Free cash flow, debt-monitoring and managers' LIFO/FIFO policy choice

This paper explores the explanatory power of Jensen's free cash flow hypothesis in managers' choice of LIFO versus FIFO. The association between FCF, and choice of inventory methods is based on the assumption that there is a potential conflict of interest between managers and shareholders when LIFO is the tax minimization method and that non-value-maximizing managers of firms with the FCF problem have incentives to choose FIFO, an income increasing method, in order to increase their compensation. However, since debt can act as a monitoring device and mitigate the agency problems of FCF, managers of firms with high FCF and high debt are less likely to choose FIFO than managers of firms with high FCF and low debt. The evidence is consistent with this expectation.     

随机生产前沿方法的发展及其在中国的应用

本文对随机前沿生产函数模型的发展及其在中国生产率分析中的应用进行了评述。文章首先介绍随机前沿方法的基本原理、估计方法和在面板数据下对全要素生产率增长的分解,随后评述随机前沿生产函数模型的最新进展和在经验分析中的优势与作用,最后总结了在中国行业和地区经济增长研究中随机前沿方法的成果和不足,并探讨今后研究的发展方向。     

Dynamic Panel Data Evidence on the Trade-Income Relation

This paper revisits the relationship between a country’s openness and its per capita income. Building on Frankel and Romer, it argues that a dynamic econometric specification similar to the ones used in empirical growth studies better fits the theoretical literature and also resolves some otherwise unresolved inconsistencies. The preferred econometric method is Blundell and Bond’s system-GMM estimator, which allows dealing with measurement error, weak instruments, and time-invariant country-specific effects. The findings confirm the existence of a strong effect of trade on income but fail to find evidence for trade as an independent factor of divergence. JEL no. F43, O40     

Emerging markets, evolving institutions, and the new opportunities for growth in China's rural economy

In this essay, our goal is to assess the state of China's rural economy and examine whether rural China is capable of participating in the sequence of economic events that will lead to modernization. We examine how agricultural productivity has changed, the nature of the shift of labor moving from rural to urban areas, how commodity markets have evolved, and how the rural industrial sector is adjusting the recent reforms. According to our own work and that of others, we show how the rural economy is beginning to be fundamentally transformed and is contributing to China's modernization.     

Tolerance for uncertainty and the growth of informationally opaque industries

Hofstede's [Hofstede, Geert H. 1980. Culture's consequences: international differences in work-related values. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.] cross-country psychological survey of IBM employees finds that some countries (societies) are systematically less tolerant of uncertainty, while uncertainty-tolerance is shown by some theoretic models to be essential to the growth of emerging sectors about which less is known. This paper first uses Durnev, Morck, and Yeung's [Durnev, Art, Morck, Randall, and Yeung, Bernard. 2004. Value-enhancing capital budgeting and firm-specific stock return variation. The Journal of Finance. 59(1): 65–105.] methodology to identify these informationally opaque industries. The hypothesis is then made that countries characterized by high uncertainty aversion (measured by Hofstede's indicator, and two other alternative indicators) will grow disproportionately slower in industrial sectors where information is less available. Using the Rajan and Zingales [Rajan, Raghuram G. and Zingales, Luigi. 1998. Financial Dependence and Growth. American Economic Review. Vol. 88(3): 559–586.] “difference-in-differences” methodology, which is relatively free from the endogeneity problem, the study provides robust evidence of such an industrial growth pattern in 34 countries and 36 manufacturing industries. It also shows that national uncertainty aversion is not driven by underdevelopment of financial sector, inadaptability of civil law systems, lower level of economic or human capital development, labor market inflexibility, or any of many other institutional factors. The results remain robust when religious (Catholic vs. Protestant) composition is used as an instrumental variable for national uncertainty aversion. The international evidence presented helps explain why some countries are slower in embracing “new” (vs. traditional) industries.     

改革开放以来广州经济增长因素分析

本文从实证角度建立计量模型,利用主成分分析方法和最小二乘回归的方法,对广州改革开放30多年以来的经济增长因素进行了具体分析,研究表明改革开放30多年来,广州经济增长的促进因素主要是劳动力数量的增长,经济制度的变革,产业结构的升级,以及人力资本增长的作用,物质资本不是促进广州经济增长的主要因素。     

贸易开放度与中国经济增长关系的地区差异研究

为了探求中国的开放政策是否促进了经济增长，以及开放政策对不同区域的作用是否存在差异，本文在相关文献回顾的基础上，运用中国大陆地区28个省、自治区和直辖市（海南、重庆、西藏除外）1984-2004年的相关数据，采用Panel Data模型对贸易开放度与中国经济增长的关系问题进行了实证研究。研究的结论认为开放的对外经济贸易政策促进了中国的经济增长；井且通过研究发现这一促进作用存在着地区差异，对于中西部地区来说，促进作用更大。     

Public support to innovation and imitation in a non-scale growth model

This paper studies technology policy within a version of Jones's [1995. R&D-based models of economic growth. Journal of Political Economy 103, 759–784] non-scale R&D-based growth framework that incorporates imitation of foreign techniques. In the model, imitation is the most important source of productivity growth at the beginning of the convergence process, whereas innovation dominates later on. In addition, the transitional dynamics of the model can account for well-known empirical regularities regarding the relationship between the level of economic development and public support to technology innovation and imitation. The paper shows as well that, even though policy in Jones-type non-scale models has no long-run growth effects, level effects can be substantial.     

人力资本与经济增长关系研究——教育投资对经济增长的贡献自上市公司的经验证据

知识经济时代经济增长所依靠的已不仅是货币资本,更重要的是人力资本,货币资本的获得和财富的积累都是由人力资本推动的。人力资本是现代经济增长与发展的源泉和动力,增加人力资本投资,提高人力资源质量,已成为促进经济发展的重要手段。从我国经济增长的影响因素看,人力资本作为生产要素对经济增长具有决定作用,人力资本投资对我国经济增长具有战略意义。本文对经济增长理论及人力资本理论进行了介绍,并运用实证分析方法探讨了教育投资对经济增长的贡献。     

中国经济增长空间相关性研究——基于"长三角"与"珠三角"的实证

本文建立了两套回归模型:无空间相关变量的单向和双向固定效应模型;有空间相关变量的单向和双向固定效应模型。对比分析后得出的结论有:"长三角"和"珠三角"区域内部的确存在经济增长的空间相关性,"珠三角"区域内部经济增长的空间相关性略大于"长三角"区域,但两者在统计上并没有显著的差别;两个地区都存在经济增长的β收敛,但"珠三角"地区呈现出更强的收敛性;对于影响"长三角"和"珠三角"经济增长的因素,有些相同和不同点值得关注。