参与利润平均化的规律与国家支持保护农业的政策是并行不悖的。当前我国面临的两大实践难题是,如何实现小农制与现代农业的有效衔接,如何培育农业资本的生成机制,归结起来就是"人往哪里去"和"钱从哪里来"的问题,而解决问题的根本出路在于发展资本农业和外向型经济。     

“库兹涅茨悖论”的中国解证——基于中国城镇居民长期消费倾向的分析

库兹涅茨发现居民消费倾向并非如凯恩斯猜测的那样随收入增加而递减,从长期看,居民的消费倾向是稳定的,此即"库兹涅茨悖论"。中国城镇居民长期消费倾向存在"库兹涅茨悖论",但中国城镇居民长期消费倾向偏低。     

中国服务进出口与汇率波动的相关性分析——基于1982—2011年的数据分析

以1982—2011年的相关指标的数据为基础,通过Stata12、Excel软件,把我国服务进出口量分别与中国、美国的国内生产总值和每年平均汇率进行多元回归,建立var模型,实证分析发现：中国历年服务出口额和历年平均汇率、中国及美国国内生产总值有显著的正相关。中国服务进口额和历年平均汇率有显著的负相关,服务进口额和中国及美国国内生产总值有显著的正相关,但是滞后一到三阶的平均汇率对我国服务进出口均没有显著影响。我国GDP对本国服务进出口的影响比美国GDP对此的影响更大。