ESTIMATING A DYNAMIC SPATIAL EQUILIBRIUM MODEL TO EVALUATE THE WELFARE IMPLICATIONS OF REGIONAL ADJUSTMENT PROCESSES: THE DECLINE OF THE RUST BELT

This article develops and estimates a new dynamic spatial equilibrium model to study the regional transition dynamics and its impact on individual and aggregate welfare. The model consists of a multiregion, multisector economy comprised of overlapping generations of individuals with heterogeneous skills and mobility costs. The empirical findings suggest that a large fraction of the decline of the Rust Belt can be attributed to the reduction in its region‐specific comparative advantage in the goods‐producing sector. This decline generated significant differences in welfare across regions. Policy experiments show that such inequality can be significantly reduced through place‐based policies.     

Why do satisfied customers switch? Focus on the restaurant patron variety-seeking orientation and purchase decision involvement

Company efforts to make customers switch from competitive brands to their own or induce them to repurchase their own brands are very important in their marketing activities and in this regard studies of customer variety-seeking orientation and level of involvement in decision making play a crucial role in explaining customers’ product selection activities. The purpose of this study intends to examine interrelationships among customer satisfaction, loyalty, and switching intent in family restaurants and verify the moderating effect of customer variety-seeking orientation and purchase decision involvement. A total of 305 patrons in Korea participated. The results showed a positive relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty. Participants expressing a high level of satisfaction were more likely to switch restaurants. Whether customers feel loyalty determines their switching intent. There were moderating effects related to customer variety-seeking orientation in the causal relationships between customer loyalty and switching intent. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed.     

Forest transition in South Korea: Reality, path and drivers

While forest transition (FT) in South Korea began in 1955, when forest cover was only 35% of national land area, significant increases in both forest cover and growing stock really occurred in the early 1970s. Using reconstructed historical records, we empirically demonstrate that (1) FT in South Korea was mainly accomplished by the recovery of degraded, non-stocked forest; and (2) one-dimensional FT analysis using forest area alone has severe limitations in diagnosing meaningful changes in forest sustainability. The key driver of FT in South Korea was the government-led reforestation policy. The comprehensive reforestation plans, started in 1973, not only provided economic incentives to the general public by establishing clear quantifiable goals, they also promoted inter-agency cooperation and coordination, especially between the energy and forest sectors, to replace firewood with fossil fuels. These government-led efforts, accompanied by rural-urban migration, brought an increase in stocked forest area and a complementary rising average growing stock level. The case of South Korea shows that FTs can be cultivated in a relatively short period of time by a central authority, even with imperfect governance and low economic development.     

Technological Progress and Youth Employment in South Korea

ABSTRACT

This paper analyzes the extent to which technology progress and youth employment are related. In doing so, we divide workers into two groups – young workers and old (prime-aged) workers - and then estimate the elasticity of substitution between (physical) capital and workers à la Jaimovich et al. (2013. “The Demand for Youth: Explaining Age Differences in the Volatility of Hours.” American Economic Review 103 (7): 3022–3044) by using the Korean labour market data between 2000 and 2014. Our findings indicate that the elasticity of substitution is greater (or at least not smaller) for young workers than for old workers.     

Greening transportation fleets: Insights from a two-stage game theoretic model

The greening of organizational transportation fleets, especially trucks and automobiles, has gained increasing attention by companies in a variety of industrial sectors. The reasons for this concern and attention are due to regulatory and competitive pressures, but also increasing costs of fossil-fuels. Surprisingly the amount of research and modeling for fleet management overall has been rather limited, with the focus on managing green vehicle investments virtually non-existent. In this study we develop a two-stage game theoretic model that helps evaluate, from both policy and organizational perspectives, the implications of greening of transportation fleets. Various parameters are evaluated including factors such as innovations in green vehicle technology, levels of service differences, cost of fuel, adjusting tax policy, regulatory compliance requirements, and adaptation costs. This evaluation provides practical insights into actions that could be considered by regulators and organizations to encourage environmental investments.     

包容性增长:国际国内复杂形势下的新命题

从国际经济的视角看,强调"包容性增长",体现了世界均衡发展、共同发展的内涵。从国内形势而言,包容性增长是广大社会公众更好地分享改革开放与发展成果的选择。为此,需要实现利益的均衡和机会的平等,协调政府、地方、部门、企业、个人之间的利益关系。     

试论旅游犯罪活动对旅游业的影响及启示

旅游犯罪活动表现为盗窃、抢劫、诈骗;伤害、杀人、强奸;以旅游的名义进行偷渡、贩毒、走私和扰乱旅游市场秩序;破坏旅游交通工具或旅游景区设施等形式。旅游犯罪活动对旅游业的影响是经济水平明显下降;旅游安全指数下跌;阻碍国家之间的文化交流;损害国际旅游形象;形成心理阴影;影响法律制度健全;扰乱旅游市场秩序等;启示表现为创建旅游基本法,完善相关制度;规范旅游市场秩序;加强旅游企业的管理;提高人们旅游安全意识;加强对旅游者理性消费的宣传和引导;加大对旅游景区、景点的管理等。     

Association Ambiguity in Brand Extension

A research method is developed to effectively identify associations that significantly influence the perceived fit of brand extensions. Contrary to extant brand extension studies that mainly focus on the fit of associations, the current study considers the ambiguity of associations. The proposed measure of association ambiguity, defined as the level of uncertainty based on the perceived conflict of a particular association in a brand extension indicated by the similarity and intensity level of perceived association distance to the parent brand and extension category, was tested and validated using several brand extension cases. Identifying an association's level of ambiguity and the magnitude of its impact on the perceived fit will allow advertisers to adjust their advertising messages and increase consumer receptiveness toward brand extensions. Implications for advertising practitioners and future research are discussed.     

Sorting it out: pile sorting as a mixed methodology for exploring barriers to cancer screening

We discuss a mixed methodology for analyzing pile sorting data. We created a list of 14 barriers to colon cancer screening and recruited 18, 13, and 14 participants from three American Indian (AI) communities to perform pile sorting. Quantitative data were analyzed by cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling. Differences across sites were compared using permutation bootstrapping. Qualitative data collected during sorting were compiled by AI staff members who determined names for the clusters found in quantitative analysis. Results showed five clusters of barriers in each site although barriers in the clusters varied slightly across sites. Simulation demonstrated type I error rates around the nominal 0.05 level whereas power depended on the numbers of clusters, and between and within cluster variability.     

外资购并国有企业：条件与机制

随着全球跨国购并浪潮涌动，外资购并我国国有企业也已展开。外资购并国企对中方利益到底会产生什么影响，与购并的条件和购并机制密切相关。外资购并我国国有企业是在特殊的法律、政策条件下，市场经济体制尚不完善的状况下，即政府机构对企业活动的不合理干预与放任自流并存、国有企业治理机制分化成了政府主导型和企业自主型两类，国有企业在走向市场的过程中行为方式存在严重扭曲的背景下展开的。购并中的供给与需求关系失衡，等待外商购并的国有企业数量远远大于外商的需求，形成了特殊的外商购并国有企业的运行机制。