This chapter demonstrates theoretically that without imposing any structure on the underlying forcing process, the model-free CBOE volatility index (VIX) does not measure market expectation of volatility but that of a linear moment-combination. Particularly, VIX undervalues (overvalues) volatility when market return is expected to be negatively (positively) skewed. Alternatively, we develop a model-free generalized volatility index (GVIX). With no diffusion assumption, GVIX is formulated directly from the definition of log-return variance, and VIX is a special case of the GVIX. Empirically, VIX generally understates the true volatility, and the estimation errors considerably enlarge during volatile markets. The spread between GVIX and VIX follows a mean-reverting process.

As the first and second largest economies, the United States and China are among leading investors in Africa. Given their differences in economic systems and political institutions, a natural inquiry would be what drives both countries' continuous investment in this continent. Previous scholars focused on macroeconomic, resources, and political factors. From our perspective, the legal system is deep-rooted and align with the lasing-interest character of FDI, which might unlock a promising space to understand the determinants of FDI in Africa. We proposed that legal systems would impact FDI through property protection, dispute settlement, and cross-border transactions cost reduction, which would take effect through general legal origins, customary law, and legal integration, respectively. Based on our sample containing 43 countries between 2007-19, we find that African' legal heritage tends to play important roles in affecting U.S. and Chinese investors' economic engagement with the continent.

The VIX index is not only a volatility index but also a polynomial combination of all possible higher moments in market return distribution under the risk-neutral measure. This paper formulates the VIX as a linear decomposition of four fundamentally different elements: the realized variance (RV), the variance risk premium (VRP), the realized tail (RT), and the tail risk premium (TRP), respectively. Using an innovative and nonparametric tail risk measure, we find that approximately one-third of the VIX's formation is attributed to the TRP. In addition to VRP, RT and TRP are crucial components for predicting future returns on equity portfolios.

As China's economy has reached the stage of 'New Normal', Chinese companies are increasingly seeking opportunities overseas. In the context of the slow recovery of world economy, China's outward economic activities have found themselves in many parts of the globe, including the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region, some of the farthest places away from China. While many scholars have conducted extensive studies on China's trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) in Latin America and the Caribbean, this paper focusses on Chinese contracts in the region, a topic that has been rarely studied. Using both random-effects and fixed-effects models covering 30 LAC economies during 1998-2015, the multivariate panel regressions show that among numerous determinants, Chinese companies prefer to undertake projects in the countries that are economically more advanced and more populous. In addition to the level of development and the size of population, those that have natural resources, expansionary economy, and political openness tend to have Chinese contracts completed. The above, however, is true of only the countries with which China has diplomatic relations. For the countries that recognise China's Taiwan 'diplomatically', Chinese contracts do not seem to be as much economically determined as those that recognise People's Republic of China (PRC) diplomatically. Politics appear to interfere with contractual decisions except in the following categories: mineral resources and an expansionary economy.

高校扩招时期我国高等教育的快速发展是否属于“粗放型”？高校办学规模减速后是否逐步走上了内涵式发展道路？本文以教育部直属高校为分析对象,采用DEA-Malmquist指数分析并回答这两个问题.研究发现,高校扩招至2006年之前,教育部直属高校的快速发展属于有质量的增长,这一时期全要素生产率的大幅提升与技术进步和技术效率改善都有关系,但技术进步的贡献更大.2006年之后,由于技术进步的促进作用逐步消失,以及追赶效应的“自然衰老”,生产率的增长出现明显的放缓.但是,如果考虑有质量的产出,2006年后技术效率的下降幅度并不明显,这在一定程度上验证了内涵式发展目标的成效.

伴随产业升级、金融环境复杂化以及技术创新的不断发展,消费者不断升级的金融需求与银行有限的金融服务提供能力之间的矛盾,逐渐上升为商业银行面临的主要矛盾.如何主动适应这些不可逆转的外在变化,实现可持续发展,是当前我国银行业面临的重大挑战.

