The Incredible HOLC? Mortgage Relief during the Great Depression

This paper examines the relief provided by the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC), a New Deal program that purchased and refinanced over 1 million distressed residential mortgages. I document that the HOLC paid relatively high prices for its mortgages, most likely in an effort to encourage lender participation and stimulate the housing market. The consequence was that lenders were able to remove poorly performing assets from their balance sheets at attractive prices. While this meant the HOLC’s ability to seek principal reductions was somewhat limited, borrowers still received significant relief through the terms of the HOLC’s more modern and forgiving mortgage contracts.     

Valuation effects of recent corporate dividend and income trust distribution tax changes

We analyze the valuation effects of the Canadian federal government's announcement on November 23, 2005 of a reduction in the taxation of corporate dividends and the announcement on October 31, 2006 of a plan to eliminate the tax‐deductibility of income trust distributions. Though high dividend stocks and income trusts reacted positively to the 2005 announcement, the abnormal returns were greater for income trusts. Conversely, both securities reacted negatively to the 2006 announcement with the decline bigger for income trusts. The larger price reactions of income trusts and the lack of statistical significance in the cross‐sectional tests of the abnormal returns suggest that the popularity of income trusts in Canada was mostly driven by their favourable income tax status. The implications of these findings for scholarship and for practice are discussed. Copyright © 2008 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

论著作权法中作者的收回权

目前许多国家知识产权法都规定作者享有收回权。收回权的客体是已经发表作品的使用权,其行使将对作品使用权人产生较大影响。为防止作者滥用这一权利,相关国家的法律均设置了较为严格的条件。收回权与发表权和修改权之间虽存在一定的联系,但有着本质上的区别。收回权在我国著作人身权体系中具有独立制度价值,应对其提供相应的法律保护。     

氯化聚乙烯的应用与发展趋势

综述了氯化聚乙烯的应用及其发展趋势。     

Perceptions of the risks and benefits of genetically-modified foods and their influence on willingness to consume

There has been debate in the literature as to whether: (1) the risks and benefits of genetically-modified (GM) food and agriculture are considered and determined by individuals separately or whether they are jointly determined by attitudes; (2) consumer acceptance is determined by individuals weighing up their risk and benefit perceptions in a rational, even-handed manner, or if benefit perceptions are more important than risk perceptions, and (3) certain types of risk and benefit are more important than others. Against this background, this paper assesses the categories of risks and benefits and their relative importance in determining willingness to consume. A survey was carried out to collect data on the categories of risks and benefits in the US, UK and France, and the relative importance of selected perceived risk and benefit dimensions was estimated. The findings show: risk and benefit perceptions are negatively correlated, but not perfectly and, given that regressions we performed support the proposition that benefits are more important than risks in determining willingness to consume, a strong case can be made for measuring risks and benefits separately. Almost 2/3 of consumers perceive medium to high potential benefits from GM, though the proportion is slightly lower in the UK and down to 40% in France. Nevertheless, this suggests a much higher level of support for the technology than is normally assumed. From the study, benefits are more important for consumers' willingness to consume than perceived risks, and slightly more interviewees scored above than below the mean on willingness to consume GM food.     

Environmental issue management: towards a multi‐level theory of environmental management competence

The continuity and profitability of business firms are under constant threat from environmental issues – forthcoming developments in the environmental domain or involving environmental stakeholders that are likely to have an important impact on the ability of the enterprise to meet its objectives. Managers must forge responses to such issues, but must they respond in an ad hoc fashion to every issue or can they develop more coherent environmental management competences? Empirical evidence was collected from a case study of the environmental issue management practices of Unilever, one of the largest food and personal care companies in the world. This company's approach to dealing with the issue of genetically modified ingredients reveals that issue managers face a complex level‐of‐analysis problem when confronting environmental issues: how to translate individual‐level knowledge into organization‐level outcomes? The theory developed here suggests that once firms learn how to span this chasm, they are able not only to address discrete environmental issues, but also to build competitive environmental advantages through the development of integrative organizational competences. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

关于如何拓宽胶粉应用的思考

为了拓宽胶粉的应用,主要从精细和超细胶粉的生产、胶粉的表面改性、再生胶粉的生产三个方面阐述了拓宽胶粉应用的途径和可行性。     

WTO体制下的TBT-SPS规则修改与前景预测

技术性贸易壁垒作为非关税壁垒中最为隐蔽的一种阻碍国际自由贸易的障碍,与其他传统手段相比往往使出口国更难应付和适应。随着国际贸易的发展和贸易自由化程度的提高,各国实行动植物检疫制度对贸易的影响越来越大,动植物检疫已经成为一种隐蔽性很强的技术壁垒措施。文章通过明确TBT和SPS协议的内涵,回顾它们的形成、修改过程并联系WTO实例对这两个协议的前景做出预测。     

水处理两性絮凝剂的研究现状及进展

综述了两性高分子絮凝剂的制备原理及工艺，分析了其市场应用前景，指出了国内该领域的不足及与国际领先水平的差距，并建议将今后的研究重点放在作用机理与合成工艺的研究上。