Casinos,casino size,and crime: A panel data analysis of Michigan counties

Growth in legal gaming in the United States over the past quarter century or so is well-documented. One important factor fueling this growth was the passage of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, which permitted Native American tribes to establish, under agreements or “compacts” with the states in which they are located, casinos offering what is known as Class III gaming: slot machines, blackjack, roulette, and other games. Since the passage of the Act, there have been 21 Native American casinos established in Michigan. Also, three non-Native American casinos opened in Detroit in 1999 and 2000. This growth in the number of casinos has sparked a wide-ranging debate over the social and economic impacts of casino development.The purpose of this research is to focus on the crime issue in the broader casino debate. We investigate the impact of these Michigan casinos on the rates of burglary, robbery, larceny and motor vehicle theft (property crimes) in casino host counties as well as in nearby counties. We employ a panel data set with annual observations on all 83 Michigan counties for the period 1994–2010. The dataset includes crime rates taken from the FBI crime data series, variables for the presence of a casino in a county or in a nearby county, the scale of a casino's operations as measured by revenues, and a variety of control variables suggested by the broader literature investigating the factors that determine crime rates generally.Our results suggest that in most cases the property crime rates studied are not affected by the presence or size of a casino in a county or in a nearby county. The largest such impact, which is negative, is for motor vehicle theft. The size of a casino does have a small positive effect on the motor vehicle theft rate.     

试论我国中小企业社会责任承担中的政府责任

由于多方面的原因,目前我国中小企业承担社会责任的现状还不尽人意。因此,政府应切实履行职能,转变经济增长方式,树立正确的政绩观;健全相关法律法规;不断增强服务意识,打造服务型政府,努力为企业履行社会责任解除后顾之忧;完善竞争激励机制,加强监督和管理,加强教育培训;加强对企业社会责任的宣传,建立与完善信息披露制度,保证企业社会责任报告的真实性。     

中国工业R＆D投入的影响因素

本文运用中国工业面板数据,实证研究了企业规模、产权结构等因素对R＆D投入的影响。研究发现,企业销售收入对R＆D支出有显著正影响,企业员工数量对R＆D支出和R＆D人数均没有显著影响,这意味着熊彼特假说依赖于企业规模和创新变量的设定;国有产权对R＆D人数有显著正影响,但对R＆D支出没有显著影响,这可能表明国有企业在R＆D资源配置上存在着某种扭曲。研究还发现,政府资助对激励企业R＆D投入有重要作用。     

大城市更有利于创新吗？

基于2003—2017年中国277个地级及以上城市的面板数据,分析城市规模及其空间互动对城市创新产出的影响效应。研究结果包括：第一,全样本的估计结果显示,随着城市规模持续扩大,城市创新能力不断提升,但是该正向作用会受到城市所处地区和资源禀赋的约束;第二,作用机制检验结果表明,更大的市场需求规模与更高的金融集聚水平是大城市拥有更多创新产出的重要路径;第三,从空间溢出效应视角分析后发现,城市创新的空间集聚特征呈现正的显著性,同时当城市的规模越大时,其对周边城市创新的抑制效应就更为强烈。     

宗地规模、城市类型与土地出让溢价——基于70个大中城市住宅用地出让数据的实证分析

研究目的:确定住宅用地出让溢价率水平与宗地规模之间的关系,比较不同规模和区位城市中这一关系的差异。研究方法:理论分析,面板数据分析。研究结果:总体上宗地规模对土地溢价率的影响呈现"倒U"型变化关系,不同规模和区位城市中这一关系有差异。人口介于500万～1 000万之间的特大城市中土地溢价水平受宗地规模的影响较为强烈,东部和中部城市中宗地规模大小对土地溢价水平影响显著,西部城市不显著。研究结论:地方政府在总量既定条件下调整宗地投放规模可在一定程度上调控土地溢价率。     

