Industrial Policy in Japan

Japanese industrial policy had been well known to be about specific sectors and technologies. About 1990 economic growth stopped after decades of a remarkable process of catching up with the US. The potential to borrow technologies and ideas from other countries has become exhausted and Japan had to develop own technologies. The article descibes structural reforms in competition policy, corporate governance, management of intellectual property and mobility of researchers. Industrial policy has now more to do with horizontal policies and framework conditions than with targeting. Even if the “new economic growth strategy” – drawn up by the economics ministry [Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)] and improved by government in 2006 – defines industrial areas with strong growth potential, these areas are obvious and there are no instruments available to promote them specifically. METI has become a proponent of government wide deregulation and will play as a leader of reforms.     

Business Regulations and Private Domestic Investment in Africa

In this article, the author seeks to complement the perception-based studies by utilizing the objective measures from the Doing Business project to analyze the relationship between business regulations and private domestic investment in Africa. He reports evidence that reforms in business regulations affecting contract enforcement, tax administration, firm entry, labor markets, and the private sector as a whole positively affect private domestic investment in Africa. These findings are important for assisting policy makers in creating a business regulatory environment that promotes domestic private investment and thereby encourages economic growth in Africa.     

Cuba,the centrally planned cigar,and its rivals

Cuba has a long‐standing reputation for producing premium cigars. Despite the inefficiencies of central planning, Cuba continues to command a dominant global market share in this product outside the United States, whose trade embargo forbids Cuban imports. Cuba's main rivals in premium cigars include the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Honduras, which dominate the US market but have a smaller presence elsewhere. All premium cigar exporters face important global demographic and policy changes that will alter the competitive landscape. Public anti‐smoking measures have diminished cigar demand in Europe and other industrialised areas, reinforcing a market growth shift towards emerging markets, especially China. Cuba's strengths in branding, reputation and third‐world ties give it an advantage in developing the high end of these new markets. However, the rigidities of Cuba's economic system make it difficult to increase or adjust premium cigar output and exports in response to new market opportunities. Cost‐efficient competition from its Caribbean rivals allows them to respond to consumer preferences for new cigar blends and lower‐priced brands. The paper concludes by assessing the need for economic reforms and foreign investment in Cuban cigar production that will be necessary for it to maintain or improve its export performance.     

Determinants of Entry in Turkish Manufacturing Industries

The entry of new firms into markets plays an important role in efficient resource allocation and evolution for long term economic growth. Employing dynamic panel data techniques, this paper investigates entry behavior in 66 four-digit Turkish manufacturing industries for the 1993–1999 period. The results of this paper suggest that potential entrants observe the market before the entry takes place; entry is, in general, a follow-up process; and incumbent firms seem to collude to prevent entry in Turkish manufacturing industries. In addition, the real interest rate appears to be a very important determinant of entry decision.     

From exploiting to investing: A survey of us firms doing business in russia

US companies have been accused by the Russian media of flooding the Russian markets with their exports, repatriating their revenues or using them to buy Russian resources cheaply, and, as a result, increasing Russia's unemployment and decreasing its standard of living. Russia, argue many Russian experts interviewed in the past several years, is being badly exploited and its culture cheapened with Western candy, which in 1994 took $5 billion from consumers in Russia. On the other hand, US companies, which have been entering the Russian market in increasing numbers, argue that exporting products and services to Russia enhances the satisfaction of Russian consumers and contributes to the country's economy. They further say that as they become more familiar and comfortable with the Russian market, they change their strategies and increase their investment in Russia. Are US companies exploiting Russia or investing in its economic expansion? In this study the author investigated the entry strategies to Russia of 87 large US companies starting in 1989. These were randomly selected corporations, including a cross-section of consumer goods, industrial goods, computers, oil and gas, fast food, and consulting companies. What emerged was a captivating, historical drama, which changes rapidly from making money through exporting to Russia, to commitment through investment in plants and employment. For example, while the most popular entry doors to Russia have been exportlimport and joint ventures, most strategy changes since 1989 have been to wholly-owned subsidiaries, which usually require substantial investment. Yesterday's Snickers Bars exporter, Mars Candy, created a wholly-owned subsidiary, Masterfoods, and spent $70 million to build a chocolate and pet food factory that employs many Russians. In addition, a greater number of US companies entered the Russian market after the 1992 Yeltsin economic shock therapy and had a much needed stabilizing effect on the Russian economy. So, what may have been perceived as a one-sided relationship has been evolving to growth and mutual commitment. And as the Russian economy continues to grow, these companies will grow and prosper, too. Executives who are interested in the Russian market are advised that this market is real, growing, and worth considering. To enter and grow in this market, however, executives are cautioned that business deals in Russia must be structured in unfamiliar ways, and that they must employ local workers and respect Russia's culture and history. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Germany’s Post- Wirtschaftswunder Struggle

