Understanding the Relationship Between Shrinking Cities and Land Prices:Spatial Pattern,Effectiveness,and Policy Implications

Urban shrinkage has emerged as a widespread phenomenon globally and has a significant impact on land,particularly in terms of land use and price.This study focuses on 2851 county-level cities in China in 2005–2018(excluding Hong Kong,Macao,Taiwan,and‘no data’areas in Qinhai-Tibet Plateau)as the fundamental units of analysis.By employing nighttime light(NTL)data to identify shrinking cities,the propensity score matching(PSM)model was used to quantitatively examine the impact of shrinking cities on land prices,and evaluate the magnitude of this influence.The findings demonstrate the following:1)there were 613 shrinking cities in China,with moderate shrinkage being the most prevalent and severe shrinkage being the least.2)Regional disparities are evident in the spatial distribution of shrinking cities,especially in areas with diverse terrain.3)The spatial pattern of land price exhibits a significant correlated to the economic and administrative levels.4)Shrinking cities significantly negatively impact on the overall land price(ATT=–0.1241,P<0.05).However,the extent of the effect varies significantly among different spatial regions.This study contributes novel insights into the investigation of land prices and shrinking cities,ultimately serving as a foundation for government efforts to promote the sustainable development of urban areas.

From Finnish Assortment Pricing to Market Economy Using Prices for Sawn Wood and Chips in Reference Bucking

Dominant Finnish assortment pricing gives prices for sawlog and pulp wood volumes. Buyers buck stems to sawlogs using secret price matrices. Agreed dimensions allow wide range of sawlog volumes. Forest owners cannot objectively compare biddings: timber trade is a lottery game. Bucking is analyzed in terms of sawlog, pulp wood, log cylinder, sawn wood, value-weighted sawn wood, and chips. Sawn wood and its value are computed from top diameter of the sawlog. Profit maximization requires buyers to buck logs producing smaller than maximal value, causing dead weight loss. Nominal assortment prices have unpredictable relation to effective stumpage price. Assortment pricing does not meet requirements of market economy. If sawmills linked to pulp mills buck smaller sawlog percentages than independent sawmills, as generally believed, they use higher price for chips in their own harvests than they pay for independent sawmills, indicating imperfect competition for chips. Sawn wood potential pricing is suggested which gives prices for sawn wood and chips coming both from sawlogs and pulp wood in reference bucking which maximizes sawn wood for given minimum and maximum log length and minimum top diameter. Simple algorithm generates feasible bucking schedules from which optimum can be selected using any objective. Pricing produces unit price for all commercial wood utilizing ratio of theoretical sawn wood and commercial volume in stand. Unit price can be compared to stem pricing and could be compared to assortment pricing if assortment pricing would produce predictable sawlog percentages. Sawn wood potential pricing is concrete, transparent, easy to compute, considers stem size and tapering, reduces trading cost and is less risky to buyers than stem pricing. It meets requirements of market economy. Readers can repeat computations using open-source software Jlp22.

The Effects of Infrastructure Projects on House Prices and Rents:Evidence from the HS2 Extension Cancellation in the UK

This paper uses the HS2 extension cancellation in November 2021 as a quasi-experiment to study its impact on house prices and rents in Leeds.Using a DiD approach on repeat sales and monthly rents,I compare property values near the HS2 station and proposed construction site before and after the announcement.Results show a 3.6%decrease in house prices and a 3.9%decline in rents near the station,while properties near the construction site experienced a 2.4%increase in prices and a 2.1%rise in rents.This is the first paper to analyse the HS2 cancellation effect using panel data methods.

The relationship between international crude oil prices and China＇s refined oil prices based on a structural VAR model

With the frequent fluctuations of international crude oil prices and China＇s increasing dependence on foreign oil in recent years, the volatility of international oil prices has significantly influenced China domestic refined oil price. This paper aims to investigate the transmission and feedback mechanism between international crude oil prices and China＇s refined oil prices for the time span from January 2011 to November 2015 by using the Granger causality test, vector autoregression model, impulse response function and variance decomposition methods. It is demonstrated that variation of international crude oil prices can cause China domestic refined oil price to change with a weak feedback effect. Moreover, international crude oil prices and China domestic refined oil prices are affected by their lag terms in positive and negative directions in different degrees. Besides, an international crude oil price shock has a signif- icant positive impact on domestic refined oil prices while the impulse response of the international crude oil price variable to the domestic refined oil price shock is negatively insignificant. Furthermore, international crude oil prices and domestic refined oil prices have strong historical inheri- tance. According to the variance decomposition analysis, the international crude oil price is significantly affected by its own disturbance influence, and a domestic refined oil price shock has a slight impact on international crude oil price changes. The domestic refined oil price variance is mainly caused by international crude oil price disturbance, while the domestic refined oil price is slightly affected by its own disturbance. Generally, domestic refined oil prices do not immediately respond to an international crude oil price change, that is, there is a time lag.

