Explaining divorce rate determinants: new evidence from Spain

This article examines the main determinants of divorce rates in Spain for the period 1995 to 2010. According to the results, the so-called Express Divorce Law (passed in 2005) seems to be positively associated with divorce rates in the short term. Income level and growth, female employment rate, and the proportion of foreign population are also positively related to divorce rates. However, as expected, the percentage of conservative vote seems to have a negative impact.     

中国铁路交通发展对沿线城市经济增长趋同的影响

以1997—2011年中国6次铁路提速和高铁开通为背景,在β趋同模型中加入用可达性度量的铁路交通发展因素,并用频次加权平均旅行时间衡量可达性,从全国、区域和城市3个空间层次分析了中国铁路交通发展对铁路沿线城市经济增长趋同的影响。结果显示:铁路交通发展对全国、东部地区、东北地区以及提速铁路沿线城市的经济增长的β趋同均有促进作用,对西部地区铁路沿线城市经济增长的β趋同有阻碍作用,而铁路交通发展对非提速铁路沿线城市经济增长的β趋同的影响甚微,对中部地区铁路沿线城市经济增长的β趋同的影响不确定。     

住房抵押贷款支持证券的利率风险度量——基于"建元2005-1 MBS"A证券的实证

住房抵押贷款支持证券中隐含期权的存在导致未来现金流不确定,久期和凸度等利率风险管理工具不再适用。本文基于OAS理念建立了住房抵押贷款支持证券的利率风险度量过程:采用多项式样条函数法构建零息票收益率曲线,采用Vasicek模型描述动态利率期限结构,通过蒙特卡罗方法模拟利率路径并确定未来现金流,采用ARMA模型描述和预测提前偿付率,进而计算出OAS、有效久期和有效凸度的值。最后以建元2005-1MBSA证券为对象进行了实证研究。     

The new exchange rate policy in the Asian emerging economies – goodbye trouble,hello comfort?

In this paper, we discuss new aspects of exchange rate policy that can be observed in the Asian emerging economies. In the first place, we show the alternative regimes they may choose and their respective pros and cons. Secondly, we concentrate on the recent strategy of systematic undervaluation of one's currency – figuring prominently among ‘big’ Asian players such as China and India – and the most likely implications of such a strategy for domestic allocation, distribution and stabilization goals. With the background of Germany's experiences in 1969, almost on the eve of the Bretton Woods' system collapse, we model a speculative attack on an undervalued currency in the vein of the Flood–Garber seminal paper from 1984. Now, however, the country in concern (just like India and China) possesses strong rather than weak fundamentals. The continuous accumulation of international reserves, in addition, leads to the question of an ‘optimal management’ of foreign exchange reserves in Asian emerging economies with regard to size and composition. We finally propose a sequence of reforms/policies that should be implemented in those Asian emerging economies on their still long journey to a regime featured by autonomous monetary policy, flexible exchange rate and capital mobility. A brief summary and an outlook for future research close the paper.     

Measurement of Technology Spillovers

This paper builds an externality-based model with physical and R&D capital, proves the linearity of technology functions, and derives two measures of spillovers from the relative differences between social and private rates of return. China’s regional empiric studies exhibit a reverse direction of spillovers between foreign invested firms and local economy and provide an estimation of the spillover measures of between 13% and 18%.     

Balance of payments accounting and exchange rate dynamics

The balance of payments is an accounting identity. Many wonder how the current and capital accounts, which add up to zero, can influence exchange rates. This paper shows how payment flows arising from balance of payments imbalances affect the demands for different currencies in the foreign exchange market over time. Based on a dynamical system approach, the paper demonstrates how international payments evolve depending on the joint dynamic behaviour of different balance of payments components. It finds that international payments and exchange rates interact in fundamentally different ways depending on whether a country restricts its capital inflows and outflows, whether capital flows are accommodating or autonomous and whether the exchange rate is fixed, flexible or, say, governed by a crawling peg. Empirical evidence from major industrial countries as well as from countries hit by currency crises support the paper's theoretical predictions.     

基于气候区划的中国建成区绿地率 区域差异研究

气候是影响城市绿地的基础性自然因素,定量研究气候对建成区绿地率的影响,利于合理调控城市绿地建设。以中国县级市及以上城市为样本,综合运用标准差、变异系数和锡尔系数等方法,探究1996—2015年不同气候区划建成区绿地率区域差异状况。结果表明：1)从发展水平看,不同气候区划具显著差异,热带高于温带,湿润、半湿润区高于半干旱、干旱区,其中,热带与湿润区、半湿润区城市重合度高,是气候优势区位;2)从差异度看,不同气候区划差异度具明显区别,温带差异度高于热带,干旱、半干旱区高于湿润、半湿润区;3)从差异分解看,温度带间建成区绿地率不平衡对全国总差异的影响度大于干湿区间,温度带间差异是我国总体差异的主要原因。以期为揭示气候对城市绿地建设水平的影响作用提供理论依据。     

我国公共财政制度的完善

消费与投资增长不协调是我国当前宏观经济中的重要问题,这个问题已成为我国经济社会协调发展的严重障碍,公共财政制度不完善是这一问题产生的财政体制根源。所以, 加快公共财政体制建设就成了解决这一问题的根本途径。就我国当前来说,公共财政应该加大对义务教育、公共卫生、社会保障、"三农"问题、收入分配和就业问题的支持力度和调控力度。     

Central bank interventions and jumps in double long memory models of daily exchange rates

In this paper, we estimate ARFIMA–FIGARCH models for the major exchange rates (against the US dollar) which have been subject to direct central bank interventions in the last decades. We show that the normality assumption is not adequate due to the occurrence of volatility outliers and its rejection is related to these interventions. Consequently, we rely on a normal mixture distribution that allows for endogenously determined jumps in the process governing the exchange rate dynamics. This distribution performs rather well and is found to be important for the estimation of the persistence of volatility shocks. Introducing a time-varying jump probability associated to central bank interventions, we find that the central bank interventions, conducted in either a coordinated or unilateral way, induce a jump in the process and tend to increase exchange rate volatility.     

垄断与产权:我国利率市场化的制度性障碍

在缺乏竞争的金融体系下，借贷价格偏离均衡价格，消费剩余减少，资源配置扭曲，金融运行效率降低。在我国，资金供应依然主要由居于垄断地位的国有商业银行及其变种组成和资金需求依然主要由国有企业及其变种组成的情况下，利率市场化会使得资金价格扭曲和变形，理论上推演的利率市场化预期效果在很大程度上无法实现。我国利率市场化的时间表只能视微观经济主体市场化的进程而定。