Peter Schmidt: Econometrician and consummate professional

Peter Schmidt has been one of its best-known and most respected econometricians in the profession for four decades. He has brought his talents to many scholarly outlets and societies, and has played a foundational and constructive role in the development of the field of econometrics. Peter Schmidt has also served and led the development of Econometric Reviews since its inception in 1982. His judgment has always been fair, informed, clear, decisive, and constructive. Respect for ideas and scholarship of others, young and old, is second nature to him. This is the best of traits, and Peter serves as an uncommon example to us all. The seventeen articles that make up this Econometric Reviews Special Issue in Honor of Peter Schmidt represent the work of fifty of the very best econometricians in our profession. They honor Professor Schmidt's lifelong accomplishments by providing fundamental research work that reflects many of the broad research themes that have distinguished his long and productive career. These include time series econometrics, panel data econometrics, and stochastic frontier production analysis.     

On the Flexibility of Metropolis–Hastings Acceptance Probabilities in Auxiliary Variable Proposal Generation

Abstract. Use of auxiliary variables for generating proposal variables within a Metropolis–Hastings setting has been suggested in many different settings. This has in particular been of interest for simulation from complex distributions such as multimodal distributions or in transdimensional approaches. For many of these approaches, the acceptance probabilities that are used turn up somewhat magic and different proofs for their validity have been given in each case. In this article, we will present a general framework for construction of acceptance probabilities in auxiliary variable proposal generation. In addition to showing the similarities between many of the proposed algorithms in the literature, the framework also demonstrates that there is a great flexibility in how to construct acceptance probabilities. With this flexibility, alternative acceptance probabilities are suggested. Some numerical experiments are also reported.     

留守经历对新生代农民工工作流动的影响--基于2015年北京市数据的实证检验

本文基于2015年北京市新生代农民工的微观调查数据，在利用倾向得分倒数加权法纠正样本的选择性偏差以后发现：（1）新生代农民工过高的工作流动频率在一定程度上与其普遍的留守经历有关；（2）不同类型的留守形式和留守时间对工作流动的影响有所不同，完全留守、长期留守者表现出更高的工作流动性；（3）相同的留守行为对工作流动的影响存在明显的性别差异，男性农民工更易受到童年时期留守经历的影响。上述结论的政策启示在于：在关注留守经历及其所带来的影响差异的同时，也应避免留守问题的代际传承。     

Combining forecasts of electricity consumption in China with time-varying weights updated by a high-order Markov chain model

Electricity consumption forecasting has been always playing a vital role in power system management and planning. Inaccurate prediction may cause wastes of scarce energy resource or electricity shortages. However, forecasting electricity consumption has proven to be a challenging task due to various unstable factors. Especially, China is undergoing a period of economic transition, which highlights this difficulty. This paper proposes a time-varying-weight combining method, i.e. High-order Markov chain based Time-varying Weighted Average (HM-TWA) method to predict the monthly electricity consumption in China. HM-TWA first calculates the in-sample time-varying combining weights by quadratic programming for the individual forecasts. Then it predicts the out-of-sample time-varying adaptive weights through extrapolating these in-sample weights using a high-order Markov chain model. Finally, the combined forecasts can be obtained. In addition, to ensure that the sample data have the same properties as the required forecasts, a reasonable multi-step-ahead forecasting scheme is designed for HM-TWA. The out-of-sample forecasting performance evaluation shows that HM-TWA outperforms the component models and traditional combining methods, and its effectiveness is further verified by comparing it with some other existing models.     

无时间性的真无限：黑格尔哲学初期的一个关键问题

1803年前，黑格尔对时间问题缺乏关注。相形之下，在1807年《精神现象学》中，他已将时间看作哲学的重要主题。为什么黑格尔从1795到1802年曾对时间问题无动于衷。在1795年左右，黑格尔主要关注爱的无限性问题。在其法兰克福时期和耶拿初期，他虽然看到了时间性的客观世界的地位，但却并未对此加以强调，而只是强调了主体性的爱与客体性的世界的统一的绝对自身。1802年，通过研究雅各比和康德关于时间问题的争论，黑格尔刻意歪曲了雅各比哲学中的时间问题的重要性，以自己的方式，将时间性的有限存在者问题与物自身问题连接进行考察，从而以一种哲学性的真无限问题策略性地取代了时间问题。这一策略运用与黑格尔原初性的哲学体系理解直接相关，由此，黑格尔将雅各比哲学与康德哲学一并归类为反思性哲学，并对之加以“超越”。     

A Bayesian approach to non-parametric monotone function estimation

Summary.  The paper proposes two Bayesian approaches to non-parametric monotone function estimation. The first approach uses a hierarchical Bayes framework and a characterization of smooth monotone functions given by Ramsay that allows unconstrained estimation. The second approach uses a Bayesian regression spline model of Smith and Kohn with a mixture distribution of constrained normal distributions as the prior for the regression coefficients to ensure the monotonicity of the resulting function estimate. The small sample properties of the two function estimators across a range of functions are provided via simulation and compared with existing methods. Asymptotic results are also given that show that Bayesian methods provide consistent function estimators for a large class of smooth functions. An example is provided involving economic demand functions that illustrates the application of the constrained regression spline estimator in the context of a multiple-regression model where two functions are constrained to be monotone.     

Stochastic Bounds with a Low Rank Decomposition

We investigate how we can bound a discrete time Markov chain (DTMC) by a stochastic matrix with a low rank decomposition. In the first part of the article, we show the links with previous results for matrices with a decomposition of size 1 or 2. Then we show how the complexity of the analysis for steady-state and transient distributions can be simplified when we take into account the decomposition. Finally, we show how we can obtain a monotone stochastic upper bound with a low rank decomposition.     

民国时期北京商业整体布局与三类商业街区

民国时期北京古都商业街以大型商业街、常规商业街、专业商业街的形态存在，具有强烈的时代印记。商业街的结构因百货业态的出现而向完善方向迈进。以个人技艺为动力的民族商业给商业街增添了活力，外国政治势力破坏了传统的商业街繁荣气氛。     

The Past in the Present. Lessons on Semiotics of History from George H. Mead and Boris A. Uspensky

This article examines the parallels between George H. Mead's theory of time and Boris A. Uspensky's semiotics of history, looking for implications relevant to the symbolic interactionist theory of historical processes. It suggests that Mead's theory of time and theory of communication hold important implications for semiotic analysis of the historical dimension of sociocultural phenomena. A further aim is to link the symbolic interactionist tradition of the Chicago school with the Tartu school and its semiotics of history. This would fuel the further development of both theoretical orientations.     

Pooled Cross-Sectional and Time Series Data: A Survey of Current Statistical Methodology

A data base that provides a multivariate statistical history for each of a number of individual entities is called a pooled cross-sectional and time series data base in the econometrics literature. In marketing and survey literature the terms panel data or longitudinal data are often used. In management science a convenient term might be management data base. Such a data base provides a particularly rich environment for statistical analysis. This article reviews methods for estimating multivariate relationships particular to each individual entity and for summarizing these relationships for a number of individuals. Inference to a larger population when the data base is viewed as a sample is also considered.