Political economy of the US–Mexican tomato trade agreement

We develop a political economy model to analyse the US–Mexican tomato trade agreement by treating the minimum import price as a negotiated settlement. We incorporate the special characteristics of the US–Mexican tomato dispute, namely trade among large countries, the role of competing fresh and processed tomato lobbies, quota revenues accruing to Mexican producers, bargaining for a minimum import price rather than a tariff, and the role of the Canadian tomato market. We show the importance of the size of the lobby group's supply, the weight elected officials' place on national welfare, and the elasticities of export supply and import demand in determining the optimal price wedge. For the United States, larger fresh tomato or cherry–grape tomato supply intensifies the degree of protection awarded to US growers, while US processors work to mitigate this effect. From Mexico's perspective, larger Mexican fresh or cherry–grape output induces a push towards free trade due to the agreement's depressing effect on Mexican prices, while Mexican processors and quota revenues exacerbate the price wedge.     

‘Hidden’ expatriates: international mobility in the United Arab Emirates as a challenge to current understanding of expatriation

Expatriates are often assumed to have enhanced terms and conditions and, because that makes them expensive, to be in key managerial or technical specialist roles. Employees who come from abroad and are in more manual or even menial roles are usually referred to as ‘migrants’. However, there are millions of people around the world who are not migrants, their intended sojourn in a foreign country is seen by them and their employers as temporary, but their employment contracts are far from advantageous compared with those of locals. These ‘hidden’ expatriates are brought into focus in the emerging Arab Gulf States. In some of these countries, the population consists mainly of expatriates, with the local population a small minority: These expatriates include many in lower‐management or manual or menial jobs. We demarcate these expatriates from organisationally assigned expatriates, self‐initiated expatriates and migrants. We use qualitative data from such expatriates in the United Arab Emirates to explore the issues this raises for governments, employers and the expatriates – and for our understanding of the phenomenon of expatriation.     

简述周恩来的统战思想

周恩来统一战线理论思想属于毛泽东思想的一部分,早期的思想虽然不是很完善,但在实践中丰富并逐渐发展,正确的统战思想指引共产党取得了新民主主义革命的胜利。它作为一个系统化的思想体系贯穿于中国整个革命和建设事业当中,其内容相当丰富,涵盖范围也比较广。其主要内容总结概括起来包括:统一战线的任务、联合对象,领导权问题,以及统一战线的形式性质、方法、政策原则四个主要方面。     

Seasonal concentration of tourism demand: Decomposition analysis and marketing implications

This paper analyzes seasonality in the United Kingdom, specifically the English regions in relation to tourists' place of origin and main travel motivation. The method used is a decomposition of the Gini index, which provides relative marginal effects that facilitate the identification of market segments open to counter-seasonal marketing efforts. This method has been combined with a graphical multivariate technique (biplot), which groups segments according to their seasonality characteristics. Seasonal patterns associated with particular segments differ significantly when studied on a disaggregated basis. Therefore, an adequate level of disaggregation is essential in the design of counter-seasonal strategies. Although this study focuses on British destinations, this methodology could be used as a control and monitoring measure in the regional analysis of any destination, facilitating regular adjustment of regional tourism marketing campaigns to minimize seasonality effects, specifically by targeting the types of tourists less prone to seasonality.     

洗钱罪刑事立法之完善——以《联合国反腐败公约》为视角

《联合国反腐败公约》对洗钱犯罪作了规定,我国现行《刑法》对洗钱罪的规定与《公约》存在较大差异,从而使我国对洗钱罪及其上游犯罪的预防和打击的效果受到影响。我们有必要根据《公约》的规定完善我国关于洗钱犯罪的立法。     

美国关于科技资源共享的法律和法规

1966年美国国会通过由总统批准的《信息公开法》,开创了政府信息公开的先河,同时也是立法促进政府数据和信息资源公开、共享的首例。1976年又通过了《政府阳光法案》,由此形成了注重科技资源开放和共享的联邦政府政策体系。同时,实行分类管理科学数据,促进私营部门加入科技资源共享,解决关系国家安全、贸易秘密和隐私权的科研数据问题。     

浅析美联储“量化宽松”的货币政策

从2008年3月27日至2010年3月18日,美联储面对汹涌而来的金融危机打开印钞机,资产总额大幅上升,基于美联储所采取的种种举动,总结出美联储量化宽松的货币政策的特点,并且分析它所产生的影响。     

国际制裁缘何难以奏效?——“非故意后果”的视角

国际制裁一直面临着有效性不足的困境。既有研究将之归因于制裁有效性发挥的三大必要条件——足够的制裁强度、准确的承受主体和可信的制裁承诺——得不到满足,但忽视了制裁的非故意后果的作用。非故意后果是制约国际制裁有效性的重要因素之一,它削弱了制裁方的意志,却增强了被制裁方的抵抗决心;增加了制裁持续时长和制裁成本,却阻碍了主要制裁目标的实现。在既有研究基础上,作者首先提出了一个探讨制裁的非故意后果的分析框架,其次对非故意后果影响制裁有效性的作用机制进行了分析,最后以联合国为例探讨了制裁方在应对非故意后果问题上的尝试。     

中美制造业发展百年对比研究

文章从政策环境、技术创新与应用、人才培养与引进以及市场开发四个方面分析了美国制造业在19世纪末20世纪初迅速发展、并长期保持国际领先地位的主要原因,并在此基础上对比分析了中国制造业的现状。文章认为,中国要成为真正的制造强国,必须坚持改革开放的道路、发展具有自身特色的高新技术产业和采用信息化的科学管理方式,以人为本,不断培养和吸引高端人才。同时,在政策方面要扶持核心产业、保护国内资源;在技术创新方面,要加大科研力度,提升创新质量;在人才方面,要提高教育质量,鼓励留学人才归国、吸引海外高技术人才来华发展;在市场方面,要保持国际市场,激发国内需求。     

Job analysis: a strategic human resource management practice

This study examined the impact of job analysis on organizational performance among 148 companies based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a Gulf-region country. Survey results indicated that a practice of proactive job analysis was strongly related to organizational performance. This relationship was strongest to the extent that companies maintained HR information systems, accorded HR greater involvement in strategic planning and emphasized competency-based characteristics of employees in the job analysis approaches they used. The findings suggest that a company-wide policy of job analysis is an important source of competitive advantage in its own right, and merits due attention of HR professionals, line managers and top management. The study extends the findings of the HR–performance research pursued in Western countries to a non-Western context.