基于FDI收益分成视角的FTA网络演化

本文假定双边自由贸易协定(bilateral free trade agreement,简称FTA)包含着无限制对外直接投资(foreign direct investment,简称FDI),并且通过FDI销售到非FTA伙伴国的收益按照一定比例在母国和东道国之间进行分配。基于Goyal和Joshi^[1],本文构建了FTA网络形成博弈模型。本文发现,FTA网络演化过程分为两个阶段:第一阶段,从空FTA网络到星状FTA网络,存在一条路径使得个体国家福利、世界总福利均改善,在此过程中,国家福利存在不对称性;第二阶段,从星状FTA网络到全连接FTA网络,存在一条路径使得个体国家福利改善,在此过程中,世界总福利不变,国家福利不对称性逐步消除。     

包含双边投资规范的自由贸易协定网络

当今国际经济趋势表明,包含投资规范的双边自由贸易协定(bilateral FTAs)受到了越来越多国家的欢迎。通过假定双边自由贸易协定包含着无限制对外直接投资规范,基于Goyal和Joshi(2006)^[1],本文构建了相应FTA网络形成博弈模型。本文发现:(1)星状FTA网络是两两稳定的;(2)从空FTA网络到星状FTA网络存在一条个体国家福利和世界福利都严格改善的路径。     

Measuring income inequalities beyond the Gini coefficient

Growing interest in the analysis of interrelationships between income distribution and economic growth has recently stimulated new theoretical and empirical research. Measures such as the head-count ratio for the poverty index or the widely used Gini coefficient are aggregated indicators describing the general extent of inequality without deeper insights into income distribution among households. To derive an indicator accounting for income distribution among income groups, we propose a new approach based on an output oriented DEA model where the input value is unitized to 1 for each country and weights restrictions imposed so as to favour a higher income share in the lower quantiles. We demonstrate the merits of this approach on the quintile income breakdown data of 29 European countries. Prioritizing lower income groups’ welfare, countries such as Slovenia and Slovakia can be equally favoured by the new proposed indicator while being assessed differently by the Gini index. An intertemporal analysis reveals a slight deterioration of income distribution in the majority of 29 European countries over the period of 2007–2016 in a Rawlsian sense.

     

Economic freedom ranking of 161 countries in year 2000: a minimum disagreement approach

Since 1995, the Heritage Foundation has published the economic freedom index for countries throughout the world. The fundamental challenge is how to objectively measure economic freedom so that the index can be fair, credible and has the least disagreements among all countries. In this paper, we propose a new approach to construct economic freedom ranking which minimizes disagreements among countries. The mathematical model consists of two stages: (1) calculate the set of weights for each country which would give each country the best ranking, and (2) aggregation of ranks from all countries to minimize their disagreements. We apply the model to the data set of year 2000 on Economic Freedom from the Heritage Foundation, and find that the minimum disagreements from the proposed ranking improves by 9%.     

Introducing competition in healthcare services: The role of private care and increased patient mobility

We study the operational implications from competition in the provision of healthcare services, in the context of national public healthcare systems in Europe. Specifically, we study the potential impact of two alternative ways through which policy makers have introduced such competition: (i) via the introduction of private hospitals to operate alongside public hospitals and (ii) via the introduction of increased patient choice to grant European patients the freedom to choose the country they receive treatment at. We use a game-theoretic framework with a queueing component to capture the interactions among the patients, the hospitals and the healthcare funders. Specifically, we analyze two different sequential games and obtain closed form expressions for the patients’ waiting time and the funders’ reimbursement cost in equilibrium. We show that the presence of a private provider can be beneficial to the public system: the patients’ waiting time will decrease and the funders’ cost can decrease under certain conditions. Also, we show that the cross-border healthcare policy, which increases patient mobility, can also be beneficial to the public systems: when welfare requirements across countries are sufficiently close, all funders can reduce their costs without increasing the patients’ waiting time. Our analysis implies that in border regions, where the cost of crossing the border is low, “outsourcing” the high-cost country’s elective care services to the low-cost country is a viable strategy from which both countries’ systems can benefit.     

Trading water along a river

A set of agents is located along a river. Each agent consumes certain amount of water he receives from his part of the river basin and may sell certain amount to his downstream agent if it is mutually beneficial. Water trading is restricted to two neighboring agents and an agent can only pass water to his downstream agent. We ask if this restricted trade to neighboring agents can implement an efficient allocation of water. We show that the efficient allocation of water can be achieved through the process of downstream bilateral trading. Specifically, we show that this one way “downstream” trading process implements the unique efficient allocation as well as a welfare distribution. We also show that the welfare distribution is in the core of the associated game of the problem. Moreover, we show that the coalition of agents upstream any agent obtains more welfare with the bilateral trading than with the downstream incremental distribution proposed by Ambec and Sprumont (2002) and less than with the upstream incremental distribution proposed by [Ambec and Ehlers, 2008a] and [Ambec and Ehlers, 2008b].     

