“环保费改税”提高了重污染企业全要素生产率吗？

《环境保护税法》的实施为检验“环保费改税”的效果提供了准自然实验。以2015—2020年沪深A股重污染行业上市公司为样本,采用双重差分模型（DID）检验了“环保费改税”对重污染企业全要素生产率的影响。研究结果表明：“环保费改税”显著提高了税费负担提标地区重污染企业的全要素生产率,整体上支持了“波特假说”;但是,税费负担提标地区重污染企业全要素生产率的提高并非源于“环保费改税”引发的创新补偿效应,而是源于“环保费改税”增加了资源配置效率。上述结果支持了“波特假说”有关“环境规制优化了资源配置效率进而提高企业生产率”的结论。进一步分析发现,“环保费改税”对税费负担提标地区重污染企业全要素生产率的提升效应在民营企业和研发投入强度大的企业中更显著。     

Recovering Risky Technologies Using the Almost Ideal Demand System: An Application to U.S. Banking

We present and estimate a model that shifts the focus of modeling production from the traditional assumptions of profit maximization and cost minimization to a more general assumption of managerial utility maximization that can incorporate risk incentives into the analysis of production and recover value-maximizing technologies. We implement the model using the almost ideal demand system. In addition, we use the model to measure efficiency in a more general way that can incorporate a concern for the market value of firms assets and equity and identify value-maximizing firms. This shift in focus bridges the gap between the risk incentives literature in banking that ignores the microeconomics of production and the production literature that ignores the relationship between production decisions and risk. Our estimation of the model for a sample of U.S. commercial banks illustrates that results obtained from our generalized model can differ significantly from those obtained from the standard profit-maximization model, which ignores risk.     

福建省农业全要素生产率变动原因的实证分析

本文利用Malmquist指数方法,测算了1990—2007年福建省的农业技术进步率、技术效率增长率以及全要素生产率增长率;然后,利用协整检验和脉冲响应函数动态模拟福建省对外开放(对外开放度)对福建省农业技术进步变化率、技术效率变化率的影响,以及对外开放和两者的协整关系,进而说明福建省对外开放对其农业全要素生产率变动的作用。结果表明:20世纪90年代以来,福建省对外开放与其农业技术进步、技术效率变化和全要素生产率增长具有长期稳定均衡关系;福建省对外经济开放对福建省农业技术效率具有促进作用,但对农业技术进步具有"挤出效应"。     

Fuller Employment with Uptrending Prices: The 1968 Economic Report

When used in those spheres of life where attaching a price tag or making an economic calculus is impossible or loses any meaning, markets usually under perform and disappoint. In addition to empirical shortcomings of markets, the unrealistic theoretical assumption and poor predictive and explanatory value of neoclassical equilibrium theory provides fertile ground for critics of the institution of markets. Complexity theory provides a theoretical framework that enables us to analyze the role of markets from a radically different perspective than that offered by neoclassical equilibrium theory and, therefore, to reach very different conclusions about the role of markets in industrialized economies.     

Short-sale constraints and informational efficiency to private information: A natural experiment

Exploiting a regulatory change in short-sale constraints (Regulation SHO) as a natural experiment, this paper examines the effect of short-sale constraints on informational efficiency of stock prices to private information. I find that short-sellers act as informed traders prior to forthcoming analyst news and trade on negative private information. When short-sale constraints are relaxed for pilot stocks (treatment group), both trading volume and stock price sensitivity increase prior to the analyst announcement for bad news but not for good news, relative to that of nonpilot stocks (control group). The findings are consistent with the Diamond and Verrecchia model that predicts that short-selling increases the speed of adjustment of stock prices to private negative information. In the cross-section, the effect of Reg SHO is stronger in stocks of firms with weak and uncertain information environments (i.e., small firms and firms with high analyst forecast dispersion).     

Going Multinational: What are the Effects on Home‐Market Performance?

