Networks of Value‐added Trade

Global value chains (GVCs) require new methods for evaluating interconnections among countries, which can no longer be accurately appraised by standard bilateral gross trade flows. This paper uses tools of network analysis to examine the evolution of value‐added trade from 1995 to 2011. GVCs are very centralised and asymmetric networks, with a few large economies acting as hubs, which exposes them to the propagation of idiosyncratic shocks. As GVCs expanded, the networks of foreign value added in exports became denser, more complex and intensively connected. The regional dimension of GVCs is still dominant but is progressively giving place to a more global network. Networks of foreign value added in goods exports outpace those of services exports. However, foreign inputs of services are important for exports of both goods and services. There is a striking rise of China as a supplier of value added, while Germany and the United States maintain a central role in GVCs over the whole period.     

Financialization of Housing in Brazil: New Frontiers

The financialization of housing has been increasingly identified as an important driver of social and economic change in contemporary capitalism. Focusing on the Brazilian context, this article considers the extent to which recent changes in housing regulations, policies and markets confirm or challenge narratives about the financialization of housing in the international academic debate. I argue that while many of the trends stressed in the literature are apparent, more extreme processes of financialization within the Brazilian housing sector remain limited––not only because of institutional and regulatory constraints, path dependence or political resistance, but also because of fundamental structural conditions of Brazil's position as a peripheral economy. Three different but mutually reinforcing processes are scrutinized in order to evaluate the financialization of housing and its limits in Brazil: the re‐regulation of the real estate financial sector initiated in the 1990s; the changing funding patterns among real estate companies since the mid‐2000s; and the increasing commodification of housing induced by a large‐scale and heavily subsidized housing program launched in 2009.     

广东省食品用不锈钢制品风险监测分析报告

为进一步提高潮州市食品安全水平,增强食品安全监管工作的针对性和有效性,本文对广东省食品用不锈钢制品进行风险监测分析,以期能为企业在生产制作过程中提供一些参考,为给消费者在选用食品不锈钢制品时提出参考意见,从而也促使质检部门更好地完善监测机制。     

The Variegated Financialization of Housing

There is a small but growing literature on the financialization of housing that demonstrates how housing is a central aspect of financialization. Despite the varied analyses of the financialization of housing and the importance of housing to financialization, the relations between housing and financialization remain under‐researched and under‐theorized. The financialization of housing is not really a specific form of financialization, transcending as it does a number of different forms of financialization. Housing systems, in particular, vary widely across the globe, which implies that housing financialization will be inherently variegated, path‐dependent and uneven. In this introduction to the symposium, I will discuss how the articles to follow contribute to the literature on the financialization of housing. Housing has entered a post‐Fordist, neoliberal and financialized regime. Increasingly, both mortgaged homeownership and subsidized rental housing are there to keep financial markets going, rather than being facilitated by those markets. There is little evidence that the global financial crisis has resulted in any de‐financialization of housing. There are common trajectories within uneven and variegated financialization, rather than radically different and completely unrelated forms of housing financialization.     

对南海国际争端的经济学解析

我国地处东亚的中心,是一个陆海大国,与周边各国有着漫长的边界线,地缘环境非常复杂,形势十分严峻。近些年,随着我国综合国力的逐渐壮大,以及国际格局和地区形势的变化,我国的周边安全环境进一步缓和。而南海,其独特的地理位置和战略位置决定了它的重要性。当今的南海格局被称作六国七方,南海争端涉及到诸多国家的政治、经济利益,主权、领土的争端以及运输通道和能源安全等问题。本文从博弈学和经济学的角度分析南海现状的成因,并就解决南海问题的政治经济对策进行探析。     

全球城市的经济地位研究

全球城市成为认识全球经济的一个视角,越来越多的研究聚焦全球城市,这既反映了世界经济的新变化,也反映了城市发展的新变化。经济全球化的"分离"和"集聚"打造了全球城市。信息技术成为全球城市的技术基础。全球城市网络成为全球城市的外部条件。全球公司占据全球城市的关键地位。全球城市的意义在于服务于全球经济,其服务的属性是生产性服务,主要形式是商务服务和金融服务。全球城市驱动全球经济,全球城市集聚一国的经济能量,全球城市应该成为中国经济的一个方向。全球城市已经成为北京上海的发展目标。     

Incentives to move up: Effects of pay gaps between levels on employee performance

Employees of a certain rank are motivated by the pay gap between them and the levels above (upward comparison), and the pay gap between them and the levels below (downward comparison). In some cases, employees face multiple upward comparisons such as immediate and subsequent upward comparisons. We hypothesise that upward comparison matters more than downward comparison, and in the case of multiple upward comparisons, the immediate one matters more than the subsequent ones. We also hypothesise that the pay gap effect resulting from the upward/downward comparison ought to be non‐linear in that performance increases with pay gap size at a decreasing rate. The results from two empirical studies, namely, a longitudinal field study and a laboratory experiment, largely support our hypotheses.     

Accounting Standards Harmonization and Financial Integration

We empirically examine whether adopting a uniform set of accounting standards mitigates information frictions in financial markets and facilitates market integration. Using a difference‐in‐difference design, we find that after the mandatory adoption of IFRS local stock returns incorporate more global information and at a faster speed. The effect of IFRS adoption is stronger in countries where there are larger improvements in accounting comparability and for firms with a larger increase in foreign ownership. Overall, our results suggest that accounting standards harmonization facilitates financial market integration.