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With the rise in wine consumption, accurate wine price forecasts have significantly impacted restaurant and hotel purchasing decisions and inventory management. This study aims to develop a precise and effective wine price point and interval forecasting model.

The proposed forecast model uses an improved hybrid kernel extreme learning machine with an attention mechanism and a multi-objective swarm intelligent optimization algorithm to produce more accurate price estimates. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt at applying artificial intelligence techniques to improve wine price prediction. Additionally, an effective method for predicting price intervals was constructed by leveraging the characteristics of the error distribution. This approach facilitates quantifying the uncertainty of wine price fluctuations, thus rendering decision-making by relevant practitioners more reliable and controllable.

The empirical findings indicated that the proposed forecast model provides accurate wine price predictions and reliable uncertainty analysis results. Compared with the benchmark models, the proposed model exhibited superiority in both one-step- and multi-step-ahead forecasts. Meanwhile, the model provides new evidence from artificial intelligence to explain wine prices and understand their driving factors.

This study is a pioneering attempt to evaluate the applicability and effectiveness of advanced artificial intelligence techniques in wine price forecasts. The proposed forecast model not only provides useful options for wine price forecasting but also introduces an innovative addition to existing forecasting research methods and literature.

This article examines the major modifications made to the national revenue system since the initial reform and opening up of China in the late 1970s. A detailed analysis of revenue structures at the central and local levels of government is presented; several emerging issues are also discussed. The authors suggest that past reforms were largely successful in terms of rationalization of intergovernmental fiscal relations and have profoundly impacted the current revenue system to meet certain policy goals and administrative needs. A brief comparison illustrates that although central and local revenue systems share basic similarities such as a general reliance on tax revenue and an overall dependence on turnover and income taxes, striking differences are also in evidence which include extra-budgetary revenues and a high concentration of land-related revenue in local governments as well as a highly diversified local revenue structure. Key emergent issues identified include the readjustment of the roles played by the different levels of government in revenue administration and expenditure assignment, the increased importance of intergovernmental transfer and accountability, and possibilities for the adoption of new taxes such as a real property tax, a social security tax, and a volume-based vehicle emission tax.

Since the late 1970s, Chinese policymakers have implemented many policies to reform their country's administrative systems for the purpose of promoting economic development. In the area of public budgeting and finance, reform policies have been introduced to improve China's taxation system, budgeting system and intergovernmental fiscal relations. The implementation of these policies has resulted in many changes and improvement to China's society and has also created new challenges to China's future development. This symposium introduction provides a brief review of the development of reform policies and a summary of five articles that examine China's revenue system, public expenditure structure, budgeting control, incentive policy, and education finance.