This paper studies the pattern and determinants of contractual projects by Chinese contractors in Africa. Contracts by Chinese in Africa are a dominant component of China’s economic relations with Africa. They exceed China’s foreign direct investment in Africa. While similar to direct investments, contracts are based on some different considerations and are, therefore, subject to different determinants from foreign investment. This work is the first empirical study conducted on China’s contracts overseas. It explores three models: economic, political, and resource based. Of the three, the resource-based model best explains the pattern and determinants of China’s contracts in Africa. The countries abundant in petroleum and minerals tend to have Chinese projects. In addition to natural resources, we also look into the effects on contracts of market size, economic growth, education, investment, inflation, economic openness, exchange rate, regime type, governance, and bilateral relations with China. Our finding indicates that China’s contractual projects are drawn to the African countries that are well endowed in natural resources.

How to assess the quality of Chinese international trade is one of the pre-requirements to promote the transformation of Chinese trade pattern.In this paper,we select 6 dependent variables of Chinese Trade Quality and their 9 determinants related variables from World Development Indicators(WDI) of the World Bank based on economic theoretical judgment and statistical analysis.With above selected data,we empirically explore the structural change patterns of Chinese trade quality since 1980 in static and dynamic perspective.We also give some policy suggestions based on our analysis.We discussed further research direction for the future at the end.

Innovation is the key driving force of sustainable growth.Encouraging innovation is the main measure of the National Innovation System.The weakness of the current policy tools is that they neglect the systematic risk management for innovators.In this paper,we focus on this neglected factor,risk;and try to develop the logic framework to analyze innovation incentive.Beyond the theory framework,we've used IMD data to test four theoretical hypotheses.

Detailed measurements of the magnetic and transport properties of the two La1-xCaxMnO3 (x = 0.18, x = 0.20) single crystals straddling the compositional metal-insulator transition boundary (0.18 < xc < 0.22) are summarized. The analysis of magnetization/susceptibility data reveals the occurrence of a second order/continuous ferromagnetic-paramagnetic phase transition described not only by nearest neighbour, 3-D Heisenberg model exponents (gamma = 1.387, beta = 0.365, delta = 4.783), but also with comparable values of the critical amplitudes in both the insulating and the metallic samples. These results support the assertion that double exchange cannot be the underlying mechanism supporting ferromagnetism in this composition range, and arguments are presented that the relevant interaction is ferromagnetic super exchange modulated by proximity to the orbitally ordered to disordered transition.

After 30 years of development,China has changed a lot on her factors such as production capacity,RD facility and labor resources.The international trade pattern should match the change.The current global crisis gives an opportunity for China to change the trade style and the government must adjust her policies to promote the trend of change.

Detailed measurements of the magnetic and transport properties of the two La1-xCaxMnO3 (x=0.18, x=0.20) single crystals straddling the compositional metal-insulator transition boundary (0.18 < x(c)< 0.22) are summarized. The analysis of magnetization/susceptibility data reveals the occurrence of a second-order/continuous ferromagnetic-paramagnetic phase transition described not only by nearest-neighbor three-dimensional Heisenberg-model exponents (gamma=1.387, beta=0.365, delta=4.783) but also with comparable values of the critical temperatures and amplitudes in both the insulating and the metallic samples. The implications of these results in terms of the universality class, the percolation thresholds, and the relative magnitudes of the super-exchange and double-exchange interactions underlying ferromagnetism across this compositionally modulated metal-insulator boundary in this system are discussed.

改革开放以来,中国外贸规模强劲增长,但竞争力依然有限.本文提出:要提升外贸竞争力,中国现阶段应主动地从以产业间贸易为主转向发展产业内贸易,因为产业内贸易是竞争力更强的贸易方式.

An unconventional approach to scaling based on the anomalous Hall effect is presented and utilized to demonstrate conclusively that epitaxial (metallic) Ga0.98Mn0.02As is a mean-field ferromagnet. Such a result provides strong support for the assertion that the underlying interactions can be treated within the framework of Landau mean-field theory, direct support for which had previously been lacking. This scaling approach also provides confirmation-albeit indirect-that the origin of the anomalous Hall effect in this system is intrinsic at the composition studied.

