Household debt and financial assets: evidence from Germany, Great Britain and the USA

Summary.  We explore the determinants of debt, financial assets and net worth at the household level by using survey data for Germany, Great Britain and the USA. To identify which households are potentially vulnerable to adverse changes in the economic environment, we also explore the determinants of a range of measures of financial pressure: the probability that a household has negative net worth; the debt-to-income ratio; mortgage income gearing; the saving-to-income ratio. Our empirical findings suggest that the poorest and the youngest households are the most vulnerable to adverse changes in their financial circumstances.     

商业银行发展中间业务的思考

中间业务以其风险小、收益高的优点受到各国银行的青睐,尤其是在发达国家,已成为发达国家建设银行收入和利润的主要来源。建设银行大力推进和发展中间业务商业银行加快体制改革步伐、增强国际竞争力尤为重要。现针对商业银行发展中间业务的必要性及发展现状和发展前景等方面进行初步探讨。对于国内外先进银行经验加快发展商业银行中间业务的步伐,加快建设银行战略转型、改变业务发展方式,向现代化经营模式的转变。     

Detection and correction of artificial shifts in climate series

Summary.  Many long instrumental climate records are available and might provide useful information in climate research. These series are usually affected by artificial shifts, due to changes in the conditions of measurement and various kinds of spurious data. A comparison with surrounding weather-stations by means of a suitable two-factor model allows us to check the reliability of the series. An adapted penalized log-likelihood procedure is used to detect an unknown number of breaks and outliers. An example concerning temperature series from France confirms that a systematic comparison of the series together is valuable and allows us to correct the data even when no reliable series can be taken as a reference.     

The Robustness of Trend Stationarity: An Illustration with the Extended Nelson-Plosser Dataset

We re-evaluate Andreu and Spanos's findings in favour of trend stationarity by considering the extended Nelson-Plosser data set. This expanded (to 1988) data set includes a period of rather different behaviour compared with the original Nelson-Plosser data used by Andreou and Spanos. We find that Andreou and Spanos's models (with only minor adjustments) exhibit remarable stability over this extended period, and indicate that their conclusions are more robust than they have shown.     

企业的合约经济理论探索和统计检验

对企业本质的认识是微观经济学中的一个重要问题,其对中国的国企改革有着重要意义。本文中,我们对企业的合约本质进行了经济理论探索和统计检验,并突出关注企业的激励合约问题。     

美国社区学院对促进高等教育大众化的贡献

自从1901年以来,美国一直大力发展社区学院,对推动美国高等教育事业蓬勃发展和实现高等教育大众化做出了巨大历史性贡献.美国创办社区学院促进高等教育大众化的历史性经验,对中国发展高等教育有一定启示.     

RLC串并联电路的等效互换问题探讨

通过对RLC串并联电路的分析 ,推导出串并联电路等效互换后计算电路参数的统一表达式 ,并对两个元件的串并联电路等效互换进行了讨论。     

Testing symmetry under a skew Laplace model

We develop tests of hypothesis about symmetry based on samples from possibly asymmetric Laplace distributions and present exact and limiting distribution of the test statistics. We postulate that the test statistic derived under the Laplace model is a rational choice as a measure of skewness and can be used in testing symmetry for other, quite general classes of skew distributions. Our results are applied to foreign exchange rates for 15 currencies.     

Development of the Mental Illness and Disorder Understanding Scale

Abstract: Although administrative bodies such as community health centers have implemented various awareness campaigns to promote community understanding of mental health and to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness and disorder, there have been few reports that have quantitatively analyzed the effects of these campaigns in Japan. Therefore, this study was conducted for the purpose of developing the evaluative “Mental Illness and Disorder Understanding Scale (MIDUS)” for awareness campaigns and assessing its reliability and validity. A survey was conducted on 1 004 community residents using a self‐administered questionnaire. An assessment of the reliability and validity of the scale was then conducted. The Cronbach a coefficient of the MIDUS was 0.78, thus indicating adequate reliability. Factor analysis of the MIDUS revealed three factors: “Treatability of illness”, “Efficacy of medication” and “Social recognition of illness”. In addition, a significant correlation was observed between the MIDUS and existing scales, and fixed criterion‐based validity was demonstrated. The MIDUS utilizes items worded in the form of affirmative expressions so as to avoid promoting new bias. It was confirmed to be both reliable and valid, thereby suggesting its usefulness as an evaluative scale of awareness campaigns.     

物流成本对国际贸易影响的实证分析

多年来中美贸易发展迅速 ,美国成为我国主要出口国家。当今形势下 ,物流成本成为影响中美贸易的主要因素 ;借助计量经济学方法 ,定量地探讨了物流成本对两国贸易尤其是我国出口贸易的影响。