Monetary transmission with multiple policy rates: evidence from Turkey

Quantitative easing policies have led to persistent divergence between officially announced policy rates and short-term money market rates in many economies, making it challenging to assess the stance of monetary policy in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Lack of data variation in short-term interest rates across time dimension has made it difficult to identify the monetary transmission mechanisms. In order to shed some light on this topic, we make advantage of a specific period from Turkey during which the central bank deliberately allowed the policy rates to diverge frequently from the interbank rates due to capital flow management purposes. Using bank-level flow data from this episode, we investigate the relationship between various short-term interest rate measures and bank loan/deposit rates through panel estimation methods. Our findings suggest that interbank rates are more relevant than central bank’s officially announced rates for the transmission of monetary policy when the two diverge from each other persistently. Interbank rates particularly play a key role in the pricing of loans and deposits. These findings provide helpful guidance for evaluating the monetary stance under unconventional policies.     

Costs of administration,travelling, and productivity losses associated with hospital administration of multiple myeloma drugs in Finland

Aim: To estimate the drug administration, travelling, and productivity costs associated with infusion or subcutaneous proteasome inhibitor (PI) treatments (specifically carfilzomib and bortezomib) for multiple myeloma (MM) patients in Finland.

Materials and methods: Price tariffs of Finnish hospital districts are used as the basis of invoicing sent to healthcare service payers. A review of these price tariff lists was conducted and obtained data analysed to estimate the mean unit cost of PI administration visit. Travelling costs stratified by areas with different population densities were assessed, based on the national travelling reimbursement register data maintained by the Social Insurance Institution of Finland. Productivity costs due to time spent on administration visits and travelling were estimated based on an expert interview and a spatial healthcare accessibility analysis.

Results: Nineteen (95%) of the Finnish hospital districts were included in the review. Relevant unit cost information was found for 15 (75%) of the districts. The mean PI administration cost alone was 270€ (95% CI?=?189€–351€) per administration and increased to 371€ when travelling costs were included. Productivity costs added, the mean PI administration costs totalled 405€ for bortezomib and 437€ for carfilzomib.

Limitations: The costing rationale of price tariffs may vary between hospital districts. Productivity costs were estimated conservatively, due to lack of data.

Conclusions: The administration of intravenous or subcutaneous PIs to treat MM in healthcare facilities causes significant and potentially avoidable healthcare, travelling, and indirect costs, and they should be included in all health economic evaluations (HEEs). As the cost estimates utilized in this study represent most of central hospitals in the country, they provide useful information for future HEEs. A broader conclusion is that novel oral medications, such as the first oral PI, have a significant potential for reducing administration-related costs of subcutaneous or intravenous PIs.     

The influence of African swine fever information on consumers’ preference of pork attributes and pork purchase

This paper uses a randomized survey instrument to study the impact of African Swine Fever (ASF) information on Chinese consumers’ preference for pork attributes and purchases during the recent peak of the ASF pandemic in 2019. We study consumers’ preference for pork attributes including brand, meat texture and taste, quality safety assurance, and traceability under different information treatments. Results show that the willingness to pay (WTP) for quality safety assurance is the highest, followed by brands and traceability systems, and the WTP is lowest for good taste. We show that providing detailed ASF information substantially changes consumer preference by altering the relative importance of pork attributes and price sensitivity, which enables consumers to focus more on safety-related attributes while paying less attention to price and taste attributes. Furthermore, we find that a higher belief in the future of ASF occurrence reduces the frequency of purchases marginally but does not significantly influence for amount per purchase and the total purchase amount.     

Clustering of intraday order-sizes by uninformed versus informed traders

We examine quantity choice patterns by equity traders across trading hours in the U.S. Controlling for intraday variations in trading activity, we find that traders submit more non-rounded order sizes and more order sizes overall leading up to a day’s market close. Traders who submit more distinct order sizes pay a higher cost to trade, and they are also less informed about future prices. Our results suggest that the goal to satisfy specific quantity demands rises across the day. This differs from total trading demand, which resembles a U-shape pattern intraday, but is consistent with less trade-size clustering at the ends of fiscal quarters.     

