A Comparative Study on Achievements in Negative Nominal Interest Rates Published in Literature in English and Chinese

Interest rates are the key to the resource allocations of financial markets.The frequent appearance of negative nominal interest rates(NNIR)may lead to a failure of the transmission mechanism and arouse system risks in the financial markets.Meanwhile,negative nominal interest rates is a new policy with no consensus reached by academia or policymakers.It is necessary to review the research results and promote consensus to reveal the nature and impact mechanisms of NNIR.Therefore,we retrieved original articles from the Web of Science(WoS)and China National Knowledge Infrastructure(CNKI)published from 1999 to 2020 on NNIR to determine the characteristics of current research results from various perspectives and compare literature in English and Chinese of highly productive institutions and researchers,hot topics,evolution contexts,research frontiers,and ecological characteristics.There are three major findings.In terms of research ecology,the ecological structure of the top research institutions,both domestic and abroad,remains steady,but the structure of the researchers is not stable.In terms of a research domain,NNIR is studied from many dimensions,and the early established research domains still have long-lasting impacts in English literature.In contrast,Chinese literature mainly focuses on discussing applicable policies with no highly focused domain and research topic with great influence yet.Finally,the focus in both English and Chinese literature has changed.Since the original research framework is insufficient in explanatory power,literature in English is beginning to pay attention to the empirical analyses of practical policies,and Chinese scholars are turning to theoretical study to enhance the in-depth understanding of this phenomenon.Researchers in China should focus on collecting high-quality research materials and pay more attention to the progress of empirical research in English literature to improve Chinese research efficiency and quality and then promote research progress in China.

Piketty’s Capital-Income Theory Reconsidered for a Small Open Economy with Increasing Savings Rate

Since Piketty offered a new view of capital/income ratio, numerous attempts have been made to examine the relationship between return on capital, economic growth and the capital/income ratio. This paper attempts to shed new light on this field. More precisely, following recent literatures that pay attention to dynamics of external balance sheets of countries, we examine if Piketty’s results for large countries are robust for a country that takes the world rate of return on capital as given and whose savings rate increases gradually from negative value. It is revealed that for such a country, (1) Kuznets curve is drawn and (2) capital/income ratio decreases in accordance with a rise in savings rate and return on capital.

Economic uncertainty,central bank digital currency,and negative interest rate policy

The covID-19 outbreak has brought unprecedented social attention to economic uncertainty and negative interest rate policy(NIRP).How does uncertainty affect economic activity,and how effective is a NIRP based on central bank digital currency(CBDC)?To answer the two questions,we constructed a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium(DSGE)model that accommodates sticky prices and wages.The results indicated:(i)Economic uncertainty has substantially reduced investment,output,wage,and loans,which increases unemployment risk.In the short term,it has triggered impulsive consumption by households,while consumption has fallen into a slump in the long run.(ii)After suffering an uncertainty shock,the economy entered short-term stagflation and long-term deflation.The short-term stagflation was mainly caused by resident wage adjustment,and the long-term deflation was due to the decline in effective demand caused by unemployment risk.(ii)CBDC could eliminate the zero lower bound(ZLB)constraint,thereby improving the effectiveness of NIRP.Compared with traditional currency,CBDCbased NIRP could more effectively smooth macroeconomic fluctuations and alleviate the negative impact of an uncertainty shock,which is more conducive to restoring market confidence and promoting economic recovery.

An early recognition algorithm for BitTorrent traffic based on improved K-means

In response to the deficiencies of BitTorrent, the concept of density radius was proposed, and the distance from the maximum point of radius density to cluster center as a cluster radius was taken to solve the too large cluster radius resulted from the discrete points and to reduce the false positive rate of early recognition algorithms. Simulation results show that in the actual network environment, the improved algorithm, compared with K-means, will reduce the false positive rate of early identification algorithm from 6.3% to 0.9% and has a higher operational efficiency.

