THE SHORT-TERM POVERTY IMPACT OF SMALL-SCALE,COLLATERAL-FREE MICROCREDIT IN INDONESIA: A MATCHING ESTIMATOR APPROACH

Indonesian microfinance is primarily operated by for-profit commercial banks, characterized by large-scale loans that require collateral. In 2003, the largest nongovernmental organization in the country introduced much smaller-scale loans without a collateral requirement. This scheme is commercialized but potentially more suited to the credit demands of the poor. Applying propensity score matching with the difference-in-difference method, this paper examines whether the emerging microcredit scheme has been successful in targeting and improving the welfare of the poor in the one year following loan disbursement. The results show that although collateral ownership is not an important determinant of participation, relatively wealthier families gain access to microcredit. The impact of microcredit on various household outcomes is generally statistically insignificant, except for sales of nonfarm enterprises for the nonpoor and schooling expenditures for the poor. This implies that the microcredit scheme under study might not have an immediate impact on poverty alleviation.     

我国住房公积金制度运行的绩效、问题及对策

住房公积金制度建立至今,已成为我国住房保障体系的重要组成部分,为我国住房建设和住房金融提供发展的动力,尤其在推动廉租房建设方面发挥了重要作用。但是,住房公积金制度在现实运行中还是存在覆盖面有限、运行效率低、保障作用有限以及治理结构设计、决策机制和监管机制不健全等问题。文章对以上问题进行了归纳和深入分析。并在此基础上,提出了规范和完善住房公积金制度的对策和建议。     

The Food (In)Security Impact of Land Redistribution in South Africa: Microeconometric Evidence from National Data

The South African land-reform program has been widely criticized for its slow pace as well as its apparent lack of contribution to poverty reduction. No econometric evidence of the impact of land transfers has been provided to date and this paper attempts to fill this gap by considering the impact of receiving a land grant on households’ food insecurity. Propensity score matching and univariate probit estimates using two national household surveys indicate that, on average, land grant recipients are more food insecure than comparable non-participants. Recursive bivariate probit estimates suggest that selection bias is not driving this result.     

上海市城镇职工个人账户养老金精算研究

该文以上海市城镇职工为例,对现行城镇基本养老保险中个人账户养老金进行精算分析。研究方法为在建立基本模型的基础上,对相关参数进行赋值,测算个人账户养老金的积累额、月计发额及工资替代率水平,分析不同因素对个人账户养老金月领取标准及个人账户养老金替代率的影响。     

墙体参数模糊下穿墙雷达运动目标成像

针对墙参数模糊条件下运动目标成像速度慢、墙参数重建精度差等问题,提出了一种改进拟牛顿-粒子群优化(Limited Broyden Fletcher Goldfarb Shanno-Particle Swarm Optimization,LBFGS-PSO)算法,建立了LBFGS-PSO算法模型,解决了传统拟牛顿算法和粒子群算法计算速度慢、误差较大等问题。该算法与块正交匹配追踪（Block Orthogonal Matching Pursuit,BOMP）算法相结合不仅可以精确重建边墙位置,还能够准确地重建多径效应环境中的运动目标和静止目标,算法的计算速度和精度得到了一定程度的提高。仿真结果和数据分析验证了所提方法的性能。     

“一带一路”倡议能否提升对外直接投资企业盈利能力？

基于2011-2015年A股上市公司与商务部《境外投资企业（机构）名录》数据，利用倾向得分匹配方法（PSM）和双重差分法（DID）考察“一带一路”倡议对中国对外直接投资企业盈利能力的影响及作用机制。研究发现：“一带一路”倡议显著提升了中国对沿线国家投资企业的盈利能力。机制检验表明，“一带一路”倡议能够通过推进中国与沿线国家间的经济融合和文化包容来提升对外投资企业的盈利能力，而政治互信在样本期内不显著。进一步研究发现，“一带一路”倡议对企业盈利能力的提升作用主要体现在国有企业、新兴优势产业以及投资目的为非邻近中国的“一带一路”国家上。     

Estimating matching functions when recruiting intensity matters

The article estimates matching functions – the relationships between new hires, job vacancies and unemployment – using monthly time series data for Sweden. The data contain rich information on types of job vacancies which provides information on firms’ recruiting efforts. The analysis shows that the aggregate flow of new hires is well explained by an augmented version of a standard matching function that incorporates data on firms’ recruiting intensity.     

The German labor market during the Great Recession: Shocks and institutions

This paper analyzes Germany's unusual labor market experience during the Great Recession. We estimate a general equilibrium model with a detailed labor market block for post-unification Germany. This allows us to disentangle the role of institutions (short-time work, government spending rules) and shocks (aggregate, labor market, and policy shocks) and to perform counterfactual exercises. We identify positive labor market performance shocks (likely caused by labor market reforms) as the key driver for the “German labor market miracle” during the Great Recession.