Abstract. This paper compares the home‐market performance of German multinational enterprises (MNEs) and national firms, both before and after switching from national to multinational activities. Regarding the former case, our results show that future multinationals outperform domestic firms. When assessing the ex post performance of multinationals, selectivity issues must be taken into account. Applying an endogenous treatment model, it turns out that after switching, both productivity and wage growth are higher at newly founded MNEs. While capital intensities increase compared with those of national firms, employment growth rates are negatively related to switching, suggesting that home and foreign employment are substitutes.     

经济增长和人口集聚对城市环境空气质量的影响及区域分异——以第一阶段实施新空气质量标准的74个城市为例

为评估经济增长和人口集聚对城市环境空气质量的影响,寻求源头改善城市环境空气质量的可行路径,以第一阶段实施新空气质量标准的74个城市为例,基于输出导向的数据包络分析模型,以经济和人口指标为输入,以城市环境空气质量指数为输出,计算城市经济增长和人口集聚的整体效率,表征经济增长和人口集聚对城市环境空气质量的影响。结果表明:三大城市群中,京津冀的环境影响比长三角大26.0%,长三角比珠三角大11.2%;省会城市中,中部地区的环境影响最大,东北地区其次,西部地区第三,东部地区最小。快速推进的工业化和城镇化,投资拉动冶金、能源重化工产业和房地产业高速发展,土地财政助推人口密度不断提高,使得大气污染物在城市局地范围内、短时间、大量集中排放,远超城市大气环境容量,是造成城市环境空气质量明显下降的根本原因。改善城市环境空气质量,必须从环境影响源头入手,加快经济转型升级步伐,适度、有序推进人口城镇化。     

融资约束条件下我国中小板上市公司投资效率测度

文章以我国中小企业板上市公司为研究对象,从企业经理人追求利润最大化行为出发构建中小企业的投资支出模型。不同于已有文献仅从投资-现金流敏感性角度入手的实证研究,文章的研究方法无需对样本公司进行分组,而且可以定量测度融资约束条件下的公司投资效率问题。实证结果表明：由于融资约束的存在,使得我国中小板上市公司实际投资支出最优水平低;现金流的增加不仅可以缓解融资约束压力,还能够降低融资不确定性,债务融资比例越高,融资约束越大,进一步加剧了未来融资时的不确定性;我国中小板上市公司融资约束程度与企业规模呈负相关关系,且投资效率随时间呈现下降趋势,意味着近年来我国出台的一系列旨在改善中小企业融资难的政策措施,在实践中并没有起到有效缓解融资约束的作用。     

英语课堂如何通过提问提高教学效率

提问是一种古老的教学技能,它的历史比班级授课制要久远,几乎是自有教育开始就有提问存在。恰当的课堂提问不仅能巩固知识,激发学生学习兴趣,启迪学生思维,发展学生的心智技能和口头表达能力,丰富学生的认知结构,而且通过师生、学生之间的对话还能够发现问题,创造性地解决问题。而英语课堂尤其需要通过提问来提高学生的学习兴趣和教师的教学效率。文章从提问的策略、方法入手,探讨如何在英语课堂中巧妙地设计提问来提高教学效率,从而达到师生双赢。     

Trading with Tigers: A Technical Analysis of Southeast Asian Stock Index Futures

ABSTRACT

Our paper examines the profitability of technical trading rules in Southeast Asian (SEA) ‘tiger cub’ stock index futures markets during and after the global financial crisis (GFC) of 2007/2008. Using daily closing price data from 2007 to 2012, we explore technical trading rules such as exponential moving averages (EMA (20), EMA (100), EMA (20,100)) and moving average convergence divergence (MACD) in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. The findings reveal that after applying trading rules that account for transaction costs and risk, abnormal profits cannot be achieved above a naı¨ve ‘buy-and-hold’ strategy (with the exception of EMA (100) and EMA (20,100) in Indonesia, and EMA (20,100) in both the Philippines and Thailand). There appears to be some degree of success with the application of longer-term trading rules; however, unless transaction costs can be reduced, investors are best advised to pursue passive investment approaches. Despite the economic uncertainty associated with the GFC and ongoing market volatility, it appears that SEA tiger cub stock index futures markets are weak-form efficient.