When Borch's Theorem Does Not Apply: Some Key Implications of Market Incompleteness,with Policy Relevance Today

Markets are incomplete when the assets available to the agents do not span the space of future contingencies. In that case, competitive equilibria on the markets for assets and commodities fail (generically) to be constrained efficient. Pareto‐superior allocations can be implemented through price/wage rigidities and quantity constraints. However, nominal rigidities are conducive to multiple equilibria, implying endogenous macroeconomic uncertainties that compound the primitive (exogenous) uncertainties. This paper defines a temporary general equilibrium for which there exists a set of equilibria defining an inflation – unemployment locus. Various policy implications are drawn, with relevance to the current crisis.     

Exploring the role of worker income and workplace characteristics on the journey to work

Traditional trip distribution processes that rely heavily on gravity models fail to capture how the characteristics of individuals or the heterogeneity in the attributes of attraction zones may influence the accessibility to jobs and, therefore, journey-to-work patterns. Different approaches, such as destination choice models, are not generally applied because of limited data availability and calibration requirements. This paper proposes an alternative approach to overcome this challenge by combining a utility-based measure of accessibility and a maximum range of commuting distance to predict the journey-to-work patterns of individual worker-agents using an open-access database. A multinomial logit model is estimated and an agent-based model is developed using data from the Census Transportation Planning Products (CTPP) 5-year database. The proposed methodology is demonstrated using a case study based on Tippecanoe County, Indiana, and the results are compared to a double-constrained gravity model. Results indicate that the utility functions derived from the CTPP database can replicate the aggregated journey-to-work patterns by income levels. Furthermore, it was found that the utility functions for low-, middle-, and high-household income groups could be different. Finally, while a calibrated gravity model could produce a trip-length distribution and average commuting distance more similar to observed data, the destination choice model provides more insights into the trip patterns across different household income groups, thereby providing a better basis for policy analysis.     

村庄重构中的社会资本情境与个体选择行为分析

从传统向现代的转型过程中,传统社会资本的逐渐消解与现代社会资本的不完全成长构成了当前中国农村社会资本的结构断裂性情境。由于受到社会资本的情境性限制,村民在村庄重构过程中的个体选择行为表现为一种经济理性与从众心理相结合的非理性选择,导致作为主体的农民在村庄重构中集体失语。培育农村现代社会资本成为解决当前村庄重构中农民利益保护的重要途径,也是社会资本对自身情境性限制的工具性超越。     

Why is change so slow? Assessing prospects for United Nations Security Council reform

The article explores how changed patterns of UN membership affected the prospects for UN Security Council institutional reform. First, we outline a theoretical framework based on path dependency, veto player analysis and social choice theory. Second, we offer calculations of decision probability and show that a higher voting threshold lowers chances of winning coalitions in a non-linear fashion. Third, we explore the specific decision-making procedures for UNSC reform and which actors can block reform. We conclude that not only diverging preferences, but that hurdles established early on combined with membership growth have ‘locked in’ the current institutional arrangement.     

外部信息自适应更新的SCMA系统译码方案

现有上行稀疏码多址接入（Sparse Code Multiple Access，SCMA）通信系统采用的译码算法中，基于串行策略的消息传递算法（Message Passing Algorithm，MPA）因其在每次迭代过程只选择单个消息进行更新，存在着收敛速度较慢等问题。针对以上问题，提出外部信息自适应更新的MPA算法，每次迭代过程中自适应选取多个残差值较大、相互独立的节点，更新其外部信息以达到提高计算效率的目的。仿真结果表明，该算法可有效提升译码性能，在计算复杂度与译码性能之间取得了较好的平衡。     

Strategies for integrating farmers into modern vegetable supply chains in Vietnam: farmer attitudes and willingness to accept

In Vietnam, the development of so‐called ‘modern’ vegetable supply chains is receiving considerable interest amongst researchers and governments. This interest partly stems from the view that enhancements in food safety can be achieved if farmers are willing to adopt supply chains that are often associated with ‘western’ forms of retailing. Our study investigates farmers’ willingness to change to two ‘modern’ alternatives – a supply model based on cooperatives and another based on investors facilitating the change. Using discrete choice data drawn from 412 farmers, mixed logit models in willingness to pay space are developed that reveal the relative importance of different drivers of change. The paper offers insights that can inform governments about the incentives required to bring about change. In addition, the paper illustrates the novel application of a choice experiment to enumerating the perceived costs of changes in vegetable supply chains.