Abstract:This paper investigates the patent operation strategies for the upstream high-tech firms with random yield in supply chains. A supply chain with one upstream supplier and one downstream manufacturer is studied under three common patent strategies: monopoly，licensing and sharing. Under the monopoly strategy，the upstream supplier produces the high-tech components himself for the downstream manufacturer and suffers from the random yield. Under the licensing strategy，the supplier does not produce the components but authorizes the technology to a reliable foundry by charging a patent license fee. Under the sharing strategy，the supplier shares the patent to the foundry to insure that the shortfall order can be made up by the foundry after the supplier’s random yield is realized. The results show that when the market potential faced by the manufacturer is small，the patent licensing is the dominant strategy for the high-tech supplier. When the market potential is large，the high-tech supplier chooses the monopoly strategy if its reliability is low and the sharing strategy if the opposite is the case. Compared with the decentralized decision scenario，the dominance interval of the licensing strategy is enlarged but that of the monopoly strategy is shrunk in the centralized decision scenario. This study also shows that there exists a distortion between the optimal patent strategy for the supplier and that for the whole supply chain，and that the degree of distortion will be enlarged by the decrease of start-up cost but weakened by the increase of supply risk.

Abstract:For the vertical differentiated-generation-cost electricity market prevailing after carbon emission reduction and the significant differences in large user’s generation capacity preference，the paper proposes a probabilistic supply of electric quantity and its corresponding probabilistic generating. Further，price leverage is utilized to regulate insufficient generation opportunity and insufficient supply efficiency of low-carbon generation，especially high generation cost generation. The probabilistic generating models under endogenous and exogenous choices of generation cost are constructed successively，the generator’s electric supply quantity equilibria are solved，and the optimality of probabilistic generating strategies is analyzed. Finally，the model under endogenous generation cost choice is extended to the probabilistic generating model which decomposes the market demand uncertainty. The research finds that probabilistic generating can be regarded as a way to profitably dispose excess capacity compared to three generating benchmarks，and remains viable even when the generation cost choice is endogenous. When the generator employs a generation strategy of“strong”cost differentiation，the introduction of a compromised probabilistic generating causes closer cost levels in a product line，and enhances the large user’s consumer surplus. In contrast，in a market where the generator implements generating of“weak”cost differentiation，the use of probabilistic generating enlarges the cost separation and degrades the large user’s consumer surplus. Under an uncertain market demand，when the large user preferring lower cost generation capacity has a sufficiently high valuation for the unit generation cost relative to the large user preferring higher cost generation capacity，probabilistic generating may be used as a tool to manage adverse demand conditions.

Abstract:In the era of“Internet +”，crowdfunding has gradually become a new mode of e-commerce. After analyzing the features of the crowdfunding pattern，this paper proposed a value measurement model of network externality in a crowdfunding platform by choosing the characteristics of network externality and the structure of perfect monopoly market as the breakthrough points. The established model contains two functions: the crowdfunding initiator’s revenue function and the consumer utility function，with the latter considering both the macro and the micro network externality. By solving a two-stage game model，the optimal price vector of the crowdfunding initiator，the optimal subscribing amounts of investors and the optimal income level of the crowdfunding initiator are derived in the three cases of differential pricing strategy，single uniform price strategy and the benchmark without network externality，respectively. Besides，the strategic value and intrinsic value of network externality are obtained by comparing the optimal revenues of the crowdfunding initiator under different strategies，which is the foundation of designing profitable referral networks in a crowdfunding platform with the function of recommendation. These results show that the proposed crowdfunding platform with the recommendation function enables to encourage the market participants to recommend more people to join in the crowdfunding project so as to greatly raise the crowdfunding initiator’s income level. To sum up，the proposed model is meaningful for the crowdfunding initiators to raise their income levels and further for the market participants to improving the marketing modes in a crowdfunding platform.

Abstract:Based on an analysis of urban system equilibrium of a ring-radial city，a decision model for investing in urban ring rail transit lines is proposed. In the proposed model，the interactions among different parties in the urban system are considered. The local authorities determine the optimal location and number of the ring rail lines，and the optimal frequency of vehicles on the rail transit lines to maximize the social welfare of the system. The households choose residential locations and housing space to maximize their own utility. The property developers seek to maximize their own net profit by determining the housing supply. The commuters choose the routes with minimum travel cost for commute. The findings show that the investment in ring rail lines will expand the total area of the city and cause the“peaks”of residential density，housing price，and investment intensity to appear on the ring rail lines，but the“valleys”of household housing space to appear on the ring rail lines. The investment in the ring rail lines can benefit both the urban residents and the urban system. The average residential density，average housing price，average land value，and average investment intensity all decrease，whereas the average housing area increases. In addition，the construction cost of the rail transit lines has significant effects on the investment decisions of the ring rail transit lines.

Abstract:Based on the monocentric city model，this paper investigates the urban spatial equilibrium in a bimodal traffic corridor with car-owning and non-car-owning residents. By explicitly integrating the preference for auto driving into car-owning residents’direct utility functions，the paper presents a new city model and analyzes the impact of the preference for auto driving on urban land rental price. It is shown that when all residents are car-owning residents，the value of residential land first increases and then decreases as the residential location is further away from the CBD. Two possible urban spatial patterns are explored when the different travel behaviors between car-owning and no-car-owning residents are considered. Based on the presented model，the effects of car ownership and total residents change on urban spatial structure and utility level are further analyzed.

Abstract:From the perspective of corporate rumors and clarification announcements，this paper investigates the problem of short-selling and informed trading in a sample of Chinese A-share listed companies between April 2010 and March 2018. The empirical results show that，first of all，the pre-rumor abnormal short-selling is significantly negatively correlated with the post-rumor stock return，indicating that short sellers can predict the release time and content of corporate rumors in advance and therefore are informed traders. Secondly，effective clarification announcements can moderate the negative relation between pre-rumor short-selling and post-rumor stock return，indicating that short sellers can anticipate the effectiveness of clarification announcements to some extent，which further supports the conclusion that“short sellers are informed traders”. Further study shows that short sellers can distinguish whether the rumors are true or false，and that private information mining is an important source of short sellers’information. Based on the practice of short selling in China， this paper provides new empirical evidence for the debate whether short sellers are informed traders，and has important practical significance for the perfection of short selling mechanism，the countermeasure of corporate rumors and the regulation of media.

Abstract:“The Belt and Road”( B&R) initiative may have a profound effect on all aspects of socio-economic development across the relevant countries within the region，among which employee mobility is a basic but critical issue. By applying big data technics and text analysis to massive resume data，this paper collects millions of authentic resumes that are publicly available online from the B&R countries in Southeast Asia and South Asia and reconstructs a panel data set to capture the history of employee mobility in recent years. On this basis， this paper empirically investigates the influence of the B&R on employee mobility in the relevant countries. Our results demonstrate that the B&R，as a result of the implementation of related investment projects，has significantly improved the level of employee mobility in relevant countries. Meanwhile，this paper also conducts a quasi-natural experiment to further verify the main findings by using PSM-DID method. The findings of this paper may help to enhance our understandings of the significance of the B&R as well as its global impact. Moreover，the innovative way of utilizing the big data of online resumes in this paper may provide important implications for future studies in related fields.