Believing in employment discrimination: The case of Forrest Mims,Scientific American,and title VII protection

This article reviews the law regarding Title VII employment discrimination protection from religious discrimination. The issues surrounding the principal legal protection in this regard are explored in the context of a recent controversial case in which an author, Forrest Mims, was not hired as a regular contributor forScientific American magazine, ostensibly because of his belief in the theory of creation over the theory of evolution. The definition of what constitutes a protected religious belief or practice is seen to have expanded over time. However, a belief in creationism is not necessarily seen as being tantamount to a religious belief under present legal interpretation of Title VII. The implications of this finding for future needed Title VII revision are discussed.     

Rent, risk, and replication: Preference adaptation in winner-take-all markets

We study the evolution of an economy where agents who are heterogeneous with respect to risk attitudes can either earn a certain income or enter a risky rent-seeking contest. We assume that agents behave rationally given their preferences, but that the population distribution of preferences evolves over time in response to material payoffs. We show that, in particular, initial distributions with full support converge to stationary states where all types are still present. Although rents are perfectly dissipated in material terms at a steady state, efficiency is greater than if everybody had been risk neutral, since risk lovers specialize in rent seeking.     

Differential reporting in Germany - A historical analysis

Based on a contingent perspective of accounting change, this paper reviews the historical development of differential reporting in Germany, by drawing on primary and secondary sources. The main objective of the paper is to shed light on the driving forces and main influential parameters that have shaped the existing differential reporting framework. This historical approach supplies interesting insights for the current discussion on differential reporting in Germany produced by the EU Regulation on the application of International Accounting Standards.     

Forecasting economic time series using flexible versus fixed specification and linear versus nonlinear econometric models

Nine macroeconomic variables are forecast in a real-time scenario using a variety of flexible specification, fixed specification, linear, and nonlinear econometric models. All models are allowed to evolve through time, and our analysis focuses on model selection and performance. In the context of real-time forecasts, flexible specification models (including linear autoregressive models with exogenous variables and nonlinear artificial neural networks) appear to offer a useful and viable alternative to less flexible fixed specification linear models for a subset of the economic variables which we examine, particularly at forecast horizons greater than 1-step ahead. We speculate that one reason for this result is that the economy is evolving (rather slowly) over time. This feature cannot easily be captured by fixed specification linear models, however, and manifests itself in the form of evolving coefficient estimates. We also provide additional evidence supporting the claim that models which ‘win’ based on one model selection criterion (say a squared error measure) do not necessarily win when an alternative selection criterion is used (say a confusion rate measure), thus highlighting the importance of the particular cost function which is used by forecasters and ‘end-users’ to evaluate their models. A wide variety of different model selection criteria and statistical tests are used to illustrate our findings.     

城市交通与城市空间结构演变

通过回顾城市交通和城市空间结构的发展演变过程,研究通过城市交通引导城市空间结构健康"生长"的有效途径,提出通过公共交通引导城市发展的TOD模式,以及适合中国特色的和谐城市形态和城市交通.     

窄岭金矿剪切带基本特征与发展演化模式

河北丰宁窄岭金矿,可以区分3幕Ⅰ级韧性剪切带,1幕Ⅱ级脆韧性剪切带和1幕Ⅲ级脆性剪切带。伴随不同的剪切变形变质作用,分别有花岗岩(红旗菅子群花岗片麻岩)→闪长岩(变闪长岩)→正长斑岩→含金石英脉的侵位。而金矿则是这种多期多阶段构造—岩浆复杂演化使金逐步富集的最终产物。     

经济学中的建构理性主义和进化理性主义

阐述了经济学中的建构理性主义和进化理性主义 ,对比分析了经济学中这两种主义的区别 ,指出了经济学中这两种主义的比较、分析对中国经济实践的意义。     

中国期货市场的回顾与展望

中国期货市场产生于中国由计划经济向市场经济转轨的过程中，其形成与发达国家期货市场迥然不同。随着中国经济的逐步市场化，中国经济的逐渐国际化，政府扮演的角色的重要程度势必越来越小，期货市场在市场经济中将会充分发挥其功能，成为中国市场经济体系不可或缺的组成部分。     

经济增长的变化本质

在过去的一个世纪中,富裕国家的经济本质已经发生了巨大的变化。因此,文章提出“技术生理演变(technophysio evolution)”概念,即快速技术变化和人类生理进步的协同作用。这主要表现在以下三个方面：(1)消费结构和工作体闲时间分配的改变;(2)经济和家庭产出分配方面受高水平经济成就的影响;(3)全球市场迅速急剧转向耐用消费品和高科技服务。     

融资制度变革的内在逻辑和次序安排

本文主要目的在于探讨我国当前金融制度的问题,并尝试探讨融资制度变迁的内在逻辑和次序安排,希望以此作为政策制定之参考。本文认为,国有经济改革、非公有经济发展以及农村经济发展等使国家改革现行融资制度的动力很足,但与此对应,各有关主体对改革现行融资制度的动力明显不足,提高融资制度效率的关键在于所有制和竞争力上。文章还在国有商业银行股份制改造、农村金融制度、非正规金融、监管和利率等方面提出了相应的建议。