Stale economic news,media and the stock market

I employ a classification of headlines from newspapers and wire services to examine whether stale macroeconomic news affects stock prices. Unlike with individual stocks, the cost of obtaining information about major economic releases is relatively low. Thus, stock prices should adjust to economic news announcements prior to their coverage in newspapers. I find statistically and economically significant relationship between stale news stories on unemployment and next week’s S&P 500 returns. This effect is then completely reversed during the following week. These findings show that investors are affected by salient information and support the hypothesis that investors overreact to stale macroeconomic news reported in newspapers.     

推进区域自主创新联盟发展研究——基于湖南十四个市州的调研分析

通过对湖南区域创新能力现状、湖南区域产业发展现状进行分析,对湖南区域技术创新联盟的组建情况进行调查统计后其认为,湖南区域自主创新联盟发展应在战略性新兴产业和区域主导产业内重点推进。在战略性新兴产业内,应该在高端工程机械装备、轨道交通装备等领域内重点推进。各市州也应该根据各自主导产业或优势产业情况,在相应的领域内重点推进。     

z Test for the significance of the mean of a stable probability distribution with 1<α≤2

The analysis of data using a stable probability distribution with tail parameter α<2 (sometimes called a Pareto–Levy distribution) seems to have been avoided in the past in part because of the lack of a significance test for the mean, even though it appears to be the correct distribution to use for describing returns in the financial markets. A z test for the significance of the mean of a stable distribution with tail parameter 1<α≤2 is defined. Tables are calculated and displayed for the 5% and 1% significance levels for a range of tail and skew parameters α and β. Through the use of maximum likelihood estimates, the test becomes a practical tool even when α and β are not that accurately determined. As an example, the z test is applied to the daily closing prices for the Dow Jones Industrial average from 2 January 1940 to 19 March 2010.     

Gendering Global Governance

In this article I map out the major debates on global governance and the feminist critiques of the mainstream interventions in these debates. I argue that the shift from government to governance is a response to the needs of a gendered global capitalist economy and is shaped by struggles, both discursive and material, against the unfolding consequences of globalization. I suggest feminist interrogations of the concept, processes, practices and mechanisms of governance and the insights that develop from them should be centrally incorporated into critical revisionist and radical discourses of and against the concept of global governance. However, I also examine the challenges that the concept of global governance poses for feminist political practice, which are both of scholarship and of activism as feminists struggle to address the possibilities and politics of alternatives to the current regimes of governance. I conclude by suggesting that feminist political practice needs to focus on the politics of redistribution in the context of global governance.     

How to make e-Procurement viable for SME suppliers

Due to their common role as suppliers, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are especially challenged by today's turbulent business conditions. In order to meet this challenge, short-term WWW-based enterprise cooperations are regarded as an appropriate way to enhance the competitive strength of SMEs. Hence, the Institute of Machine Tools and Industrial Management (IWB) operates three so-called competence networks for engineering (www.engineering-net.de), rapid prototyping (www.rp-net.de) and manufacturing (www.produktionsnetz.de) services. For the purpose of an applied research project, more than 80 participating SME suppliers have been included in these specialized virtual markets, which are based on the core competencies of the cooperating SMEs. Additionally, the platform (www.virtueller-markt.de) enables customers to configure their specific supply chains via the above-mentioned competence networks. The presented paper depicts how to establish and operate these competence networks as well as how to configure supply chains via these virtual markets.     

Policy Imperatives for the International Economy and for Financial Markets in the Emerging World Order

The world economy today is swept by unprecedented rates of change, complexity, interconnectedness, and uncertainty. For the first time since the 1930s, issues of the international economy and financial markets are playing a pivotal role in discussions of foreign and domestic policy. However, even as the revolutionary trends in the international economy and in world finance are in the offing, it is important to realize that the problems of mankind are primarily economic and social, not financial or political. While the trends towards liberalization of economic policies and integration of financial markets might seem to point toward the ultimate triumph of the magic of the market and free enterprise, a little reflection will reveal a number of undercurrents, dilemmas, and difficult choices waiting to be resolved. This article identifies the structural and human dimensions of these challenges in the form of thirteen Policy Imperatives aimed at the creation of modified versions of financial markets to make them more humane and less vulnerable to failure.     

The Tyranny of the Customer and the Cost of Consumerism: An Analysis Using Systems and Psychoanalytic Approaches to Groups and Society

This paper argues that an organizationaldiscourse on consumerism is replacing a prior discourseof dependency. This discourse encourages, and isencouraged by, economic rationales for behavior and ismarked by the collapse of many complex societal rolesinto the simpler category of customer.Moreover, practices emergent from consumerism andeconomic rationalism often act as organizational andsocial defences against anxieties about theuncertainties and changes occurring in a worldincreasingly dominated by global markets where thecustomer is sovereign. Six workinghypotheses are proposed to explain the operation of these new socialdefences. Evidence in support of these hypotheses comesfrom collaborative action research projects in which theauthor is involved. The argument moves toward a consideration of the new consumerprovider pair which, it is proposed, has becomea major signifier within the consumer discourse andwhich might be considered as a transitional pair indealing with widespread organizationalchange.     

新兴技术的物种特性及形成路径研究

基于新兴技术的概念和特征,以及物种形成的基本理论,阐明了新兴技术的物种特性;同时,在进行生物进化与技术演化的相关概念对比的基础上,类比物种形成方式对新兴技术形成路径进行了探讨,并总结了每一条路径下形成的各类新兴技术的特点和发展趋势,为今后针对每一种特定的新兴技术作深入研究奠定基础。     

金融发展理论在90年代的发展

90年代金融发展理论突破了麦金农—肖的框架，并融合了内生增长理论的一些积极因素。90年代金融发展理论家建立了大量的理论模型，旨在阐释金融体系是如何内生形成和发展的以及金融体系是如何作用于经济增长的，并在此基础上，提出了一系列有关金融发展的政策主张。     

从语境角度看语法化的语用本质

实词在具体的语境中演化为虚词从而引起语篇、句法和形态结构的紧缩或简化。我们称这种现象为“语法化”。本文支持“语法化本质是语用法的规约化”的观点，试图从语境的角度，利用英汉两种语料，对这一观点加以阐释。并设想了此视角会在语言教学及跨语言理论研究方面的可能贡献。