The emergence of convergent price clusters in China

This paper reports new evidence on the existence of both large and small price divergent clusters for China's energy markets, 2000–2009. The largest convergent price clusters suggest that the coal and gasoline markets are well integrated, however, small convergent price clusters suggest that electricity and diesel markets are proving harder to integrate. The paper argues that the traditional approach to price convergence analysis should be applied with caution, especially in a transitional economy such as China where questions to be asked should relate to the ‘degree of market‐orientation’ and not simply whether it is a market‐based economy or not.     

Economic convergence: Policy implications from a heterogeneous agent model

In this paper we study the effectiveness of different types of cohesion policies with respect to convergence of regions. A two-region agent-based macroeconomic model is used to analyze short-, medium- and long-term effects of policies improving human capital and fostering adoption of technologies in lagging regions. With fully integrated labor markets the human capital policy positively affects the economically stronger region but reduces production in the targeted weaker region. Subsidies for high technology investment in the weaker region have a positive local output effect and a negative effect on the neighboring region, thereby fostering convergence. When labor markets are not integrated both policies support convergence.     

Technology fusion: Identification and analysis of the drivers of technology convergence using patent data

The concepts of technology convergence or technology fusion describe the phenomenon of technology overlap. Despite evidence of the higher value associated to interdisciplinary research and cross-industry innovation, few studies have investigated the characteristics of technology fusion based on patent data. This study identifies new cases of convergence relying on the International Patent Classification (IPC) of patents filed at the European Patent Office between 1991 and 2007: the first occurrence of a patent incorporating a combination of IPC subclasses signals a new instance of fusion. Duration models are employed to investigate the impact of field level characteristics derived from patent bibliometrics on the likelihood of identifying a new fusion. The results show that merges are more frequent if the focal technology fields are closely related (based on a higher number of cross citations), are characterized by wide technological scope, and are the result of an inter-firm collaboration. In contrast to previous findings, the results show that the more complex the technologies involved, the less the likelihood of their convergence or fusion. The correlation between fusion likelihood and the characteristics of the merging fields could help managers and policymakers to predict the emergence of new technology areas.     

BEHAVIORAL PORTFOLIO SELECTION: ASYMPTOTICS AND STABILITY ALONG A SEQUENCE OF MODELS

We consider a sequence of financial markets that converges weakly in a suitable sense and maximize a behavioral preference functional in each market. For expected concave utilities, it is well known that the maximal expected utilities and the corresponding final positions converge to the corresponding quantities in the limit model. We prove similar results for nonconcave utilities and distorted expectations as employed in behavioral finance, and we illustrate by a counterexample that these results require a stronger notion of convergence of the underlying models compared to the concave utility maximization. We use the results to analyze the stability of behavioral portfolio selection problems and to provide numerically tractable methods to solve such problems in complete continuous‐time models.     

A Generalized Nash Equilibrium network model for post-disaster humanitarian relief

We develop a Generalized Nash Equilibrium network model for post-disaster humanitarian relief by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). NGOs derive utility from providing relief supplies to victims of the disaster at demand points in a supply chain context while competing with each other for financial funds provided by donations. The shared constraints consist of lower and upper bounds for demand for relief items at the demand points to reduce materiel convergence or congestion. This game theory problem is reformulated as an optimization problem and numerical examples and a theoretical case study on Hurricane Katrina given.     

会计准则国际趋同问题研究:回顾与展望

文章系统回顾了国内外关于会计准则国际趋同的概念、路径、策略及其影响的研究成果,明确了相关研究对于评价我国会计准则国际趋同路径与策略选择的参考价值,指出我国会计准则国际趋同问题进一步研究的重点方向与研究的理论和现实意义。     

产业结构趋同背景下的行政地区垄断探析

生产要素能够在同一市场中自由流通是市场经济的内在要求,行政地区垄断无疑阻碍了市场经济的发展。行政地区垄断总是与地方政府的利益联系着,产业结构趋同迫使地方政府为了地方利益最大化滥用行政权力限制市场竞争,产业结构趋同能够催生出行政地区垄断。同时由于我国反垄断法律制度的不完善和对行政地区垄断的打击力度相对不足,在客观上纵容了行政地区垄断。解决产业结构趋同背景下的行政地区垄断之道是创新法律制度,即建立诱导地方政府发展地方优势产业的克拉克机制和加强打击行政地区垄断的省际诉讼模式。     

低碳经济下中国区域全要素生产率的收敛性研究

发展低碳经济是中国应对日益严峻的能源紧张和气候变化的必然选择。考虑各区域在能源约束和碳排放下的全要素生产率显得日益重要。根据低碳经济的要求和特征应用Malmquist生产率指数法对我国29个省份及东中西三大地区低碳全要素生产率变动情况进行了实证分析。研究表明,考虑低碳因素后中国的全要素生产率增长率得到增加;低碳全要素生产率的变动由技术进步率的变化主导,低碳技术效率变化对低碳全要素生产率的影响有限;西部地区不存在绝对收敛,东部地区和中部地区存在较明显的“俱乐部收敛”,我国总体及东中西三大地区都存在明显的条件收敛趋势。     

河南省文化产业集聚现状的统计分析

2010年河南省文化产业在加快文化强省建设的进程中取得了显著成效,文化产业集聚区是文化产业发展的重要平台和依托。为了更清晰地了解河南省文化产业集聚现状,推动"十二五时期"文化产业集聚效应的快速显现,本文全面搜集整理了2005年-2011年河南省文化产业集聚区的详细情况,提出政府应在园区规划中积极借鉴成功经验,顺应文化产业集群化发展的潮流,认真研究和创新文化产业发展的集群政策。     

Opinion convergence in location: A spatial version of the Delphi method

This paper proposes a modified version of the Delphi method, starting from the assumption that in many situations the convergence of opinions can be considered in a spatial context. The Spatial Delphi we suggest is based, like the classical Delphi, on the judgments of experts, and it is useful in the consultations for decision and/or forecast purposes, provided that they concern matters of spatial location. The basis for the questionnaire is a map, on which each expert provides, as answer(s), one or more opinion-points, i.e., locations that, according to their opinion, are best for a specific purpose. We propose a method for narrowing the area of convergence along a multi-step procedure so that the final result of the consultation is a small portion of the initial territory with respect to the initial area considered. Besides a simulation study, we report also a prototype application with a panel of twelve experts.