Has Inflation Persistence Changed under EMU?

This paper analyzes the persistence of inflation in the euro area and, in particular, whether the persistence properties have changed since the start of European Monetary Union(EMU). For that purpose, we compare pre‐ and post‐EMU inflation persistence, use rolling‐window estimates of persistence, and apply tests specifically designed to detect break dates near the end of the sample period. In contrast to previous research, we find that inflation persistence has fallen significantly since the start of EMU. Persistence of consumer price inflation, which is central to the European Central Bank's policy mandate, has fallen more than the persistence of deflator inflation. The drop in inflation persistence is consistent with the results from a simulated small New Keynesian model with a shift toward a more aggressive monetary policy stance.     

WHAT CAN CHANGES IN STRUCTURAL FACTORS TELL US ABOUT UNEMPLOYMENT IN EUROPE?

This paper examines the impact of temporal variation in labour market institutions and other structural factors on unemployment in Europe. A system comprising a labour demand and a wage equation is estimated on pooled time‐series data for the six largest EU countries for the 1980s and 1990s. The results suggest that changes in regional mismatch, trade union density and the ratio between consumer and producer prices are positively associated with structural unemployment. This result is robust to a wide variety of different specifications. No consistent role is found for other institutional factors (such as social security benefits, employment security and minimum wage).     

Trade Structure and Trade liberalization: The emerging pattern between the EU and Transition Economies

The purpose of this study is to find empirical evidence for the assumption that trade liberalization unlocks the potential of the Transition Economies (TEs) to achieve technological upgrading, productivity progress and catching-up (in terms of income). The study examines the trade structure now emerging between the European Union (EU) and the TEs in the light of two sets of differently liberalized trade items identified by the European Agreements. The aim is to determine whether trade liberalization has helped to supersede the structures – reflected mainly in the low quality of products – inherited by the TEs from the command economy. The empirical results are interpreted in the light of the Flam-Helpman quality-cycle model. We find evidence of an ongoing division of labor between high quality products (EU) and low quality products (TEs) according to a cycle. The first stage comprises the already well established dominance of quality advantage products by EU countries producing and exporting high-quality products, which crowd out the TEs' production of similar products. The second stage is the exploitation of cost-advantages by TEs in less liberalized trade, and there they appear to achieve better results. All these results may be taken as support for an active government in TEs.     

制造业价值链拓展升级、结构调整与经济持续增长

本文通过分析表明,我国目前面临的多种结构性问题和矛盾的主要根源在于我国制造业在全球生产价值链中的位置低下,因此驱使制造业沿着生产价值链路径向上拓展升级就是我国实现经济结构调整、转变经济增长方式的必由之路。我国经济发展已形成的制造业大国格局和高等教育快速发展所带来的劳动力人力资本结构变化,使我国的要素禀赋发生了很大变化,已为我国制造业的转型升级提供了必备的条件。在制造业沿着生产价值链阶梯拓展升级的路径上,企业生产技术水平和研发实力的不断提升,以及自主品牌的策划营销和市场的不断开拓,是其中的两个关键环节。制造业的转型升级是一个长期的过程,既需要企业自身的努力,也需要政府在制度和政策上加以鼓励和引导,并在税收和融资等方面加以扶持。     

Research on the capital structural optimization based on the coexistence condition of company＇s income tax and individual income tax

Capital structure denotes enterprises＇ form and proportion relation of various long-term funds source. The capital structure is the combination problem of the long-term funds about enterprise development and it is the quantity and proportion between every fund form. This paper analyzes the various factors which affect capital structural decision-making, and introduces capital structural optimization theory of the shelter benefit of tax revenue and bankruptcy cost balance. It studies the method and the evaluation criterion of capital structural optimization. And it constructs capital structural optimization model of coexistence condition of company＇s income tax and individual income tax. This will be very helpful for the rationality of enterprise capital structure.     

新型外包型钢与粘钢综合加固法

由于业主对建筑结构使用功能的需求,往往在剪力墙开设新的洞口,开洞后将大大降低剪力墙的抗剪能力,对于新建工程可以对剪力墙洞口部位进行增加暗柱、暗梁或加强钢筋来补强剪力墙的抗剪能力。而对于剪力墙开洞改造工程来说,开洞后因无法增加暗梁、暗柱对剪力墙提高承载能力。因此,在开洞后就必须进行加固,现就对传统的加固方法进行分析,并根据实际施工情况提出新的方法。     

Evaluating Projects and Assessing Sustainable Development in Imperfect Economies

We are interested in three related questions:(1) How should accounting prices be estimated?(2) How should we evaluate policy change in animperfect economy? (3) How can we check whetherintergenerational well-being will be sustainedalong a projected economic programme? We do notpresume that the economy is convex, nor do weassume that the government optimizes on behalfof its citizens. We show that the same set ofaccounting prices should be used both forpolicy evaluation and for assessing whether ornot intergenerational welfare along a giveneconomic path will be sustained. We also showthat a comprehensive measure of wealth,computed in terms of the accounting prices, canbe used as an index for problems (2) and (3)above. The remainder of the paper is concernedwith rules for estimating the accounting pricesof several specific environmental naturalresources, transacted in a few well knowneconomic institutions.