Gini’s nuclear family

The purpose of this paper is to justify the use of the Gini coefficient and two close relatives for summarizing the basic information of inequality in distributions of income. To this end we employ a specific transformation of the Lorenz curve, the scaled conditional mean curve, rather than the Lorenz curve as the basic formal representation of inequality in distributions of income. The scaled conditional mean curve is shown to possess several attractive properties as an alternative interpretation of the information content of the Lorenz curve and furthermore proves to yield essential information on polarization in the population. The paper also provides asymptotic distribution results for the empirical scaled conditional mean curve and the related family of empirical measures of inequality.      

Sampling Returns for Realized Variance Calculations: Tick Time or Transaction Time?

This article introduces a new model for transaction prices in the presence of market microstructure noise in order to study the properties of the price process on two different time scales, namely, transaction time where prices are sampled with every transaction and tick time where prices are sampled with every price change. Both sampling schemes have been used in the literature on realized variance, but a formal investigation into their properties has been lacking. Our empirical and theoretical results indicate that the return dynamics in transaction time are very different from those in tick time and the choice of sampling scheme can therefore have an important impact on the properties of realized variance. For RV we find that tick time sampling is superior to transaction time sampling in terms of mean-squared-error, especially when the level of noise, number of ticks, or the arrival frequency of efficient price moves is low. Importantly, we show that while the microstructure noise may appear close to IID in transaction time, in tick time it is highly dependent. As a result, bias correction procedures that rely on the noise being independent, can fail in tick time and are better implemented in transaction time.     

时间如何前进——进化论随笔

中国古代"与时偕行"、"与时俱化"的观念,以取法天地四时的运行为基准,是一种四时循环论的变化观.我党提出的"与时俱进"思想的含义,是随着时代的前进而前进,和随着时代的变化而变化,体现了鲜明的时代创新精神,它的哲学基础是科学进化论.这一特征在语词上通过一个"进"字表达出来.虽然"与时俱进"和"与时俱化"只有一字之差,却体现了本质的超越.同时,这一表述通过对中国古代<易经>、<庄子>等经典的吸收,丰富了自身的思想内涵,也建立,了联接传统与现代的一道桥梁.当然,由于现代时间观念的一维性质,使得人们在批驳"直线进化论"的同时,易于陷入"时间进化论",而时间进化论实际上也是一种直线进化论,这也是需要警醒的.     

Bayesian analysis of elapsed times in continuous‐time Markov chains

The authors consider Bayesian analysis for continuous‐time Markov chain models based on a conditional reference prior. For such models, inference of the elapsed time between chain observations depends heavily on the rate of decay of the prior as the elapsed time increases. Moreover, improper priors on the elapsed time may lead to improper posterior distributions. In addition, an infinitesimal rate matrix also characterizes this class of models. Experts often have good prior knowledge about the parameters of this matrix. The authors show that the use of a proper prior for the rate matrix parameters together with the conditional reference prior for the elapsed time yields a proper posterior distribution. The authors also demonstrate that, when compared to analyses based on priors previously proposed in the literature, a Bayesian analysis on the elapsed time based on the conditional reference prior possesses better frequentist properties. The type of prior thus represents a better default prior choice for estimation software.     

建筑与城市设计中的时间观

时间与形式、功能、空间四要素完备才能组成一个完整的建筑 ,运用时间设计的概念 ,分析和解决当今建筑界和城市规划出现的问题是现实的需要     

BATHTUB-TYPE CURVES IN RELIABILITY AND BEYOND

Finding optimal, or at least good, maintenance and repair policies is crucial in reliability engineering. Likewise, describing life phases of human mortality is important when determining social policy or insurance premiums. In these tasks, one searches for distributions to fit data and then makes inferences about the population(s). In the present paper, we focus on bathtub‐type distributions and provide a view of certain problems, methods and solutions, and a few challenges, that can be encountered in reliability engineering, survival analysis, demography and actuarial science.     

An alternative to model selection in ordinary regression

The weaknesses of established model selection procedures based on hypothesis testing and similar criteria are discussed and an alternative based on synthetic (composite) estimation is proposed. It is developed for the problem of prediction in ordinary regression and its properties are explored by simulations for the simple regression. Extensions to a general setting are described and an example with multiple regression is analysed. Arguments are presented against using a selected model for any inferences.     

马克思主义与时俱进的哲学思考

马克思主义具有与时俱进的理论品质。马克思主义哲学是这个理论品质的理论基础。实践与理论的矛盾运动、对真理的探求、以及创造崭新的马克思主义话语体系,都要求马克思主义与时俱进。     

Economic Determinants of Net International Migration in Western Europe

This paper aims to estimate theinfluence of economic determinants on netinternational migration in Western Europe inthe period 1960–1998. Net migration rates(i.e., population growth minus natural increase,divided by the midyear population) constitutethe dependent variable. The economicdeterminants used in this study are GDP percapita, unemployment, and average educationallevel (amount of human capital) of thepopulation. Time series regression models havebeen used in country-specific analyses. Inaddition, a pooled cross-sectional time seriesanalysis has been made. The analyses suggestthat GDP per capita has a positive effect andunemployment a negative effect on a country'snet international migration.     

论宪政生存的经济条件

自然经济和计划经济不可能产生宪政。市场经济是宪政产生和发展的前提和基础。市场经济产生权利观念、权利意识,促进政治法治化、民主化,要求限制政府权力,保护公民权利,产生宪法观念和宪法,培育宪政生存的社会基础———市民社会。