Economics of collective monitoring: a study of environmentally constrained electricity generators

This paper investigates the costs of monitoring of a distributed multi-agent economic activity in the presence of constraints on the agents’ joint outputs. If the regulator monitors agents individually she calculates each agent’s optimal contribution to the constrains by solving a constrained welfare-maximisation problem. This will maximise welfare but may be expensive because monitoring cost rises with the number of agents. Alternatively, the regulator could monitor agents collectively, using a detector, or detectors, to observe if each constraint is jointly satisfied. This will ease implementation cost, but lower welfare. We define the welfare difference between each regime of monitoring for a fairly inclusive electricity generation model and formulate some predictions. The behaviour of two generators in a coupled-constrained, three-node case study reproduces these predictions. We find that the welfare loss from collective monitoring can be small if the constraints are tight. We also learn that, under either regime, the imposition of transmission and environmental restrictions may benefit the less efficient generator and shift surplus share towards the emitters, decreasing consumer surplus.     

扩大再生产条件下的国际价值、 贸易利益与经济增长

以马克思的社会资本再生产理论和国际价值理论为基础,通过阐述社会资本再生产过程中两部门的经济增长与基于国际不等价交换、国际价值与国别价值的比较而形成的国际贸易利益的关系,对国际贸易与经济增长问题进行了简要分析.在国际贸易过程中,基于国际不等价交换的贸易利益或损失会导致各国相关部门的经济增长发生变化,从国际不等价交换中获得较多国际贸易利润的国家及其相关部门,其经济增长率较高;反之,从国际不等价交换中遭受国际贸易利益损害的国家及其相关部门,其经济增长率下降.     

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND TRADE LIBERALIZATION: THE CASE OF TRANSBOUNDARY POLLUTION FROM CONSUMPTION

Abstract This paper develops a reciprocal market model of international duopoly with transboundary pollution from consumption to examine the effects of bilateral tariff reductions on the equilibrium pollution tax and welfare. I show that tariff reductions induce each country to raise an emission tax and that trade liberalization is welfare improving if the parameter of pollution damages is sufficiently large. These results are in contrast to the case of production‐generated pollution, and I seek the reason for this contrast.     

基于广义脉冲的东北三省外贸外资与经济增长研究

作为连接其他国家和地区的桥梁和纽带,对外经贸在国际经济关系中有着十分重要的地位。本研究选取对外经贸与经济增长代表性指标,以各指标平均增长率为切入点,通过构建相对增长指数模型,测算东北三省的外贸相对增长指数(TGI)和外资相对增长指数(CGI)并进行分类,结果显示三省外贸、外资增长类型截然不同。进一步,将历年外贸、外资增速与经济增速进行对比分析发现,外贸增速与经济增速具高度同步性,且始终扮演经济晴雨表的角色,外资增速则更具不确定性和偶然性。最后,广义脉冲响应分析显示外贸外资冲击经济增长均产生显著效应,但响应程度不尽相同,各指标贡献度通过方差分解呈现。本文为外贸外资与经济增长关系研究提供了新的视角。     

基于计量经济模型的煤炭消费与经济增长关系实证研究——以世界主要煤炭消费国为例

经济的发展和能源(包括煤炭)的利用有着密不可分的关系.运用国际上研究能源消费与经济增长之间关系的重要工具-协整分析、格兰杰因果关系检验对世界主要煤炭消费国家(中国、美国、印度、俄罗斯、日本和南非)1981-2005的煤炭消费与GDP之间因果关系及其内在规律进行了分析和研究.实证研究结果表明,这些国家能源消费结构、经济政策不同,煤炭消费同经济增长之间的因果关系也不完全一致,中国、日本和南非存在经济增长对煤炭消费的因果关系,俄罗斯存在煤炭消费对经济增长的因果关系,而印度煤炭消费和经济增长之间则不存在因果关系.据此各国根据自身能源国情及国际比较形势,制定科学的能源战略与政策.     

An uncooperative order model for items with trade credit,inventory-dependent demand and limited displayed-shelf space

This paper considers a two-echelon supply chain where a supplier sells a single product through a retailer, who faces an inventory-dependent demand. The supplier hopes to incentive the retailer to order more items by offering trade credit. The retailer places the ordered items on the display shelf (DS) with limited space and stocks the remaining items (if any) that exceed the shelf capacity in his/her backroom/warehouse (BW). From the supplier’s perspective, we focus mainly on under which conditions the supplier should offer trade credit and how he/she should design such trade credit policy and corresponding ordering policy to obtain much more benefits. From the retailer’s perspective, we discuss whether the retailer needs BW and exactly how many items need to be stocked in BW when the supplier offers trade credit. We formulate a “supplier-Stackelberg” game model, from which we obtain the conditions under which the presented simple trade credit policy not only increases the overall chain profit but also each member’s profit. We also show that the trade credit policy is always more beneficial to the retailer than to the supplier if it is offered.     

