Obesity of politicians and corruption in Ukraine in 2000–2020– Reply

We collected 469 frontal face images of Ukrainian cabinet ministers who were in office in 2000–2020. For each image, the minister's body mass index was estimated using a computer vision algorithm. The time series of median estimated body mass index of cabinet ministers co-moves over time with two existing measures of corruption – World Bank worldwide governance indicator Control of Corruption, and the discrepancy between the quantity of luxury wristwatches exported from Switzerland to Ukraine (reported by Swiss statistics) and the corresponding quantity imported by Ukraine from Switzerland (reported by Ukrainian statistics).     

苏州工业园区建设世界一流高科技园区的战略对策研究

近年来,苏州工业园区大力实施创新驱动发展战略,在打造世界一流高科技园区建设方面取得明显成效。文章在阐述园区当前发展现状的基础上,剖析园区创新发展存在的薄弱环节,进而提出建设世界一流高科技园区的战略对策。     

我国现代农业发展的现状、问题与对策研究

近年来,在科技支撑和制度支持的背景下,我国的现代农业得到了长足发展,取得了举世瞩目的成绩。但是在发展过程中也出现了很多问题,例如:与发达国家相比,科技装备相对落后,现代农业人才严重短缺,金融支持力度不足,市场机制不完善等,因此深入研究现代农业具有重要的现实意义。文章首先对何为现代农业进行了详细阐述;然后分析了我国现代农业发展的现状;再次分析了我国现代农业发展中存在的主要问题;最后提出了切实可行的对策,为现代农业发展提供一些参考,促进现代农业科学发展。     

All work intensity is not created equal: Effort motives,job satisfaction and quit intentions at a grocery chain

Prior research has shown that the well-being of employees engaged in intensive work can vary with the discretion their jobs afford regarding how and when to carry out the work. This article explores a different avenue. It argues that well-being also varies with employees’ individual motives for working intensively. The article introduces self-determination theory to the domain of work intensity and focuses on two hypotheses. The first is whether intensive work driven by explicit or implicit incentives is more positively associated with an employee's job satisfaction than intensive work driven by job demands. The second is whether intensive work driven by intrinsic motives is more positively associated with job satisfaction than that driven by explicit or implicit incentives. In both these cases, the article also examines whether equivalent effects exist on (reduced) quit intentions. Original data from a major Greek grocery chain provide corroborative evidence that is robust to a rich set of covariates, including increasingly demanding adjustments for job discretion. The findings contribute to a more complete understanding of why differences in well-being exist among employees performing intensive work, with implications for workers and employers.     

成长冲动与风险对冲:经济政策不确定性如何影响企业海外并购

本文扎根于中国转型经济背景,提出了在经济政策不确定性影响下企业海外并购的两大动因,即成长冲动和风险对冲.同时认为:经济政策不确定性使得企业内生有机成长方式、外在本土并购扩张方式受到了阻碍;企业面临着因融资成本、非经营性成本增加带来的风险;此时,海外并购便成为企业的最佳策略.本文以2008-2018年中国沪深两市A股上市公司为样本,实证检验了上述影响机制.研究结果显示:经济政策不确定性较高时,在成长冲动和风险对冲的驱动下,企业倾向于使用海外并购来替代本土并购,且这种替代作用在非国有企业中更为明显.机制检验表明:成长冲动强烈、融资成本和非经营性成本较高、风险承担能力弱的企业更倾向于采取海外并购策略,以规避经济政策不确定性的影响.     

Hayek on the essential dispersion of market knowledge

The Review of Austrian Economics - A key insight in Hayek’s thought is the importance of so-called “local knowledge” in economic activity. In The Fatal Conceit, he states that...     

Asymmetric effects of housing wealth on college enrolment

We investigate the impact of housing wealth, credit availability and financial distress on college enrolment decisions. We find that housing wealth is negatively related to enrolment in public schools and positively related to enrolment in private schools. This evidence suggests that, on average, students substituted away from private schools towards public institutions during the recent financial crisis.     

Data-based mechanistic modelling and forecasting globally averaged surface temperature

The main objective of this paper it to model the dynamic relationship between global averaged measures of Total Radiative Forcing (RTF) and surface temperature, measured by the Global Temperature Anomaly (GTA), and then use this model to forecast the GTA. The analysis utilizes the Data-Based Mechanistic (DBM) approach to the modelling and forecasting where, in this application, the unobserved component model includes a novel hybrid Box-Jenkins stochastic model in which the relationship between RTF and GTA is based on a continuous time transfer function (differential equation) model. This model then provides the basis for short term, inter-annual to decadal, forecasting of the GTA, using a transfer function form of the Kalman Filter, which produces a good prediction of the ‘pause’ or ‘levelling’ in the temperature rise over the period 2000 to 2011. This derives in part from the effects of a quasi-periodic component that is modelled and forecast by a Dynamic Harmonic Regression (DHR) relationship and is shown to be correlated with the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) index.