For many years after World War II, Germany’s economic output grew very rapidly—a period commonly referred to as the “Wirtschaftswunder,” or economic miracle. It came to an end in the 1970s. This paper addresses three questions: Why did growth decline after the 1970s? Why did Germany take so long to embark on reforms? What is the economic outlook today? It argues that two factors were responsible for falling growth: the end of the post-World War II economic catch-up and a failure to reform the economy in response to shocks. Because of Germany’s political system, economic reforms require broad popular support. However, this support changes constantly due to frequent elections, which makes it difficult for governments to push through ambitious reforms that typically have payoffs stretching beyond electoral cycles. Nonetheless, the depth of the 2001-05 economic downturn and Germany’s comparatively poor economic growth performance in Europe have by now forged a general agreement on the need for change. The European Union, notably with its policies that combat state aid and that call for sound fiscal positions, has played an important role in forging this agreement. Accordingly, Germany’s economic outlook has by now improved noticeably, although significant challenges remain.     

Chinese trade price and Yuan's valuation

This paper studies how the major economic events would have affected Chinese yuan's nominal exchange rate against US dollar from 1989 to 2013. The traditional average treatment effect estimation methods cannot be used to consistently estimate yuan's pegged exchange rate. We develop a new estimation strategy by combining a novel panel data method (proposed by Hisao, Ching and Wan) and the purchasing power parity theory. Based on this new estimation strategy, we find that during the period of pegging to US dollar, Chinese yuan were undervalued. Before the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, the pegged exchange rate regime starting from January 1994 made the yuan undervalued by 2.62%. China's accession to WTO caused yuan undervalued by 36.60%. After the reform of Chinese exchange rate policy in July 2005, the undervaluation of the yuan was reduced to only 0.76%. Yuan was undervalued again by 20.43% because of 2008 China's economy stimulus package. The policy reform in June 2010 made yuan overvalued by 14.40%. We conclude that Chinese fixed exchange rate policy indeed undervalued the yuan, especially after its accession to WTO. The recent reforms of Chinese exchange rate policy made progresses in re‐evaluating the yuan.     

Financial Sector Reforms in Developing Countries: The Indian Experience

This study is based on the premise that the success/failure of financial sector reforms depends heavily on country specific factors and makes an attempt to examine these factors in the Indian context. The financial sector reforms analysed in this paper include the deregulation of interest rates, increasing competition and foreign ownership, and the introduction of financial supervision. We argue that an economic rationale for a gradualist approach to financial reform is that it is stability enhancing. Furthermore, we suggest that India’s complex political economy has resulted in a gradual approach to reform, and this approach has been successful along the dimension of banking stability.     

Innovation in retail internationalisation: Tesco in the USA

This paper examines the market entry of the UK's largest retailer (Tesco) into the USA. Tesco's launch of a new brand – Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets – in virgin territory is a bold move, notwithstanding the firm's considerable success with its overseas investment strategy (which within ten years has resulted in more than 50% of the firm's operating space being outside its ‘home’ market). The paper contextualises the study by taking a historical view of innovation in the retail industry, which reveals that generally - and certainly for the most part of the twentieth century – innovations have dominantly flowed from the US to the UK. The paper suggests that Tesco's US experiment is unusual both in terms of the innovatory aspects of its market entry and the reversal in that conventional direction of knowledge transfer. The Fresh & Easy story is then examined in terms of ten ‘dimensions of innovation’ involved in the market entry. The paper concludes by drawing out from these ‘dimensions of innovation’ a number of important issues for management scholarship raised by the study, stressing the need to incorporate insights from a wider social science literature.     

