Pricing of Initial Audit Engagements by Large and Small Audit Firms*

We investigate the extent to which auditors of U.S. companies reduce fees on initial audit engagements (“fee discounting”). We hypothesize that rivalries among sellers, in terms of client turnover and price competition, are more intense among small audit firms. The data support this hypothesis. New clients account for 34 percent of all clients for small audit firms, but only 9 percent of all clients for large audit firms. We theorize that differences in client turnover rates between large and small audit firms can be explained by the market structure of the audit industry, which consists of an oligopolistic segment dominated by a few large audit firms and an atomistic segment composed of many small audit firms. We further hypothesize and confirm that fee discounting is more extensive in the atomistic sector, and our results confirm this hypothesis. Our analysis of audit fee changes indicates that clients who switch auditors within the atomistic sector receive on average a discount of 24 percent over the prior auditor's fee. However, clients who switch auditors within the oligopolistic sector receive on average a discount of only 4 percent. Given that price competition is known to be less intense in oligopolistic markets than in atomistic markets, we believe that market structure theory can explain why fee discounting is lower when larger audit firms compete for clients.     

碳／环氧复合材料在雷达天线测量杆上的应用研究

本文详细介绍采用软模成型技术试制高精度雷达天线测量杆的过程，探索了碳／环氧复合材料在该领域的应用，并讨论了热膨胀材料，凝胶点压力，模具设计等关键成型工艺，制造出的测量杆达到重量轻（胶铝合金轻６５％）热膨胀系数低（０．５×１０＾－６／Ｋ）的较理想目标。     

低截获概率雷达性能分析与实现

本文首先对低截获雷达概念和截获方程进行了回顾，在对低截获概率改善因子讨论的基础上，指出如何提高信息处理的改善因子是实现低截获的关键，并给出了其实现的途径。     

Public policy and technical change in Latin American agriculture

The article analyses and interprets the modernization and technical change of Latin American agriculture over the past two decades. The innovation process is analysed through eight case studies of various products in a variety of countries and method of production. Through these empirical studies, the authors provide a general interpretation of technical change and the public policy process in Latin American agriculture.     

The opportunity cost of preserving the Brazilian Amazon forest

We estimate the trade‐off between forest preservation and agricultural production for the Legal Amazon region, using census and deforestation data for municipalities in 2006. We use a directional distance function to represent the production possibility frontier, and then calculate the shadow price of reducing deforestation in terms of agricultural income foregone. Results indicate that, on average, to preserve 1 ha of forest, $797 in annual agricultural GDP must be foregone. Using a discount rate of 10% and average forest carbon density of 132 tons per hectare, these results imply an average shadow price of $16 per ton of CO₂ permanently sequestered.     

The economic impacts of technology and climate change: New evidence from U.S. corn yields

Over the past century, U.S. farmers have been offered a steady stream of new agricultural technologies, and more recently, experienced climate change. Because these two events have been occurring simultaneously, identifying their separate effects is difficult, and misimputation is easy. This article explicitly examines the economics of technical change and the interaction between weather and technology as revealed in a half century of panel data on U.S. Midwest rainfed state‐average corn yields. Observed yields reflect two components: yield potential and damage to the potential caused by weather and pests. Yield potential is modeled as a stochastic production frontier where nitrogen fertilization, public corn research, and introduction and adoption of biotech corn seeds impact yield potential and excess heat impacts nitrogen productivity. The yield‐damage/damage‐control function permits biotech corn plants to abate adverse effects of weather and pest events. Results include the following: nitrogen use, public corn research, and biotech seed‐corn adoption increase yield potential; soil moisture stress reduces yield potential, and excess heat severely reduces nitrogen productivity. Biotech corn plants abate yield damage caused by soil moisture stress but not excess heat.     

The power of argument

Agrobiodiversity has been decreasing substantially in Europe. Social scientific research in this area has paid limited attention to how citizens value agrobiodiversity and its decline, and how these valuations can be influenced. We explore the influence of different arguments for enhancing agro-biodiversity, delivered via short movies, on attitudes and behaviour of students, environmental professionals and people interested in nature conservation in the Netherlands. We conclude that information provision does not influence attitudes. However, it does influence values assigned to agrobiodiversity, but not always in the ways we hypothesized. Information about the intrinsic value of agrobiodiversity has the most effects on values assigned to agrobiodiversity. Among students, women and people with a low emotional attachment with agricultural landscapes (‘place identity’ and ‘place dependence’), emphasizing the instrumental value of agrobiodiversity has a counter-intuitive effect. It does not influence the importance of this value but instead reinforces the intrinsic value they assign to agrobiodiversity. The latter finding is at odds with the instrumental biodiversity discourse in science and policy, which, under headings such as ecosystem services and natural capital, aims to mobilize support for nature conservation by emphasizing its instrumental, functional and economic values. Emphasizing the intrinsic value of agrobiodiversity seems more effective.     

关于农产品出口补贴零承诺的法律制度

农产品补贴是世界各国支持和保护本国农业的一种基本政策手段,如果发达国家继续使用过高的补贴用于本国的农产品出口,那么势必会进一步降低我国的农产品国际竞争力。这里主要明确WTO有关农产品出口补贴的具体规定、借鉴世界主要发达国家有关农产品出口补贴的具体法律规定、分析中国农产品出口补贴零承诺产生的负影响,提出我国应对农产品出口补贴零承诺法律制度构建合理建议,以期对我国提升农产品国际竞争力有所助益。     

中国-东盟自贸区对我国广西农业及农民收入的影响研究——以龙眼、荔枝为例

中国-东盟自由贸易区的快速推进使得区域内贸易不断扩大,区域社会总体福利不断改善。但是区域贸易自由化过程中过快的开放和过大幅度的降税会对某些特定地区和特定人群的生产、就业和收入造成一定的冲击。本文从关税理论出发,结合实地调研,以广西龙眼、荔枝产业为例,分析了中国-东盟自由贸易区的发展对当地龙眼、荔枝产业以及当地果农的生产、就业和收入造成的影响和冲击,并且根据分析结果提出了政策建议。     

入世过渡期结束后我国农业安全状况及对策

根据我国加入世贸组织的承诺,到2004年,我国的农产品关税水平已经降低到平均17%以下,与入世前相比,降幅为20%,其中大宗农产品下降到14.5%,降幅为31.6%。同时配额也将进一步增加。若国内农产品的生产成本不能随关税下调而快速下降,我国农业发展将受到影响。本文对入世过渡期结束后我国的农业安全状况及发展前景进行了实证分析,科学回答了我国农业究竟处于怎样的安全状态,并提出了相关政策建议。