以期货市场为突破口推进大连区域性金融中心建设

从地区发展构想以及区域经济发展的角度,中国内地许多中心城市都提出了建设区域性金融中心的设想,进而涌现出了建设区域性金融中心的热潮。环渤海地区的大连、天津、沈阳等城市都确定了建设金融中心的发展战略。三个城市各自拥有自己的优势与不足,应扬长避短,错位发展。大连应充分利用大连商品交易所这一独特的金融资源,以期货业为龙头,带动相关机构和市场资源的聚集。     

中美上市家族企业薪酬机制的比较研究

从年度报酬、持股水平、薪酬差距角度出发,分析中美两国上市家族企业的薪酬机制结构、激励效果及其异同,提出完善中国上市家族企业薪酬机制的努力方向。     

上海合作组织框架内中国国际贸易竞争力实证分析

在经济全球化和一体化趋势下,上海合作组织的经济功能显得日益重要。基于上海合作组织这一强大的平台,中国与中亚国家的双边贸易日益增强,但竞争力依然有限。本文借助市场占有率指数和贸易竞争力优势指数（trade competitiveness,TC）等分析工具,对1996年以来中国与俄罗斯、哈萨克斯坦、吉尔吉斯斯坦三国贸易数据进行了定量分析,并衡量了中国与这三国不同产业的产业内贸易程度、比较优势和国际竞争力,得出中国的劳动密集型产业具有较强的优势,应进一步加强与中亚国家的能源开发与合作。     

A comparative analysis of corporate entrepreneurial orientation between selected firms in the Netherlands and the USA

Firms in turbulent or fast-changing environments must continually innovate to remain competitive. This study examined how a firm's strategic management practices influence its entrepreneurial behaviour as compared to an international competitor. Four firms in the Netherlands were each matched with a key competitor in the USA. Several survey measures related to the strategic management process were used along with an instrument related to corporate entrepreneurship practices. Both managers and employees participated in the study. Results revealed significant differences between the Netherlands firms and the US competitors in entrepreneurial orientation. Results also supported these comparative differences along three key dimensions of strategic management as they relate to corporate entrepreneurship. The final set of data revealed a relationship between corporate entrepreneurship and three measures of firm performance. The implications focus upon the key role that culture may play in facilitating corporate entrepreneurship and adaptable organizational practices. Suggestions for further research are also made.     

Cost impact of oral capecitabine compared to intravenous taxane-based chemotherapy in first-line metastatic breast cancer

Abstract

Objective: Few studies have examined the costs associated with differing first-line chemotherapy regimens in patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC). This study compares the relative cost impact of women starting first-line chemotherapy with capecitabine versus taxanes.

Methods: Women receiving first-line chemotherapy for MBC from 1998 to 2002 were identified from a hybrid North Carolina Medicaid-claims-tumour registry linked database and Medicare records, and were followed through to 2005 with claims data. Statistical t- and chi-square tests were used to compare baseline characteristics between patients who received first-line chemotherapy with capecitabine versus taxanes. Projected mean costs for 12 months continuous eligibility were estimated using an ordinary least squares linear regression. Overall cost impact of capecitabine after start of therapy was then examined using a multivariate log-linear regression model.

Results: While patients starting taxanes had significantly lower total costs in the pre-index year than patients starting capecitabine (mean: $20,042 vs. $35,538, p<0.001), in the post-index year, the patients on taxanes experienced significantly higher healthcare utilisation and associated costs compared to patients on capecitabine (mean: $43,353 vs. $35,842, p=0.0089). The differences were primarily attributable to lower expenses in chemotherapy related claims and fewer visit days to outpatient settings for patients on capecitabine. After adjustment with propensity scores and other confounders, the capecitabine group was associated with 32% lower healthcare costs compared to the taxane group (p=0.0001).

Conclusions: In this population-based study, women who received capecitabine as first-line treatment for MBC had significantly lower costs compared to women starting taxane therapy.     

Measuring utility from demand

This study presents a new method to calculate a preference relation from a demand function. Our method works well under the weak axiom and can calculate a smooth utility function if the demand function obeys the strong axiom. Further, if the demand function is derived from a customary utility function, our method restores the original preference. Our method provides a complete and rigorous proof of Samuelson’s conjecture. In addition to these results, we guarantee the recoverability: i.e., the uniqueness of the preference relation corresponding to a demand function.     

Impact of China's currency valuation and labour cost on the US in a trade and exchange rate model

Ricardian dynamic general equilibrium analyses show that under free trade arrangements a low income country with lower wage cost and large endowment of labour has comparative advantage in trade. Efficiency gains from this enhance economic growth and welfare of households simultaneously in both low income and advanced economies. Theoretical predictions are empirically validated here with structural VAR analysis based on quarterly data over the time period 1995:1 to 2009:1 on China's relative wage cost, interest rate differential, real effective exchange rate (REER), relative GDP and the US current account balance. It is shown how the relative prices of labour, capital and the currency affect the economic activity in China and current account balance in the US. With free capital inflows and outflows and restrictions on labour mobility, comparative advantage of China and the trade deficit of the US will both be minimised if China allows real appreciation of the Yuan and complete adjustment in prices. Higher production cost and prices in China could reduce welfare of Chinese households and the trade imbalance of the US, while higher relative GDP of China lowers the current account balance for the US.     

Running on the spot? A review of twenty years of research on the management of human resources in comparative and international perspective

Research using a comparative and international perspective on the management of human resources is examined, drawing on articles published in leading human resource management, management/organizational behaviour and related social science journals between 1977 and 1997. In total a little under 2 per cent of the articles under review focused on the management of human resources in a comparative and international perspective. The largest group of these articles was comparative in nature (44 per cent), followed by those with an international perspective (35 per cent). A smaller number adopted a combined approach (17 per cent) and a few were separately classified as foreign national studies (4 per cent). Over time, there has been some progress made in terms of the number of articles published and the scope of topics covered. However, many of the articles displayed similar shortcomings to those noted in earlier reviews of cross-national management/organization studies: in particular, an over-reliance on a small number of primarily Anglo-Saxon countries, a lack of a longitudinal perspective, a loose specification of culture, an ethnocentric bias and a frequent failure to explain observed differences and similarities.     

The Dynamics of Self-Esteem and Physical Self: Between Preservation and Adaptation

The aim of this study was to model and characterize the psychologicalprocesses that underlie the dynamics of global self-esteem and physicalself over time. Twice a day for 228 consecutive days, seven participantscompleted a short inventory (PSI-6, Ninot et al., 2001) measuring sixsubjective dimensions: global self-esteem, physical self-worth, physicalcondition, sport competence, physical strength, and attractive body.Each series was modeled by means of ARIMA procedures. The resultsshowed that a simple moving average model provided a satisfactoryaccount for the dynamics of all series. This model suggests that acombination of two opposite processes underlies the dynamics ofself-concept: preservation, which tends to restore the previousvalue after a disturbance, and adaptation, which tends to inflectthe series in the direction of the perturbation.