DOES HIGH COST OF MORTGAGE DEBT EXPLAIN WHY YOUNG ADULTS LIVE WITH THEIR PARENTS?

Young adults leave their parents' homes at a higher rate in Northern Europe or in the United States than in Southern Europe, with broad implications on labor market mobility and on fertility. We assess if differences in household formation are associated to differences in access to credit by estimating the impact of the cost of a mortgage on the probability that a young adult leaves his or her parents' home. Exogenous changes in the cost of credit are identified using the reform in 1998 and the cancellation in 2002 of Crédito Bonificado, a Portuguese program that provided four different reductions of the interest rate of mortgages signed by low‐ and medium‐income youth. Using a unique data set that links administrative records of debt with the 1998–2004 waves of the Employment Survey, we document three findings. First, borrowing among young adults fell when borrowing costs increased. Second, the elasticity of new household formation with respect to net interest rates lies between −0.8 and −3.3. Third, young adults responded to the increase in mortgage costs by delaying home purchases or by reducing the quality of housing services purchased, but there was only a modest increase of the probability of renting a new accommodation. (JEL: D91, H24, J13)     

VERTICAL RELATIONS UNDER CREDIT CONSTRAINTS

We model the impact that credit constraints and market risk have on the vertical relationships between firms in the supply chain. Firms which might face credit constraints in future investments become endogenously risk averse when accumulating pledgable assets. In the short run, the optimal supply contract involves risk sharing, so inducing double marginalization. Credit constraints thus result in higher retail prices, and this is true whether the firm is debt or equity funded. Further, we offer a new theory of supplier finance arms as we show an intrinsic complementarity between supply and lending which reduces financing inefficiencies created by informational asymmetries. The model offers: a theory of countervailing power based on credit constraints; a transmission mechanism linking the cost of borrowing with retail prices; and a motive for outsourcing supply (or distribution) in the face of market risk.     

Land‐Price Dynamics and Macroeconomic Fluctuations

We argue that positive co‐movements between land prices and business investment are a driving force behind the broad impact of land‐price dynamics on the macroeconomy. We develop an economic mechanism that captures the co‐movements by incorporating two key features into a DSGE model: We introduce land as a collateral asset in firms' credit constraints, and we identify a shock that drives most of the observed fluctuations in land prices. Our estimates imply that these two features combine to generate an empirically important mechanism that amplifies and propagates macroeconomic fluctuations through the joint dynamics of land prices and business investment.     

企业经营管理预警：主成分分析在logistic回归方法中的应用

logistic回归分析是度量企业信用风险的一种主流方法,它的假设比较符合经济现实和金融数据分布的特点。但是考虑到现阶段我国上市公司的信用数据具有的高维性和高相关性等特点对logistic分析产生的负面影响,本文在logistic分析中引入了能够有效降维和消除logistic方程共线性等问题的主成分分析,并对我国沪深两市上市公司的经营失败进行了实证研究,结果表明结合主成分分析法的logistic回归分析在模型解释和预测准确率等力面均优于简单的logistic分析。     

On Government‐Subsidized Training Programs for Older Workers

We analyze the impact of subsidized training programs for older workers. We apply a dynamic matching approach using German registry data. We find that subsidized training improves the probability to remain in paid employment by approximately 2.5 percentage points in the 2 years following treatment. The impact on benefit claims is small and largely insignificant. Effects are more pronounced for part‐time workers, for long‐duration program participants, and for workers older than 55 years. The results suggest that the main driver of these outcomes is postponed retirement, potentially because of improved job satisfaction.     