Optimal retailer’s replenishment decisions in the EPQ model under two levels of trade credit policy

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the optimal retailer’s replenishment decisions under two levels of trade credit policy within the economic production quantity (EPQ) framework. We assume that the supplier would offer the retailer a delay period and the retailer also adopts the trade credit policy to stimulate his/her customer demand to develop the retailer’s replenishment model under the replenishment rate is finite. Furthermore, we assume that the retailer’s trade credit period offered by supplier M is not shorter than the customer’s trade credit period offered by retailer N (M ? N). Since the retailer cannot earn any interest in this situation, M < N.     

中智自由贸易协定全面实施对双方经济影响研究:基于GTAP模型仿真

基于GTAP模型,结合Walmsley等递归动态法,就《中智自由贸易协定》全面实施对双方在贸易规模、贸易结构、双边贸易、GDP、生产格局和福利水平等方面产生的经济效应进行仿真.研究结果显示,双方贸易规模及产出水平明显扩大;国内资源分配格局有所改变,贸易结构处于较快的变动中;两国GDP有所增长,双边贸易显著增强,社会福利明显改善;中国贸易条件相对恶化,农产品所受负面冲击有限,高级化服务业发展迅速;智利制造业受益匪浅,产业结构趋于相对平衡;双方利益让渡不一致,福利所得分配不等,智利所受的经济影响要明显大于中国,而中国的动态比较利益会使其福利所得明显高于智利.     

中国-东盟贸易自由化博弈分析

在经济全球化和区域经济一体化的背景下,中国-东盟自由贸易区的全面启动将对世界经济格局产生深远的影响.但在实施自由化贸易的过程中,当事双方的共同利益和本位利益既有协同也有冲突.因此,尝试从博弈论的角度来分析中国-东盟贸易自由化的利益机制和推动贸易自由化的条件.通过对双方的利益博弈分析,指出贸易双方应该逐步看淡本位利益,为推动贸易自由化进程而应更多地考虑共同利益和长远利益;其次,双方在制定贸易政策和进行谈判时,虽然不能忽略本位利益,但只有通过满足他方的利益才能使本位利益得到实现;因此,满足贸易双方“利己”和“利他”的唯一均衡解就是同步实施关税减让.在整个博弈过程中,中国作为一个负责任的大国,可以通过首先放弃部分局部利益来换取东盟各国的信任,从而确立中国在贸易战略中的市场领导者地位.这正是确保区域贸易自由化实现的基本要件.     

Electricity market equilibrium under information asymmetry

We study a competitive electricity market equilibrium with two trading stages, day-ahead and real-time. The welfare of each market agent is exposed to uncertainty (here from renewable energy production), while agent information on the probability distribution of this uncertainty is not identical at the day-ahead stage. We show a high sensitivity of the equilibrium solution to the level of information asymmetry and demonstrate economic, operational, and computational value for the system stemming from potential information sharing.     

Is the predictability of emerging and developed stock markets really exploitable?

A number of recent papers have analyzed the degree of predictability of stock markets. In this paper, we firstly study whether this predictability is really exploitable and secondly, if the economic significance of predictability is higher or lower in the emerging stock markets than in the developed ones. We use a variety of linear and nonlinear – Artificial Neural Networks – models and perform a computationally demanding forecasting experiment to assess the predictability of returns. Since we are interested in comparing the predictability in economic terms we also propose a modification in the nets’ loss function for market trading purposes. In addition, we consider both explicit and implicit trading costs for emerging and developed stock markets. Our conclusions suggest that, in contrast to some previous studies, if we consider total trading costs both the emerging as well as the developed stock returns are clearly nonpredictable. Finally, we find that Artificial Neural Networks do not provide superior performance than the linear models.     

An automated planning engine for biopharmaceutical production

We introduce an optimization-based production planning tool for the biotechnology industry. The industry’s planning problem is unusually challenging because the entire production process is regulated by multiple external agencies – such as the US Food and Drug Administration – representing countries where the biopharmaceutical is to be sold. The model is structured to precisely capture the constraints imposed by current and projected regulatory approvals of processes and facilities, as well as capturing the outcomes of quality testing and processing options, facility capacities and initial status of work-in-process. The result is a supply chain “Planning Engine” that generates capacity-feasible batch processing schedules for each production facility within the biomanufacturing supply chain and an availability schedule for finished product against a known set of demands and regulations. Developing the formulation based on distinct time grids tailored for each facility, planning problems with more than 27,000 boolean variables, more than 130,000 linear variables and more than 80,000 constraints are automatically formulated and solved within a few hours. The Planning Engine’s development and implementation at Bayer Healthcare’s Berkeley, CA manufacturing site is described.     

Linear programming in the foreign exchange markets

This article demonstrates the use of a linear programming model to achieve an optimal allocation ot liquid funds among various currencies in different countries. The model takes into account interest rates, projected changes in currency values, relative risk and corporate policies and safeguards. Currency trading has reached unprecedented proportions 1. 5 trillion dollars are traded daily and the volume keeps increasing. World trade in goods, for comparison, amounts to $ 4 trillion per year.