Monetary policy and food inflation in South Africa: A quantile regression analysis

Although optimal monetary policy stabilizes food inflation theoretically, empirical studies remain limited not only in the context of volumes and the estimation approaches, but are focused on selected advanced and emerging countries to the neglect of Africa where poverty and dominance of food in the consumption basket are more pronounced. We provide empirical evidence in the context of South Africa using quantile regressions. Rising food prices are destabilized even further by restrictive monetary policy; a finding that has ramifications for inflation targeting, especially given that a quarter of the country’s population is food poor.     

农机社会化服务采纳、禀赋差异与农村经济相对贫困缓解

进入以缓解相对贫困为重点的后扶贫时代，农村经济相对贫困问题仍不容忽视。农机社会化服务作为小农户与现代农业有机衔接的桥梁，对于推进乡村振兴战略和脱贫攻坚有序衔接具有重要作用。文章讨论的核心议题是农机社会化服务采纳如何缓解农村经济相对贫困，并尝试建立了“农机社会化服务采纳——禀赋差异缩小——农村经济相对贫困缓解”的理论分析框架。为此，文章首先对农机社会化服务采纳影响农村经济相对贫困的作用机制进行了理论分析，然后利用2750份河南省农户问卷调查数据，运用Logit模型，实证检验农机社会化服务采纳对农村经济相对贫困的影响，并通过替代核心自变量和变更样本的方法进行稳健性检验，运用PSM模型和IVProbit模型以及ERM模型进行内生性讨论，最后通过中介效应模型对其作用机制进行验证。结果表明，农机社会化服务采纳对农村经济相对贫困具有显著负向影响，缓解了农村经济相对贫困。考虑内生性后，结论仍具有稳健性。进一步的机制验证发现，农机社会化服务采纳通过缩小劳动力禀赋差异和技术禀赋差异，缓解农村经济相对贫困，劳动力禀赋差异缩小和技术禀赋差异缩小的中介效应占比分别为21.22%和7.36%。可见，应将完善农机社会化服务供需体系纳入农户相对贫困治理机制考虑范畴，引导农户从传统家庭化生产转向现代社会化生产，扩大农机社会化服务采纳范围；同时完善就业服务等相关配套体系以吸纳释放的弱劳动力，促进农户收入增长，缓解农村经济相对贫困。     

Operational risk quantified with spectral risk measures: a refined closed-form approximation

The quantification of operational risk has become an important issue as a result of the new capital charges required by the Basel Capital Accord (Basel II) to cover the potential losses of this type of risk. In this paper, we investigate second-order approximation of operational risk quantified with spectral risk measures (OpSRMs) within the theory of second-order regular variation (2RV) and second-order subexponentiality. The result shows that asymptotically two cases (the fast convergence case and the slow convergence) arise depending on the range of the second-order parameter. We also show that the second-order approximation under 2RV is asymptotically equivalent to the slow convergence case. A number of Monte Carlo simulations for a range of empirically relevant frequency and severity distributions are employed to illustrate the performance of our second-order results. The simulation results indicate that our second-order approximations tend to reduce the estimation errors to a great degree, especially for the fast convergence case, and are able to capture the sub-extremal behavior of OpSRMs better than the first-order approximation. Our asymptotic results have implications for the regulation of financial institutions, and may provide further insights into the measurement and management of operational risk.     

Economic interpretations of DEA

Research on productive efficiency at the firm level has developed as an important and active strand of research the last decades, both within operations research, management science and economics. Two apparently different definitions of efficiency are examined, but it is shown that when both estimation methods are based on solving linear programming problems the definitions of efficiency are identical. The purpose of the paper is to give the basic ideas of efficiency analyses using DEA as a tool for researchers not so familiar with efficiency analysis and DEA. The concept of shadow prices is given special attention.     

Accumulation and distribution of human capital: the interaction between individual and aggregate variables

The paper analyses the joint evolution of accumulation and distribution of human capital in an OLG framework. Dynamics arises from the interplay between human capital distribution and individual variables—inherited human capital and inborn ability. Such interaction drives individual investment in human capital and accumulation in the economy. According to initial distribution the model provides different dynamical behaviours linking growth and inequality; in general economies with a more equal initial distribution grow faster but other cases are possible. Moreover, since the model provides an endogenous threshold for investing in human capital, the distribution is characterised by multi-modality.     

乡镇企业发展的困境与思路——赤湖镇乡镇企业发展情况调查

乡镇企业自产生以来就为解决农村富余劳动力,促进农村经济的发展与稳定,及国民经济持续、稳定、快速地发展作出了重大的贡献。但是,随着国民经济进一步向纵深方向发展,乡镇企业自身的缺陷日益显露出来,加之国内外竞争环境发生了深刻变化。这势必影响乡镇企业潜力的充分发挥与健康发展。如何挖掘发展潜力正是当务之急。本文旨在剖析制约乡镇企业发展的深层次因素,借鉴成功范例的经验,谋求其的新发展。     

外资并购我国企业的动因及对经济的影响

随着跨国公司在我国并购活动的日益增多，外资并购给中国经济带来了正面和负面双重影响．为了保护我国民族工业，促进我国经济健康持续地发展，应积极稳妥地利用外资并购，趋利弊害，消除负面影响，拉动经济增长。     

以风险协议为框架的化工措施管理机制探索与实践

以西方经济学中的代理理论为基础．建立了一套以风险协议为框架、对化工措施全过程进行控制的管理机制和相应的保证体系，提高了化工措施现场实施的成功率和有效率。     

安徽非公经济发展研究

在当代中国,非公经济发展与改革开放及制度变迁原本是相通的,欠发达地区经济发展的实质就是非公经济的发展;安徽非公经济发展滞后的深层机理在于既定制度格局下的路径依赖。本课题深入分析了既定制度格局影响安徽非公经济发展的机制过程,以此为基础,提出了进一步加快发展的思路和对策。     

收购兼并在上市公司发展战略中的地位和实施策略

本文主要阐述了以下三个方面的问题：（1）公司为何及时从事购并交易；（2）如何使购并活动获得成功；（3）制定中国进行购并行动的战略。