Automobile prices and protection: The U.S.-Japan trade restraint

We examine the effects of the U.S.-Japan trade restraint on automobile prices and quality upgrading, for both Japanese imports and American small cars. From April 1981 to April 1984 the suggested retail price of all Japanese models increased by 15.8 percent, or 5.3 percent per year. We find that nearly the entire amount of this rise can be explained by the upgrading of individual models. This upgrading may benefit consumers who would purchase a luxury import in any case, but harms those who desire the basic imports. In addition to upgrading, we conclude that a second cost of the trade restraint has been to prevent the yen depreciation from being passed onto American consumers, in terms of lower imported auto prices. For U.S. small cars we find a 9.1 percent rise in the suggested retail price, or 3 percent per year, with a fraction of this amount due to model upgrading. If the yen depreciation had led to lower import prices without the trade restraint, then we expect that U.S. auto prices would have been lower, too.     

神性、人性和理性--略论艺术形态与时代精神

艺术的本质在于其精神性,从艺术和时代精神的相互关系中去确立划分艺术形态的标准是符合艺术本质的.按照艺术所包含的精神内容的不同,艺术形态可分为神性艺术、人性艺术和理性艺术,以丰富的艺术史例可以说明其特征.     

Bias Correction in the Dynamic Panel Data Model with a Nonscalar Disturbance Covariance Matrix

Approximation formulae are developed for the bias of ordinary and generalized Least Squares Dummy Variable (LSDV) estimators in dynamic panel data models. Results from Kiviet [Kiviet, J. F. (1995), on bias, inconsistency, and efficiency of various estimators in dynamic panel data models, J. Econometrics68:53-78; Kiviet, J. F. (1999), Expectations of expansions for estimators in a dynamic panel data model: some results for weakly exogenous regressors, In: Hsiao, C., Lahiri, K., Lee, L-F., Pesaran, M. H., eds., Analysis of Panels and Limited Dependent Variables, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 199-225] are extended to higher-order dynamic panel data models with general covariance structure. The focus is on estimation of both short- and long-run coefficients. The results show that proper modelling of the disturbance covariance structure is indispensable. The bias approximations are used to construct bias corrected estimators which are then applied to quarterly data from 14 European Union countries. Money demand functions for M1, M2 and M3 are estimated for the EU area as a whole for the period 1991: I-1995: IV. Significant spillovers between countries are found reflecting the dependence of domestic money demand on foreign developments. The empirical results show that in general plausible long-run effects are obtained by the bias corrected estimators. Moreover, finite sample bias, although of moderate magnitude, is present underlining the importance of more refined estimation techniques. Also the efficiency gains by exploiting the heteroscedasticity and cross-correlation patterns between countries are sometimes considerable.     

改革开放——中华民族的复兴之路

建国以来，中国的发展以1978年为界分为前后两个30年。前30年，中国在计划经济体制下，顺利完成了国民经济的恢复任务、社会主义改造，并建立起比较完善的国民经济体系。后30年，中国通过改革开放，走上了一条中国特色社会主义发展道路，初步实现了国家的繁荣强盛，但是也面临着发展的困境。如果说，正是通过30年的改革开放，使中国真正跻身世界大国行列，那么中国在今后的发展中解决一系列发展难题，也必然要靠继续深化改革扩大开放。因此，认真总结中国改革开放的经验教训，为实现中华民族的伟大复兴就是我们必须要做的重要工作。     

《汉语拼音方案》的制定、传播与应用

继承了我国传统的直音、反切等方法以及西方学者的拉丁字母式拼音方法，《汉语拼音方案》作为新中国文字改革的一大成果诞生了。从制定到推行与传播，《汉语拼音方案》在具体应用过程中产生了一些问题需要尽快得到解决，以便《汉语拼音方案》能够为构建和谐语言生活发挥更大的促进作用。     

海上救助公约的发展及其主要影响

1989年通过的国际救助公约对传统的“无效果无报酬”原则所作的例外规定,引起了海运界和贸易界的极大关注,从而导致某些国际规则和国内法的修订。本文运用比较的方法对海上救助公约的发展及其对英国劳氏标准救助契约、国际共同海损理算规则和我国海商法的影响作了论述,并且提出了我国当前海商法应作修改补充的几点建议。     

Valuation of childhood risk reduction: the importance of age, risk preferences, and perspective.

