A comparative study of social assistance systems in Macao and Hong Kong

This article compares social assistance systems in Macao and Hong Kong. It finds that Macao delivers a higher level of social assistance benefits, whereas Hong Kong has a larger group of social assistance beneficiaries. The Hong Kong Government spends a larger amount on social assistance provision and imposes tougher controls on the recipients, compared to Macao. The results of the comparison indicate that Macao and Hong Kong differ markedly in the type of productivist welfare regime they belong and challenge the assertion that the two welfare systems form a distinct welfare model.     

Sourcing with Deferred Payment and Inspection under Supplier Product Adulteration Risk

We study the deferred payment and inspection mechanisms for mitigating supplier product adulteration, with endogenous procurement decision and general defect discovery process. We first derive the optimal deferred payment contract, which reveals that either entire or partial deferral can arise, depending on the moral hazard severity and the information accumulation rate. Because of the supplier's incentive to adulterate, the optimal procurement quantity under deferred payment generally is smaller than the first‐best quantity. We then investigate the inspection mechanism and characterize the equilibrium. We find that under the inspection mechanism, the optimal procurement quantity is no less than the first best. A comparison between these two mechanisms shows that the deferred payment mechanism generally can outperform the inspection mechanism when either the market size is small or the profit margin is low. However, we find that these two mechanisms can also be complementary, for which we characterize a necessary condition.     

Signaling to Partially Informed Investors in the Newsvendor Model

We analyze a signaling game between the manager of a firm and an investor in the firm. The manager has private information about the firm's demand and cares about the short‐term stock price assigned by the investor. Previous research has shown that under continuous decision choices and the Intuitive Criterion refinement, the least‐cost separating equilibrium will result, in which a low‐quality firm chooses its optimal capacity and a high‐quality firm over‐invests in order to signal its quality to investors. We build on this research by showing the existence of pooling outcomes in which low‐quality firms over‐invest and high‐quality firms under‐invest so as to provide identical signals to investors. The pooling equilibrium is practically appealing because it yields a Pareto improvement compared to the least‐cost separating equilibrium. Distinguishing features of our analysis are that: (i) we allow the capacity decision to have either discrete or continuous support, and (ii) we allow beliefs to be refined based on either the Undefeated refinement or the Intuitive Criterion refinement. We find that the newsvendor model parameters impact the likelihood of a pooling outcome, and this impact changes in both sign and magnitude depending on which refinement is used.     

儿童钢琴教学中兴趣的培养与激发

“兴趣是最好的老师”,这是最熟悉不过的口头禅。然而不争的事实是,为数不少的音乐名流,当他们刚刚步入音乐领域时,并非对音乐有特别的兴趣。这说明大量的学习,不是在很自觉的水平上发生的,许多行为模式是通过外界的微妙强化,后天的有效诱导,最后才形成稳定的兴趣并获得成功。所以说兴趣是成功的秘诀。然而对于这个“秘诀”,并不是每位钢琴教师和家长都能领悟。因而出现了家长强迫孩子学琴,教师硬性灌输,孩子厌学砸琴,童稚灵性被扼杀的种种现象。儿童钢琴教学的实践证明:培养儿童浓厚的兴趣并使之具有稳定性,是钢琴教学过程有效开展的重要环…     

马克思理论的哲学维度与理论存在样式的转换

澄清马克思哲学特殊的理论存在样式,是理解和捍卫马克思理论的哲学维度,阐发其哲学性质、内容和功能的关键点。马克思以一种“非哲学”的态度摒弃了传统哲学的理论存在样式,但与此同时创造了另一种新的理论存在样式,那就是把哲学变成了“哲学实践”,即变成了一种干涉、介入和变革现实生活的方式,并因此使得哲学表现出与传统哲学有着重大不同的理论性质、言说方式和话语方式。自觉地认识马克思哲学所实现的这种理论存在样式的转换,可以使我们进一步认识到:不能以传统哲学的理论存在样式来衡量和评价马克思的哲学性质,更不能用传统思辨哲学的话语方式和言说方式来理解和阐发马克思哲学。     

"内在超越"与哲学的批判本性

以"外在批判"为根据的传统形而上学的哲学批判由于其"外在性",被证明是一种无根的、独断的和独白的,以否定现实生活世界作为归宿的批判.要克服哲学批判性的这一深层困境,就必须克服"外在超越"的哲学前提和思维方式,在保持哲学超越性视野的同时,消解其外在性及其由此所带来的抽象性与独断性,实现从"外在超越"向"内在超越"的转换.在实践哲学的范式内,马克思以一种辩证的方式理解哲学的"内在"与"超越"的关系,从而实现哲学批判的实践理性转向,使哲学的批判性真正成为了内在于现实生活同时超越现实生活的真实力量.由此,哲学批判的主题和内容不再来自于先验的理论原则而完全来源于生活实践;哲学批判也不再是高高在上的对现实世界的裁决和评判,而成为生活实践的内在环节与推动力量;同时,哲学批判的实践理性转向集中体现在了哲学批判的思想旨趣和理论功能上.     

人文精神与纪录片文化景观

人文精神作为纪录片文化的内在灵魂,渗透于各种文化形态之中。然而在当代,纪录片文化中的人文精神正在被各种混杂的价值取向所遮蔽,人文精神遭遇了边缘恪守和中心遮蔽的尴尬状态。本文立足中国传统儒家人文精神和隐逸人文精神,分析了它们与纪录片文化景观之间的关系,并提出应该力图探索人文精神在当代社会的新形态。     

深化“主体性”研究的重大课题——从“认知主体”到“价值主体”

主体性曾是当代中国哲学关注的焦点问题。以往对主体性的探讨所存在的一个重大缺失在于缺乏对认知主体与价值主体的自觉区分。在哲学史上,康德最早对认知主体和价值主体的界线以及价值主体的优先性进行了深刻的阐明。这一思想理路对于我们重新理解和评估主体性原则的历史遗产,对于深入理解马克思哲学中的主体性思想,具有十分特殊的意义。坚持这种区分,把认知主体和价值主体视为主体性在性质上有着重大不同的两个维度,我们将可以在扬弃主体性狭隘的认识论内涵的同时,维护其丰富的价值论内涵;可以在拆解以认知主体为核心的主体形而上学立场的同时,为价值主体的存在合法性提供有力的辩护。马克思哲学的主体性原则在新的基础上深化了康德关于认知主体与价值主体划界和价值主体优先的思想,把人理解为自由、目的和责任主体。这是马克思主体性思想中最为精髓和最富当代价值的内容。