人类社会的进步需要持续不断地自主创新,中国经济的持续健康发展同样需要不断的自主创新。由于人们对于风险的感受和预期会影响人们的经济行为,进而影响资源配置效率。因此,为了鼓励人们"冒险"去创新,除了采用传统的增加参与者收入、减少或补偿参与者成本支出等政策手段,更应该建立健全社会风险管理体系,解除人们的后顾之忧,进而达到鼓励创新的目的。本文通过理论分析和实证检验,证实了上述命题的正确性。

Detailed analyses of the temperature-dependent zero-field ac susceptibility of prototypical phase-separated (La1-yPry)0.7Ca0.3Mn16/18O3, 0⩽y⩽1, reveal features consistent with the presence of a Griffiths-like phase (GP), viz, an inverse susceptibility (χ-1) characterized by χ-1∝(T-TCRand)1-λ with 0.05⩽λ⩽0.33 as y decreases towards yc⩽0.85. Beyond yc=0.85, the GP is suppressed. These data, combined with previous neutron diffraction measurements, enable a phase diagram summarizing the evolution of the GP with composition to be constructed for this system; this phase diagram demonstrates the novel result that the disorder relevant for the establishment of such a phase in this system is linked closely to the relative volume fractions of the phase-separated antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic components, even when the recently estimated double-exchange–linked percolation threshold is exceeded. The influence of electron-phonon coupling can also be seen through oxygen isotope effects.

Analyses of temperature- and field-dependent ac susceptibility and magnetization data from a colossal magnetoresistive ${\mathrm{La}}_{0.7}{\mathrm{Ba}}_{0.3}\mathrm{Mn}{\mathrm{O}}_{3}$ single crystal in terms of scaling behavior yield exponent values of $\ensuremath{\delta}=5.5\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.3$ and $\ensuremath{\gamma}=1.41\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.02$ (both slightly larger than Heisenberg model predictions), with $\ensuremath{\beta}=0.35\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.04$ and a Curie temperature ${T}_{C}=310\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.5\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$. Detailed investigation of the low-field dc and ac susceptibilities reveals features consistent with the presence of a Griffiths phase (GP)---viz., an inverse susceptibility characterized by ${\ensuremath{\chi}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}\ensuremath{\propto}{(T\ensuremath{-}{T}_{C}^{R})}^{1\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\lambda}}$ with $\ensuremath{\lambda}=0.67\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.05$. These, combined with previous results, enable a phase diagram summarizing the evolution of the GP with composition in this system to be constructed, and in this context, the possible importance of the variation of the acoustic spin-wave stiffness $D$ with composition is discussed.

Analyses of temperature- and field-dependent ac susceptibility and magnetization data from a colossal magnetoresistive La0.7Ba0.3MnO3 single crystal in terms of scaling behavior yield exponent values of delta=5.5 +/- 0.3 and gamma=1.41 +/- 0.02 (both slightly larger than Heisenberg model predictions), with beta=0.35 +/- 0.04 and a Curie temperature T-C=310 +/- 0.5 K. Detailed investigation of the low-field dc and ac susceptibilities reveals features consistent with the presence of a Griffiths phase (GP)-viz., an inverse susceptibility characterized by chi(-1)proportional to(T-T-C(R))(1-lambda) with lambda=0.67 +/- 0.05. These, combined with previous results, enable a phase diagram summarizing the evolution of the GP with composition in this system to be constructed, and in this context, the possible importance of the variation of the acoustic spin-wave stiffness D with composition is discussed.

Accompanying with Chinese trade volume increasing,there are continuous trade conflicts between China and her partners.The main reason is that Chinese firms export their products based on comparative advantage theory,and utilizing her cheap labor resources.In this paper we try to prove that the trade advantage based on comparative advantage theory is a kind of "points & lines" advantage,and it gets trouble in China.The advantage based on National Competition Theory is a kind of "cubic" advantage,but it needs long term accumulation.Right now,China needs to establish her advantage based on the intra-industry trade theory to bridge the "points & lines" and "cubic" advantage as a ladder.