Deregulating the Interest Rate?

TaoXiang,economicsprofessoratthePeople'sUniversity:BetweenMay1,1996andJune10,1999,thePeople'sBankofChinaloweredtheinterestrateonsevenoccasions,withtheinterestrateforoneyeardepositsloweredto2.25%.Ifinterestaccountingfor20%oftheinterestrateisdeducted,theactualrateis1.8%.Sosomepeoplebelieveloweringtheinterestratetoacertainextentcanactasamarket-driveninterestrate.Butmarket-driveninterestrateisnotdecidedbyafluctuatingrate.Theinterestrateshouldbedrivenbythemarket,buttodaytheconditionsarenotsuffi…     

Where Is the Economic Center of the West?

The China Western Forum 2000was held from 20 to 22 Octoberin Chengdu. Twenty policiesencouraging investment in the west wereput forward, and the western developmentwas further accelerated.Will Chengdu the No.4 City inChina?There are three generally acceptedmetropolises in China: Beijing, Shanghaiand Guangzhou.In a new round of competition, whichcity will become the No.4 after Beding,Shanghai and Guangzhou?Western cities are longing for thisposition.On the vast 56% of Chinese land inthe…     

What is the Western MarketLike? Meat? or Potatoes?

-Thoughtson99TalksonCooperationandInvestmentinEasternandWesternChinaAtthe99tradetalksontradeinEasternandWesternChina,onephenomenonpuzzledtheparticipants:peoplefromeasternprovincesflocktothecentralandwesternmarket,thinkingtherewouldbelargespaceforexploration,whilepeoplefromthecentralandwesternprovinceslookdownonthemarketsaroundthem,butfavourtheoutsideworld.ThereasonforthisphenomenonwasthatpeopleineasternandwesternChinahelddifferentviewsonthevalueofthecentralandwesternmarkets.Asthesayinggoes…     

Is the global economy on the brink of recession?

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Is the global economy on the brink of recession?     

What Future for the WTO?

The past decade has been troubling for the World Trade Organization (WTO). After 12 hard years of negotiation, and multiple missed deadlines, stakes are high for breaking the many logjams that obstruct the Doha Development Round. This article assesses what can be salvaged from the Doha Round and the associated global payoffs, and it provides guidelines for maintaining the relevance of the WTO moving forward. There is good reason for measured optimism, but for optimism to be sustained, trade ministers must deliver something meaningful at the Bali WTO Ministerial in December 2013.     

As the dollar sinks,will the yuan float?

Many scholars believe with the United States' increasing debt, the global position of the dollar is weakening. As the dollar declines, China, now the largest holder of U.S. dollars in the world, is understandably concerned. China's controversial peg to the U.S. dollar, combined with its $2.4 trillion in foreign reserves and trade imbalances, is debated daily by politicians and economists. This article presents arguments for and against the current China monetary policy in economic and political contexts. Statements from China's leaders, other global leaders, and economists are reviewed. Economic and political obstacles and incentives in the context of their influence on the China government are considered. Finally, milestones for business leaders to look for are suggested to help determine China's possible path to a fully convertible yuan. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

What's behind the Successful Pass of the Registration Report?

On December 1, 2005, the registration report for Shanghai Expo was passed inParis. This is a critical moment for Shanghai, and the result of the hard work jointly.What is behind the smooth success? Here we got some first hand information fromthe insiders.…     

Structuring the Smartphone Industry: Is the Mobile Internet OS Platform the Key?

With the launch of the original iPhone, Apple redefined the “smartphone” product category and accelerated the convergence of traditional mobile telephony, Internet services, and personal computing into a new industry. As these sectors merge into a single device, formerly separate industry architectures and their constituent firms are being forced into direct competition. We test theories of industry architecture and technological platforms regarding their ability to explain the strategies of key entrants in navigating the transition. We analyze in detail the actions and strategies of four major competitors, including Apple, Google, Microsoft, Nokia, and, more briefly, Research in Motion and HP/Palm, from the framework of technological platform theory. Our analysis suggests that currently some competitors are following traditional platform strategies, but that Google and Apple appear to have adopted strategies at odds with platform literature. We examine how the dynamics of this convergence may lead to a reconsideration of certain tenets of platform theory.     

Only the lonely? The influence of the spouse on the transition to self-employment

Previous research showed that married individuals are overrepresented among the self-employed. Few studies proposed skill-spillover between the spouses within the marriage as an explanation. This paper deviates from the previous research by exploring different relationship contexts (e.g., cohabitation, being married or divorced, a widow(er) or single) and the role of partner influences under these contexts. It argues that the interaction between gender and relationship status implies variation in not only resources but also constraints, and hence sorts individuals into two different types of self-employment: entrepreneurial self-employment (i.e., incorporated business) and unincorporated self-employment. Using “Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) 1965–2005” data, results of the competing risk models show that marital status contributes to both types of self-employment transitions, especially for men, but also for women. Cohabitation is a less supportive context for entrepreneurship and a partner’s self-employment experience increases only women’s likelihood of entering into entrepreneurship. These results suggest that skill-spillover between partners might be context dependent and only in one direction (from men to women).     

