Evidence of the duration-dependence from the stock markets in the Pacific Rim economies

This article investigates the duration-dependent feature of five Pacific Rim economies. The duration-dependent Markov Switching model is employed to achieve this objective. The Savage–Dickey density ratio is also computed in support of the duration-dependent Markov switching model. The possible bull and bear market dates for each stock market are also identified by the posterior probability from the empirical model. It is unambiguous that Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong are all characterized by duration-dependence in a bear market but no duration-dependence in a bull market. In the case of Taiwan and Singapore, the duration-dependence feature holds for both the bear and bull markets.     

Job preferences of students and new graduates in nursing

This article investigates the preferences of student and newly graduated nurses for pecuniary and nonpecuniary aspects of nursing jobs. It is the first study applying methods based on discrete choice experiments to a developed country nursing workforce. It is also the first to focus on the transition through university training and into work. This is particularly important as junior nurses have the lowest retention levels in the profession. We sample 526 individuals from nursing programmes in two Australian universities. Flexible and newly developed models combining heteroscedasticity with unobserved heterogeneity in scale and preference weights are estimated. Overall, salary remains the most important feature in increasing the probability that a job will be selected. ‘Supportive management/staff’ and ‘quality of care’ follow as the most important attributes from a list of 11 nonpecuniary characteristics. However, the subset of new graduates rank ‘supportive management/staff’ above salary increases, emphasizing the importance of a supportive workplace in the transition from university to the workplace. We find substantial preference heterogeneity and some attributes, such as the opportunity for clinical rotations, are found to be attractive to some nurses while seen as negative by others. Nursing retention could be improved by designing different employment packages to appeal to these different tastes.     

LTE-A中异构网络的切换分析

在传统网络数据流量爆发性增长、频谱效率已接近极限值的形式下,异构组网是增加网络容量、提高数据速率的有效方式。LTE-A系统中异构组网引入低功率节点,缩短了网络与用户间距离,提高了无线链路质量和频谱效率,逐渐成为LTE-A系统中的关键技术之一,但同时也带来复杂的移动性管理等问题。在深入分析3GPP E-UTRA协议规范的基础上,首先建立了LTE-A Macro-Pico异构网络拓扑模型,然后对Macro-to-Pico和Pico-to-Macro双向切换概率进行了分析和仿真。在此基础上,给出了用户及其相关网络参数对于切换成功概率的影响分析。     

异质性机构对企业集团关联交易影响的实证研究

以2004—2010年中国A股上市公司机构投资者持股数据、企业集团与上市公司关联交易数据为样本,研究二者之间的关系。结果表明:机构投资者持股对减轻企业集团关联交易现象影响显著,并存在着"U"型的关系,即随着机构持股比例的上升,其对企业集团关联交易的抑制作用先增强后减弱;民营企业中机构投资者对企业集团关联交易的抑制作用强于国有企业;不同类型的机构投资者与关联交易之间的关系存在差异,即证券投资基金和险资能够有效地抑制关联交易,而合格的境外机构投资者几乎对关联交易不存在抑制效果。     

Determinants of herbicide use in rice production in the Philippines

This study identifies farm‐specific and market factors affecting the adoption of herbicides and the level of herbicide use by rice farmers in the Philippines. This requires the application of a modified version of Heckman's two‐step method to estimate a random‐effects double‐hurdle model for unbalanced panel data. The age of the farmer, household size, and irrigation use are significant determinants of the decision of farmers to adopt herbicides as an alternative to manual weeding, while economic variables such as the price of herbicides, total income, and access to credit determine the level of herbicide use. Determinants of both adoption and level are land ownership, farm area, and the method of crop establishment. These results are potentially relevant when designing policies to reduce excessive herbicide use or to encourage the adoption of alternative weed control methods such as integrated weed management.     

