The Limits to Competition in the Jamaican Urban Bus Service.

In the context of best practice with regards to the market structure and organization of urban public transport over the last 30 years or so would reveal the popularity of a hybrid transport model, that is a model in which the public and the private sector share responsibilities for the delivery of the service. A more careful review would reveal an evolving consensus with respect to the optimal degree and form of government intervention in this hybrid model. We look at the Chilean model, which has had similar experiences to us in a similar time period to see if Jamaican policy makers can enhance our system, the JUTC (Jamaican Urban Transport System) by their experiences.

An Empirical Analysis of the Taiwan Institutional Trading Volume Volatility Spillover on Stock Market Index Return

This paper provides interesting empirical evidence on the relation between the volatility impact effect of the Taiwan institutional trading volume and the stock market index by using the MEGARCH model. We found a significant autoregressive coefficient of institutional trading volume and stock market index. The cross-volatility spillover effect, asymmetric leverage effect, and persistence of volatility effect are statistically significant. The feedback and lead-lag relationship between trading volume and stock index return are also statistically significant. Therefore, Taiwan¡¦s institutional trading volume can affect the stock market index through volatility effect and causality.

The analysis of interest rate mean and volatility spillover to the industrial production index and stock markets: The case of China

Empirical results found the parameter estimates for the CCC-MGARCH models display that the short run persistence is positive and significant and the positive and significant ARCH and GARCH term show the ARCH and GARCH effect exist in these models. By concerning the correlations of bank reserve rate and discount rate to industrial production index, the correlation is positive and statistically significant for those variables. It indicated that China monetary policy have a positive impact to industrial production. The parameters estimates for DCC-MGARCH(1.1) model for China monetary policy to industrial production index and stock markets show the short-run persistence is positive significantly and at DCC(1.1) parameters. The sum of the DCC(1.1) parameter is less than one which implies that the model is strictly mean reverting.interest rate variables

Is Per Capita Real GDP Stationary? Evidence from Selected African Countries Based on More Powerful Nonlinear (Logistic) Unit Root Tests

In this study we use a more powerful nonlinear (logistic) unit root test advanced by Leybourne et al. (1998) to investigate the time-series propertities of per capita real GDP for 26 selected African countries for the period 1960-2000. We strongly reject the null of unit root process for over one-third the countries. These empirical results have important policy implications for selected African countries.

Is Contract Farming More Profitable and Efficient Than Non-Contract Farming-A Survey Study of Rice Farms In Taiwan

Trade liberalization and globalization has modernized the food retail sector in Taiwan, affecting consumers, producers and trade patterns. These changes have placed significant pressures on farmers and processors including more stringent quality control and product varieties. The government has launched a rice production-marketing contract program in 2005 to assist rice farmers and the agro-business sector to work together as partners. The minimum scale for each contract is 50 hectares of adjacent rice paddies with 50 participants including rice farmers, seedling providers, millers and marketing agents. In order to evaluate the outcome of this program, a survey is conducted in the summer of 2005 after the first (spring) crop is harvested. Information of price and value of output and major variable and fixed inputs are collected along with characteristics of the farmers and farms. The survey results show that the average revenue of a contract farm is about 11 percent higher than an average non-contract farm. The per hectare cost of production in a contract farm is about 13 percent lower and as a result the average profit margin under contract is more than 50 percent above those without contract. A swtiching regression profit frontier model is adopted to further investigate their efficiency performance. The result indicates that an average contract farms is 20 percent more efficient than an average non-contract farm in a comparable operating environment. The result also suggests that although contract farming has potential to improve the profit of smallholders, it is not a sufficient condition for such improvement.Land Economics/Use,

A new modified Newton iteration for computing nonnegative Z-eigenpairs of nonnegative tensors

We propose a new modification of Newton iteration for finding some nonnegative Z-eigenpairs of a nonnegative tensor. The method has local quadratic convergence to a nonnegative eigenpair of a nonnegative tensor, under the usual assumption guaranteeing the local quadratic convergence of the original Newton iteration

Examining the Relationship of Crude Oil Future Price Return and Agricultural Future Price Return in US

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between crude oil futures and agricultural grain commodities futures for soybeans, wheat and corn. Daily data for soybeans, wheat and corn are collected from Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) and crude oil from New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). The time period covered in this study extends from January 3, 2006 to February 22, 2012. In order to detect the relationships between crude oil and agriculture grain commodities futures, we apply the Vector Autoregression (VAR) model. From the VAR model, the change in each of agriculture grain commodities is significantly influenced by the change in the crude oil and other agriculture grain commodities. Keywords: Crude oil futures, Agricultural grain commodities futures, Granger causality, VAR. JEL Classifications: C58, G13, Q43, Q56