Hybridized Intelligent Neural Network Optimization Model for Forecasting Prices of Rubber in Malaysia

Rubber producers,consumers,traders,and those who are involved in the rubber industry face major risks of rubber price fluctuations.As a result,decision-makers are required to make an accurate estimation of the price of rubber.This paper aims to propose hybrid intelligent models,which can be utilized to forecast the price of rubber in Malaysia by employing monthly Malaysia’s rubber pricing data,spanning from January 2016 to March 2021.The projected hybrid model consists of different algorithms with the symbolic Radial Basis Functions Neural Network k-Satisfiability Logic Mining(RBFNN-kSAT).These algorithms,including Grey Wolf Optimization Algorithm,Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm,and Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm were utilized in the forecasting data analysis.Several factors,which affect the monthly price of rubber,such as rubber production,total exports of rubber,total imports of rubber,stocks of rubber,currency exchange rate,and crude oil prices were also considered in the analysis.To evaluate the results of the introduced model,a comparison has been conducted for each model to identify the most optimum model for forecasting the price of rubber.The findings showed that GWO with RBFNN-kSAT represents the most accurate and efficient model compared with ABC with RBFNNkSAT and PSO with RBFNN-kSAT in forecasting the price of rubber.The GWO with RBFNN-kSAT obtained the greatest average accuracy(92%),with a better correlation coefficient R=0.983871 than ABC with RBFNN-kSAT and PSO with RBFNN-kSAT.Furthermore,the empirical results of this study provided several directions for policymakers to make the right decision in terms of devising proper measures in the industry to address frequent price changes so that the Malaysian rubber industry maintains dominance in the international markets.

Do the RMB exchange rate and global commodity prices have asymmetric or symmetric effects on China’s stock prices?

With the rapid expansion of the RMB exchange rate’s floating range,the effects of the RMB exchange rate and global commodity price changes on China’s stock prices are likely to increase.This study uses both auto regressive distributed lag(ARDL)and nonlinear ARDL(NARDL)approaches to explore the symmetric and asymmetric effects of the RMB exchange rate and global commodity prices on China’s stock prices.Our findings show that without considering the critical variable of global commodity prices,there is no cointegration relationship between the RMB exchange rate and China’s stock prices,and the coefficient of the RMB exchange rate is not statistically significant.However,when we introduce global commodity prices into the NARDL model,the result shows that the RMB exchange rate has a negative effect on China’s stock prices,that there indeed exists a long-run cointegration relationship among the RMB exchange rate,global commodity prices,and stock prices in the NARDL model,and that global commodity price changes have an asymmetric effect on China’s stock prices in the long run.Specifically,China’s stock prices are more sensitive to increases than decreases in global commodity prices.Thus,increases in global commodity prices cause China’s stock prices to decline sharply.In contrast,the same magnitude of decline in global commodity prices induces a smaller increase in China’s stock prices.

The Changes in World Oil Prices, Monetary Factors, and Foreign Index Toward Composite Index Movement： Indonesian Case for the Period of 2005-2011

Capital market is one of the drivers of the economy through the formation of capital investor excess as well as an indicator of a country＇s economy. Movement of stock price index is often influenced by many factors, derived from the company＇s performance, monetary factor, and changes in world oil prices. This study highlights the problem in world oil prices due to political turmoil in the Middle East. The samples are taken from the Jakarta Composite Stock Price Index （JCI）, oil prices, Indonesian inflation rate, Certificate of Bank Indonesia＇s （CBI） rate, and the reserve assets, during the period from January 2005 to December 2011 （84 months）. Using the data published by the Bank of Indonesia, reports of the Central Bureau of Statistics （Biro Pusat Statistik, BPS）, and other relevant sources, the data analyzed through the Eviews 7.1. The main objective of this study is to examine the effect of oil prices, foreign stock price index, and monetary variables （inflation rate, CBI rate, country＇s foreign reserves, and others） toward the JCI analyzed through the error correction model （ECM）. Hypothesis testing with the F-test for the 95% confidence level indicates that the oil price, exchange rate （Indonesian Rupiah （IDR）/United States Dollar （USD））, CBI rate, foreign exchange reserves, the Dow Jones Index, and the Taiwan stock index, both simultaneously as well as partially have a significant influence on the JCI.

