20 years of Bologna - a story of success,a story of failure

The Bologna Process is a unique harmonisation process taking place outside the policy-making framework of the European Union. It aims at enhancing the comparability and compatibility of higher education structures and degrees across Europe, as well as to institutionalise quality assurance mechanisms. The aim of this article is to provide a condensed, up-to-date overview of the Bologna Process with regard to structural characteristics, before embedding it into a discussion on processes on voluntary policy convergence and to which extent we should be able to find this kind of policy harmonisation in the realm of the Bologna Process. Related to this are questions why this, in principle, completely voluntary process of policy harmonisation, has appealed to so many countries and why they might or might not feel committed to the implementation of its policies and tools.     

On An Intriguing Distributional Identity

For a continuous random variable X with support equal to (a, b), with c.d.f. F, and g: Ω₁ → Ω₂ a continuous, strictly increasing function, such that Ω₁∩Ω₂?(a, b), but otherwise arbitrary, we establish that the random variables F(X) ? F(g(X)) and F(g^{? 1}(X)) ? F(X) have the same distribution. Further developments, accompanied by illustrations and observations, address as well the equidistribution identity U ? ψ(U) = ^dψ^{? 1}(U) ? U for U ～ U(0, 1), where ψ is a continuous, strictly increasing and onto function, but otherwise arbitrary. Finally, we expand on applications with connections to variance reduction techniques, the discrepancy between distributions, and a risk identity in predictive density estimation.     

A Semiparametric Regression Model for Longitudinal Data with Non‐stationary Errors

Motivated by the need to analyze the National Longitudinal Surveys data, we propose a new semiparametric longitudinal mean‐covariance model in which the effects on dependent variable of some explanatory variables are linear and others are non‐linear, while the within‐subject correlations are modelled by a non‐stationary autoregressive error structure. We develop an estimation machinery based on least squares technique by approximating non‐parametric functions via B‐spline expansions and establish the asymptotic normality of parametric estimators as well as the rate of convergence for the non‐parametric estimators. We further advocate a new model selection strategy in the varying‐coefficient model framework, for distinguishing whether a component is significant and subsequently whether it is linear or non‐linear. Besides, the proposed method can also be employed for identifying the true order of lagged terms consistently. Monte Carlo studies are conducted to examine the finite sample performance of our approach, and an application of real data is also illustrated.     

The Environmental Risks of Incomplete Globalisation

As the liberal optimism of the long 1990s has faded into a world of growing inequality and resurging nationalism, there is less certainty about the prospects of economic convergence and global integration. Beyond the formidable human cost of maintaining a divided world, the possibility of incomplete globalisation also gives rise to a number of environmental risks. While environmental political theory generally sees strength in localism, history rather shows that a robust world trade system is crucial to offset local resource scarcities and that cosmopolitan norms of solidarity are essential for helping communities to rebuild after environmental catastrophe. In relation to climate change, statist thinking has led to a focus on non-scalable technologies and a silent acceptance of chronic poverty abroad as a way of avoiding a climate emergency. Contrary to such views, this paper argues that accelerating the transition to a fully integrated high-energy planet may more effectively mitigate Anthropocene risks.     

Moments of suprema of random variables

The supremum of random variables representing a sequence of rewards is of interest in establishing the existence of optimal stopping rules. Necessary and sufficient conditions are given for existence of moments of sup_n(X_n ? c_n) and sup_n(S_n ? c_n) where X₁, X₂, … are i.i.d. random variables, S_n = X₁ + … + X_n, and c_n = (nL(n))^1/r, 0 < r < 2, L = 1, L = log, and L = log log. Following Cohn (1974), “rates of convergence” results are used in the proof.     

中国粮食生产潜能分析：一个基于“俱乐部 收敛”的视点

我国的粮食单产存在显著的地区差异,不同地区粮食单产的收敛分析有助于预测粮食生产潜能。对1980年至2012年全国30个省区市稻谷、玉米、小麦三种主粮单产数据的收敛分析发现,传统收敛β收敛与σ收敛的分析结果相互冲突,并且与现实不符。而俱乐部收敛分析发现,稻谷单产全国范围内趋于收敛;玉米单产同样在全国范围内收敛;但小麦单产则不存在总体收敛趋势,而是收敛于三个不同的俱乐部。进一步以“俱乐部”内最高单产为参照测算三种主粮历年的生产潜能,预测结果显示,实际产量与潜在产量的差距在不断缩小;三种主粮在2012年的潜在总产量为6.6万亿吨,仍比实际产量高26%;初步估计,未来10—20年之内,三种主粮的增产潜能会保持在10%以上。     

新工业革命下物联网与产业融合关系研究

在新工业革命的大趋势下,互联网与物联网的发展促生了新的产业融合方式,并加快了产业融合的速度与进程。分析物联网与产业融合的发展现状、二者关系以及物联网对产业融合五种形式的促进作用,并从物联网的感知层、网络层和应用层入手,研究产业融合对物联网发展的推动效果,提出运用物联网促进产业融合发展的对策建议。     

An Empirical Process View of Inverse Regression

A common approach taken in high‐dimensional regression analysis is sliced inverse regression, which separates the range of the response variable into non‐overlapping regions, called ‘slices’. Asymptotic results are usually shown assuming that the slices are fixed, while in practice, estimators are computed with random slices containing the same number of observations. Based on empirical process theory, we present a unified theoretical framework to study these techniques, and revisit popular inverse regression estimators. Furthermore, we introduce a bootstrap methodology that reproduces the laws of Cramér–von Mises test statistics of interest to model dimension, effects of specified covariates and whether or not a sliced inverse regression estimator is appropriate. Finally, we investigate the accuracy of different bootstrap procedures by means of simulations.