Postal Savings for National Development—The Experience of Japan and Future Perspective in a Globalized World

Global economic forces have been prompting the institutional changes in the public sector based on the market-oriented principles and such changes greatly have affected the postal savings system in Japan. Postal savings system’s public roles were fundamentally changed because of current administrative reform undertakings. In this article, firstly the role of collecting savings from ordinary citizens for fiscal policies was reviewed and the assessment of this public role is conducted. Secondly, abolishment of Universal Service Obligation due to the privatization of the postal savings system and the possible occurrence of Financial Exclusion are analyzed.

Long‐Term Debt and Optimal Policy in the Fiscal Theory of the Price Level

The fiscal theory says that the price level is determined by the ratio of nominal debt to the present value of real primary surpluses. I analyze long‐term debt and optimal policy in the fiscal theory. I find that the maturity structure of the debt matters. For example, it determines whether news of future deficits implies current inflation or future inflation. When long‐term debt is present, the government can trade current inflation for future inflation by debt operations; this tradeoff is not present if the government rolls over short‐term debt. The maturity structure of outstanding debt acts as a “budget constraint” determining which periods' price levels the government can affect by debt variation alone. In addition, debt policy—the expected pattern of future state‐contingent debt sales, repurchases and redemptions—matters crucially for the effects of a debt operation. I solve for optimal debt policies to minimize the variance of inflation. I find cases in which long‐term debt helps to stabilize inflation. I also find that the optimal policy produces time series that are similar to U.S. surplus and debt time series. To understand the data, I must assume that debt policy offsets the inflationary impact of cyclical surplus shocks, rather than causing price level disturbances by policy‐induced shocks. Shifting the objective from price level variance to inflation variance, the optimal policy produces much less volatile inflation at the cost of a unit root in the price level; this is consistent with the stabilization of U.S. inflation after the gold standard was abandoned.     

股价信息含量与资本投资效率——基于投资现金流敏感度的视角

本文以2001-2008年在沪深证券交易所上市的制造业公司为研究样本,基于投资现金流敏感度的视角研究了股价信息含量与资本投资效率之间的关系,得到以下研究结论 :富含信息的股价有效降低了资本投资对现金流的敏感程度。进一步研究后发现,富含信息的股价不仅能够有效降低融资约束导致的投资现金流敏感度,而且也能够有效降低代理冲突导致的投资现金流敏感度问题,以上结论在添加了诸多影响资本投资的控制变量及稳健性检验后仍然成立。本文的研究从一个全新的视角证明,富含信息的股价通过缓和融资约束和代理冲突问题,有效地改善了企业的资本投资效率。     

Super-efficiency based on a modified directional distance function

The problem of infeasibility arises in conventional radial super-efficiency data envelopment analysis (DEA) models under variable returns to scale (VRS). To tackle this issue, a Nerlove–Luenberger (N–L) measure of super-efficiency is developed based on a directional distance function. Although this N–L super-efficiency model does not suffer infeasibility problem as in the conventional radial super-efficiency DEA models, it can produce an infeasible solution in two special situations. The current paper proposes to modify the directional distance function by selecting proper feasible reference bundles so that the resulting N–L measure of super-efficiency is always feasible. As a result, our modified VRS super-efficiency model successfully addresses the infeasibility issues occurring either in conventional VRS models or the N–L super-efficiency model. Numerical examples are used to demonstrate our approach and compare results obtained from various super-efficiency measures.     

A slacks-based measure of super-efficiency in data envelopment analysis: An alternative approach

The current paper proposes a slack-based version of the Super SBM, which is an alternative super-efficiency model for the SBM proposed by Tone. Our two-stage approach provides the same super-efficiency score as that obtained by the Super SBM model when the evaluated DMU is efficient and yields the same efficiency score as that obtained by the SBM model when the evaluated DMU is inefficient. The projection identified by the Super SBM model may not be strongly Pareto efficient; however, the projection identified from our approach is strongly Pareto efficient.     

我国商业银行效率评价及实证分析

内容提要：本文运用数据包络法对我国十二家主要商业银行04—06年的效率状况进行了定量考察,并在此基础上探讨了我国国有商业银行效率低下的原因,提出了提高我国银行业效率的途径。     

十五”期间中国各地区农村资金配置效率比较

文章运用数据包络分析法,实证了我国“十五”期间农村资金配置效率及影响因素。结果发现：“十五”期间我国农村资金配置效率呈现平稳态势,但各地区存在明显差异;西部地区农村资金配置效率显著低于东部和中部地区,中西部地区农村资金配置的规模效益则明显低于东部地区。依此状况,中西部地区、尤其是西部地区农村发展将面临资金投入不足与配置效率低下的双重约束。对此,文章从增加农村资金供给和提高农村资金配置效率双重层面针对性地提出了政策建议,以期中西部地区新农村建设可资借鉴。     

中国能源消费静态依赖与动态发展——基于30个省市数据综列协整分析

本文以我国30个省市为横截单元、以1995-2005年时序数据组成综列数据,建立我国省市能源消费的综列协整模型,通过综列单位根和综列协整检验,结果表明,我国各省市的能源消费与经济增长和能源效率之间存在长期均衡。基于这一结论,揭示各省市能源消费静态依赖与动态发展特征,并给出政策建议。     

On the construction of a class of efficient row-column designs

In this paper a method for the construction of a class of row-column designs with good statistical properties and high efficiency is presented. The class of designs produced is shown to exhibit balance, orthogonality and adjusted orthogonality. The efficiencies of these designs are investigated in detail, and they are shown to be very high, and possibly maximal in some cases.     

户籍制度改革的成本与收益估算：基于广东省的数据

户籍制度改革是中国当前的一项重大议题,制度改革的财政成本和收益迫切需要得到准确的估算。从人口迁移和福利磁力的研究视角出发,本文聚焦于制度改革的社会救助福利成本与收益,在估算公式中纳人了区域福利水平差距、劳动者定居比率和福利迁移比率等数据指标进行估算。估算结果表明：现阶段制度改革的高昂财政负担和我国相对紧张的财政状况,使制度改革只能遵循渐进的方式进行,目前仍不具备立即推行全面改革的足够空间。