Decomposition laws of tungsten prices fluctuation since 1900 and its applications

Tungsten current price was transformed yearly to its constant price since 1900, which is roughly decomposed into four components as trend, cycle, impact and random. The core prices, consisting of the trend and the cycle, present regularities that a long-run cycle is embedded within two major cycles, and major cycle is composed of low-price period and high-price period, along with the rapid rise into a tower, and along with deep down into next trough; three sharply upward shocks occur by the events in a tower. Fluctuations in prices trend to slow cycles and expand the bands. It can be expected that tungsten price will highly stand over 17 a, and is is a advice that reducing production and restricting export maybe maintain a high price level.

Dynamic interacting relationships among international oil prices, macroeconomic variables and precious metal prices

From the perspective of long-term and short-term, the methods of TY causality test, generalized impulse response function, variance decomposition were used to investigate the impacts of international oil prices and macroeconomic variables on Chinese gold, silver and platinum prices, but also the feedback effects of Chinese precious metal prices under this impact. The results show that international oil prices play an important role in precious metal price variation both in long-term and short-term, and exchange rate only has an effect in short-term, while interest rate is ineffective in predicting precious metal prices. In addition, precious metal prices have some feedback effects on international oil prices and interest rate in short-term.

African swine fever and meat prices fluctuation:An empirical study in China based on TVP-VAR model

African swine fever(ASF),a fatal disease outbroken in China in August 2018,has widely attracted social concern especially in the information era.The occurrence of ASF led to an imbalance between supply and demand in pork and other meat markets.As a result,meat prices fluctuated greatly during the past year in 2019.To measure ASF quantitatively,the internet public concern index about ASF was created using web crawler methods.The relationships between ASF and meat prices were analyzed based on time-varying parameter vector auto-regressive(TVP-VAR)model.The results showed that there were some differences in the impact size,direction and duration of ASF on the prices of pork,chicken,beef and mutton,and the characteristics of time variability and heterogeneity were obvious.At the same time,the impact of ASF on meat prices is not consistent with the trend and degree of ASF.The impulse intensity is strongly correlated with the strength and duration of ASF,and it is generally weak in the early stage and much stronger in the middle and late periods.The results indicate that macro regulations,monitoring and early-warning system,standardizing production and circulation,and the public opinion monitoring and guidance about ASF should be given more attention in future to stabilize the market expectations and to promote a smooth functioning of the livestock markets.

Time-varying impact of political risk on copper prices

Using the International Country Risk Guide(ICRG)index to represent countries’political risk,the time-varying effect of political risk on copper prices was examined based on the time-varying parameter structural vector autoregression with stochastic volatility(TVP-SVAR-SV)model.The empirical results show that the impact of political risk on copper prices is time-varying and has tended to increase gradually in recent years.There are significant country-level differences in the impact of political risk on copper prices.Political risk has a stronger and longer-lasting impact on copper prices in exporting countries.In terms of risk sources,external and internal conflicts contribute most to international copper price fluctuations in the sample period.The impact of political risk on copper prices reaches an extreme level during the international financial crisis,the European debt crisis,and the election of Donald Trump.

Spillover of international crude oil prices on China's refined oil wholesale prices and price forecasting:Daily-frequency data of private enterprises and local refineries

Compared with retail prices of state-owned companies used in almost all existing studies,China’s refined oil wholesale prices of private enterprises and local refineries are more affected by the market and better reflect the real supply-demand situation.For the first time,this paper applies own-monitored dailyfrequency wholesale prices of China’s private enterprises and local refineries during 2013-2020 to derive spillover effects of international crude oil prices on China’s refined oil prices through the VAR-BEKKGARCH(vector autoregression-Baba,Engle,Kraft,and Kroner-generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity)model,and then tries to forecast wholesale prices through the PCA-BP(principal component analysis-back propagation)neural network model.Results show that international crude oil prices have significant mean spillover and volatility spillover effects on China’s refined oil wholesale prices.Changes in crude oil prices are the Granger cause of changes in refined oil wholesale prices.With the improvement of China’s oil-pricing mechanism in 2016,the volatility spillover from the international crude oil market to China’s refined oil market gradually increases,and the BRENT price variation has an increasing impact on the refined oil wholesale price variation.The PCA-BP model could serve as a candidate tool for forecasting China’s refined oil wholesale prices.