From passenger growth to aircraft movements

Airlines are able to deal with passenger growth by either increasing the frequency or the aircraft size, which may entail different numbers of aircraft movements. Forecasting the latter is necessary for evaluating technologies, approaching future emissions or anticipating capacity constraints. Purpose of this paper is to forecast a typical fleet mix and the growth of aircraft movements on flight segments worldwide based on an assumed passenger growth. The methodology is implemented in a model called Forecast of Aircraft Movements. Basic approach is the assignment of each flight segment worldwide to a distance, passenger number and aircraft category. For each combination of distance and passenger numbers a typical fleet mix is defined. The forecasted worldwide growth of passenger demand and the empirically determined fleet mix is applied to all segments in order to derive a future scenario. Assuming a certain seat load factor, the frequency growth can be deduced from the aircraft movements generated for all segments. The paper includes a forecast for aircraft movements in a future scenario based on real schedule and passenger data and gives a detailed overview of the methodology and results considering airlines' behaviour.     

Economies of traffic density and scale in the integrated air cargo industry: The cost structures of FedEx Express and UPS Airlines

This paper examines the cost structures of the leading integrated air cargo carriers, FedEx Express and UPS Airlines. A total cost model is estimated for the two carriers using quarterly data on domestic operations and costs over a nine-year period (2003–2011). The estimated model indicates that the integrated industry exhibits increasing returns to traffic density and constant returns to scale. Accounting for carrier-specific differences in cost structure and network size, FedEx Express is found to be more cost-efficient than UPS Airlines. Looking at the carriers individually, UPS Airlines exhibits substantial economies of traffic density and constant returns to scale while FedEx Express' cost structure is characterized by weak economies of density and constant returns to scale. The combined effect of returns to density and returns to scale on the cost structures of integrated carriers is captured by economies of size. Both FedEx Express and UPS Airlines exhibit economies of size, indicating that carriers in the integrated industry can be more cost efficient by making appropriate adjustments to their network size as their output grows. Moreover, the relative cost-efficiencies of the carriers are reversed when their network-size differences are not controlled.     

Growth-focused or profit-focused firms: Transitions toward profitable growth

Profitable growth is the most desirable state tourism and hospitality firm managers can hope to achieve. In reality, however, it is not easy for a tourism and hospitality firm to consistently grow and accumulate profits. In order to achieve profitable growth, some firms focus on sales growth while victimizing profits, while others concentrate on profits and hold off on growth. To better understand these strategies, this study investigated the growth state, profit state and transitions of restaurant firms. The findings of this study supported that profit-focused firms are more likely to achieve profitable growth than growth-focused firms. In addition, growth-focused firms with low liquidity had a higher likelihood of transitioning to a state of low growth and low profit in the short-term, and this liquidity effect was more serious for small firms in terms of long-term performance. Further, when profit-focused firms had few growth opportunities, large free cash flows increased the likelihood of transitioning to a state of low growth and low profit in the short-term. More detailed results are provided in this paper.     

Unobserved firm heterogeneity and the size-exports nexus: Evidence from German panel data

This paper starts from the stylized fact that firm size and exporting tends to be positively related. Using large sets of establishment panel data for three different industries from official statistics, evidence is presented that the familiar picture of an export/sales ratio that increases (at a decreasing rate) with firm size vanishes if unobserved firm heterogeneity is controlled for in a fixed-effects fractional logit regression model. This finding is well in line with the fact that many small firms are “hidden export champions.” JEL no. F10, D21, L60     

Size of nested cities

Models of cities based on conventional spatial market theory are unable to replicate a realistic size distribution. The stochastic process approach to size distribution, which assumes proportionate growth, does not provide an economic foundation for spatial trades. There is an apparent irreconcilability. We propose that since there is a continuum of equilibria in models of spatial markets with endogenous location, proportionate growth can work as equilibrium selection. We present computations for an urban configuration that has not been presented in the literature before. A small city locates inside a larger city's agricultural supply zone. This generates a larger variation in city size that may include a realistic size distribution.