The effect of mandatory CSR disclosure on firm profitability and social externalities: Evidence from China

We examine how mandatory disclosure of corporate social responsibility (CSR) impacts firm performance and social externalities. Our analysis exploits China's 2008 mandate requiring firms to disclose CSR activities, using a difference-in-differences design. Although the mandate does not require firms to spend on CSR, we find that mandatory CSR reporting firms experience a decrease in profitability subsequent to the mandate. In addition, the cities most impacted by the disclosure mandate experience a decrease in their industrial wastewater and SO₂ emission levels. These findings suggest that mandatory CSR disclosure alters firm behavior and generates positive externalities at the expense of shareholders.     

Big data driven cycle time parallel prediction for production planning in wafer manufacturing

Cycle time forecasting (CTF) is one of the most crucial issues for production planning to keep high delivery reliability in semiconductor wafer fabrication systems (SWFS). This paper proposes a novel data-intensive cycle time (CT) prediction system with parallel computing to rapidly forecast the CT of wafer lots with large datasets. First, a density peak based radial basis function network (DP-RBFN) is designed to forecast the CT with the diverse and agglomerative CT data. Second, the network learning method based on a clustering technique is proposed to determine the density peak. Third, a parallel computing approach for network training is proposed in order to speed up the training process with large scaled CT data. Finally, an experiment with respect to SWFS is presented, which demonstrates that the proposed CTF system can not only speed up the training process of the model but also outperform the radial basis function network, the back-propagation-network and multivariate regression methodology based CTF methods in terms of the mean absolute deviation and standard deviation.     

Aid for trade and the quality of exports

This article studies how aid for trade (AfT) affects the quality of recipient countries’ exports. It shows that the quality effect is most discernible for AfT for assistance in trade policy: a 50% increase in the value of AfT received in this category is associated with a 0.5–1% increase in the quality of exports to the donor and other OECD countries. On average, the actual AfT received for assistance in trade policy leads to a 2% upgrade of the recipient country in the quality ladder of all developing countries. Around half of this quality effect is driven by the quality improvement of continued products in continued markets (intensive margin), and the other half by the quality upgrading of new products in continued markets and existing products in new markets (extensive margin).     

Perceptions of the benefits of the A3 planner in facilitating project-based learning in accounting education

This paper evaluates ways of instilling project management skills into accounting-based learning by the use of an iterative A3 planner to plan, monitor and review assignment progress. The application of an A3 planner to facilitate a project-based learning (PBL) group assignment in undergraduate accounting education has been critically evaluated in terms of both the student and tutor experience. The study uses a mix of qualitative and quantitative data. Quantitative data assisting exploration of perceptions were collected through 100 undergraduate students. A series of focus group discussions were carried out to investigate students’ engagement and tutors’ teaching experiences regarding the adoption of the A3 planner. The results suggest that the A3 planner promotes active planning and effective management of a PBL group assignment. It makes students’ thought processes more visible thereby facilitating and enhancing the tutoring/mentoring process. Moreover a more interactive and transparent approach by doing assignment via the use of an iterative A3 planner has ensured more feedback points and action based efficiency in the doing approach for learners.     

长江经济带中三角地区农业结构的分析与优化对策

[目的]从宏观、中观和微观3个层面深入分析长江经济带中三角地区湖北、湖南和江西3省的农业产业结构及其各产业差异性和相对优势及其竞争力。[方法]在宏观层面运用了传统的基尼系数分析3个省份历史发展上的地区经济水平差异,判断3个地区经济发展是否存在虹吸效应;从中观层面运用区位熵指数分析法分析区域农业产业结构,从农畜林渔等方面判断各区域产业专业化水平程度;从微观层面运用偏离—份额分析法(SSM)分离出3个地区的各部门产业的优势及其竞争力。[结果]区域内的经济差异变化呈不断增大的趋势,基尼系数不断扩大;湖北的种植业、渔业和农林牧渔服务业,湖南的种植业、林业、畜牧业和农林牧渔服务业,江西的林业、渔业都较中三角地区对应的子产业的区位熵指数高;江西木材和竹加工业和烟草业具有较大的产业竞争优势,湖北的茶叶、水产和瓜果疏菜产业优势明显,湖南地区农业产业综合优势主要在于烟草、水果、肉类以及木材和竹类加工业。[结论]通过比较地区农业产业竞争优势,提出发展地区产业特色,合理布局全域农业产业,提高农产品附加收益,稳固对结构优化的资金支持等对策建议。     

中国柑橘主产区的区域比较优势及其影响因素研究*——基于省级面板数据的实证分析

[目的]通过研究我国柑橘主产区的区域比较优势及其影响因素,为我国柑橘产业的发展提供科学依据。[方法]利用2005—2015年全国柑橘产业的相关数据,采用综合比较优势指数模型和资源禀赋系数模型,定量测算了2005—2015年我国柑橘主产区的区域比较优势指数及资源禀赋系数,结合动静态面板数据模型实证分析了柑橘主产区区域比较优势的影响因素。[结果](1)我国柑橘各主产区比较优势明显但差异较大,柑橘产业有从东南沿海地区向中西部转移的强劲趋势;(2)我国柑橘生产的资源禀赋优势较为集中且在不断的发生变化,福建、浙江、四川及湖南4省处于下降趋势,其他主产区均有所上升;(3)资源禀赋、资本投入对柑橘区域比较优势有正向的影响,技术创新的正向影响在动态中显现,经济水平对区域比较优势有负向影响。[结论](1)我国柑橘主产区的区域比较优势受到资源禀赋、资本投入、技术创新、经济水平等因素的综合影响;(2)要根据各主产区的现状条件进一步优化柑橘产业区域布局,提高科技含量,并且要结合当地的经济发展情况以及资源禀赋条件使柑橘产业能够在主产区脱贫和乡村振兴中发挥更大作用;(3)南方沿海地区柑橘产业近年受黄农病影响严重,柑橘产业向中西部转移。     

客户特征对商业银行信用卡业务盈利水平的影响

以中国商业银行的92837个信用卡客户为研究样本,根据客户的自然特征,运用两步聚类法对之进行分类,甄别出高盈利客户的特征。利用客户样本过去一年的交易记录测算各类客户对应的信用卡业务的盈利水平。以能给银行信用卡业务带来高盈利的客户为例,对其特征(包括自然特征和消费行为特征)与银行信用卡业务盈利水平的关系进行回归分析。研究结果显示:信用卡客户的自然特征和消费行为特征与商业银行信用卡业务的盈利水平具有一定相关性。提出:商业银行应运用数据挖掘技术精准识别高盈利客群、科学预估客户的盈利水平、合理配置营销资源以实现客户终身价值最大化。     

卫生管理队伍的职业化建设

本文就卫生管理队伍建设中的常见问题进行探讨,逐步完善卫生管理队伍的建设,对医疗卫生事业的有序发展具有重要保障作用。     

Video mining: Measuring visual information using automatic methods

Marketers are becoming increasingly reliant on videos to market their products and services. However, there is no standard set of measures of visual information that can be applied to large datasets. This paper proposes two standard measures that can be automatically obtained from videos: visual variation and video content. The paper tests the measures on crowdfunding videos from a leading online crowdfunding website, and shows that the proposed measures have explanatory power on the funding outcomes of the projects. These measures can be effectively implemented and used for large datasets. Further, researchers can apply these measures to other sets of visual information, and marketers could use the research to guide their video design and improve their video marketing effectiveness.     

Modeling the impulse response complex network for studying the fluctuation transmission of price indices

Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination - We provide a method for analyzing the transmission of fluctuation among price indices, which combines the complex network method and the impulse...