Forecasting volatility in oil prices with a class of nonlinear volatility models:smooth transition RBF and MLP neural networks augmented GARCH approach

In this study, the forecasting capabilities of a new class of nonlinear econometric models, namely, the LSTAR-LST-GARCH-RBF and MLP models are evalu- ated. The models are utilized to model and to forecast the daily returns of crude oil prices. Many financial time series are subjected to leptokurtic distribution, heavy tails, and nonlinear conditional volatility. This characteristic feature leads to deterioration in the forecast capabilities of tradi- tional models such as the ARCH and GARCH models. According to the empirical findings, the oil prices and their daily returns could be classified as possessing nonlinearity in the conditional mean and conditional variance processes. Several model groups are evaluated： （i） the models pro- posed in the first group are the LSTAR-LST-GARCH models that are augmented with fractional integration and asymmetric power terms （FIGARCH, APGARCH, and FIAPGARCH）; （ii） the models proposed in the second group are the LSTAR-LST-GARCH models further aug- mented with MLP and RBF type neural networks. The models are compared in terms of MSE, RMSE, and MAE criteria for in-sample and out-of-sample forecast capabili- ties. The results show that the LSTAR based and neural network augmented models provide important gains over the single-regime baseline GARCH models, followed by the LSTAR-LST-GARCH type models in terms of mod- eling and forecasting volatility in crude oil prices.

Economics,fundamentals,technology,finance,speculation and geopolitics of crude oil prices:an econometric analysis and forecast based on data from 1990 to 2017

It is of real and direct significance for China to cope with oil price fluctuations and ensure oil security. This paper aims to quantitatively analyze the specific contribution ratios of the complex factors influencing international crude oil prices and to establish crude oil price models to forecast long-term international crude oil prices. Six explanatory influential variables, namely Dow Jones Indexes, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development oil stocks, US rotary rig count, US dollar index, total open interest, which is the total number of outstanding contracts that are held by market participants at the end of each day, and geopolitical instability are specified, and the samples, from January 1990 to August 2017, are divided into six sub-periods. Moreover, the co-integration relationship among variables shows that the contribution ratios of all the variables influencing Brent crude oil prices are in accordance with the corresponding qualitative analysis. Furthermore, from September 2017 to December 2022 outside of the sample, the Vector Autoregressive forecasts show that annually averaged Brent crude oil prices for 2017-2022 would be $53.0, $61.3, $74.4, $90.0, $105.5, and $120.7 per barrel, respectively. The Vector Error Correction forecasts show that annual average Brent crude oil prices for 2017-2022 would be $53.0, $56.5, $58.5, $60.7, $63.0 and $65.4 per barrel, respectively.

Currency exposures of the oil and natural gas stock prices in the Hushen-300 stock market： A nonlinear model approach

The paper embarks to investigate the relationship between currency risk and stock prices of the oil and natural gas exploitation industry in the value-weighted Hushen-300 stock market, by applying the standard Capital Asset Pricing Model （CAPM） and nonlinear exchange rate exposure model to the Renminbi against US dollar. The results show that the currency exposure does vary in the oil-gas stock prices throughout the bull and bear market. The study suggests that the models of the equilibrium exchange rate exposure must be extended to considering the nonlinear exchange rate exposure, the regime periods of bull and bear market, and the industry types that is sensitive to the currency exposures. The nonlinear dynamic relationship between the exchange rate changes and the Chinese energy stock prices throughout the bull and bear market add to the recent empirical evidences that foreign exchange markets and stock markets are closely correlated.

Bankruptcy Probability and Stock Prices： The Effect of Altman Z-Score Information on Stock Prices Through Panel Data

There is an extensive branch of literature that examines the success of Altman＇s Z-score in predicting bankruptcy or financial distress. The goal of this research paper is to investigate the stock price performance of firms that exhibit a large probability of bankruptcy according to the model of Airman. Regardless of the validity of Airman＇s Z-score, we utilize a new empirical design that relates stock price movements to Altman＇s Z-score. We focus and examine, through the methodology of panel data, whether stocks that have a high probability of bankruptcy underperform stocks with a low probability of bankruptcy or if there are differences in the way the markets react to the financial health of the sample firms.

Availability, Prices and Affordability of Glaucoma Medicines among Private Pharmacies of Nampula City in Mozambique