Banking credit worthiness: Evaluating the complex relationships

In developing economies agriculture and farming play crucial roles for economic sustainable development. Farmer credit risk evaluation is an important issue when determining financial support to farmers, improving agricultural supply chain performance, and ensuring profitability of financial institutions. Credit risk evaluation, or creditworthiness, is not a trivial exercise due to various complexities. Honoring complexity is necessary to effectively evaluate and predict farmer creditworthiness. A methodology using fuzzy rough-set theory and fuzzy C-means clustering is used to evaluate and investigate the complex relationships between farmer characteristics, competitive environmental factors, and farmer credit level. The methodology is detailed using actual bank data from 2044 farmers within China. This empirical methodology generates decision rules that provide insight to more complex relationships than can be found through standard econometric multivariate approaches. A rule-based methodological outcome can be used to predict the creditworthiness of farmers and to aid in agricultural loan decision making. Prediction accuracy of the rule-base was 81.16%. A central finding is that education and skills related characteristics are important for determining farmer credit-worthiness. Other implications are presented along with study limitations and future research directions.     

Distributed Decision‐Making in Supply Chains and Private E‐Marketplaces

This paper develops a distributed decision‐making framework for the players in a supply chain or a private e‐marketplace to collaboratively arrive at a global Pareto‐optimal solution. In this model, no player has complete knowledge about all the costs and constraints of the other players. The decision‐making framework employs an iterative procedure, based on the Integer L‐shaped method, in which a master problem is solved to propose global solutions, and each player uses his local problems to construct feasibility and optimality cuts on the master problem. The master problem is modeled as a mixed‐integer program, and the players' local problems are formulated as linear programs. Collaborative planning scenarios in private e‐marketplaces and in supply chains were formulated and solved for test data. The results show that this distributed model is able to achieve near‐optimal solutions considerably faster than the traditional centralized approach.     

燃油税、融资约束与企业行为——基于DSGE模型的分析

征收燃油税在实现节能减排的同时也会增加企业的财务负担。如何在保护环境的同时减少对经济的冲击,有赖于对燃油税的科学评估。本文构建了一个包含燃油税和融资约束的随机动态一般均衡模型,并基于1995年第1季度至2018年第2季度的数据对相关参数进行了校准和估计,系统考察了融资约束下征收燃油税对环境经济以及企业行为的影响。研究结果发现：征收燃油税对促进节能减排有显著效果;但同时也会抑制消费、投资和产出,增加失业,对经济产生负影响。此外,融资约束会通过金融加速器的作用放大燃油税冲击的影响。而且,当融资约束越强时,降低燃油税对经济的刺激作用也越明显。     

Measuring and explaining the cost efficiency of municipal solid waste collection and processing services

This paper proposes an adjusted version of the popular efficiency measurement technique data envelopment analysis (DEA) that makes it possible (1) to evaluate the cost efficiency of municipalities in the collection and processing of multiple household waste fractions, (2) robustifying the cost efficiency evaluations for the impact of measurement errors in the data or municipalities with outlying and atypical performances (if present in the sample set), and (3) to correct the evaluations for differences in the operating environments of municipalities (e.g., factors such as demography and median income of the municipality population). The paper illustrates the usefulness of the methodology by carrying out and analyzing a cost efficiency evaluation using data on 293 municipalities in Flanders, Belgium, for the year 2008.     

多资源约束下基于关键链的项目群工期-费用优化

现有工期压缩模型未考虑资源约束下多合同项目工期压缩所产生的局部效应与整体效应,针对这一局限性,通过引入子网络,分析了基于关键链法的项目群工期—费用优化机理,据此,对项目群初始网络计划进行工期优化。借助关键链,除去计划工期的冗余时间,动态调整存在资源冲突的合同项目开始时间。在此基础上,分析工期动态优化对关键链和非关键链合同项目压缩费用产生的不同影响以及对子网络自身和项目群的影响。基于此,研究并构建了多资源受限下单一子网络和项目群工期-费用优化模型。最后,结合算例,分析了优化模型的可行性和优势。研究结果表明：模型能够有效地解决资源约束下项目群计划调整和工期-费用优化问题,从而能够为业主科学安排项目群中各合同项目的起始时间和资源计划提供依据。     

Work Attitudes,Work Conditions and Hours Constraints: An Explorative,Cross‐national Analysis

In this paper, individuals’ desire to work more or less than they actually do (hours constraints) is analysed in nine OECD countries using data from the 1989 International Social Survey Program (ISSP). Our results show that hours constraints deviate substantially from country to country. However, in all countries, the proportion of individuals wanting to work more (and earn more) than they actually do is larger than the fraction of workers wanting to work less (and earn less). Socio‐economic and demographic characteristics, work attitudes, and work conditions have a significant effect on hours constraints.     

