Do institutions really matter for saving among low-income households? A comparative approach

This study aims to examine the extent to which competing theories explain saving of low-income households in Individual Development Accounts (IDAs). Competing theories include the individual-oriented perspective, a social stratification perspective, and institutional saving theory. We use American Dream Demonstration (ADD) data collected at the Tulsa IDA program. Compared with the individual perspective and the social stratification perspective, institutional features explain a large part of the variance in saving outcomes measured by average monthly net deposit (AMND) and deposit frequency. Findings suggest that institutional structures encouraging low-income households to save may contribute to more inclusive asset-based policy.     

Determining species specific nightly bat activity in sites with varying urban intensity

Time of peak bat activity during the night differs among bat species due to temperature, prey availability, habitat availability, and/or interactions between species. Habitat availability is altered in urban areas, which may affect insect prey availability and interspecies interactions. Our objectives were to use mobile acoustic monitoring to determine when bat species were active in a single night in urban and nonurban sites and if nightly bat activity patterns differed in urban versus nonurban sites. Bat echolocation call sequences were recorded using Anabat acoustic detectors while driving transects through the night at five sites (three “urban” and two “nonurban”) located in the Piedmont region of north-central North Carolina from May through August 2016. Transects were driven three times per night starting 45 min, 180 min, and 300 min after sunset. Recorded echolocation call sequences were analyzed manually using AnalookW and automatically using Bat Call Identification and Echoclass software. Total bat activity was not different between urban and nonurban sites. However, total bat activity was lower later in the night in urban sites, but stayed the same in nonurban sites. Species specifically, there were more Eptesicus fuscus, Lasionycteris noctivagans, and Tadarida brasiliensis call sequences and fewer Lasiurus borealis, Nycticeius humeralis, and Perimyotis subflavus call sequences in urban sites than nonurban sites. There were also fewer E. fuscus, L. noctivagans, and N. humeralis call sequences later in the night in both urban and nonurban sites. Only Lasiurus borealis activity in urban sites later in the night reduced and L. borealis activity in nonurban sites remained at the same. These results suggest that bats in urban areas partition time differently, which is important to consider for urban conservation efforts and planning.     

经济景气指标与实际GDP增长率的混频预测

文章通过构建月度景气指标与季度实际GDP增长率之间的混频动态向量自回归模型,并采用期望最大值算法和卡尔曼滤波来实现混频数据和缺失数据的估计和迭代预测.大量月度景气指标的MFVAR模型的伪实时数据的多步滚动迭代样本外预测结果表明:虽然不同类别的月度景气变量在不同预测期的预测结果存在一定的差异,但实时预报、短期预测,以及组合预测结果均表明混频动态向量自回归预测模型对我国季度实际GDP增长率的实时预报和短期预测具有精确性、有效性与适用性.     

基于全球商品流量表的中国大陆贸易影响力测算

文章利用国际货币基金组织(IMF)公布的各国(地区)进出口数据,编制了2015年全球商品流量表(G-CFM),描绘了国家(地区)间商品贸易网络关系,采用网络分析的方法对全球商品贸易格局进行了分析,发现了在全球商品贸易中以美、中、德为中心,世界各国紧密交织的网络特征,最后用投入产出方法分析了中国大陆的贸易影响力,测算了中国大陆进出口贸易对不同国家(地区)以及对全球的影响.     

The Role of Family Behaviors in Determining Income Distribution: The Case of South Korea

In this article, we examined what has contributed to the worsening income inequality and poverty between 1996 and 2011 in South Korea. We used a rank-preserving exchange method and a conditional reweighting method to assess the roles of family behaviors—including female labor force participation and family structure—characteristics of household heads, and men’s earnings. The results showed that the change in men’s earnings was a dominant factor in accounting for the increasing income inequality and poverty. The change in age and education among household heads also contributed significantly to the worsening income distribution. The change in family structure mainly affected the income disparity among lower-income families and increased poverty. The rise in women’s labor force participation improved the income distribution but not considerably. The distributional roles of family have not worked to prevent or reverse the worsening income distribution in the past few decades in South Korea.     

《诗经》与先秦崇玉习俗

<诗经>通过日常生活和礼仪生活用玉的描写,生动地反映了先秦崇玉习俗的各个侧面.我们通过对这些材料的梳理,可以看出:玉是先秦时期沟通世俗与神圣的媒介,<诗>中的玉意象也折射出人们心灵世界的光芒.     

A tractable method to measure utility and loss aversion under prospect theory

This paper provides an efficient method to measure utility under prospect theory. Our method minimizes both the number of elicitations required to measure utility and the cognitive burden for subjects, being based on the elicitation of certainty equivalents for two-outcome prospects. We applied our method in an experiment and were able to replicate the main findings on prospect theory, suggesting that our method measures what it is intended to. Our data confirmed empirically that risk seeking and concave utility can coincide under prospect theory. Utility did not depend on the probability used in the elicitation, which offers support for the validity of prospect theory.

人口老龄化阶段我国农村养老保险的机制创新

人口老龄化是当前全球人口结构发展的基本趋势。面对人口老龄化带来的各种挑战,加快建立和完善我国农特养老保险制度是一项紧迫的任务。廓清我国农村养老保险制度的困境及其成因与变迁,分析其中存在的问题,是推进农村养老保险制度改革的重要内容。从我国农村人口老龄化的趋势和农村经济发展的实际出发,通过机制创新,建立农村养老保险制度创新机制,是完善农村养老保险的关键所在。     

独立董事责任险、机构投资者与公司治理

独立董事责任险(独董险)强化了独立董事的独立性和信息监督动机。董事会独立性的提高有助于机构投资者提高治理效率。实证分析认为,独董险和机构投资者形成显著的共同治理效果。一方面,对于管理层代理问题,独董险与机构投资者的共同机制对管理费用率有显著的控制作用,形成对显性代理行为的有效监督;机构投资者对ROA有显著的提升能力,一定程度弥补了独立董事对隐性代理行为监督上的不足。另一方面,独董险和机构投资者对国有公司信息披露质量有提高作用。独董险可以强化对披露信息的监督动机,机构投资者有助导入国有公司缺失的独立董事外部声誉约束。在信息监督过程需要较多时间和专业知识投入的情况下,两者对独立董事的激励作用形成互补。