The microeconometric estimation of treatment effects—An overview

Summary The need to evaluate the performance of active labour market policies is not questioned any longer. Even though OECD countries spend significant shares of national resources on these measures, unemployment rates remain high or even increase. We focus on microeconometric evaluation which has to solve the fundamental evaluation problem and overcome the possible occurrence of selection bias. When using non-experimental data, different evaluation approaches can be thought of. The aim of this paper is to review the most relevant estimators, discuss their identifying assumptions and their (dis-)advantages. Thereby we will present estimators based on some form of exogeneity (selection on observables) as well as estimators where selection might also occur on unobservable characteristics. Since the possible occurrence of effect heterogeneity has become a major topic in evaluation research in recent years, we will also assess the ability of each estimator to deal with it. Additionally, we will also discuss some recent extensions of the static evaluation framework to allow for dynamic treatment evaluation. The authors thank Stephan L. Thomsen, Christopher Zeiss and one anonymous referee for valuable comments. The usual disclaimer applies.     

德鲁克管理思想中的人本主义追求

人本主义是贯穿德鲁克管理思想的一个基本追求。这一追求从以下三个层面展开 :管理的核心和最终目的在于它对人的意义 ;组织与个人的和谐关系是达到人本目标的实践基础和条件 ;自我管理是人自我实现的根本途径。通过对上述三个基本信念及其具体体现的分析可以发现德鲁克人本主义管理思想呈现出四个极有启示意义的特点 :有机的系统性、鲜明的实践性、睿智的和谐性和不懈的发展性     

张学良的青年人格素养观

指出了青年人格素养观的含义,阐明了张学良青年人格素养观形成和发展的脉络.重点分析了张学良青年人格素养观的特点:是对儒家人生哲学和道德修养观念的继承和发展,强调外在规范的作用,主张推行人格教育以提高民族整体素质,身体力行、躬行亲践等.探讨了张学良青年人格素养观对当代青年教育的启示.     

Children in families of torture victims: transgenerational transmission of parents' traumatic experiences to their children

This article details a study to test the hypothesis that immigrant children whose parents have been tortured before coming to Sweden suffer from depressive symptoms, post-traumatic stress symptoms, somatisation and behavioural disorders. Fifteen families where at least one of the parents had experienced torture were compared with fifteen families from a similar ethnic and cultural background where their parents might have experienced violence but not torture. The parents were investigated using interviews, the Karolinska Scales of Personality (KSP) and Harvard/Uppsala Trauma Questionnaire (H/UTQ). The children were assessed using the DICA-interview according to DSM-IV. On the H/UTQ test, traumatised parents scored higher with respect to post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, somatisation, anxiety and psychosocial stress symptoms. On the KSP, they scored higher on nine of the fifteen sub-scales. The fathers in the tortured group scored higher than their wives only on the sub-scale for guilt. According to the DICA-interviews, the children of tortured parents had more symptoms of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, attention deficits and behavioural disorders compared with the comparison group. Social workers, psy-chiatrists, psychologists and teachers need to be aware of a possible transmission of parents' traumatic experiences to their children and to develop treatment methods for children of torture victims.     

Population growth and social security financing

By allowing the population growth to be flexible, this paper analyzes the effect of a tax reform that involves an introduction of consumption taxation for social security financing. It is found that population growth and labor supply play an important role in determining the effect of the tax reform. If population growth and labor supply are exogenous, then an introduction of a consumption tax for social security financing, with the payroll tax rate being endogenous, decreases the interest rate and increases capital accumulation. However, if population growth and labor supply are endogenous, then an introduction of a consumption tax for social security financing increases the interest rate and reduces capital accumulation. Received: 26 February 2001/Accepted: 26 August 2001     

An empirical study on the threshold cointegration of Chinese A and H cross-listed shares

We investigate the dynamic relationship between the prices of Chinese A and H market cross-listed shares using the Enders–Siklos threshold cointegration approach. Our data are the daily closing prices of the Hang Seng China AH (A) index and the Hang Seng China AH (H) index from 4 January 2006 to 1 November 2013. We find a threshold cointegration between these two indices, instead of the linear cointegration well established in the literature. The short-term adjustment to the equilibrium shows an asymmetric effect according to the price deviation from the equilibrium. Moreover, using a Granger causality test, we find a bi-directional causality between these two markets, indicating a close relationship between them. A pairs trading rule, based on the estimated threshold cointegration model, demonstrates the usefulness of our results as it generates a significantly higher return than a naive buy-and-hold trading rule.     

PUBLIC EDUCATION AND PENSIONS IN DEMOCRACY: A POLITICAL ECONOMY THEORY

A dynamic political economy theory of fiscal policy is presented to explain the simultaneous existence of public education and pensions in modern democracies. The driving force of the model is the intergenerational conflict over the allocation of the public budget. Successive generations of voters choose fiscal policies through repeated elections. The political power of elderly voters creates the motive for adults to support public investment in the human capital of future generations since it expands future pension possibilities. We characterize the Markov perfect equilibrium of the voting game in a small open economy. The equilibrium reproduces salient features of intergenerational fiscal policies in modern economies.