日本电力自由化的现状与展望

上世纪90年代以来,日本电力产业实施了大幅度地自由化改革.于1995年引入了批发电力的竞标制度,并于2000年在零售业开始对大用户实施了自由化.自由化改革既给产业发展带来了好处,也存在着弊端.如消费者可以自由选择电力公司等,但是其反面则是担心对稳定供给的损害.更为重要的是,作为网络服务的电力行业,发电、输电和配电在物理上是不可分离的,法理上的分离遇到了资本私有原理与共用设备之间存在的矛盾.而且,对经营者交叉进入具有不同性质的产业的经营行为,缺乏有效的法律规制.自由化改革暴露出来的弊端,需要决策者们更审慎地思考.     

Recurrence formula on the joint distribution of sample skewness and kurtosis under normality

Abstract

Two recurrence relations with respect to sample size are given concerning the joint distribution of skewness and kurtosis of random observations from a normal population: one between the probability density functions and the other between the product moments. As a consequence, the latter yields a recurrence formula for the moments of sample kurtosis. The exact moments of Jarque-Bera statistic is also given.     

On the level probabilities for useful partially ordered alternatives in the analysis of variance

In the analysis of variance, we often encounter situations in which we want to test the null hypothesis of homogeneity of the normal means against various partially ordered alternative hypotheses. We study likelihood ratio tests for three useful types of alternatives: d-star, bipartite and broom tree. Especially, we give computational formulas for the level probabilities of the alternative types. The results permit us to obtain critical values for practical use.     

Two-Step Estimation of Incomplete Information Social Interaction Models With Sample Selection

ABSTRACT

This article considers linear social interaction models under incomplete information that allow for missing outcome data due to sample selection. For model estimation, assuming that each individual forms his/her belief about the other members’ outcomes based on rational expectations, we propose a two-step series nonlinear least squares estimator. Both the consistency and asymptotic normality of the estimator are established. As an empirical illustration, we apply the proposed model and method to National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) data to examine the impacts of friendship interactions on adolescents’ academic achievements. We provide empirical evidence that the interaction effects are important determinants of grade point average and that controlling for sample selection bias has certain impacts on the estimation results. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.     

What Determines the Size of the Nonprofit Sector?: A Cross-Country Analysis of the Government Failure Theory

This article is an empirical examination of the government failure theory using a cross-country data set. The government failure theory is represented in the major existing literature as providing a sound explanatory basis for an interesting characteristic of the nonprofit sector, that is, there is a large variability in nonprofit sector size from one place to another. Salamon et al. (Social origins of civil society: An overview, Working Papers of the Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project, 2000) examined this theory using the Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project (CNP) data set, and consequently rejected the government failure theory. However, by applying the panel analysis approach to the CNP data set, this article shows that the government failure theory should not have been so easily rejected.     

新农村建设中少数民族地方行政组织的改革及其问题

进行社会主义新农村建设,应注意农村综合改革中地方行政组织的改革,而在少数民族地区进行地方行政组织的改革更是一个艰巨任务。在采取社会学的文献调查、实地调查和向地方政府问卷调查等方法基础上,在阐明中国农村行政体制改革的内容及其存在问题的同时,着重分析内蒙古少数民族农村牧区基层行政组织改革的目标和任务。     

Episodic Volunteering in Sport Events: A Seven-Country Analysis

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Given its ubiquitous nature, sport events are one of the most popular venues for episodic volunteering around the world....     

Semiparametric Spatial Autoregressive Models With Endogenous Regressors: With an Application to Crime Data

This study considers semiparametric spatial autoregressive models that allow for endogenous regressors, as well as the heterogenous effects of these regressors across spatial units. For the model estimation, we propose a semiparametric series generalized method of moments estimator. We establish that the proposed estimator is both consistent and asymptotically normal. As an empirical illustration, we apply the proposed model and method to Tokyo crime data to estimate how the existence of a neighborhood police substation (NPS) affects the household burglary rate. The results indicate that the presence of an NPS helps reduce household burglaries, and that the effects of some variables are heterogenous with respect to residential distribution patterns. Furthermore, we show that using a model that does not adjust for the endogeneity of NPS does not allow us to observe the significant relationship between NPS and the household burglary rate. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.     

Students’ Vocational Choices and Voluntary Action: A 12-Nation Study

Previous research on student involvement suggested that business and engineering students manifest lowest rates of voluntary action. Similarly, it was thought that social science students are the most involved in voluntary action, with students of natural sciences and humanities in the middle. However, there were very few studies that empirically compared these assertions. Furthermore, these assertions were not investigated from cross-cultural perspectives. Based on a study of students in 12 countries (N = 6,570), we found that even when controlling for background variables, social science students are actually less engaged in voluntary action than other students. Engineering students are higher than expected on voluntary action while students of humanities are the most involved in voluntary action. When studying these differences in the 12 selected countries, local cultures and norms form different sets of findings that suggest that there is no universal trend in choice of academic field and voluntary action.     

What's Driving Brazil‐Japan Migration? The Making and Remaking of the Brazilian Niche in Japan

Abstract: Since the late 1980s the Brazilian population in Japan has steadily increased, despite the long‐term recession in the late 1990s. In this paper we will examine the mechanism of the constant increase of Brazilians in Japan, focusing on the institutional context of their incorporation into the Japanese labor market. On the demand side, Brazilians solved an acute labor shortage in the economic boom period, but long‐term recession and casualization of the labor market made them compete with other peripheral workers such as Japanese women and the aged. Thus Brazilians have been marginalized within the secondary labor market since the late 1990s. On the supply side, recruiting agencies and labor contractors established a “just‐in‐time” labor delivery system, which enabled “flexible staffing” in a highly fluctuating labor market. As a result, demand and supply for Brazilian workers is still on the increase. Working in Japan is getting less attractive for Japanese Brazilians but is more of a viable option for them, driving further migration from Brazil to Japan.