Myths and realities about input subsidies in sub‐Saharan Africa

Using a recent public expenditure dataset, this article proposes a ‘reality check’ of the level and composition of input subsidies in nine African countries between 2006 and 2013. Results show that input subsidies (1) received close to 35% of agricultural‐specific expenditure on average and (2) cover a variety of interventions, including investments in capital, such as on‐farm irrigation, and in on‐farm services, such as inspection or training. Further, the figures show that input subsidies tended to become entrenched in agricultural budgets over time, leading to sub‐optimal execution rates, and were primarily funded by the national taxpayer, while donors invested more in public goods. Findings confirm that input subsidies crowded out other spending categories likely to be more supportive of long‐term agricultural development objectives. The article concludes that the political economy of input subsidies should be directed to making more concrete efforts to attain a better balance of public expenditure on agriculture. Furthermore, policy‐makers should aim to increase the efficiency and policy coherence of input subsidies, since merely abolishing them is likely to be unfeasible in the short term.     

Couple Longevity in the Era of Same‐Sex Marriage in the United States

The author used a new longitudinal data set, the How Couples Meet and Stay Together surveys (N = 3,009), to generate the first nationally representative comparison of same‐sex couple stability and heterosexual couple stability in the United States. He measured the association between marriage (by several definitions of marriage) and couple longevity for same‐sex couples in the United States. Reports of same‐sex relationship instability in the past were due in part to the low rate of marriages among same‐sex couples. After controlling for marriage and marriage‐like commitments, the break‐up rate for same‐sex couples was comparable to (and not statistically distinguishable from) the break‐up rate for heterosexual couples. The results revealed that same‐sex couples who had a marriage‐like commitment had stable unions regardless of government recognition. A variety of predictors of relationship dissolution for heterosexual and for same‐sex couples are explored.     

华岗“政治大课”简论

为了贯彻《共同纲领》的文教政策，使山东大学顺利实现向新民主主义大学的转变，在建国初期山东大学思想政治教育中，校长华岗为全校师生所授政治大课，采取理论联系实际和以理服人的方针，系统地给山大师生讲授了党的政策和马克思主义基本原理，提高了山大师生的觉悟，为20世纪50年代山大的辉煌奠定了基础。     

论回汉民族关系亲密的四大共因

本文重点对人们司空见惯而又习焉不察的回汉亲密的民族关系的共因作论述和分析。全文依次从回汉血缘关系的共同性,回汉同仇敌忾、反侵略、反压迫的共同性,回汉价值取向和性格的共同性,回汉两族语言使用的共同性四个方面有理有据地证明回汉民族从相互接触到相互学习再到相互认同的过程,正是整个中华民族由分散走向团结再走向和谐凝聚的一个生动缩影。这对了解中华民族多元一体的整合过程,对当今构建和谐社会的和谐民族关系有重要的现实意义。     

A Comparison of Some Methods for the Selection of a Common Eigenvector Model for the Covariance Matrices of Two Groups

Two new nonparametric common principal component model selection procedures based on bootstrap distributions of the vector correlations of all combinations of the eigenvectors from two groups are proposed. The performance of these methods is compared in a simulation study to the two parametric methods previously suggested by Flury in 1988, as well as modified versions of two nonparametric methods proposed by Klingenberg in 1996 and then by Klingenberg and McIntyre in 1998. The proposed bootstrap vector correlation distribution (BVD) method is shown to outperform all of the existing methods in most of the simulated situations considered.     

The Local Power of the CADF and CIPS Panel Unit Root Tests

Very little is known about the local power of second generation panel unit root tests that are robust to cross-section dependence. This article derives the local asymptotic power functions of the cross-section argumented Dickey–Fuller Cross-section Augmented Dickey-Fuller (CADF) and CIPS tests of Pesaran (2007), which are among the most popular tests around.     

神话资源转化必须警惕两种倾向——冯天瑜先生访谈录

冯天瑜先生认为:神话资源转化与其他传统的、古典的资源转化一样,具有文化延续的必然性;神话资源转化过程有一个诠释学问题,在诠释学范畴内讨论神话资源转化,必须警惕两种倾向,一是过度诠释,二是否定诠释的可能性;神话资源转化既要坚持资源的本真性,又要坚持资源在当代的可转化性,只有如此,神话资源转化方能产生积极的文化影响。     

From Birth to Death: A Social Monitoring Framework from New Zealand

The paper begins by outlining the development of social indicators work and social monitoring at the national level in New Zealand and comments on how this relates to the international movement. It describes the 'key' indicators/life stage approach developed by the New Zealand Planning Council in the early 1980s. This exercise continues from a university base and the fourth report in the series, entitled Tracking Social Change in New Zealand was published in early 1998. Examples are presented to show how the results can be used to highlight the policy implications of changing social trends.     

A general inversion theorem for cointegration

A generalization of the Granger and the Johansen Representation Theorems valid for any (possibly fractional) order of integration is presented. This Representation Theorem is based on inversion results that characterize the order of the pole and the coefficients of the Laurent series representation of the inverse of a matrix function around a singular point. Explicit expressions of the matrix coefficients of the (polynomial) cointegrating relations, of the Common Trends and of the Triangular representations are provided, either starting from the Moving Average or the Auto Regressive form. This contribution unifies different approaches in the literature and extends them to an arbitrary order of integration. The role of deterministic terms is discussed in detail.