Catching up with the Americans

This paper develops an international version of the consumption-based capital asset pricing (CCAPM), which we refer to as “catching up with the Americans.” Previous CCAPM research develops the concept of “catching up with the Joneses,” where a representative economic agent exhibits higher marginal utility of consumption as a result of higher past per capita consumption in his own country. Catching up with the Americans, on the other hand, is an international habit-preference hypothesis. It extends the idea of catching up with the Joneses by stating that consumers of non-U.S. countries gain higher marginal utility of consumption as a result of higher past American consumption growth. Contrary to much of the CCAPM literature, we test this version of the model using long bond rates rather than equity returns. However, like most of the previous research on the CCAPM, the catching up with the Americans model fails to explain the relationship between consumption and asset returns.     

An analysis of option pricing under systematic consumption risk using GARCH

An issue in the pricing of contingent claims is whether to account for consumption risk. This is relevant for contingent claims on stock indices, such as the FTSE 100 share price index, as investor’s desire for smooth consumption is often used to explain risk premiums on stock market portfolios, but is not used to explain risk premiums on contingent claims themselves. This paper addresses this fundamental question by allowing for consumption in an economy to be correlated with returns. Daily data on the FTSE 100 share price index are used to compare three option pricing models: the Black–Scholes option pricing model, a GARCH (1, 1) model priced under a risk-neutral framework, and a GARCH (1, 1) model priced under systematic consumption risk. The findings are that accounting for systematic consumption risk only provides improved accuracy for in-the-money call options. When the correlation between consumption and returns increases, the model that accounts for consumption risk will produce lower call option prices than observed prices for in-the-money call options. These results combined imply that the potential consumption-related premium in the market for contingent claims is constant in the case of FTSE 100 index options.     

Household Surveys,Consumption, and the Measurement of Poverty

Household surveys are playing an increasingly important role in the measurement of poverty and well-being around the world. The Living Standards Measurement Study, which was begun in the World Bank under the guidance of Graham Pyatt in 1979, has played an important role in this movement. Its surveys are widely used within the Bank to measure consumption-based poverty, and survey data are now the exclusive basis for the global poverty counts. This paper discusses a number of unresolved issues in using consumption-based surveys for measuring well-being, including the choice of a money-metric versus welfare-ratio approach, the collection of suitable price information, the effects of measurement error on estimation, and methods for correcting per capita consumption for the demographic structure of the household.     

Got milk? The rapid rise of China’s dairy sector and its future prospects

This paper synthesizes recent research and new empirical findings to build a more comprehensive understanding of developments in China’s dairy sector. China’s tremendous rise in dairy demand has been driven by several mutually reinforcing factors: including rapid income growth, promotion by the government and dairy industry, changes in urban lifestyles, and the development of new, more sophisticated marketing channels. Domestic milk output has grown to satisfy rising demand largely by increasing the dairy herd. Substantial increases in productivity have been achieved through technology adoption, but there is evidence that the torrid growth has created inefficiencies because adaptations to marketing rules, infrastructure, and institutions have not kept pace with the changing environment. These results suggest there is ample room for future growth in both domestic milk production and dairy demand, but multinational firms and imported products will likely play and increasing role as China’s dairy market continues to develop.     

论墨家思想的要指“强本节用”

司马谈在《论六家要指》中对先秦至汉初诸子思想进行了一次大的总结与评价，指出了各家要指所在，将墨家思想的要指总结为“强本节用”。司马谈对墨家思想及要指的评判，不仅仅是从学术角度出发，更重要的是从治国角度出发而作出的评定。     

中国经济增长与能源消费空间面板分析

近年来面板数据广泛应用于各类统计分析,但变量的空间相关并没有引起足够的重视。本文引入空间面板回归模型研究中国各省市区经济增长和能源消费的关系。利用matlab软件及其spatial econometric模块建立和比较传统面板回归模型与空间面板回归模型,结果表明空间面板回归模型较传统面板回归模型优越,本文的研究为空间面板数据分析提供了一个应用实例。     

日本民事诉讼法学的理论演变与解释方法论

解释方法论在日本民诉法研究中并不是显著的命题。长期以来,日本民诉法解释并不特别重视法律条文和立法者本意,解释方法论遵循的主要是利益衡量论,近年始有学者对它提出批判。日本民诉法解释方法论选择既源于民事诉讼法的目的被定位于纠纷解决,也与战后比较法研究中利益衡量论的引入有关。日本民诉法利益衡量论有别于民法中的利益衡量论,也有别于受德国法影响的亲实体法解释方法论,这种方法论并不局限于衡量或分配原被告之间的财产或价值,更多地蕴含了对作为制度利用者的当事人的便利、 制度运营者的公共利益、民事诉讼程序的动态发展等要素的考量。     

关于北美作业成本法实践现状的文献研究

主要以美国管理会计师协会主办的《战略财务》期刊为"窗口",通过回顾2002-2006年的管理会计相关文献,试图对北美作业成本法的运用和发展现状做一描摹,并以此对管理会计发展的历史趋势做出总结。     

Comparative performances of measures of consumer and economic sentiment in forecasting consumption: a multi-country analysis

ABSTRACT

This paper seeks to compare the capabilities of assorted measures of consumer and economic sentiment in predicting the growth of household expenditure. An analysis of quarterly data on five European countries shows that for none of these can the model which incorporates the EU’s headline consumer confidence indicator be deemed to be significantly inferior to any of its seven rivals. However, the rankings of the sentiment variables are seen to be influenced by: the proportion of total spending by households that is devoted to durable goods; and the nature of the behaviour of consumption over the forecast interval.     

地方政府财政支农支出与农村居民消费——来自中国29个省市面板数据的经验证据

本文在消费者最优消费路径选择的基本框架下,构建了一个政府财政支农与农村居民消费的动态最优化模型,理论分析表明:地方政府财政支农支出的增加,对于农村居民消费水平的提高具有促进作用。基于1995-2008年的省际面板数据,采用工具变量GMM方法对该结论进行的实证检验发现:在通过多工具变量克服变量内生性之后,地方政府财政支农支出对农村居民消费具有显著的促进作用,地方政府财政支农支出每增加1%,我国农村居民消费将增加0.1367%;进一步的因素分解显示,地方政府财政支农支出对农村居民消费的平均贡献度为8.72%,且有逐年增大的趋势。此外,财政支农支出对农村居民消费的影响存在区域差异性,即财政支农支出对我国中西部地区农村居民消费的影响程度大于东部地区。