资产价格波动与金融不稳定性:传导机制与政策选择

美国次贷危机之后,资产价格对经济金融稳定的影响受到广泛关注。本文首先指出,金融的不稳定性很大程度上根源于资产价格周期性的波动;然后从银行信贷、市场流动性、信息不对称以及非理性行为四个方面具体阐述了资产价格波动对金融稳定的影响机制;最后提出应对资产价格波动的政策建议,包括货币政策应该关注而非盯住资产价格、关注资产价格背后的信用扩张而非资产价格本身、监管部门应加快构建宏观审慎监管框架等。     

经济周期、宏观调控与银行监管

本文在分析中国经济周期特征和成因的基础上,认为政府主导下的投资和信贷波动是导致中国经济波动的主要因素。目前,中国平滑经济波动的金融宏观调控手段主要包括信贷控制和指导、存款准备金制度、利率和汇率政策及公开市场业务等措施。随着中国经济的开放化、法治化和市场化,需要进一步发挥银行监管在金融宏观调控中的作用,在实践中主要就在于建立和完善以资本充足率为核心的监管调控体系、以透明独立为特征的监管组织体系和以准确快捷为目标的风险预警和测试体系。     

Multiproduct Outputs and Scale Economies in Electric Power Production: Some New Estimates

The present study offers an argument, through a technical exposition, which suggests that there are cost differences inherent in serving different types of buyers in the electric utilities industry. To this end, we employ a translog joint cost function (for electricity production) with three outputs, which allows for the examination of the cost differences between wholesale and retail trade for vertically integrated, investor-owned companies in the industry. The regression estimates suggest different costs at the means, however the estimated marginal cost curve for wholesale power is not as robust as those for low-voltage and industrial power.     

生产性服务业集聚推进城市化了吗？

本文在外部性和新经济地理综合框架下研究中国284个地级市生产性服务业集聚对城市化的影响。结果显示,生产性服务业专业化和多样化集聚对城市化具有显著的技术溢出效应,且专业化集聚作用效果更明显;而生产性服务业空间集聚规模则通过市场外部性作用于城市化。生产性服务业专业化集聚对西部地区影响大于东、中部,而多样化集聚和空间集聚规模的作用由东向西依次递减;国内市场、国际市场亦对各地区生产性服务业集聚效应产生不同程度的影响     

The impact of the U.S. employment report on exchange rates

The impact of the U.S. Employment Report and analyst forecasts of that report’s major statistics on Pound/Dollar, Yen/Dollar, and Euro/Dollar exchange rates are explored. While the nonfarm payroll employment figure has the greatest impact, we find that the exchange rates also react to the announced revision to last month’s payroll figure and to the unemployment rate. In all three markets, the exchange rate response to the payroll employment figure is strongly conditioned on pre-release analyst uncertainty. The median analyst forecast from Bloomberg anticipates over 80% of the monthly variation in the payroll figure and is basically unbiased. The markets appear to respond to these analyst forecasts prior to the government release. Analyst forecast dispersion tends to increase following large forecast errors indicating that when the announced figure is far from what analysts expected, they tend to disagree on the implications for future payroll levels.     

Examining export trade and corporate innovation: A multiphase difference-in-differences method

Using a multiphase difference-in-differences model, this study investigates the relationship between export trade and the corporate technological innovation of listed companies. It reveals that engaging in export trade increases corporate innovation input and output. In terms of patent output, export trade greatly promotes the output of invention patents and utility model patents with a high technological content. These conclusions remain valid after a series of robustness and endogeneity tests. Regarding the mechanisms of the observed relationships, export trade stimulates corporate technological innovation mainly by realizing economies of scale and increasing risk-taking. The positive correlation between export trade and corporate technological innovation is strongest among state-owned enterprises, non-high-tech enterprises, enterprises based in central and eastern China, enterprises engaged in general trade, and enterprises exporting to developed economies. Given the growing trade frictions ongoing at the time of writing, the conclusions of this study provide vital practical guidance and empirical evidence for a national strategy of innovation-driven development.     

The efficiency and the conduct of European banks: Developments after 1992

We assess the efficiency of the European banking sector in the 5-year period following the implementation of the Second Banking Directive of the European Union (EU). We first determine the degree of cost efficiency of EU banks in 1993-1997. After that, we explore to what extent efficient European banks are managed differently than their inefficient peers. Our datasets comprise 5 years of observations on 1347 savings and 873 commercial banks. We use the new recursive thick frontier approach (RTFA) method to establish our results. We find that structural factors, such as technological progress or increased bank competition, have lowered the cost base of banks by about 5% annually during the sample period. Managerial inability to control costs (X-inefficiency) is with 17-25% the main source of bank inefficiency in the EU. Managerial efficiency varies a great deal within Europe, and there seems to be no tendency towards convergence. We find that small savings banks can exploit economies of scale. The EU savings bank sector would cut costs by about 3% if small savings banks merged.     

The Effects of Market Concentration and Horizontal Mergers on Hospital Costs and Prices

Antitrust advocates believe that horizontal consolidation in hospital markets can reduce competition and increase prices while merger advocates believe it can benefit consumers by reducing service duplication. This study analyzed the market conditions, operating characteristics, and costs and prices of approximately 3500 short-term general hospitals (including 112 within-market-area mergers) from 1986 to 1994 to investigate the effects of market concentration, hospital mergers, and managed care penetration. The results show: a shift away from non-price competition toward price competition in health care markets; that this shift was fueled by increased market penetration by price-sensitive buyers; that horizontal hospital mergers produced average cost savings of approximately 5%, which were generally passed on to consumers as lower prices; that cost savings were generally greater for mergers of similar-size hospitals, with a higher degree of duplicative services, and with lower pre-merger occupancy rates; and some evidence that post-merger price reductions were smaller in less-competitive markets.     

Empirical macroeconomic model of the Finnish economy (EMMA)

This paper provides a review of the empirical macroeconomic model (EMMA) built for forecasting purposes at the Finnish Labour Institute for Economic Research. The model is quite small, consisting of 71 endogenous and 70 exogenous variables. The number of behavioural equations is 15. The basis of the model is Keynesian, although the model has some novel properties. They are the treatment of the supply side and prices that follow the routes of the neoclassical synthesis. The parameters of the model are estimated from quarterly data that cover the years 1990–2005. The model also contains a Kalman-filtered variable to control the deep recession in Finland at the beginning of the '90s. This special feature brings the model closer to the new calibrated models.