Working-time reduction and employment: experiences in Europe and economic policy recommendations

The paper seeks to evaluate the evidence on the employment effectsof the collective working-time reductions in Europe over thepast 20 years. While theoretical analyses produce contradictoryassessments, most empirical studies show positive employmenteffects but take insufficient account of these conditions underwhich the reductions in working time were implemented. Theseconditions for the success of collective working-time reductionsinclude an active training policy designed to minimise skillshortages in the labour market, the modernisation of work organisation,wage increases in conjunction with productivity gains and amore equal income distribution.     

Pricing risky corporate bonds: An empirical study

This paper empirically studies a model for pricing risky corporate bonds proposed by Baaquie—based on the seminal Merton. The proposed model provides an exact solution for the price of a risky corporate bond with a finite maturity and explains the market price of corporate fixed coupon bonds as being the result of the market risk that is carried by the bond. Baaquie's model is empirically tested using 42 fixed coupon bonds issued by 23 US corporations, between 2011 and 2017. It is found that the proposed model estimates most bond prices quite accurately. Market time (similar to the concept of psychological time), which is distinct from calendar time, is quantified in the paper and is an exogenous behavioral parameter that plays a pivotal role in improving the accuracy of the pricing model for long-maturity risky bonds.     

货币政策、金融周期及其宏观经济效应

本文综合金融市场的多维信息,利用主成分分析法合成我国的金融周期指数。在此基础上,构建TVP SV VAR模型研究2003—2017年间我国货币政策、金融周期及宏观经济变量间的时变互动关系。研究发现：（1）我国货币政策、金融周期和宏观经济变量之间存在显著的时变互动关系。（2）金融传导渠道可能扭曲货币政策效力,通过金融传导渠道,货币政策不仅会抑制经济增长,还可能加剧通货膨胀。（3）金融周期对货币政策产出效应的影响滞后于对价格效应的影响。短期来看,货币政策产出效应的时变特征与金融传导渠道无太大关联,但随时间推移,金融繁荣对产出的负面影响可能最终使货币政策产出效应发生反转。货币当局应警惕金融繁荣对货币政策效力的扭曲,审慎操作,且不宜承担过多刺激产出的任务。     

A Gendered Model of the Peasant Household: Time poverty and Farm Production in Rural Mozambique

Using insights from a case study on the allocation of labor in subsistence households in Mozambique, this study develops a conceptual framework for examining linkages between time poverty and farm production. An unexpected event such as a health crisis increases the demand for labor provided by women, thus making them more time poor. The model and numerical simulations show that a deterioration in a woman's time constraint will have an adverse effect on agricultural output of the household. This occurs because most women respond to an increase in household work by reducing their work hours on the farm and by reducing their leisure time. The latter outcome is expected to have a negative effect on women's physical and mental health, which will then cause a decline in their productivity on the farm.     

A new methodology for the logistic analysis of evolutionary S-shaped processes: Application to historical time series and forecasting

A new multi-logistic methodology to analyze long range time series of evolutionary S-shaped processes is presented. It conceptually innovates over the traditional logistic approach. The ansatz includes computing the residuals to an optimized multi-logistic trend curve least squares fitted to the time-series data. The elements of the residuals series are checked for autocorrelations and once detected the residuals series is further analyzed to search for eventual presence of underlying periodic structures using a truncated Fourier sine series. The method foundations ensures both a universal applicability and a capacity to disclose the existence of active clocks that can be possibly traced to the driving motors of the evolutionary character of the time series, due to the responsiveness of corresponding process to the development of economic cycles. On associating these two views, it is found that the methodology has a strong potential to improve the quality of short-term forecasts. These findings have been put to test through applications of the methodology to studying the time evolution of two commodities of strong economic and social importance (corn and steel) and good results were consistently obtained for both the analytical and forecasting aspects.     

资源稀缺、技术冲击与风险投资退出时机

本文从风险投资市场资源稀缺的特征出发,建立了一个风险投资退出时机选择模型,在此基础上,运用2004-2011年中国风险投资退出的季度数据考察了技术冲击和市场利率等因素变化对风险投资退出时机的影响。研究发现：（1）资源稀缺的程度与风险投资退出时机的选择有着非常紧密的联系;（2）市场利率的变化对风险投资的退出行为的影响具有不对称性：市场利率下降可能会导致风险投资加速退出质量较差的风险企业,同时却更长时间地持有质量较好的风险企业;（3）技术进步会增加风险企业的数量,提高风险投资市场上风险企业的平均质量,加速风险投资退出。     

Technological knowledge as an essential facility

The economics of regulation has articulated the notions of essential facility and mandated interconnection. Their application to the governance of technological knowledge can be fruitful especially when implemented by the adoption of a compensatory liability rule and the parallel reduction in the exclusivity of patents. Because knowledge is at the same time an output and an input in the production of new knowledge, exclusivity, traditionally associated to patents, is the cause of actual knowledge rationing with major drawbacks in terms of both static and dynamic efficiency. This institutional innovation can improve the governance of technological knowledge and increase both its rates of dissemination and generation.

The labour income share and the relative price of investment in the US: an empirical investigation

Several studies argue that the recent decline in the secular trend of the labour income share is mostly driven by capital-embodied technological progress which is typically identified with trend reductions in the relative price of investment. In this paper, I use data from the United States to assess the nature of the relationship between trends in the labour share and the relative price of investment. Results from co-integration tests reveal that the share and the relative price of investment are most likely not co-integrated. However, co-variation tests indicate that both time series share a common stochastic component, and additional tests of structural breaks point at the presence of a common change in the mean or trend of both series. These results suggest that capital-embodied or investment-specific technological progress may have played an important role in the decline of the secular trend of the labour share.     

中国上市商业银行业务结构与盈利能力研究

中国上市商业银行盈利能力与业务结构紧密相关,论文从不同角度考察了商业银行的盈利能力,从资产负债业务结构的差异来分析商业银行盈利能力差异.由于目前国内各商业银行在大多数组织结构和运营模式上大同小异,决定一个商业银行盈利能力的关键可能在于其业务结构的差异.反映商业银行盈利能力的指标主要包括平均资产回报率、平均股东权益回报率、净利差和利息收益率等指标,而成本收入比作为一类占营业收入百分比的指标也可以用来衡量商业银行的盈利能力,本文主要采取成本收入比率和净资产回报率作为考察变量.通过对中国部分上市商业银行业务结构与盈利能力研究,贷款行业结构、区域结构、产品类型结构和存贷款期限结构决定了商业银行的收入空间,而存款的期限结构,特别是3个月以内的活期存款比重对商业银行的成本有着至关重要的影响.