我国液态生物质燃料适度发展规模研究——宏观经济视角的分析

本文通过构建简单的总供给一总需求模型,分析石油数量调控政策、潜在产出水平与均衡价格上涨之间的数理逻辑关系,进而间接得到液态生物质燃料适度规模问题的一般分析框架,为进一步的定量分析打下坚实基础。研究结果表明:为达到潜在产出水平和一定的价格上涨水平,不同的现实条件要求政府实行不同的石油数量调控政策。     

从非价格制度谈对市场经济内涵的再认识

随着市场经济的发展,环境污染、外部负效应、社会道德水平下降和贫富分化严重等市场失灵造成的社会不良现象相继出现,暴露出了一个问题,即市场经济价格机制并不是万能的。非价格制度的作用以及市场经济的进入时机与条件,都是市场经济模式运用中更广泛的内容。文章从市场经济的一般理论与特征入手,针对其内在的缺陷,引入非价格制度的概念与作用,指出非价格制度其实应作为市场经济本身的一部分来认识,从而对市场经济理论进行深入探讨。     

中国U型储蓄的分析

我国的储蓄率逐渐变为U型和国外的倒U型是相反的。退休后的储蓄率高于工作的人的储蓄率,出现了和生命周期理论相违背的现象。这种趋势从1995年开始,到2000年出现大的上升,到2005年趋势非常明显。     

外商直接投资与区域市场一体化——基于长三角的经验研究

外商直接投资改变了政府和企业的行为模式,从而对市场一体化进程产生深刻的影响。市场替代假说和全球价值链假说对两者之间的关系给出了截然不同的预测。文章在构建长三角地区市场一体化指数的基础上,研究外商直接投资与区域市场一体化之间的关系。研究结果表明,长三角地区的市场一体化水平在不断提高;外商直接投资有助于拓展区域市场一体化进程。最后,文章基于地方政府竞争的角度对实证结论进行解释。     

Corporate Lobbying and Firm Performance

Corporate lobbying activities are designed to influence legislators, regulators and courts, presumably to encourage favorable policies and/or outcomes. In dollar terms, corporate lobbying expenditures are typically one or even two orders of magnitude larger than spending by Political Action Committees (PAC), and, unlike PAC donations, lobbying amounts are direct corporate expenditures. We use data made available by the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 to examine this more pervasive form of corporate political activity. We find that, on average, lobbying is positively related to accounting and market measures of financial performance. These results are robust across a number of empirical specifications. We also report market performance evidence using a portfolio approach. We find that portfolios of firms with the highest lobbying intensities significantly outperform their benchmarks in the three years following portfolio formation.     

The Impact of Farmland Transfers on Agricultural Investment in China: A Perspective of Transaction Cost Economics

There is growing concern that farmland transfers lead to less agricultural investment, which may adversely affect agricultural productivity growth in China. Prior research has primarily focused on the differences between owned cultivated land and rented plots, but little is known about how farmland transfers between relatives, which are popular in rural China, specifically affect agricultural investment. In this paper, we present a conceptual framework of transaction cost economics to compare different contracting strategies in China's farmland rental markets. As farmland rental markets in China are immature, land transfer between relatives establishes bilateral governance, which has the advantage of addressing the opportunistic activities of both parties and can ultimately increase investment by tenants. Based on data from two waves of household surveys, we empirically examine the impact of bilateral governance on the application of organic fertilizer, an indicator for agricultural investment. Our findings show that apart from economic factors, kinship is important to the functioning of farmland rental markets in rural areas.     

Do Sovereign Re‐Ratings Destabilize Equity Markets during Financial Crises? New Evidence from Higher Return Moments

This study investigates the effects of S&P's sovereign re‐ratings on the higher moments of equity market returns over recent financial crises. Using a set of intraday stock market index prices and sovereign credit ratings for a sample of 36 countries that experienced sovereign rating changes over the period from 1996 to 2013, we find that the higher moments of stock market returns are significantly more responsive to sovereign re‐ratings during financial crises, but the effects on stock markets are not the same across different financial crises. The effects during crises are, however, magnified for large downgrades and those that are associated with a loss of investment grade status. We find that there are asymmetric effects during financial crises in that downgrades are consistently more significant than upgrades in increasing realized volatility and realized kurtosis. Both upgrades and downgrades affect realized skewness in times of crises in the expected direction.     

Oil commodity returns and macroeconomic factors: A time-varying approach

This paper analyses the dynamic influence of macroeconomic factors on oil commodity returns (crude oil and heating oil) shown in monthly data over the period of 1990–2013. Using a time-varying parameter model via the Kalman filter, we find that macroeconomic factors are relevant for explaining oil commodity returns. We find that multilateral exchange rates have a negative effect on commodity returns. We confirm the existence of a strong linkage between energy and non-energy commodities. More importantly, we find shifts in global demand and SP500 effects that are not identified through the constant parameter model. These variables have had a progressively positive effect on oil commodity returns, especially since 2008.