Short Term Efficacy of Entecavir in the Treatment of Decompensated Chronic Hepatitis B Cirrhosis

Objective:To explore the effect of entecavir on patients with decompensated chronic hepatitis B cirrhosis.Methods:From October 2007 to December 2019,100 patients with decompensated chronic hepatitis B cirrhosis who were treated in our hospital were selected to carry out this study.The clinical data of the patients were analyzed.According to whether entecavir treatment was carried out,100 patients were divided into two groups,50 cases in the control group and 50 cases in the observation group.The control group was treated with conventional drugs,and the observation group was treated with entecavir.Liver function indexes,liver fibrosis indexes,HBV-DNA negative conversion rate and incidence of adverse reactions were compared between the two groups.Results:Compared with the control group,the liver function indexes of the observation group were lower,P<0.05;Compared with the control group,the observation group was better,P<0.05;The negative rate of HBV-DNA in the observation group was lower than that in the control group(P<0.05);There was no difference in the incidence of adverse reactions between the two groups,P>0.05.Conclusion:Entecavir can not only improve the liver function,but also enhance the shortterm treatment effect,without increasing adverse reactions,and has high safety,which is worthy of recommendation.

Decline of oil prices and the negative interest rate policy in Japan

In April 2013,the Bank of Japan(BOJ)introduced an inflation target of 2%with the aim of overcoming deflation and achieving sustainable economic growth.But due to lower international oil prices it was unable to achieve this target and was forced to take further measures.Hence,in February 2016,the BOJ adopted a negative interest rate policy by massively increasing the money supply through the purchase of long-term Japanese government bonds(JGB).The BOJ had previously only purchased short-term government bonds,a policy that flattened the yield curve of JGBs.On the one hand,banks reduced the number of government bonds they purchased because short-term bond yields had become negative.The interest rates of long-term government bond up to 15 years even became negative.On the other hand,bank loans to corporates did not increase,due to Japanese economy’s vertical investment-saving(IS)curve.The purpose of this paper is to show that the monetary policy through implementation of the zero interest rate and more recently through the negative interest rate could not help the Japanese economy to recover from the long-lasting recession and these are not the remedy.It is of key importance to make the IS curve downward rather than vertical.That means the rate of return on investment must be positive and companies must be willing to invest even if interest rates are set too low.Japan’s long-term recession is due to structural problems that cannot be solved by its current monetary policy.The paper also explains why the BOJ has to reduce its 2%inflation target in the present low oil price era.

Effects of Tanreqing Capsule on the negative conversion time of nucleic acid in patients with COVID-19:A retrospective cohort study

Objective:Traditional Chinese medicine plays a significant role in the treatment of the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19).Tanreqing Capsule(TRQC)was used in the treatment of COVID-19 patients in the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center.This study aimed to investigate the clinical efficacy of TRQC in the treatment of COVID-19.Methods:A retrospective cohort study was conducted on 82 patients who had laboratory-confirmed mild and moderate COVID-19;patients were treated with TRQC in one designated hospital.The treatment and control groups consisted of 25 and 57 cases,respectively.The treatment group was given TRQC orally three times a day,three pills each time,in addition to conventional Western medicine treatments which were also administered to the control group.The clinical efficacy indicators,such as the negative conversion time of pharyngeal swab nucleic acid,the negative conversion time of fecal nucleic acid,the duration of negative conversion of pharyngeal-fecal nucleic acid,and the improvement in the level of immune indicators such as T-cell subsets(CD3,CD4 and CD45)were monitored.Results:COVID-19 patients in the treatment group,compared to the control group,had a shorter negative conversion time of fecal nucleic acid(4 vs.9 days,P=0.047)and a shorter interval of negative conversion of pharyngeal-fecal nucleic acid(0 vs.2 days,P=0.042).The level of CD3+T cells increased in the treatment group compared to the control group([317.09±274.39]vs.[175.02±239.95]counts/l L,P=0.030).No statistically significant differences were detected in the median improvement in levels of CD4+T cells(173 vs.107 counts/l L,P=0.208)and CD45+T cells(366 vs.141 counts/l L,P=0.117)between the treatment and control groups.Conclusion:Significant reductions in the negative conversion time of fecal nucleic acid and the duration of negative conversion of pharyngeal-fecal nucleic acid were identified in the treatment group as compared to the control group,illustrating the potential therapeutic benefits of using TRQC as a complement to conventional medicine in patients with mild and moderate COVID-19.The underlying mechanism may be related to the improved levels of the immune indicator CD3+T cells.