This article explores two problems analysts face in determining how to estimate values for children's health and safety risk reductions. The first addresses the question: Do willingness‐to‐pay estimates for health risk changes differ across children and adults and, if so, how? To answer this question, the article first examines the potential effects of age and risk preferences on willingness to pay. A summary of the literature reporting empirical evidence of differences between willingness to pay for adult health and safety risk reductions and willingness to pay for health and safety risk reductions in children is also provided. The second dimension of the problem is a more fundamental issue: Whose perspective is relevant when valuing children's health effects—society's, children's, adults‐as‐children, or parents'? Each perspective is considered, followed ultimately by the conclusion that adopting a parental perspective through an intrahousehold allocation model seems closest to meeting the needs of the estimation problem at hand. A policy example in which the choice of perspective affects the outcome of a regulatory benefit‐cost analysis rounds out the article and emphasizes the importance of perspective.     

Statistik für bivariate gemischte Poisson–Prozesse am Beispiel der Kraftfahrthaftpflichtversicherung

Zusammenfassung: In diesem Artikel wird der Weg von einem univariaten gemischten Poisson–Prozess, der in vielen Bereichen zum Z?hlen von Ereignissen benutzt wird, zu einem bivariaten gemischten Poisson–Prozess aufgezeigt. Dazu werden einige Eigenschaften des bivariaten Prozesses angegeben. Im zweiten Teil der Arbeit wird gezeigt, wie mit Hilfe dieses Prozesses der übergang von einem herk?mmlichen Bonus–Malus–System in der Kraftfahrthaftpflichtversicherung zu einem Bonus–Malus–System mit Berücksichtigung der Schadenart beschritten werden kann. Dazu wird zuerst eine Modellprüfung der gegebenen Daten vorgenommen und sodann werden für verschiedene mischende Verteilungen die Verteilungsparameter gesch?tzt und Nettopr?mien angegeben sowie die Prognosegenauigkeit getestet.

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Summary: In this paper we show that the model of the bivariate mixed Poisson process arises in a natural way from the univariate mixed Poisson process, which is used in several areas for counting certain events. Furthermore we state some properties of the bivariate process. In the second part of the paper we illustrate how by means of the bivariate mixed Poisson process a bonus–malus system handling different types of accidents can be derived from the classical bonus–malus system in third–party liability insurance. To this end we first check the model on the given data and then estimate distribution parameters and compute net premiums for different mixing distributions as well as test the prediction probabilities.

* Vortrag am Dresdner Forum zur Versicherungsmathematik: Tarifierung in Erst- und Rückversicherung am 25. Juni 2004. Für die Unterstützung zu dieser Arbeit m?chte der Autor Lothar Partzsch, Klaus D. Schmidt (beide Dresden) und Friedemann Spies (München) recht herzlich danken.     

再论《国殇》与《九歌》

《九歌》是屈原在民间“九歌”基础上写定的 ,可以认为是屈原所作或创造的。《国殇》是为牺牲的楚国将士而举行驱鬼活动的主祭歌。《国殇》以外的《九歌》其他篇 ,主要是表现对九位天神地的恭敬、赞美和依恋 ,《九歌》中的神、巫、人、鬼关系 ,就是一个由人和巫迎请神、送行鬼魂的过程     

《中华人民共和国会计法》英译文简评

评述了我国会计法英译文中突出存在的词汇和句法两个方面的主要错误 ,指出在翻译中国法律文件时要做到的一点是遵循一定的法律文件英译规律 ,如突出法律行为的主体、不滥用被动句、遵守原文的句型等 ,并且要吃透原文而加以忠实翻译 ,呼吁提高国家级的法律文件英译文的质量 ,尽快开展省级涉外法规的英译及其规范化工作