Research,development and scaling-up the adoption of fodder shrub innovations in East Africa

Smallholder farmers in developing countries face numerous limitations that hinder them from embracing improved agricultural practices and innovations with great potential for meaningful transformations of livelihoods. Consequently, farmers continue living in vicious cycles of poverty despite decades of government and donor expenditures on poverty alleviation. In the last two decades, research and development organizations collaborated in testing and validating selected fodder shrub species as reliable sources of less expensive and easily available protein feeds. With minimal interventions, the research findings have great potential to improve productivity for many smallholder farmers. Tested species include Calliandra calothyrsus, Leucaena spp., Chamaecytisus palmensis, Sesbania sesban, Morus alba and Gliricidia sepium. Dissemination and adoption surveys estimated that 205,000 smallholder farmers (40–50 per cent being women) had planted fodder shrubs by 2005. Currently, fodder shrubs contribute US$3.8 million annually to farmers' incomes and estimated potential annual income is US$81 million. Factors associated with success in fodder scaling-up include deliberate involvement of fodder technology champions, collective action in community mobilization and project implementation, pluralistic extension approaches, sustainable germplasm supply systems, broader partnerships and civil society campaigns. Constraints and challenges include: ineffective delivery of extension and research services, inhibitive policies, political interferences, frequent droughts and inadequate monitoring and evaluation systems.     

Does Technological Innovation Really Reduce Marginal Abatement Costs? Some Theory,Algebraic Evidence,and Policy Implications

The existing literature models innovation in pollution control as a reduction in marginal abatement costs. We show that this assumption is inappropriate for production process innovations such as fuel switching. Algebraically, we examine the effects of different innovation types on marginal abatement cost curves, showing that some desirable innovations increase marginal abatement costs. Empirically, we estimate marginal abatement costs for sulfur dioxide by measuring the output distance function for electric power in Korea. Regression results confirm that production process innovations did raise marginal abatement costs in this case. One policy implication: economic instruments do not always provide stronger innovation incentives than command-and-control policies.      

Strategic niche management: towards a policy tool for sustainable development

Strategic niche management (SNM) is a recently developed approach that could help induce a broad socio-technical transition towards more sustainable development. It is designed to facilitate the introduction and diffusion of new sustainable technologies through protected societal experiments in fields such wind energy, biogas, public transport systems, electric vehicle transport and eco-friendly food production. A major challenge in SNM concerns the processes by which such experiments can evolve into viable market niches and ultimately contribute to a broader shift towards sustainable development. This paper sheds more light on this issue by systematically consolidating the main SNM studies, and by bringing in new insights from the literature that is in some sense complementary to SNM. These are studies on the development and commercialisation of radical innovations in large companies, and literature about infant industry protection and broader industrialisation processes in developing countries. A number of suggestions for implementing SNM are given.     

Product-destination Portfolio and Dynamics by Firm Ownership and Trade Mode： Evidence from Chinese Industrial Exporters

Using matched firm‐level trade and production data over the period 2000–2006, we study the product‐destination portfolio and dynamics of Chinese industrial exporters and make a thorough comparison among four types of firms and between two kinds of trade modes. We find that ownership structure and trading modes do matter to the destination and product mix choices of Chinese industrial exporters. In particular, foreign firms' exports and processing trade tend to be more destination‐specific and products are more specialized. Therefore, foreign firms are more likely to maintain a particular link within a specific global supply chain.     

我国低碳经济转型下的情景分析和路径选择

发展低碳经济是各国应对气候变化的重要战略选择,文章借鉴IPAT模型,对2007-2020年我国经济发展、能源消耗和二氧化碳排放量的变化进行预测与分析。设定CO_2排放量的三个情景：基准情景（BAU）、提高能源效率情景（EEI）、低碳情景（LC）,结果表明：低碳情景方案是我国实现低碳发展最适当、最可行的方案。在此方案下,我国CO_2排放强度可以按原定计划下降40~45%,同时经济增长率可达到6%。最后,基于我国发展遵循低碳情景方案,进一步给出了三条低碳转型的路径,即技术创新、能源结构优化和政策指导。