What Do Employers Want？ Views of Chinese and Canadian Job Seekers

I. Introduction Countries differ significantly in culture, and cultural differences affect businesses operation (Hofstede, 1980). East–West cultural differences can lead to confusion and misunderstanding. In order to obtain a better understanding of these issues, many studies have been conducted in the past two decades. In general, Chinese have been found to be more oriented towards collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, and power distance than Canadians (Hofstede, 1980, 2001; Ralston et al,…     

The Entry-Inducing Effects of Horizontal Mergers: An Exploratory Analysis

Antitrust law presumes that entry normally prevents or reverses anticompetitive effects from horizontal mergers. But when sunk costs associated with entry are at levels suggested by prevailing market structure, the opportunity for entry created by an anticompetitive merger plausibly is too small to induce entry, even absent Stiglerian ‘barriers to entry.’ This is illustrated for Cournot and Bertrand models. Significant entry also makes otherwise profitable Bertrand mergers unprofitable, assuming no efficiency gains. Consequently, the entry issue can be collapsed into the efficiency issue: if a presumably profitable merger does not generate significant efficiencies, it cannot be expected to induce entry.     

Mergers in Sealed versus Oral Auctions

In this paper, we study mergers in oral or second-price auctions and compare them to mergers in sealed-bid or first-price auctions. We use an adaptation of the logit qualitative choice model to characterize the underlying bidder value distributions. In second-price auctions, this model has a closed-form relationship between winning bids (prices) and the probabilities of winning (shares), and this relationship gives rise to a Herfindahl-like formula that predicts merger effects. We compare mergers in second-price auctions to mergers in first-price auctions. Despite their differences, sealed-bid merger effects are predicted by the oral Herfindahl-like formula.The source of this curious similarity is not apparent.     

Estimating Benefits for Effective Enforcement of Speed Reduction from Dichotomous-Choice CV

We present an empirical estimation of the distribution of WTP foreffective speed restriction via implementation of local trafficcalming schemes. Random samples are drawn from the populations ofhouseholds (henceforth HHs) of three centres intersected by maintrunk roads with varying through traffic conditions. We estimatethe underlying WTP distributions from discrete-choice responsesto site-specific referendum contingent valuation studiesaccounting for zero-bidders. We then test the hypothesis ofdifferent distributions across villages. The statistical analysisconsists first of a parametric specification and then of atotally non-parametric one. Stated welfare changes for effectivespeed reduction are found to be sizeable and the parameters ofthe random utility models are plausibly related to differences inobjective speed measures across centres. The results appear toencourage the use of the referencum-CV method in the estimationof local public goods. In this case study the proposed publicproject would seem to pass the Kaldor-Hicks potentialcompensation test.     

Using Giddens's theory of ‘structuration’ and Freirean philosophy to understand participation in the Alexandra Renewal Project

The main critique raised against participatory approaches to development is that they do not adequately address issues of politics and power. This paper contributes to the theory and practice of participation by introducing a framework drawn from Freirean philosophy and applying Giddens's theory of ‘structuration’ to that philosophy. Specifically, it focuses on the relocation of people from the banks of the Jukskei River as part of the Alexandra Renewal Project. It draws on the author's interviews with key local-level stakeholders, including government leaders, managers of the Alexandra Renewal Project, and those directly involved with facilitating the participation of intended beneficiaries in Alexandra. The study uses Giddens's theory to conclude that although participatory processes may be intended to (in Freire's words) domesticate, the domesticating or exclusionary nature of the intervention provides the basis upon which people liberate themselves.     

Management of collaboration in ectrem projects

This paper describes findings on the management of collaboration arising from an evaluation of the participation of the UK in the EUREKA programme. The principle issues addressed in the paper are the origins and motivations for collabration, the roles played by participants of different types and the significance of collaboration for project outcomes. The paper concludes that complementarity between partners in the key motivation for collabration. Complementarity may lie in different dimensions, matching different types of technical expertise or technical and market expertise. Vertical relationships, between users and suppliers, energed as being particularly important in EUREKA projects and frequently formed the initial basis for the collaborative application. The most important overall finding was that partnerships were genuinely interpendent, in part because of their foundation in complementarity. Successful collaborative structures were those which were sufficiently robust to accommodate the inevitable changes which arise in the turbulence of market conditions. This paper finishes with some conclusions concerning the appropriate role for government agencies in supporting participants in the management of collaboration.     

An Approach to Fair Valuation of Insurance Liabilities Using the Firm’s Cost of Capital

Abstract

There are two competing and seemingly different methodologies for calculating fair values—the direct and indirect methods. The direct approach has the advantage of providing a more reliable assessment of the risk of financial leverage. The indirect method can be structured to adjust for financial leverage, however, the methodology becomes excessively complex. The advantage of the indirect method is that it can be more easily related to exit prices. Intuitively, an exit price should reflect both the creditworthiness of the firm and the cost of capital of the firm. How are these two concepts related? This paper attempts to advance the fair valuation methodology by addressing these questions and presenting a methodology for deriving the firm or own credit risk assumption (to be used with the direct method) that is consistent with the cost of capital assumption used with the indirect method.     

West and Central African iron ore development and its impact on world prices

The focus of the paper is on the potential of iron ore supplies from West and Central Africa to enter the export market over the short and medium terms and how this could impact the supply‐side capacity and market price. To assess this, three export development scenarios (low, medium and high risk) are constructed for 17 iron ore mines (over 27 production expansion projects) in West and Central Africa. The projections for African iron ore are compared with the latest medium‐term import forecasts and suggest that the development of West and Central African iron ore has the potential to create significant downward pressure on the price of iron ore exports over the medium term. The increased export capacity could push marginal producers – mainly in China but also in India and elsewhere – out of the market.     

创业，任何时候都可以开始

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