Learning and the monetary policy strategy of the European Central Bank

This paper examines the welfare implications of alternative inflation targeting proposals for the monetary policy of the European Central Bank. We assume that policy makers have to “learn” the laws of motion of inflation in an economy characterized by “stickiness” in domestic price setting behavior and subjected to recurring shocks to productivity, exports and foreign price. We find that a switch from an “asymmetric” inflation targeting strategy to an “symmetric” makes little difference in welfare payoffs, but it comes at a cost of much higher interest-rate variability. We also find that there are practically no welfare gains from switching from an inflation-targeting strategy based on the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) to a strategy based on the domestic price component of the HICP.     

以设计为龙头的工程总承包建设模式推动MgO混凝土为拱坝新技术的应用

就新技术MgO混凝土拱坝与碾压混凝土拱坝的不同之处作了对比。论述了广东长沙拱坝成功应用MgO混凝土筑坝的意义，认为该顶新技术又一次能在2001年1季度末开始浇筑的贵州沙老河拱坝应用，是由一机制的原因起了作用，即：以设计为在龙头的总承包建设模式，可以对大型新技术的应用起推动作用。     

我国炼油工业应实行改造与新建并举的方针

目前我国炼油工业的生产能力，特别是加工中东含硫油的能力严重不足，为适应国民经济发展的需要，扩大炼油能力十分必要，根据测算，2010年我国炼油工业的加工量应达到3亿吨，2020年达到4．5亿吨，若按开工率90％计，则2010年我国炼油能力应达到3．3亿吨，2020年达到5亿吨，因此，从现在开始的10年内，需新增炼油能力1亿吨左右，在下一个10年，即2010至2020年，还需新增能力1．5亿吨，根据我国国情，因地制宜，充分利用现有装置潜力通过技术改造来发展炼油工业是十分必要的，但是大型，先进，一体化是我国炼油工业今后发展的主要方向，兴建新厂可采用先进的工艺技术和新的管理机制，取得较高的经济效益，因此，我国炼油工业的发展实行技术改造与兴建新厂并举的“两条腿走路”的方针。     

Corporate self-greenewal: Strategic responses to environmentalism

The rise of environmentalism in the past decade has become a major transforming force in pollutive and hazard prone industries. Corporate environmental responsiveness is not simply a peripheral and one of the many ‘social’ or ‘ethical’ issues facing business. It is becoming a central concern for competitiveness, productivity, and profitability. It is creating strategic transformation of companies in a diverse range of industries such as, Autos, Chemicals, Oil, Fast Foods, Power Generation, Pharmaceuticals, etc. The process of environmentally directed self-renewal, called ‘greenewal’ here, affects all aspects of companies. It implies changes in products, production systems, waste management practices and internal systems. It seeks to make companies simultaneously more competitive and environmentally responsible. This paper describes the pressures of and responses to environmentalism in a selected set of industries. It examines the processes of greenewal that companies are undergoing. It identifies implications for strategic greening of firms.     

Demographic & related differences in ethical views among small businesses

This study examines the effects of demographic characteristics on ethical perceptions. While earlier research has produced conflicting results regarding the predictive power of these variables, significant and definite insights were obtained with proper controls. The following predictors of ethical attitudes are examined: age, gender, marital status, education, dependent children status, region of the country and years in business, while controlling for job status. A nation-wide random sample of employees was used in obtaining a response rate of fifty-three percent (total n of 423). Indices of aspects of business ethical attitudes were constructed using factor analysis. Linear multiple regression analysis indicated the significant predictive variables. Age was found to be a most-significant predictor. Older workers had stricter interpretations of ethical standards. Gender and region predicted attitudes about job-discrimination practices only, with women and persons from the Midwest most strongly opposed to the practice. All the other variables proved to be unreliable ethics predictors.Paul Serwinek is a research affiliated with Wayne State University. He has done extensive research in business management and consulting work in the field of insurance agency employee job satisfaction.SPSS PC Plus Computer Program used.     

The Wealth Effect of Domestic Joint Ventures: Evidence from Taiwan

This study presents important international evidence by examining the wealth effect of domestic joint ventures by Taiwanese firms. In opposite to United States evidence, we find that announcements of domestic joint ventures by Taiwanese firms are, on average, associated with significantly negative abnormal stock returns. We also find that the stock market response to announced domestic joint ventures is significantly positively related to the announcing firms' investment opportunities, size of investment and debt ratio, and is significantly negatively related to the business relatedness variable. In contrast, free cash flow, firm size, relative firm size and managerial ownership are found to have no significant power in explaining the market response. Our results support the investment opportunities, synergy and complementarity hypotheses as well as a broad interpretation of the free cash flow hypothesis, but reject the absolute size, relative size and alignment-of-interests hypotheses. This study makes valuable contributions to the literature by providing the first direct evidence on the role of investment opportunities, synergy and alignment-of-interests in explaining the wealth effect of domestic joint ventures     

中国家电物流:步入发展快车道

尽管只有短短20余年的发展史，中国家电业所取得的成绩却令世人瞩目。目前，中国已名符其实地成了世界家电第一人国，是当之无愧的“家电世界工厂”，国际市场80％的家电产品均来自中国，世界市场80％的知名家电品牌也都“MADE IN CHINA”，家电业已成了中国发展最迅猛，市场化最早，市场化程度最高，     

银企关系与会计信息稳健性——中国资本市场的经验证据

本文以Watts（2003）的契约理论为基础，分析股东与债权人之间利益冲突对会计信息稳健性的影响。虽然会计信息稳健性有助于保护债权人的利益，但是如果股东可以作为公司的债权人，则投资者对会计信息稳健性的需求下降。本文采用Basu（1997）模型分析了2004年中国上市公司会计信息稳健性，发现国家控制的上市公司的会计信息稳健性程度较低，而民营控制的上市公司会计信息稳健性程度较高，但是股东特征对会计信息稳健性的影响，随着银行在公司中利益的增加而趋于一致。