Southern Asia cluster: where the old meets the new?

The GLOBE southern Asia cluster consists of India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand. The cluster has a total population of almost 1.5 billion and a gross domestic product of almost U.S.$1 trillion. The hallmark of the cluster is its high power distance and group and family collectivism practices. In terms of values, it aspires for a much stronger future orientation and performance orientation, and much lower levels of power distance. The cluster highly values charismatic, team oriented, and humane leadership. The managerial implications of GLOBE findings are discussed in the paper.     

How Large Is the Risk of Stagflation in the Eurozone?

The rapid recovery of demand combined with supply constraints has led to rising prices during the past months. This is evident in oil and gas markets, but also in international trade, which has been thrown out of step by bottlenecks at Asian ports. This situation creates a trade-off for the European Central Bank, because a more expansionary monetary policy cannot mitigate the supply bottlenecks and supply-side restrictions, while a more restrictive monetary policy would slow down the economic recovery. For this reason, key interest rate hikes in the eurozone are not to be expected for 2022. If the supply-side factors become persistent and wage policy tries to pass the price effects on, monetary policy will be forced to become restrictive.

     

Damage at the Pump: Does Punishment Fit the Crime?

We use time-series analysis to estimate the economic damage caused by the uncovered retail gasoline cartel in the city of Sherbrooke. We calculate both the total overcharge and the deadweight loss using a Marshallian demand curve. We find that total damages for the period spanning from January 2000 to May 2006 can be as high as $16.2 million expressed in 2002 Canadian dollars. We compare the total damages from this price fixing conspiracy in the city of Sherbrooke to the meted punishment for all of the investigated markets and find the latter to be a small fraction of the former. We argue that the current enforcement of the Competition Act’s conspiracy provision is unlikely to deter cartel formation.     

What's Behind the Hype of Decoupling?

The meaning of decoupling "You either believe in decoupling or globalization--but not both",said Stephen Roach,an economist at Morgan Stanley.AND"you can have both decoupiing and globalization at the same time";said an article in The Economist.     

Do Arbitragers Exploit the January Effect?

The January effect has been well documented since the 1970s. This study examines whether the January effect still exists and if it does, whether arbitrageurs exploit it. We find that the January effect is still persistently significant. Furthermore, we find that arbitrageurs appear to exploit the January effect, especially in good market years when the number of losing firms is limited and are therefore more easily identifiable. We also find that the January effect tends to be higher for losing stocks with high arbitrage costs relative to those with low arbitrage costs.     

Will the DSM Strategy Spur Innovation?

In summary, the DSM strategy appears laudable and overall very comprehensive. However, its impact will depend on whether the Commission manages to create a more suitable environment for innovation and entrepreneurship by upgrading skills, promoting more adaptive rulemaking, empowering end user choice, and avoiding rules that are hostile to innovation, such as excessive restrictions to text and data mining and the extension of obsolete rules to OTTs.     

The Recipe for the Perfect Review?

Online product reviews, originally intended to reduce consumers’ pre-purchase search and evaluation costs, have become so numerous that they are now themselves a source for information overload. To help consumers find high-quality reviews faster, review rankings based on consumers’ evaluations of their helpfulness were introduced. But many reviews are never evaluated and never ranked. Moreover, current helpfulness-based systems provide little or no advice to reviewers on how to write more helpful reviews. Average review quality and consumer search costs could be much improved if these issues were solved. This requires identifying the determinants of review helpfulness, which we carry out based on an adaption of Wang and Strong’s well-known data quality framework. Our empirical analysis shows that review helpfulness is influenced not only by single-review features but also by contextual factors expressing review value relative to all available reviews. Reviews for experiential goods differ systematically from reviews for utilitarian goods. Our findings, based on 27,104 reviews from Amazon.com across six product categories, form the basis for estimating preliminary helpfulness scores for unrated reviews and for developing interactive, personalized review writing support tools.     

Business and the Environment: Is There More to the Story?

Actions taken to improve the environment are frequently good for profits, but many executives, including economists, are not fully aware of just how good businesss environmental record is. As a result, they often have difficulty responding to critics. This article will present three major points: 1) the environment of the United States is much improved over the past several decades, and businesss pursuit of profits has been an important factor; 2) the publics information about business and the environment is poor; and 3) this faulty information fosters the impression that business is evading its responsibilities.JEL Classification Q50     

Triage? Assessing the EU’s Modernisation Proposals for the WTO

According to the European Commission (EC), the WTO is struggling to credibly remain the go-to place for trade negotiations.1 Indeed, after the Commission stated its concerns, EU-Ambassador to the WTO Marc Vanheukelen commented that if the organisation does not take measures to move forward, the result would be “the demise of the rules-based trading system”.