Crisis of Governance

Abstract

This paper looks at links between firms' behavior and the institutional environment in Russia. It seeks to show that the intentional weakening of the economic and administrative role of the state in the early stages of reforms has increased the economic and social cost of transition. This happens as the majority of firms in Russia still prefer short-term solutions and partial adjustment to full-scale restructuring as they often fail to show anticipated responses following privatization and price liberalization. The shortage of market-type response can be attributed to the fragility of market-based incentives. The new institutional economics maintains that the cradle for these incentives is the system of institutions, which are the rules of the game in the society or, more formally, the humanly-devised constraints that shape human interactions. Accordingly, this paper argues that for the post-communist reforms to achieve their objectives, it is essential for the state to provide a framework, institutionalizing economic conflict and thus contributing to sustainable development. However, the analysis suggests that the evolvement of a modern institutional rëgime in the country is likely to be delayed as a consequence of vested interest of a number of powerful economic groups.     

Demystifying Japan's Economic Recovery

After having undergone protracted economic doldrums, Japan has begun to attract the world’s attention. Prime Minister Shintaro Abe, taking office in September 2006, pledged to continue his predecessor’s reforms while looking to closer economic ties with Japan’s neighboring countries. This paper examines the challenges the Abe administration must address, the reforms the administration still needs to tackle, and the problems that lie ahead. It starts with an evaluation of Japan’s economic condition from a long-term perspective, especially the drastic change in its labor market and its rapidly aging society. It then discusses the unfinished reforms the government is facing— restored fiscal balances, a less-regulated economy both at home and abroad, and a new innovation-driven growth path. In sharp contrast to his single-minded and charismatic predecessor, Prime Minister Abe has taken a less spectacular and more nuanced stance toward reforms. A more market-principled Japan will create increased competitive conditions for economic players in both the private and public sectors. Japan’s economy will face a precarious state—swinging between an economy armed with marketbased principles (but suffering from a “growth pain”) and an “ugly Japan” that divides the haves and the have-nots. JEL Classification 053, J10     

Pro-market reforms and the outsourcing tradeoffs: Evidence from the transition economies

What determines the firm scope is a fundamental question driving strategy and international business research. Extant literature examining a firm’s vertical scope decision has historically not accounted for the influence of institutional reforms. To fill this gap, we develop a theoretical framework based on insights from institutional economics to examine how pro-market reforms and firm-level R&D activity influence the likelihood of outsourcing production activities. Using data from the Business Environment and Enterprises Performance Surveys conducted by World Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in twenty-eight transition economies, we analyze the influence of pro-market reforms on the outsourcing decision. We do not find support for a strong direct influence of pro-market reforms on the likelihood of starting outsourcing. However, we find evidence that pro-market reforms influence the relationship between R&D activity and the likelihood of outsourcing. Interestingly, economic and legal reforms moderate the relationship between R&D activity and the likelihood to start outsourcing in different ways. While economic reforms weaken the positive relationship between R&D activity and outsourcing, legal reforms strengthen it.     

New aspects of US economic policy towards LDCs

President Carter assumed power in Washington in January, 1977. Since that time, many aspects of US foreign economic policy, especially those involving the less developed countries (LDCs), have been reviewed and some new approaches have been introduced. Foreign and concepts have been adjusted and the US has actively participated in the North-South Dialogue; it has also become increasingly involved in international economic including UN conferences.     

