Determinants of state long-term debt: The political market framework

Because it focuses on the moderating role of political institutions – which emphasize equilibrium policy outcomes under different institutional arrangements derived from the interaction of policy supply and demand – the political market framework provides useful insights for analyzing the determinants of state long-term debt. Thus, different types of state political institutions should affect the degree of long-term debt in terms of specific demands and supply. Despite the numerous studies that have either applied the political market approach to local governments in policy areas or have analyzed the determinants of long-term debt from only a financial management perspective, few studies have applied the political market framework to state governments. Thus, adopting a state financial management perspective and conducting a panel data analysis using state data from 1980 to 2014, this study identifies the reasons why state governments act on long-term obligations in terms of the political market framework. This study also aims to expand the application of the political market framework to state governments and to integrate determinants of state long-term indebtedness.     

Intelligent Aggressiveness: Using Forecast Multipliers,Hybrid Forecasting,Fare Adjustment,and Unconstraining Methods to Increase Revenue*

Many studies have begun the exploration of airlines using intelligent aggressiveness (IA) in unidimensional directions (e.g., forecast multipliers alone). This article uses the sophisticated passenger origin–destination simulator (PODS) to examine the revenue impact of four different IA levers—forecast multipliers, unconstraining, hybrid forecasting (HF) and fare adjustment (FA). We also explore the impacts in two different origin–destination networks. Due to the competitive nature of PODS (two or four airlines competing) and its allowance for customer choice, we are able to assess all the implications, including the impact of spill, upgrades and recapture. We find that with a single IA lever, independent of the network and demand level, in a more‐restricted fare environment, the optimal lever is almost always HF with moderate‐to‐aggressive estimates of willingness‐to‐pay, with revenue gains of 0.4–4.3% in a large global network, and gains of 1.7–4.2% in a domestic network, depending on demand level and optimization method used. We also test two additional, less‐restricted fare environments and find that revenue improvements have a wider range (0.8–6.3%) with a single lever in the larger network. Finally, we explore the impacts of allowing the competitors to use basic IA and the airline of interest to use multiple IA levers.     

Classifying Revenue Management: A Taxonomy to Assess Business Practice*

As revenue management (RM) techniques evolve there is a need to take stock of how organizations practice RM and the interactions among techniques. This would help practitioners and researchers better understand how RM practice is influenced by the business setting, including those not traditionally associated with advanced RM techniques. Also, it would facilitate investigations of which practices lead to better outcomes in different contexts. Research to date has focused on individual techniques within individual business settings, with limited attention to the range of environments in which RM practice occurs. This suggests a need for a common framework to classify and assess differences in practice. In this article, we present a taxonomy which comprises (i) seven indicators of practice and (ii) a decision tree to measure RM across diverse businesses. We test the classification system in a survey of 232 businesses. Results show the taxonomy provides a comprehensive view of RM practice, with meaningful discrimination across settings. Findings also offer insight into how practices vary across different settings. Our taxonomy contributes to future research by facilitating systematic comparisons of RM practices, the settings in which it is adopted, and its impact on performance.     

A continuous approximation method for dynamic pricing problem under costly price modifications

This paper presents a heuristic method to solve a dynamic pricing problem under costly price modifications. This is an extremely difficult nonlinear problem that has been solved only for a few special instances. Here we provide a new approach that involves an approximate reformulation of the problem, which can subsequently be solved in closed-form using elementary calculus techniques. Numerical results show that the approach is quite accurate; approximating the optimal revenue with errors usually much less than 1%. Moreover, the accuracy rapidly improves as the optimal number of price changes increases, which are precisely the cases conventional approaches would fail.     

我国宏观收入分配核算概念的界定、难点及改进思路

本文从国际标准和实际操作两个层面论述了我国宏观收入分配核算的概念界定,包括宏观收入分配的主体界定和不同收入分配环节的界定。解析了当前宏观收入分配的几大热点问题,梳理了我国收入分配核算中存在的薄弱环节,并提出了改进和完善收入分配核算的具体措施。     

中国县级政府间财力差距：1993-2003年

 摘　　要:本文利用1993-2003年中国县级地区的财政数据，借鉴收入分配文献中发展出来的地区子集和收入来源不平等分解法，对县级政府财力差距进行了分析，发现中国县级政府财力差距十分悬殊，且财力不均等存在上升趋势；大部分财力不均等是由组内差异解释的，地区间差距对不均等的贡献相对较小；上级财政转移支付不但没有起到均等县级财力的作用，反而拉大了财力差异，特别是在分税制改革后，转移支付造成了近一半的县级财力差异     

Optimal pricing and production decisions in the presence of symmetrical and asymmetrical substitution

Firms may produce a variety of generally similar products or may practice “scientific pricing” or revenue management where the firm will offer similar or somewhat differentiated products in multiple market segments at different prices. Whenever generally similar products are available, the demand for the products is linked through the ability of the customer to substitute one product for another. One widely known type of demand substitution is referred to as inventory-driven substitution where a customer will substitute for a product that is out of stock by buying a similar product. A second type of substitution occurs as a response to price-differences when a customer substitutes a less expensive product for a similar higher priced product.     

地方政府推动经济增长：财政激励的重新解释

在解释中国的经济改革和经济增长中,原先的“维护市场的财政联邦制”强调地方高的边际财政分成对地方促进市场化改革的重要作用,但分税制改革改变了这种认识。主张中央集权下晋升锦标赛作用的学者强调即使地方财政激励很低,晋升的激励也足以保证地方按照中央要求努力发展经济。文章计论了晋升激励存在的一些局限,认为其作用可能被高估了,并对分税制后地方政府推动经济增长的财政激励做了前后一致的解释.     

美国土地财政收入发展演化规律对上海的启示

美国土地财政收入发展演化从建国至今可以分为四个阶段：土地财政收入从中央向地方转移、从土地资产性收益向土地税收收益转移、土地财政收入占总财政收入比例先递减再到基本稳定、土地财政税收收入以财产税为主。该演化规律对上海的启示是：土地的资产性收益是历史的必然产物,应该客观看待土地财政这一现象,但要注意其又是阶段性的;上海市试点房产税是必然的选择并恰逢其时;上海市土地财政应该积极探索“两条腿走路”;将土地财政逐步向地方政府转移,使之成为地方政府财政收入的主要来源;简化与土地有关的税种并且加大对不动产保有环节征税。     

中国城镇化进程中财政金融政策支持效率研究

中国的城镇化发展存在着人口城镇化明显滞后于空间城镇化的问题,这与现行的财政金融政策相关。基于DEA的Malmquist指数方法,可测算2005-2011年中国31个省份的财政金融政策支持城镇化效率指数,研究发现,从整体发展趋势来看,大部分年份财政金融政策效率呈下滑态势,财政金融政策并没有很好地支持城镇化建设,这突出表现为财政金融政策偏向于空间城镇化而忽视人口城镇化。这主要是受现行地方官员考核机制制约,地方政府在"政治锦标赛"中,倾向于积极推动空间城镇化,消极应对人口城镇化。所以,应建立正确的地方政府考核导向和考核指标体系,引导地方政府行为;合理划分中央与地方政府财政权利,增强地方政府财政的可持续能力;建立合理的金融资源供给模式,通过金融扶持推进农村居民进入城市创业和就业。