The determinants of household saving in China: a dynamic panel analysis of provincial data

In this paper, we conduct a dynamic panel analysis of the determinants of the household saving rate in China using a life cycle model and panel data on Chinese provinces for the 1995-2004 period from China's household survey. We find that China's household saving rate has been high and rising and that the main determinants of variations over time and over space therein are the lagged saving rate, the income growth rate, and (in some cases) the real interest rate and the inflation rate. However, we find that the variables relating to the age structure of the population usually do not have a significant impact on the household saving rate. These results provide mixed support for the life cycle hypothesis as well as the permanent income hypothesis, are consistent with the existence of inertia or persistence, and imply that China's household saving rate will remain high for some time to come.Saving and investment - China

Cigarette Tax Revenues and Tobacco Control in Japan

The hypotheses of non-addiction, myopia and rational addiction are tested using annual, quarterly and monthly data. Changes in the prices of Japanese cigarettes can be viewed as exogenous from the point of view of consumer behavior, because the Japanese government controls cigarette prices. The empirical results of this paper support the addiction hypothesis. The short-run and long-run price elasticities range from -0.338 to -0.421, and from -0.679 to -0.686, respectively; thus, increases in tax revenues in the long-run are likely to be smaller than those in the short-run. As a result, tax increases would be an effective means of curbing smoking and reducing its social cost. Furthermore, the debt compensation programs for the Japan Railway and the National Forestry will not go according to plan, unless revenues are increased in the future.smoking, rational addiction, tax revenues

The Determinants of Household Saving in China: A Dynamic Panel Analysis of Provincial Data

In this paper, we conduct a dynamic panel analysis of the determinants of the household saving rate in China using a life cycle model and panel data on Chinese provinces for the 1995-2004 period from China's household survey. We find that China's household saving rate has been high and rising and that the main determinants of variations over time and over space therein are the lagged saving rate, the income growth rate, and (in some cases) the real interest rate and the inflation rate. However, we find that the variables relating to the age structure of the population usually do not have a significant impact on the household saving rate. These results provide mixed support for the life cycle hypothesis, are consistent with the existence of inertia or persistence, and imply that China's household saving rate will remain high for some time to come.

Responses of Consumers to the Mandatory Disclosure of Information: Evidence from Natural Experiments in Japanese Inter-brand Cigarette Demands

I estimated inter-brand cigarette demands with nicotine, tar content and policy event information in Japan during 1950-84. The demand for all brands increased but the demand for plain (non-filter) brands decreased due to the dissemination ofgA Note about Health Damage from Smoking h in 1964. The demand for all brands increased but the demand for high-nicotine brands decreased due to the disclosure of nicotine and tar content in 1967 and the labeling warnings in 1972, however consumers had still preferred high-nicotine brands after 1972. Contrastively, the demand for high-tar brands increased in 1967 but decreased in 1972, and consumers had switched to prefer low-tar brands after 1972. Disclosure did not reduce the intake of nicotine but reduced the intake of tar, accordingly disclosure may benefit consumers by reducing the health risk as tar causes cancers. In line with changes in inter-brand demands, the monopolistic firm discontinued old products with poorer quality (plain, high-tar) but provided new better ones (filter-tipped, low-tar).disclosure, nicotine, tar, cigarette, inter-brand, panel estimation, difference in difference

Single-Pass Laser Frequency Conversion to 780.2 nm and 852.3 nm Based on PPMgO:LN Bulk Crystals and Diode-Laser-Seeded Fiber Amplifiers

We report the preparation of a 780.2 nm and 852.3 nm laser device based on single-pass periodically poled magnesium-oxide-doped lithium niobate (PPMgO:LN) bulk crystals and diode-laser-seeded fiber amplifiers. First, a single-frequency continuously tunable 780.2 nm laser of more than 600 mW from second-harmonic generation (SHG) by a 1560.5 nm laser can be achieved. Then, a 250 mW light at 852.3 nm is generated and achieves an overall conversion efficiency of 4.1% from sum-frequency generation (SFG) by mixing the 1560.5 nm and 1878.0 nm lasers. The continuously tunable range of 780.2 nm and 852.3 nm are at least 6.8 GHz and 9.2 GHz. By employing this laser system, we can conveniently perform laser cooling, trapping and manipulating both rubidium (Rb) and cesium (Cs) atoms simultaneously. This system has promising applications in a cold atoms Rb-Cs two-component interferemeter and in the formation of the RbCs dimer by the photoassociation of cold Rb and Cs atoms confined in a magneto-optical trap.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure

Annotation-based meta-analysis of microarray experiments

We are developing software applications to perform meta-analysis of microarray experiments based on standardized experiment annotations aiming to identify similar experiments and cluster experiments. The applications were tested on files obtained from the ArrayExpress public repository. Annotation terms were used to compute experiment dissimilarities to find experiments related to a query experiment. These applications may motivate efforts of bench biologists to better annotate experiments

Observation of sub-Doppler absorption in the /Lambda-type three-level Doppler-broadened cesium system

Thanks to the atomic coherence in coupling laser driven atomic system, sub-Doppler absorption has been observed in Doppler-broadened cesium vapor cell via the /Lambda-type three-level scheme. The linewidth of the sub-Doppler absorption peak become narrower while the frequency detuning of coupling laser increases. The results are in agreement with the theoretical prediction by G. Vemuri et al.[PRA,Vol.53(1996) p.2842].Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, to appear on Applied Physics