Recent financial turmoil (e.g., the 2008–2009 global financial crisis) has resulted in financial contagion-induced instability becoming one of the major concerns in the fields of economics and finance. In this paper, we extend the network analysis of financial contagion from three perspectives. First, given that cross-holding of claims and obligations among financial institutions can be viewed as input-output linkages, we model the financial system and the contagion mechanism by introducing the classic Leontief input–output framework. Second, based on this modeling process, we propose a simple contagion algorithm to study how financial system heterogeneity influences its stability. Third, to mitigate financial contagion, we propose several concrete intervention policies based on two widely used prudential approaches—forced mergers and capital injections. The performance of these intervention policies is then evaluated by comprehensive numerical experiments. Our study has significant implications for financial regulation and supervision.

This paper undertakes a critical appraisal of the prospects for fictionalist inquiry in psychology, which runs contrary to the traditional dissociation between fiction and knowledge-laden discourse. Following a review of the contested boundary between fiction and nonfiction, a portrait of essential aspects of fiction emerges, which includes authorial warrant, imaginative prescription, and performative engagement. The paper then proceeds to outline fictionalism as a philosophical approach, with reference to early and more modern variants of the position. This leads to a little discussed epistemic position called the fictional stance, which is then developed and applied to various psychological domains including the psychology of fiction, the fictional constructions, and the narrative study of lives. The viewpoint that emerges sees the epistemic value of fictional thinking in the unique access it provides to intuitive powers of the psychological imagination and to non-conceptual understandings of psychological life.

Laboratory experiments have many benefits and serve as a powerful tool for social psychology research. However, relying too heavily on laboratory experiments leaves the entire discipline of social psychologist vulnerable to the inherent limitations of laboratory research. We discuss the benefits of integrating archival research into the portfolio of tools for conducting social psychological research. Using four published examples, we discuss the benefits and limitations of conducting archival research. We also provide suggestions on how social psychological researchers can take advantage of the benefits while overcoming the weaknesses of archival research. Finally, we provide useful resources and directions for utilizing archival data. We encourage social psychologists to increase the robustness of this scientific literature by supplementing laboratory experiments with archival research.

In the sustainability transitions literature, social phenomena have mostly been examined in relation to – and at the level of – collective forms of action. Here our focus is on psychological, primarily individualistic approaches to understanding action as behaviour, with particular attention to consumption and technology acceptance. We document and discuss the ways in which the psychology of agents or actors has been described and theorised in these contexts within the sociotechnical transitions literature to date, both implicitly and explicitly. A review of the latter literature shows that while actor motivation and behaviour are often implicitly referred to, these are rarely theorised explicitly using psychological concepts. Reasons for the limited use of individual-level, psychological constructs are discussed and suggestions for how these may be more closely connected to structural and collective processes are made.

As the resource tax will be extended to the occupation of natural ecological space in China, this paper takes Shanxi Province as an example to calculate the ecological footprint and ecological service value of energy consumption; it then constructs a Computable General Equilibrium model of tax on ecological occupation and analyzes the impact of resource tax reform on a resource-based economy from the structure of factor, output, and trade. The results show that the tax scheme has an obvious effect on promoting economic transition under a static situation, but it also has a greater negative impact. In a dynamic scenario, the negative effect is small, but it affects long-term economic growth. In terms of factor structure, ecological footprint steadily declines, while investment growth is rapid. In terms of output structure, the proportion of the secondary industry increases, but the growth rate is slower, and the growth rate of the tertiary industry continues to improve. In terms of trade structure, although the coal mining industry shows increased export, the growth rate is declining, and there is increase in net exports of tertiary industry. Thus, the tax scheme has the effect of promoting the transformation of a resource-based economy. We propose levying a resource tax based on ecological occupation to protect the ecological service function of natural resources, reduce the capital and labor factor tax, and promote the development of non-resource type industry.

We consider the classical scheduling problem on parallel identical machines to minimize the makespan. There is a long history of study on this problem, focusing on exact and approximation algorithms. It is thus natural to consider whether these algorithms can be further improved in terms of running times. We provide strong lower bounds on the running times of exact and approximation schemes for the classical scheduling problem based on Exponential Time Hypothesis, showing that the best known approximation and exact algorithms are almost the best possible in terms of the running time.