Intra‐household Allocation of Time to Household Production Activities: Evidence from Swedish Household Data

Abstract. The purpose of this paper is to study the intra‐household allocation of time to different household production activities using Swedish cross‐sectional household data. The Tobit model is rejected in favor of the Cragg model, suggesting that an empirical model has to take into consideration that allocation of time within the household is determined by two separate processes. Moreover, the results indicate that valuable information concerning the intra‐household allocation of time may be missing when household production is defined as the sum of different household activities, but there is no indication that statistically significant effects are wiped out in an aggregated analysis.     

Dynamic Pricing and Lead‐Time Policies for Make‐to‐Order Systems*

Make‐to‐order firms use different approaches for managing their lead‐times and pricing in the face of changing market conditions. A particular firm's approach may be largely dictated by environmental constraints. For example, it makes little sense to carefully manage lead‐time if its effect on demand is muted, as it can be in situations where leadtime is difficult for the market to gauge or requires investment to estimate. Similarly, it can be impractical to change capacity and price. However, environmental constraints are likely to become less of an issue in the future with the expanding e‐business infrastructure, and this trend raises questions into how to manage effectively the marketing mix of price and lead‐time in a more “friction‐free” setting. We study a simple model of a make‐to‐order firm, and we examine policies for adjusting price and capacity in response to periodic and unpredictable shifts in how the market values price and lead‐time. Our analysis suggests that maintaining a fixed capacity while using lead‐time and/or price to absorb changes in the market will be most attractive when stability in throughput and profit are highly valued, but in volatile markets, this stability comes at a cost of low profits. From a pure profit maximization perspective, it is best to strive for a short and consistent lead‐times by adjusting both capacity and price in response to market changes.     

CREDIT CONSTRAINTS AND THE CYCLICALITY OF R&D INVESTMENT: EVIDENCE FROM FRANCE

We use a French firm‐level data set containing 13,000 firms over the period 1994–2004 to analyze the relationship between credit constraints and firms’ R&D behavior over the business cycle. Our main results can be summarized as follows: (i) R&D investment is countercyclical without credit constraints, but it becomes procyclical as firms face tighter credit constraints; (ii) this result is only observed for firms in sectors that depend more heavily upon external finance, or that are characterized by a low degree of asset tangibility; (iii) in more credit‐constrained firms, R&D investment plummets during recessions but does not increase proportionally during upturns.     

中国企业部门信用风险溢价期限结构与宏观经济因子

近年来，中国企业部门债务风险不断暴露，其是否会引发系统性信用危机正成为焦点。本文着眼于中国企业部门信用风险累积与暴露背后的宏观经济现实，在简约模型中引入结构向量自回归模型（SVAR），将经济冲击区分为总供给冲击、总需求冲击和货币政策冲击，以此研究各宏观经济因子对中国企业部门信用风险溢价期限结构的影响特征，从而揭示中国企业部门信用风险定价的宏观经济机理。本文发现，正向的总供给冲击和货币政策冲击有助于降低中国企业部门信用风险溢价，但正向的总需求冲击则会推高中国企业部门信用风险溢价，自2011年以来持续处于高位水平的信用风险溢价的主要根源正是4万亿经济刺激计划所带来的扩张性总需求，因此欲从根本上降低中国企业部门信用风险水平，应紧缩社会总需求，并通过制度改革和结构调整，改善社会总供给。     

