Impact of an urban growth boundary across the entire house price spectrum: The two-stage quantile spatial regression approach

This study provides evidence for the impact of an urban growth boundary (UGB) on house prices. The study employs a two-stage quantile spatial regression method on a dataset that inventories sales transactions of single-family houses within two miles of either side of the eastern boundary of the primary UGB in King County, Washington. The results show that while the UGB decreases house prices across the entire house price spectrum, the impact is uneven; it is most pronounced for houses in the 5th to 8th decile of prices. These findings should encourage policy makers to adopt sub-housing-market-level policy approaches to address UGB and other urban and regional development policies’ potential impacts on house prices.     

“Retail is detail! Give consumers a gift rather than a bundle”: Promotion framing and consumer product returns

Retailers often use the promotion strategy of offering supplementary products (e.g., free gift, bundle) to attract consumers and increase sales. Despite the growing literature on the promotions that are differently framed but offer economically identical values, little research has examined the link between promotion framing and consumer product returns. The current article sheds light on this relationship, hypothesizing that a free gift promotion would be superior to a bundle promotion in reducing consumer product returns. The findings suggest that a gift‐framed promotion leads to a lower product return intention than an economically equivalent bundle promotion, because consumers tend to perceive more loss from giving up the gift‐framed (vs. bundle‐framed) deal. Further, this study examines a moderating role of brand familiarity (familiar vs. unfamiliar) and shows that the merits of free gift framing on product return intention via perceived loss are amplified (attenuated) when the promoted brand is familiar (unfamiliar). Overall, the investigations of this study imply that it is better to frame a promotion as a “free gift” than a “bundle” to increase perceived loss in returning the purchase and thus to decrease consumer product returns. This strategic intervention works especially when the gift is offered by familiar brands.     

Free add-on services and perceived value in competitive environments: Evidence from online hotel reviews

This study investigates how free add-on services affect customers’ perceived value in horizontal and vertical competition. We collected 349,879 reviews about over 3000 hotels in 25 U.S. cities from TripAdvisor. Using three balanced data sets generated by coarsened exact matching, the ordered logistic regressions show that free hotel add-on services (including free breakfast, parking, and WiFi) positively affect consumers’ perceived value. However, increased horizontal and vertical competition differentially weakens the positive effects of free add-on services. We not only observe a negative moderating effect of horizontal competition, but also identify three patterns of the marginal effects of these three add-ons in horizontal competition. The moderating effect of vertical competition exists from the higher-grade hotel segment to a lower-grade hotel, but such an effect is insignificant from the lower-grade hotel segment to a higher-grade hotel. Therefore, hotel managers should consider diverse external competitive environments and design appropriate differentiated service strategies.     

韩国与中国台湾地区自由贸易港区发展比较研究及经验借鉴

目前,中国亟需借鉴国际经验探索建设中国特色自由贸易港。韩国政府对自由贸易港区实行税收减免、金融支持、生活配套等多方面优惠政策。中国台湾地区的自由贸易港区除了传统自由贸易港的转运功能之外,还包括深度加工制造功能,并通过功能布局、政策优化与修整提升自由贸易港区的竞争力。通过比较发现,韩国和中国台湾自由贸易港区均具有立法保障、功能多元和高效运营等3个相似特征,同时它们在管理机构、功能形态、税收减免和服务供给方面存在差异。中国特色自由贸易港应先通过立法对其管理与运行进行规范,结合区位优势选择合适的功能定位,通过税收减免优惠及增加良好生活配套供给来吸引高质量外资。     

科技馆免费开放评估指标体系研究

本文根据免费开放科技馆的功能属性，确定了科技馆免费开放评估指标体系的构建原则，考虑不同角度评估工作的重点，设计了适应不同主体和要求的科技馆免费开放评估指标体系，包括免费开放科技馆自评估指标体系、各级科协主管部门自评估指标体系和科技馆免费开放第三方评估指标体系，最后对主要指标和考察要点进行了总结说明。本文的研究成果，可以为免费开放科技馆和科协主管部门开展自评估以及第三方评估提供标准和依据，规范免费开放科技馆的评估和运行管理，为中国特色现代科技馆体系建设提供支持，为科技馆事业的可持续发展提供参考。     

The death of development theory: From Friedrich von Hayek to the Washington consensus

Abstract

Development strategies followed by many countries in the 20th century bestowed a relevant role to the State. During the 1970s, it all reversed, and free markets became paramount to efficiency. F. von Hayek and the Mount Pelerin Society led the way to eliminate the State as a significant economic player, while P.T. Bauer extended such ideas to development economics, which would eventually give way to the Washington Consensus. Beyond actual results of such policies, it is surprising to see the appeal of Bauer’s theoretical approach, considering that it is constructed disregarding both empirical evidence, as well as the abundant discussion on development that was taking place contemporarily. This article explores the theoretical process of such reversal in development economics theory.     

Financial literacy and support for free trade in the UK

Recent events in Europe and the United States suggest that open economies are increasingly under stress as nationalist, protectionist and populist political entrepreneurs are gaining significant ground across the Western world. Many theories have been formulated as to which factors are more likely to explain such policy preferences. The hypothesis tested in this paper is that financial literacy affects economic policy preferences. I analyse data from the British Election Study and test my theory on support for free trade in the United Kingdom. Findings suggest that financial literacy does affect economic policy preferences. On average, financially literate individuals are more likely to think that free trade is good for the British economy. Furthermore, this is true regardless of economic self-interest, as both financially literate winners and losers from globalisation are more likely to support free trade than their illiterate counterparts.     

Three‐period,two‐treatment crossover design under long‐term carryover effect

The paper describes non‐parametric approach for analysis of a three‐period, two‐treatment, four‐sequence crossover design in which test procedure for interchangeability of the treatment effects is obtained. The proposed procedure is based on a non‐parametric model, which incorporates, along with the direct treatment effects and the usual carryover effects, the long‐term carryover effects. Relevant competitors are obtained. Related asymptotic results are given. By performing simulation study, we compared the procedures with respect to type I error rate and power. Furthermore, confidence intervals for treatment differences are studied. The procedures are illustrated with a data study.     

China's Free Trade Ports: Effective Action Against the Threat of De‐globalization

With sluggish external demand and increasing trade protectionism by the USA and the European Union, China is facing severe challenges in implementing its deeper, ongoing reforms. To respond actively to such challenges, the Communist Party of China's 19th National Congress proposed to “promote a new pattern of all‐round opening up.” In particular, the establishment of free trade ports is considered an important means to realize deeper integration with the world economy. This paper discusses the background, the motivation, the possible challenges as well as a feasible path for the successful implementation of free trade ports in China. Based on the international experience, the construction of free trade ports in China requires freer trade in goods, high mobility of talent and free capital flow.