WELFARE ENHANCING COORDINATION IN CONSUMER COOPERATIVES UNDER MIXED OLIGOPOLY

The recent globalization of world economies has led the retail markets of developed countries towards increasing levels of integration and strategic interdependence. A non negligible share of retail and food markets is currently served by co‐operative societies. Consistently with this trend, the consumer cooperatives have recently experienced increasing levels of integration. The main aim of this paper is to study the welfare effects of coordination among consumer cooperatives competing in quantities in a mixed oligopoly against profit‐maximizing firms. We show that, in absence of agency problems, under increasing or constant returns to scale a higher output coordination of the consumer cooperatives does not affect the total welfare as long as a nonnegative profit constraint holds in these firms. On the other hand, under decreasing returns to scale, the consumer cooperatives contribute more to social welfare when acting on behalf of all consumers. This is because, by coordinating consumers’ preferences, these firms can reduce their market output, thus helping the market to come closer to the first best. All together these results seem to provide an argument in favour of the recent process of integration involving consumer cooperatives in many developed countries.     

Within‐Subject Intra‐ and Inter‐Method Consistency of Two Experimental Risk Attitude Elicitation Methods

We compare the consistency of choices in two methods used to elicit risk preferences on an aggregate as well as on an individual level. We ask subjects to choose twice from a list of nine decisions between two lotteries, as introduced by Holt and Laury 2002, 2005 ) alternating with nine decisions using the budget approach introduced by Andreoni and Harbaugh ( 2009 ). We find that, while on an aggregate (subject pool) level the results are consistent, on an individual (within‐subject) level, behaviour is far from consistent. Within each method as well as across methods we observe low (simple and rank) correlations.     

Foreign Direct Investment and the External Wealth of Nations: How Important Is Valuation?

While the balance sheet approach has increased the focus on position data, differences in valuation practices for foreign direct investment (FDI) make cross‐country comparisons difficult. To enhance comparability, the IMF's Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual, sixth edition, which some countries have already implemented and others will implement in the coming years, recommends seven methods for valuation of unlisted FDI. This paper demonstrates that both the valuation method and simple differences in estimation techniques can fundamentally change a country's financial balance sheet. Using Denmark as an illustration, unlisted FDI equity liabilities vary from 22 to 156 percent of GDP when applying different estimation techniques, but just one valuation method, price to earnings. These measurement uncertainties can lead to important misunderstandings and affect policy recommendations, thus pointing to the need for further international harmonization. While the results are presented in an FDI context, the uncertainties also apply to other macroeconomic datasets, including national accounts statistics.     

Is There a Causal Effect of Working Part‐Time on Current and Future Wages?

In this paper, I study the causal effects of part‐time work on current and future wages. To estimate these effects, I use a random effects model with a wage equation capturing the employment history and a dynamic multinomial probit component for the choice of employment status. Exclusion restrictions from the institutional context are exploited to support identification. The results suggest that working part‐time with few hours has a large causal effect on current wages, but more extensive part‐time work does not reduce current wages. However, both types of part‐time work lead to negative long‐term wage effects.     

Semi-parametric discrete choice measures of willingness to pay

A semi-parametric discrete choice method is proposed to recover welfare measures from individual choice data. The proposed method is compared with the traditional binary choice models in an application to measure benefits of recreation trips.     

GIS技术在土地评价中的应用研究进展与展望

GIS 应用于土地评价始于上世纪60年代,50多年来, GIS已成为进行土地评价的必备工作系统,在土地评价中发挥了重要的作用。本文依据土地单元是单一区域或多区域以及土地资源视为静态或动态为分类依据,将土地评价分成单一区域静态模型、单一区域动态模型和多区域模型,对GIS在土地评价的应用现状进行了分析。并总结了近年来应用于土地评价的数理方法,对其优缺点进行了比较研究。最后,借鉴吸收了各方面土地评价的先进理念,结合中国土地评价的实际,提出了基于GIS的土地评价今后的研究方向。     

关于建立耕地保护补偿机制的思考

研究目的:基于对河南省耕地保护补偿机制的思考和研究,期望通过制度创新更好地促进补偿机制发挥作用。研究方法:经验总结法和描述性研究法。研究结果:目前耕地保护补偿工作的重点是建立激励性补偿机制,从目前国家和地方的财力分析,单纯以经济补偿方式建立耕地保护补偿机制不能成为落实耕地保护的主要措施。研究结论:考虑地区发展定位是促使补偿机制发挥作用的先决条件,确定与发展水平适应的补偿标准能够调动保护耕地积极性,拓宽补偿方式来弥补资金和实物补偿成效不足的问题,建议在粮食主产区以国家补偿为主开展试点。     

不同加载方式下岩石力学特性及能量演化规律

本文以东荣二矿南二下采区16煤层五工作面回风下山巷道围岩为研究对象,进行了不同加载方式的岩石力学试验,分析岩石在加载过程中力学特性和能量演化规律.为巷道围岩能量分布、变形破坏机理及巷道围岩稳定性控制研究提供基础数据.     

Mixed Equilibrium in a Downsian Model with a Favored Candidate

This paper examines competition in the standard one-dimensional Downsian model of two-candidate elections, but where one candidate (A) enjoys an advantage over the other candidate (D). Voters' preferences are Euclidean, but any voter will vote for candidate A over candidate D unless D is closer to her ideal point by some fixed distance δ. The location of the median voter's ideal point is uncertain, and its distribution is commonly known by both candidates. The candidates simultaneously choose locations to maximize the probability of victory. Pure strategy equilibria often fail to exist in this model, except under special conditions about δ and the distribution of the median ideal point. We solve for the essentially unique symmetric mixed equilibrium with no-gaps, show that candidate A adopts more moderate policies than candidate D, and obtain some comparative statics results about the probability of victory and the expected distance between the two candidates' policies. We find that both players' equilibrium strategies converge to the expected median voter as A's advantage shrinks to 0. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: C72, D72.     

教育产业及其发展的公共经济学分析

本文从公共经济学的视角探讨了我国教育产业及其发展的相关问题。首先，明确提出现代教育产业是一种混合产业，兼有公共经济与民间经济双重性质，中国现阶段必须将教育当做混合产业来发展，才有利于“科教兴国”战略的实施。其次，在明确现阶段应当以混合产业方式发展中国教育事业的基础上提出了我国应制定和实施的教育投入和管理的政策。