Producing a sense of meaningful place: evidence from a cultural festival in Hong Kong

Festivals are social and cultural phenomena that represent the living culture of a local community. However, studies on festivals have mainly focused on the economic contributions to the community and place. Relevant studies that probe into the intertwined relationship between festivals and uniqueness of place and locale are lacking. To fill this gap, this study explores the extent to which festivals contribute to the construction of a sense of place and its respective locality. Based on a case study of the Cheung Chau Bun Festival, a community-based local festival in Hong Kong, this study examines place-related conceptions associated with community festivals. In-depth interviews were conducted to investigate local residents' perceptions of festival meanings and the underlying relationships with the construction of place uniqueness. Findings suggest that festivals are among the possible elements that can contribute to the ontological construction of the place. Three underlying themes of festival meanings, namely, religion and heritage, social bonding, and imagined locality, are crucial elements attributing to the sense of place that eventually shape the identification of a unique place. Therefore, festivals are a potential channel through which the history of a community can be narrated and a sense of place uniqueness can be established.     

Do energy prices converge across Russian regions?

This paper tests for price convergence in Russian energy markets from January 2003 to October 2010. Monthly energy prices for four energy products (diesel, gasoline, electricity and coal) for 83 Russian regions are drawn from Russia's statistical agency Rosstat. The study contributes to the existing literature by using the Exponential Smooth Auto-Regressive Augmented Dickey–Fuller unit root test in a panel setup, which encompasses cross-section dependence. We find that there are no fully integrated national energy markets in Russia, possibly due to the peripheral position of diverging regions, unbalanced distribution of energy reserves and limited cross-border transmission capacity.     

US Fiscal Policy and Asset Prices: The Role of Partisan Conflict

Fiscal policy shocks exert wide‐reaching effects, including movements in asset markets. US politics have been characterized historically by a high degree of partisan conflict. The combination of increasing polarization and divided government leads not only to significant Congressional gridlock, but also to spells of high fiscal policy uncertainty. This paper adds to the literature on the relationships between fiscal policy and asset prices in the US economy conditional on the degree of partisan conflict. We analyze whether a higher degree of partisan conflict (legislative gridlock) reduces the efficacy of the effect and response of fiscal policy on and to asset price movements, respectively. We find that partisan conflict does not significantly affect the relationships between the fiscal surplus to gross domestic product (GDP) and housing and equity returns. Rather, if important, partisan conflict affects the actual implementation of fiscal policy actions.     

Convergence Across the United States: Evidence from Panel ESTAR Unit Root Test

Many empirical studies try to test whether there is income convergence across metropolitan areas in the continental United States. Drennan et al. (Journal of Economic Geography 4(5), 2004) claim that income among metropolitan economies is diverging for the period 1969–2001, after applying univariate unit root tests to the time series data. This paper brings new information to this area of study by using the nonlinear panel unit root test of the Exponential Smooth Auto-Regressive Augmented Dickey–Fuller (ESTAR-ADF) unit root test on the time series data for the period 1929–2005. Our results find evidence of stationarity for time series and thereby support beta and sigma convergence among states in a nonlinear setup. However, when the non-linear test encompasses cross section dependence as advocated by Cerrato et al. (2008), the evidence is attenuated.     

Determinants of Competitiveness： Observations in China＇s Textile and Apparel Industries

This paper attempts to explore key determinants of competitiveness in the textile and apparel industries, with special reference to Chinese Mainland. The authors conduct a survey that is designed to use productivity, supply-side and demand-side determinants to measure enterprises＇ competitiveness. The collected survey data is then analyzed using factor analysis to capture the related determining factors indicative of competitiveness at the enterprise level. The findings demonstrate that government policies and related industry infrastructure are the most important determinants of competitiveness in the textile and apparel industries, followed by domestic demand. This suggests that the improvement of industry infrastructure can foster industry performance, and that more resources should be endowed to enhance the domestic business competitiveness of local enterprises. The development of domestic demand will foster the competitiveness of the textile and apparel industries on a more sustainable basis.     

Behavioral effects of fairness in performance measurement and evaluation systems: Empirical evidence from France

The measurement and evaluation of employee performance are crucial aspects of the management accounting system because of their effects on employee motivation. It is therefore important for management accountants to understand how such effects occur. Fairness may be a key explanatory factor. This study proposes that the effects of the fairness of employee performance measurement and evaluation procedures on employee job satisfaction and organizational commitment are indirect. The results, based on a sample of 60 French managers, support these expectations. For the relationship between procedural fairness and job satisfaction, the effects are indirect through trust and fairness of outcomes. For the relationship between procedural fairness and organizational commitment, the effects are indirect through fairness of outcome, trust and job satisfaction. The results also indicate that affective effects through trust and satisfaction are substantially stronger than that through fairness of outcome. Fair performance evaluation procedures therefore do more than the mere provision of equitable outcomes among French managers.     

A note on the compatibility of a system of difference equations and a time-independent linear equation

Solutions to systems of difference equations subject to linear constraints are studied. Restrictions on the coefficients necessary to maintain a compatible system are developed. Applications to the dynamics of expenditure shares and to lagged adjustment models with adding up constraints are given.     

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Pension Funds and Emerging Markets

This paper focuses on the investment behavior of pension funds in developed and emerging market countries. First, it analyzes the main determinants of the emerging market asset allocation of pension funds in developed countries. Second, it assesses how pension funds in emerging markets have contributed to the development of local securities markets. Third, it analyzes the determinants of pension funds' investment performance. The paper concludes with a discussion of why the emerging market asset allocation of pension funds in developed countries is likely to increase and what the challenges faced by pension funds in emerging markets are.