Introduction: Glaucoma is a group of chronically progressive disorders of the optic nerve and a worldwide leading cause of irreversible vision loss. Eye chronic diseases including glaucoma are major public health problems around the world, rapidly increasing with a growing and aging population. The treatment of chronic diseases lasts a lifetime. The purpose of this study is to assess the availability, prices and affordability of the medicines for glaucoma management in private pharmacies of Nampula City in Mozambique. Material and Methods: The standardized methodology designed by the World Health Organization and Health Action International was employed to conduct the study about the availability, price and affordability of glaucoma medicines in Nampula City from October to November 2021. Data were collected in 39 private pharmacies using a survey with fifteen glaucoma Medicines. Results: The Average of medicines availability was 46.6% (0.0% - 71.8%) with a mean of 8.86. The availability level demonstrated that 14 (93.3%) of all surveyed glaucoma medicines were very low and 1 (6.67%) was fairly high. Timolol was the most available medicine, found in 28 (71.8%) while apraclonidine, carteolol, levobunolol, carbachol, brinzolamide, bimatoprost, travoprost and unoprostone were not available. The medicine with the lowest price was latanoprost (2.84 USD) and the higher was acetazolamide (23.58 USD). None of the surveyed medicines were considered affordable. Conclusion: The majority of surveyed glaucoma medicines were not available and they were totally unaffordable against the defined thresholds. Policy strategy and technical options should be driven and implemented by the government to ensure the availability and affordability of glaucoma medicines at various levels of the Mozambican healthcare system.

Research on the Impact of Market Concern for Real Estate Policy on Housing Prices: Evidence from Internet Search and Hedonic Price Theory

To avoid the effects of systemic financial risks caused by extreme fluctuations in housing price,the Chinese government has been exploring the most effective policies for regulating the housing market.Measuring the effect of real estate regulation policies has been a challenge for present studies.This study innovatively employs big data technology to obtain Internet search data(ISD)and construct market concern index(MCI)of policy,and hedonic price theory to construct hedonic price index(HPI)based on building area,age,ring number,and other hedonic variables.Then,the impact of market concerns for restrictive policy,monetary policy,fiscal policy,security policy,and administrative supervision policy on housing prices is evaluated.Moreover,compared with the common housing price index,the hedonic price index considers the heterogeneity of houses and could better reflect the changes in housing prices caused by market supply and demand.The results indicate that(1)a long-term interaction relationship exists between housing prices and market concerns for policy(MCP);(2)market concerns for restrictive policy and administrative supervision policy effectively restrain rising housing prices while those for monetary and fiscal policy have the opposite effect.The results could serve as a useful reference for governments aiming to stabilize their real estate markets.

Competitive analysis of online inventory problem with interrelated prices

This paper investigates the online inventory problem with interrelated prices in which a decision of when and how much to replenish must be made in an online fashion even without concrete knowledge of future prices. Four new online models with different price corre- lations are proposed in this paper, which are the linear-decrease model, the log-decrease model, the logarithmic model and the exponential model. For the first two models, the online algo- rithms are developed, and as the performance measure of online algorithm, the upper and lower bounds of competitive ratios of the algorithms are derived respectively. For the exponential and logarithmic models, the online algorithms are proposed by the solution of linear programming and the corresponding competitive ratios are analyzed, respectively. Additionally, the algorithm designed for the exponential model is optimal, and the algorithm for the logarithmic model is optimal only under some certain conditions. Moreover, some numerical examples illustrate that the algorithms based on the dprice-conservative strategy are more suitable when the purchase price fluctuates relatively flat.

Identifying Spatial Heterogeneity in the Effects of High-Tech Firm Density on Housing Prices:Evidence from Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area,China

Innovation capitalization is a new concept in innovation geography research.Extant research on a city scale has proven that innovation is an important factor affecting housing prices and verified that innovation has a capitalization effect.However,few studies investigate the spatial heterogeneity of innovation capitalization.Thus,case verification at the urban agglomeration scale is needed.Therefore,this study proposes a theoretical framework for the spatial heterogeneity of innovation capitalization at the urban agglomeration scale.Examining the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area(GHMGBA),China as a case study,the study investigated the spatial heterogeneity of the influence of high-tech firms,representing innovation,on housing prices.This work verified the spatial heterogeneity of innovation capitalization.The study constructed a data set influencing housing prices,comprising 11 factors in 5 categories(high-tech firms,convenience of living facilities,built environment,the natural environment,and the fundamentals of the districts)for 419 subdistricts in the GHMGBA.On the global scale,the study finds that high-tech firms have a significant and positive influence on housing prices,with the housing price increasing by 0.0156%when high-tech firm density increases by 1%.Furthermore,a semi-geographically weighted regression(SGWR)analysis shows that the influence of high-tech firms on housing prices has spatial heterogeneity.The areas where high-tech firms have a significant and positive influence on housing prices are mainly in the GuangzhouFoshan metropolitan area,western Shenzhen-Dongguan,north-central Zhongshan-Nansha district,and Guangzhou—all areas with densely distributed high-tech firms.These results confirm the spatial heterogeneity of innovation capitalization and the need for further discussion of its scale and spatial limitations.The study offers implications for relevant GHMGBA administrative authorities for spatially differentiated development strategies and housing policies that consider the role of innovation in successful urban development.