Reforms,globalization, and endogenous agricultural structures

In this article, I draw lessons from two quasi‐natural experiments (the transition process in former Communist countries and the rapid globalization of food chains) on the optimality of farms and agricultural structures more generally. I argue that (a) the farm structures that have emerged from the transition process are much more diverse than expected ex ante; (b) this diversity is to an important extent determined by economic mechanisms which are influenced by initial conditions and reform policies; (c) non‐traditional farm structures have played an important role during transition because they were optimal to address the specific institutional and structural constraints imposed by the transition process; (d) there is more diversity than often argued in the farms that are integrated in global food chains; (e) endogenous institutional (contracting) innovations in food chains may lock existing farm structures in a long‐run institutional framework; and (f) indicators based on farm structures are not a good measure of welfare effects of the globalization of food chains.     

论我国政策性金融体系的完善

政策性金融在资源配置中具有特殊作用，我国政策性银行的地位需进一步强化，体系待完善。应从加快建立政策性金融法规和专门的政策性金融监管机构、拓宽政策性银行的筹资渠道、加强现有政策性银行的建设及适时增设新的政策性金融机构几个方面出发，建立符合中国国情的较为完善的政策性金融体系。     

Economics of Summitry: An Empirical Assessment of the Economic Effects of Summits

Since 1975 the leaders of the seven industrial countries (the G-7) have held annual summits to discuss issues of common interest, attempt to coordinate their economic policies, and set goals for their economies. To empirically assess the effects of summit announcements and the degree of compliance with the stated goals on macroeconomic variables is an important, interesting, and well-defined undertaking. The present paper uses fuzzy membership function to model the degree of compliance with the stated goals and a VAR framework to test for the summit effects.     

How does a cluster relocate across the border? The case of information technology cluster in the Taiwan-Suzhou region

Since the end of the Cold War, cross-border regions have proliferated at the borders of formal socialist countries, especially in China. Existing accounts of these emergences treat them either at the macro-level, focusing on political initiatives, or at the micro-level, with emphasis on social and economic relations. This paper uses the Taiwan-Suzhou cross-border region as a case study for suggesting a meso-level approach, arguing that as a result of continuous interactions between individual Taiwanese information technology firms and opportunity structures generated by the selective opening of the Chinese border, the formation of cross-border high-tech regions is shaped and determined at the level of the industrial system. The industrial system acts as a platform for coordination and cooperation between local elites and foreign investors and among individual firms within this system. The formation of the cross-border high-tech region thus involves the relocation and institutional re-embedding of industrial systems across the border, which has been accompanied by the systemic building of Taiwanese firms on the one hand, and the institutional innovation of Chinese local states on the other.     

Patent Protection, Transnational Corporations, and Market Structure: A Simulation Study of the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry

This study examines the role of patent protection on the behavior of transnational corporations and market structure in the Indian pharmaceutical industry. The method of analysis is the calibration of a theoretical model to firm-level data from two therapeutic groups of the Indian pharmacy market, and a simulation analysis asking the hypothetical question of what the market structure would be if India granted patent protection to pharmaceutical products. The model developed for the simulation analysis explicitly accounts for the complex demand structure for pharmaceutical goods that results from the presence of therapeutic substitute drugs, and product differentiation among chemically equivalent drugs.     

产业转移的新经济地理学解释

不同于传统的产业转移理论,新经济地理学(NEG)在规模报酬和垄断竞争框架下解释产业转移现象,认为产业转移的基础不必然是第一自然的差异,在完全相同的均质空间下,产业转移也能出现,并且对产业转移的相关原理给予了独特的解释。以现有文献为基础,本文从产业转移机制、产业转移的特征与规律、产业转移的福利效应以及促进产业转移的政策效应四个方面总结了产业转移的NEG相关解释。     

我国区域经济政策调整的趋势性框架

近年来,随着一系列促进区域协调发展战略和政策的实施,我国区域经济格局出现了一些积极的变化,在推进区域协调发展方面取得了显著的成绩。在区域竞争模式的主导下,现阶段,区域发展在效率、公平、可持续方面的问题依然突出。推进区域协调发展,要准确把握区域发展的国际经验和客观规律,明确界定各级政府间的权责、改变GDP至上的地方竞争模式。就具体策略而言,要消除各种限制要素流动的体制和政策,推进基本公共服务均等化,严格环境生态等方面的社会性规制,改变区域政策碎片化趋势。     

货币政策调控对西安地区商业银行信贷行为的影响分析

为有效应对世界性金融危机给我国造成的不利影响,我国的货币政策做出了由"从紧"到"适度宽松"再到"稳健"的适应性调整。但商业银行的赢利属性容易造成其经营目标与国家货币政策发生背离,从而影响到货币政策的实施效果。本文通过对货币政策调控与商业银行信贷行为之间关系的实证分析,对增强宏观调控政策的有效性提出建议。     

Low carbon transport strategy in Europe: A critical review

ABSTRACT

The purposes of this article are to depict ongoing trends regarding the transport system in Europe, to introduce readers to the challenges that Europe (and the rest of the world) will face in the future, to show which strategies Europe plans to deploy to mitigate the negative impacts the transport system imposes on the overall system, and finally to discuss the potential of these suggested strategies to contribute to the objectives of the European Union in the long run.