Towards a flexible future? The nature of organisational response in the clothing industry

Quick response behaviour is a necessity in the clothing industry. It was expected that the requirements for this would show a number of dysfunctions in the Taylorist production concept. However, it is concluded that the way in which clothing companies are attempting to reorganise their processes can be termed 'intensification': changes designed to increase productivity without substantial reorganisation of the Taylorist production concept.     

The US stock market and the international value of the US dollar

We investigate the spillover effect of the US equity market on the value of the dollar and therefore on the return and volatility of US equity investments for the international investor. The data are daily observations of the S & P 500 and the US dollar in terms of seven foreign currencies covering the period 1971–2002. Using Geweke measures of feedback, we find a high percentage of contemporaneous association between daily movements in the S & P 500 index and changes in the value of the dollar. A consistently positive relationship between the S & P 500 and the dollar is found for the period 1992–2002, creating a compounding effect for the foreign investor in US equities. However, investment by foreigners in US equities did not result in consistently higher returns but in higher volatility compared to their US counterparts for the period 1971–2002.     

One-step ahead adaptive D-optimal design on a finite design space is asymptotically optimal

We study the consistency of parameter estimators in adaptive designs generated by a one-step ahead D-optimal algorithm. We show that when the design space is finite, under mild conditions the least-squares estimator in a nonlinear regression model is strongly consistent and the information matrix evaluated at the current estimated value of the parameters strongly converges to the D-optimal matrix for the unknown true value of the parameters. A similar property is shown to hold for maximum-likelihood estimation in Bernoulli trials (dose–response experiments). Some examples are presented.     

Cost and profit efficiency of Chinese banks: A non-parametric analysis

Using a non-parametric technique for data from 1995 to 2004, we investigate the cost and profit efficiency of 28 Chinese commercial banks. We examine the influence of ownership type, size, risk profile, profitability and key environmental changes on the bank efficiency using a Tobit regression. Consistent with the existing literature, we find that profit efficiency levels are well below those of cost efficiency. This suggests that the most important inefficiencies are on the revenue side. Our findings are also consistent with prior evidence on ownership and efficiency: joint-stock banks (national and city-based), on average, appear to be more cost- and profit-efficient than state-owned banks while medium-sized banks are significantly more efficient than small and large banks. These and other results suggest the need for speedier reforms to open the banking market, improving risk management, minimizing the government's capital subsidy and diversifying ownership of Chinese banks.     

Comparing the technical efficiency of farms benefiting from different agricultural interventions in Kenya's drylands

Farmers in Kenya's drylands have difficulty accessing farm production resources and in consequence farm productivity is low. It is therefore important to find strategies for improving access to these scarce resources to help farmers use them efficiently. This paper analyses and compares the technical efficiency of five groups of small farms affected by five different agricultural interventions. The aim of the study was to identify intervention strategies that significantly improve farm efficiency. Data envelopment analysis was used to compute farm-level average technical efficiencies for each of the intervention groups. The results showed that average technical efficiency was highest for the farms that had participated in an irrigation intervention. The findings suggest that the strategies promoted by this intervention, such as access to irrigation, inputs and markets, have the most significant effect on farm efficiency.     

Shareholder Activism through Proxy Proposals: The European Perspective

This paper is the first to investigate the corporate governance role of shareholder‐initiated proxy proposals in European firms. Proposal submissions in Europe remain infrequent compared to the USA, especially in Continental Europe. In the UK proposals typically relate to a proxy contest seeking board changes, while in Continental Europe they are more focused on specific governance issues. There is some evidence that proposal sponsors are valuable monitors, because the target firms tend to underperform and have low leverage. Sponsors also consider the ownership structure of the firm, because proposal probability increases in the target's ownership concentration and the equity stake of institutional investors. While proposals enjoy limited voting success across Europe, they are relatively more successful in the UK. The outcomes are strongest for proposals targeting the board but are also affected by the target characteristics including the CEO's pay‐performance sensitivity. Proposals are met with a significant negative abnormal return of ?1.23%, when they are voted upon at general meetings. The low voting support gathered by proposals and the strongly adverse market reaction suggest that shareholders of European companies use proposals as an emergency brake rather than a steering wheel.     

Cybertax

Internet, the fastest growing communications medium or consumer electronic technology, doubles its size every six months. Within a few years the number of citizens in Cyberspace will outnumber all but the largest nations. The borderless world of the Internet extends its reach to all corners of the world. Best of all, it is almost free. Hardware costs aside, once on the Internet a user can surf anywhere for the price of a local phone call. But what about all the foregone tax revenue that electronic commerce could facilitate? Although Internet commerce is in its earliest stages, its rapid growth is anticipated. Some estimate that in 30 years time, consumer activity online could represent more than 30% of total consumer activity. This leads to the erosion of national tax bases. In this paper we show that, as a measure of last resort, the bit tax can be implemented. Although the exact implementation of such a tax is not yet clear, the general idea of a tax on information from the point of view of an eroding tax base and the changing society is certainly worth considering. Furthermore, the tax revenues could be directed towards improving access to the Internet, educating individuals to become acquainted with the Internet and providing additional needed bandwidth.     

An export model for the Belgian industry

A two-equation model for the export volume and the export price of the Belgian industry is specified as a convex combination of demand and supply determinants and estimated using Bayesian inference methods. The results indicate that, in the medium run, industrial exports are mainly explained by the behaviour of price taking suppliers.     

税收竞争还是税收输出?

原载:Journal of Urban Economics,第54卷,(2003)第639-647页一、引言在税收竞争基本模型①里,两个独立辖区政府为了相互竞争流动税基,把税率设计得很低,结果产生了无效率问题。典型税收竞争模型通常研究的是一系列独立辖区,其中每个辖区都在本区范围内对流动资本征税。征来的税款用来支持公共提供品,而这个公共提供品可能具有或不具有公共产品的那些特征。增加税收会带来资本的外流,而这种资本外流是提供公共提供品的一部分成本,尽管如此,我们并不考虑其他辖区拓宽税基这一有益的情况。由于所有辖区政府都采取相同的行为方式,所以,就会出…