CAPITAL INFLOWS,FINANCIAL STRUCTURE AND HOUSING BOOMS

We use a panel VAR to study the effect of shocks to capital inflows, which are identified using sign restrictions, on the housing market in OECD countries. To explore how effects of these shocks change with the structure of the mortgage market and the degree of mortgage securitization, we allow the VAR coefficients to vary with mortgage‐market characteristics. Our results indicate that capital‐inflow shocks have a significant and positive effect on real house prices, real credit available to the private sector, and real residential investment. The responses of these variables are stronger in countries with more developed mortgage markets and in countries where securitization is allowed.     

BUILDING REPUTATION FOR CONTRACT RENEWAL: IMPLICATIONS FOR PERFORMANCE DYNAMICS AND CONTRACT DURATION

We study how career concerns affect the dynamics of incentives in a multi‐period contract, when the agent's productivity is a stochastic function of his past productivity and investment. We show that incentives are stronger and performance is higher when the contract approaches its expiry date. Contrary to common wisdom, long‐term contracts may strengthen reputational effects whereas short‐term contracting may be optimal when investment has persistent, long‐term effects.     

文学审美与新世纪"趋零距离"

新世纪十年,随着知识经济新时代的到来及其无孔不入的渗透,社会生活诸领域的"趋零距离"正剧烈改变着我们的生活方式、生活心态及审美文化心理.如果我们依然将文学审美当做挚爱生命的一部分,依然热切关注自身生存的价值,文学审美与新世纪"趋零距离"的"远"与"近"就是我们现今必须正视的问题.     

论21世纪科技期刊编辑的多元化发展

以 2 1世纪知识经济背景下科技期刊将发生的变革为出发点 ,论述了科技期刊编辑的思维方式、知识结构及能力应该向多元化方向发展 ,成为具有综合素质的全方位的编辑人才 ,才能适应时代的要求。     

委内瑞拉"21世纪社会主义"走向探析

委内瑞拉查韦斯政府通过经济领域的改革、参与制民主等形式探索走向“21世纪社会主义”。在委内瑞拉建设“21世纪的社会主义”存在着一定的困难,障碍不仅有来自美国等西方社会的怀疑与敌视,更有来自委内瑞拉国内制度及文化方面的阻力。其中内部的反民主的保举官职制和个人专制主义政治文化将是“21世纪社会主义”最大的挑战。     

Workplace Job Satisfaction in Britain: Evidence from Linked Employer–Employee Data

The paper examines the nature of workplace job satisfaction in Britain using an ‘overall’ and domain‐specific job satisfaction outcomes from linked employer–employee data. A measure of aggregate job satisfaction alone might mask domain‐specific differences in satisfaction, something the combined approach in this paper addresses. As well as controlling for a rich set of correlates on employees and their workplaces, the paper deploys alternative empirical models that account for employee‐ and workplace‐level unobserved heterogeneity. The paper reports interesting results on the link between job satisfaction and observed as well as unobserved characteristics of employees and their workplaces.     

Testing the Validity of the Sibling Sex Ratio Instrument

We test the validity of the sibling sex ratio instrument suggested by Angrist and Evans using the methods proposed by Kitagawa and Huber and Mellace. The sex ratio of the first two siblings is arguably randomly assigned and influences the probability of having a third child, which makes it a candidate instrument for fertility when estimating the effect of fertility on female labor supply. However, identification hinges on the random assignment of the instrument, an instrumental exclusion restriction, and the monotonicity of fertility in the instrument. We find that the instrumental variable tests of Kitagawa and Huber and Mellace do not point to a violation of these assumptions in the Angrist and Evans data (which can, however, not be ruled out even asymptotically as the tests cannot detect all possible violations).     

SLOW INFORMATION DIFFUSION AND THE INERTIAL BEHAVIOR OF DURABLE CONSUMPTION

This paper studies the aggregate dynamics of durable and nondurable consumption under slow information diffusion (SID) due to noisy observations and learning within the permanent income hypothesis framework. We show that SID can significantly improve the model's predictions on the joint behavior of income, durable consumption, and nondurable consumption at the aggregate level. Specifically, we find that SID can significantly improve the model's predictions for: (i) smoothness in durable and nondurable consumption, (ii) autocorrelation of durable consumption, and (iii) contemporaneous correlation between durable and nondurable consumption.     

西部开发与环境可持续发展的矛盾冲突及化解

西部开发与环境可持续发展在现实中存在着尖锐的矛盾和冲突,使得在西部自身内部、东西部合作和中央政府投资等决策中都面临着两难选择。化解两者矛盾,必须在正确认识"环境库兹涅茨倒U型曲线"的基础上,采取一系列方法措施,包括树立科学的开发观,构筑科学的发展测量指标;转变开发方式,调整西部产业结构;进行绿色经济制度创新;加大中央政府转移支付力度等。     

汉字"巴"与土家族称谓考

从语义上讲,土家语“Pi35tsi55kha21”与汉字“巴”完全各异,从社会文化角度来看,它们之间又有较为密切的联系。“Pi35tsi55kha21”与“土家”均为该族人自称,但两者出现的历史顺序有先后之分,具体内涵也不尽相同。“Pa55”与“巴”亦非土汉对译。在土家语中,“pa55”可独立成词,但更多时候则充当合成词词素。单音节汉语词“巴”的部分名词义项跟土家族历史文化相关。