A functional connectivity approach for modeling cross-sectional dependence with an application to the estimation of hedonic housing prices in Paris

This paper proposes a functional connectivity approach, inspired by brain imaging literature, to model cross-sectional dependence. Using a varying parameter framework, the model allows correlation patterns to arise from complex economic or social relations rather than being simply functions of economic or geographic distances between locations. It nests the conventional spatial and factor model approaches as special cases. A Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo method implements this approach. A small scale Monte Carlo study is conducted to evaluate the performance of this approach in finite samples, which outperforms both a spatial model and a factor model. We apply the functional connectivity approach to estimate a hedonic housing price model for Paris using housing transactions over the period 1990–2003. It allows us to get more information about complex spatial connections and appears more suitable to capture the cross-sectional dependence than the conventional methods.     

高校实践教学改革的研究与实践

实践教学是高校教学的重要组成部分，对培养学生的实践能力、创新思维能力和科研能力有着重要意义。高校的实践教学应以新时期的人才培养规格为目标，构建适应新形势，符合新要求，有利于学生可持续发展，具有时代特点和学校特色的实践教学体系，从而推动高校实践教学改革的深入。     

论川端康成文学的佛教精神与宗教情怀

川端康成对佛教情有独钟,他从年轻时就不断地在探求佛教的真髓,并用文学形式奏响了一曲回归传统、融合自然,用宗教来医治心灵创伤的人文关怀之歌。他在自我超度的同时,也超度了众多受伤的魂灵。他的作品充满有即无,死即生的审美理念,展示了日本人的心灵世界,受到日本乃至世界各国人民的喜爱。     

北京外国人社区生活调查研究

改革开放以来,中国经济和社会取得了长足发展,来京的外国人逐年增多。调查显示,外国人对所在社区评价总体比较高,但他们的评价也因年龄、性别、来源地、滞留时间等不同而略有差异,他们参与社区活动的意愿与选择也并不相同。居住在北京城市社区的外国人对所在社区的审视为我们展现了一个由外向内的独特评价视角,这对于我们构建和谐社区、提升社区服务有着重要的现实意义。     

Does product complexity matter for competition in experimental retail markets?

We describe a first experiment on whether product complexity affects competition and consumers in retail markets. We are unable to detect a significant effect of product complexity on prices, except insofar as the demand elasticity for complex products is higher. However, there is qualified evidence that complex products have the potential to induce consumers to buy more than they would otherwise. In this sense, consumer exploitability in quantities cannot be ruled out. We also find evidence for shaping effects: consumers’ preferences are shaped by past experience with prices, and firms may in principle exploit this to sell more.     

A Diamond-Stiglitz approach to the demand for self-protection

The existing research concerning the relationship between risk aversion and prudence and the demand for self-protection assumes that the loss variable follows a Bernoulli distribution, and that changes in the level of self-protection are mean preserving. The analysis here replaces these two very strong conditions with ones which are more general. When doing this, the method of analysis is also significantly modified. This modification includes representing a change in the level of self-protection using the procedure developed by Diamond and Stiglitz (Journal of Economic Theory 8:337-360, 1974) for representing a change in risk. This alternate representation allows the existing findings to be generalized considerably, and also simplifies the analysis.     

Teacher-Based Racial Discrimination: The Role of Racial Pride and Religiosity Among African American and Caribbean Black Adolescents

This study explored the extent to which private regard and religiosity beliefs serve as protective factors for school bonding among African American and Caribbean black adolescents who experience racial discrimination in school. Findings are drawn from a nationally representative sample of (n = 810) African American and (n = 360) Caribbean black adolescents (52% girls) aged 13–17 (M_age = 15, SD = 1.42) years. Results suggest that perceiving racial discrimination from teachers was associated with lower levels of school bonding for African American and Caribbean black adolescents. For African American adolescents, perceiving more racial discrimination from teachers and reporting lower private regard beliefs was associated with less school bonding. The findings for Caribbean black adolescents revealed that endorsing moderate levels of religiosity and perceiving higher rates of teacher discrimination was associated with less school bonding. The developmental significance and implications for future research are discussed.     

加入世贸组织与广东民族地区的经济发展

本文论述了新时期广东民族地区的经济现状与发展问题。认为现在是广东民族地区取得突破性发展的最好时机。     

Bayesian inference for zero-and-one-inflated geometric distribution regression model using Pólya-Gamma latent variables

Abstract

In the fields of internet financial transactions and reliability engineering, there could be more zero and one observations simultaneously. In this paper, considering that it is beyond the range where the conventional model can fit, zero-and-one-inflated geometric distribution regression model is proposed. Ingeniously introducing Pólya-Gamma latent variables in the Bayesian inference, posterior sampling with high-dimensional parameters is converted to latent variables sampling and posterior sampling with lower-dimensional parameters, respectively. Circumventing the need for Metropolis-Hastings sampling, the sample with higher sampling efficiency is obtained. A simulation study is conducted to assess the performance of the proposed estimation for various sample sizes. Finally, a doctoral dissertation data set is analyzed to illustrate the practicability of the proposed method, research shows that zero-and-one-inflated geometric distribution regression model using Pólya-Gamma latent variables can achieve better fitting results.