Private Equity Finance as a Growth Engine: What It Means for Emerging Markets

Entrepreneurship has long been considered crucial for economic development. An important element of entrepreneurship is the willingness and ability to mobilize private capital from both domestic and foreign sources. The private equity sector in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) illustrates the role that private capital can play in the development of emerging markets. Data on the employment generation and growth performance of private equity provide evidence that it is an important driver of economic growth globally. This paper draws on initial evidence from the MENA region to illustrate the sector's potential there and in emerging markets generally. It then recommends a new generation of reforms to fuel this growth engine. A survey of MENA’s private equity industry survey conducted for this paper assesses these developments and the sector's need for proactive reforms to support it. It also shows that international financial market interest in private equity finance does not seem to have abated with the recent market bust. The paper concludes by identifying priority areas for future policy and research. JEL Classification O160     

Mercosul External Policies in a Multipolar World

ABSTRACT

The creation of Mercosur rested on perceptions of US and European economic and political “hegemony” to which the new regional trade arrangement was viewed as an appropriate response. Since then the world economy has evolved in ways that question these assumptions, driven by the sharp increase in the number of economic activities that are in competition on a world scale. Other major economies, notably China and India, have been more successful than the Southern Cone countries in adapting to this multipolar world economy, challenging Mercosul to find new responses.     

Richtungswechsel in den USA — Folgen der neuen Präsidentschaft für die Wirtschaft

Under US President Donald Trump, it can be expected that large tax cuts will be passed and public expenditure will be slightly limited. He correctly identified US deindustrialisation as one of the economy’s core problems. His proposed policy platforms, however, are unpredictable and most likely harmful for the US and world economy. Even more importantly, the new government repeatedly clashes with national and multilateral institutions and thereby challenges the heart of democratically based capitalism. At present, it is still open if Donald Trump’s Executive Orders on trade measures will be backed by the US Congress. In any case, the new US administration is obviously abandoning the general principle of free trade. But the announced changes in US trade and exchange rate policies are less of a fundamental break than is often argued, because cooperation in international economic policy has always been limited and unstable. Beyond trade policy, it seems to be the intention of the new US government to fundamentally change the course of the country with regard to the financial markets. With regard to its monetary policy, the administration’s current position is marked by its inherent inconsistency. However, the new government has several channels through which to influence and fundamentally change the working of the Fed in order to make it more obedient to its goals.     

New aspects of US economic policy towards LDCs

President Carter assumed power in Washington in January, 1977. Since that time, many aspects of US foreign economic policy, especially those involving the less developed countries (LDCs), have been reviewed and some new approaches have been introduced. Foreign and concepts have been adjusted and the US has actively participated in the North-South Dialogue; it has also become increasingly involved in international economic including UN conferences.

     

网络化社会企业管理的变革

科技和生产力的发展,必然导致社会形态的革命性变革。信息技术的发展促成了信息社会、网络 社会的到来。网络与经济的紧密结合,形成了网络经济的新经济形式。一种新社会、经济形态出现,必 然引起企业外部环境及内部组织的深刻变化,进而引起企业的管理理念、组织结构、管理模式发生变革。     

The private sector in the Soviet Union and China

The private sector in the fields of agriculture, wholesaling and retailing, craft trades and light industry, already well-developed in the People’s Republic of China and a number of Eastern European countries, is now to be given a more significant role in the Soviet Union. Moscow’s economic reformers believe this will contribute to an improved standard of living, as has been the case in China during the economic reform which has now been underway since 1978/79. It is therefore tempting to compare the concepts underlying the reforms and the course they have taken in the two socialist “super-powers”, the key question being whether the Russians will achieve similar successes with their reforms, once all the teething troubles are overcome, to those of the Chinese.     

享年次高的诺贝尔奖得主——新制度经济学大师罗纳德·科斯

1991年诺贝尔经济学奖得主、英国和美国(双重国籍)经济学家和法学家罗纳德·科斯是交易成本理论、科斯定理和科斯猜想的首创者,法律经济学和新制度经济学的开山鼻祖,产权理论和产权经济学的奠基人,他开启了产权理论、法律经济学和新制度经济学三个领域的研究方向。科斯是国际经济学界的泰斗级大师和巨匠,他在阐述经济组织产生的原理、交易成本分析以及推动法学、经济史和组织理论的发展方面作出重要贡献,发展了新古典经济学,开创了现代企业理论。科斯一生都关切和热爱中国,一直密切关注着中国的经济改革,其经济理论和深邃思想对中国的经济改革影响巨大而深远。