金融危机对全球油气勘探开发投资的影响

受2008年全球金融危机爆发的影响,2009年,全球油气勘探开发投资将出现近年来的首次下降,其中海上钻井、海上工程建设市场的投资增速虽将有所下降,但增速仍将保持在10%左右;地球物理勘探市场投资将保持05%的增速;陆上钻井市场投资受影响最为严重,同比将下降5%10%。预计2009年全球油气勘探开发投资将下降5%以内,2010年下降将更加明显。     

Transitional Progress and Business Challenges

Eight Central European and Baltic countries have joined the European Union in May 2004. Transitioning economies need to develop a business environment with a healthy financial sector to realize economic growth. This paper uses two classification methods, the discriminant analysis and taxonomic measure, to investigate the possibility of the South Eastern European and Commonwealth of Independent transitional countries to develop an enterprise and business environment that is compatible with the newest European Union (EU8) members. This paper found that the EU8 countries are correctly classified as having transitioned successfully in their business development. Bulgaria and Croatia have transitioned closely to the EU8. However, Romania, Ukraine, and the Commonwealth of Independent countries are not close to the EU8 in achieving a compatible business environment.      

PRIVATIZATION OF PUBLIC HOUSING: AN ANALYSIS OF POLICY ALTERNATIVES

This paper discusses alternative privatization schemes for public housing in light of economic efficiency, "policy efficiency," and equity. The analysis shows that removing restrictions to resale by the purchasers is the key to improving economic efficiency and that restricting resales to target group members is the key to achieving policy efficiency. Further, removing restrictions to bidding (viz. open competition) among eligible households is essential for both economic efficiency and equity. The paper discusses the trade-off between various policy objectives inherent in some of the schemes. It recommends the "eligibility model" of privatization, under which households can resell their public housing units any time offer purchase to any household within the group targeted by the government for assistance as determined by the gzovernment.     

Social ethics and the emergence of advertising in China: Perceptions from within the great wall

While interest in doing business continues to rise steadily, information concerning the evolving social ethics of Chinese managers is sparse. This study reports the findings obtained from intensive interviews with thirty-nine Chinese advertising executives. In general, there appears to be developing a cautious optimism about the role of advertising in the Chinese economy. Findings are compared with earlier studies of American and Hong Kong managers and it is suggested that further research and observation is needed to track the development of business ethics in this largest of the world's developing nations. His most important publication is: ‘The Nature of Importance Perceptions: A Test of a Cognitive Model’,Organizational Behavior and Human Performance (April, 1983).     

A Smart Card Based Internet Micropayment Infrastructure: Technical Development and User Adoption

As online shopping services proliferate, the need for a secure and convenient payment infrastructure becomes critical. While credit card payment has become common for online purchases, a payment solution has not yet been developed that can be used to support transactions involving a monetary value in the range of a few dollars or even cents. In this study, the authors report their experience in developing a smart card based micropayment infrastructure in collaboration with a major bank. The infrastructure makes use of Mondex, a cash card standard adopted by major financial institutions worldwide. The infrastructure provides a platform to support online transfer of Mondex value over the Internet. Unlike other cash card products, Mondex is the only standard that can support card-to-card transfer without a mediating party. The transactions are immediate and anonymous. This article outlines the technical approach used in the development of the infrastructure and presents a behavioral adoption model to identify and assess factors that may affect its adoption. The findings indicate that the use of the adoption model in the early stages of product development can provide valuable insights to a development team. Theoretical contributions and practical implications specific to the Mondex Internet micropayment infrastructure are also discussed.     

Moral Hazard, Effort Sensitivity and Compensation in Asset-Backed Securitization

One interesting explanation for asset securitization is the managerial agency theory—where securitization of cash flows that are relatively insensitive to managerial effort reduces the noise for cash flows that are sensitive to managerial effort (Iacobucci and Winter, 2005). This paper extends this concept in several ways. First, we differentiate the effects of noise and effort sensitivity on managerial effort and compensation, underscoring the importance of a less noisy environment. We also carefully delineate the conditions under which asset securitization would improve the welfare of managers and shareholders of the originating company. Second, we relax the assumptions regarding the expected income-producing function and the income variance, and further take into consideration the change of the marginal production of income with respect to effort before and after securitization. Third, under a multitask principal-agent model framework, we explore how the relationship between managerial activities on different assets affects the incentive compensation for the manager of the originating company and the joint surplus for shareholder and manager. This is particularly relevant when entire buildings are securitized as opposed to pools of income-generating assets. Finally, we examine the role of the third-party servicer.