RISK SHARING WITH LIMITED COMMITMENT AND PREFERENCE HETEROGENEITY: STRUCTURAL ESTIMATION AND TESTING

In order to analyze the role of limited commitment and preference heterogeneity in explaining the consumption allocation, I propose a theoretical and empirical framework to estimate and evaluate a risk‐sharing model where insurance transfers have to be self‐enforcing and the coefficient of relative risk aversion may depend on observable household characteristics. I compare this model to benchmark models with full commitment and/or without preference heterogeneity using data from three Indian villages. I find that the limited commitment model with heterogeneous preferences outperforms the benchmark models in a statistical sense and in terms of (i) explaining the dynamic response of consumption to idiosyncratic income shocks, (ii) accounting for the variation of consumption unexplained by household and time effects, and (iii) capturing the variation of inequality across time and villages and predicting changes in inequality. I also use the estimated models to predict the effects of a counterfactual tax and transfer policy on the consumption allocation. The limited commitment model with preference heterogeneity predicts larger benefits to the poor than its homogeneous counterpart. (JEL: C52, D10, D52)     

A Simple Intertemporal Model of Retirement Estimated On Italian Cross‐Section Data

Abstract. We develop and estimate a simple structural intertemporal model of retirement, using cross‐section Italian data. Under certain assumptions, the condition for being in retirement or alternatively in employment status at a certain date reduces to a static comparison between the instantaneous utility as employed and the instantaneous utility as retired (minus the future opportunity cost of retiring) at that date. Forward‐looking versus myopic versions of the model are obtained by including or dropping the term measuring the future loss of retiring. The model can easily be formulated under two opposite hypotheses — no savings and no borrowing versus perfect credit market (perfect consumption smoothing). The implications of the estimates are illustrated by simulating the effects of changes in the parameters of the pension system or in the demographic variables. In particular, the elasticity of the number of individuals in retirement status with respect to the pension turns out to be small but not irrelevant from the perspective of the long‐term design and evaluation of the pension system.     

银行股权关联、银行业竞争与民营企业融资约束

本文以公司参股银行为视角,在行为金融理论、企业组织理论与信贷融资理论相融合的分析框架下,构建基于异质预期的信贷配置模型,探讨了银行股权关联和银行业竞争影响民营企业融资约束的传导机理。以A股民营企业2006~2013年的数据为例,运用Heckman两阶段回归等方法,我们发现:参股银行和提高银行业竞争性均能显著缓解民营企业的融资约束,参股比例越高该效应越强,且两者在缓解融资约束方面存在替代关系。但进一步的分析显示,银行股权关联对资本配置的影响具有两面性:即银行股权关联所带来的融资优势能够减少因资金短缺导致的投资不足,但代理问题的存在也可能导致银行股权关联被部分异化,使其对于资本配置的正向作用减弱甚至被异化为利益寻租的工具。上述结论既丰富了委托代理理论与公司财务理论的相关研究成果,也有助于我们深入理解银行股权关联的"正面效果"和"负面效果"。     

Equilibrium Financing in a Distribution Channel with Capital Constraint

There exist capital constraints in many distribution channels. We examine a channel consisting of one manufacturer and one retailer, where the retailer is capital constrained. The retailer may fund its business by borrowing credit either from a competitive bank market or from the manufacturer, provided the latter is willing to lend. When only one credit type (either bank or trade credit) is viable, we show that trade credit financing generally charges a higher wholesale price and thus becomes less attractive than bank credit financing for the retailer. When both bank and trade credits are viable, the unique equilibrium is trade credit financing if production cost is relatively low but is bank credit financing otherwise. We also study the case where both the retailer and the manufacturer are capital constrained and demonstrate that, to improve the overall supply chain efficiency, the bank should finance the manufacturer if production cost is low but finance the retailer otherwise. Our analysis further suggests that the equilibrium region of trade credit financing shrinks as demand variability or the retailer's internal capital level increases.