Risk Analysis: Celebrating the Accomplishments and Embracing Ongoing Challenges

As part of the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Society for Risk Analysis and Risk Analysis: An International Journal, this essay reviews the 10 most important accomplishments of risk analysis from 1980 to 2010, outlines major accomplishments in three major categories from 2011 to 2019, discusses how editors circulate authors’ accomplishments, and proposes 10 major risk-related challenges for 2020–2030. Authors conclude that the next decade will severely test the field of risk analysis.     

市场经济下政府与市场的关系

在市场经济中，市场必须在资源配置中发挥基础性或决定性的作用，但政府在市场失灵的地方又必须积极地发挥作用。本文分别从早期市场经济中政府的作用、现代市场经济中政府的作用等五个方面对这一问题进行论述。     

The value of being precise

This study investigates how individuals assess imprecise information. We focus on two essential dimensions of decision under uncertainty, outcomes and probabilities, and their respective precision. We believe the precision of information is highly relevant in the investment setting, as reflected in the well-known “home (familiarity) bias”, and the outcome and probability dimensions, separately or jointly, may affect investors’ knowledge of uncertainty and perceived risk of the investment options, and subsequently affect investors’ choices. To test this conjecture, we conducted three experiments. Our results show that 1) participants demonstrate a pattern of preference for precision and aversion of extreme vagueness and associate vagueness with higher perceived risk and lower investment (experiments one and two); 2) participants prefer vague outcome information to vague probability information (experiment two); 3) familiarity indeed positively affects the precision of estimated values, but this association is stronger for the outcome dimension than for probabilities (experiment three). Our results confirm that precision in information, especially in the outcome dimension has an impact on investors’ resource allocation choices.     

How do countries choose their monetary policy frameworks?

This paper investigates the determinants of countries’ choices of monetary policy framework. A brief narrative focused on groupings of countries motivates an econometric analysis which draws on previous work on the determinants of exchange rate regimes, bringing in standard factors as well as the trade networks of potential anchor currency blocs and the financial market depth that are emphasised in the narrative. The model turns out to be able to predict three quarters of countries’ choices, and there is no obvious systematic pattern in the errors. The results have important implications for how countries should choose their monetary policy frameworks.     

The context of employment discrimination: interpreting the findings of a field experiment

Although field experiments have documented the contemporary relevance of discrimination in employment, theories developed to explain the dynamics of differential treatment cannot account for differences across organizational and institutional contexts. In this article, I address this shortcoming by presenting the main empirical findings from a multi‐method research project, in which a field experiment of ethnic discrimination in the Norwegian labour market was complemented with forty‐two in‐depth interviews with employers who were observed in the first stage of the study. While the experimental data support earlier findings in documenting that ethnic discrimination indeed takes place, the qualitative material suggests that theorizing in the field experiment literature have been too concerned with individual and intra‐psychic explanations. Discriminatory outcomes in employment processes seems to be more dependent on contextual factors such as the number of applications received, whether requirements are specified, and the degree to which recruitment procedures are formalized. I argue that different contexts of employment provide different opportunity structures for discrimination, a finding with important theoretical and methodological implications.     

How does distance affect market entry mode choice? Evidence from French companies

The objective of this article is to examine the relevant dimensions of distance for foreign market entry mode choice. Based on a sample of 203 interfirm linkages formed by French multinationals with partners across the world, we analyze the impact of four dimensions of distance on the choice between cooperative alliances and mergers-acquisitions. The findings indicate that administrative and economic distance have a significant influence on market entry mode choice, whereas the impact of cultural and geographic distance is not significant. They further highlight the important role of the host country's government effectiveness for market entry mode decisions.     

市场分割、政企关系与异地市场拓展

中国的市场仍旧存在某种程度的分割，如何突破这种市场分割到异地拓展市场是企业要考虑的现实问题。以前的研究主要是从省级层面或国家层面进行宏观分析。文章创新地从政企关系视角入手来考察市场分割情形下微观层面的企业异地市场拓展，也是首先把市场分割（和异地市场）分为省内（本市外）市场、省外市场和海外市场三个不同层面来研究的论文。用世界银行的调查数据从微观企业个体层面检验了企业异地市场拓展的可能。实证研究结果发现，市场分割确实阻碍了企业异地市场拓展，但这仅限于省内市场而不是省外市场。此外，市场分割是有方向性的，从地方保护主义严重的市场里走出来的企业更容易拓展异地市场，但此结论仅适用于国内市场拓展而不适用于海外市场拓展。良好的政企关系是有利于企业异地市场拓展的，但仅限于省外市场，对省内市场以及海外市场是无效的。文章解释了其中的原因，并分析了对于企业实践的启示。     

经济全球化与证券市场监管研究

证券市场开放是一国融入全球化世界经济体系的必然结果,通过分析WTO条件下对成员国证券市场开放的基本要求,指出了入世后证券市场监管将面临的严峻挑战,并提出了一些今后证券市场监管的新思路。     

对开拓中医药成人高等教育潜在市场的思考

我国的成人高等教育 ,在实现从计划经济到市场经济转变后 ,出现了前所未有的竞争场面。作为行业性很强的中医药成人高等教育 ,要想生存和进一步发展 ,必须在积极参加市场竞争的同时 ,根据自身的优势和特点 ,从社会发展的高度 ,大力开拓潜在市场 ,努力寻找中医药成人高等教育的发展空间     

近代中国农业现代化滞后原因初探

在近现代经济结构的现代化转型过程中 ,农业较之工业显得缓慢和滞后。这其中固然有中国固有的农业基础薄弱、战争破坏以及世界经济危机等多种因素的影响 ,但本文力求抛开这些表面上的因素 ,试从政府决策、市场结构、农业传统文化这三方面对近代中国农业现代化滞后原因加以探求。