Inequalities of opportunity in the access and use of telecommunication services in Togo

The liberalization of the telecommunications sector in Togo aimed at ensuring access to a better quality of telecommunication services at affordable prices to everyone. While the liberalization policy has increased competition in the sector and reduced significantly telecommunication services prices charged to costumers, statistics on the access and use of telecommunication services in Togo reveal disparities with respect to individuals' socio-economic characteristics which could be an indication of the existence of inequalities of opportunities in the access and use of these services.This paper investigates the inequalities of opportunity in the access and use of telecommunication services in Togo using a parametric approach. The results of estimations indicate that, inequalities of opportunities are larger for men and the elderly than respectively women and youths and are more pronounced in urban areas and regions such as the Plateaux and Savanna regions. Moreover, the circumstance variables such as the ‘place of residence’ and the ‘region’ are the key variables in explaining the inequalities of opportunities in the access and use of telecommunication services in Togo. So, policies toward reducing inequalities of opportunity in the access and use of telecommunication services in Togo should be designed with regards to men, the elderly, and people living in urban areas and regions such as the Plateaux and Savanna regions.     

家庭旅馆业的发展——以桂林龙脊梯田风景区为例

随着大众旅游的兴起 ,家庭旅馆在我国部分地区尤其是边远贫困地区的旅游经济中发挥着越来越重要的作用 ,甚至受到了许多旅游城市的重视。本文从实际案例出发 ,着重分析了家庭旅馆发展的特点和问题 ,以求对我国家庭旅馆业有一个客观、全面的基本认识     

构建长期激励性经营者年薪制的结构分析

经营者年薪制是西方企业普遍采用的薪酬激励制度,也是我国企业经营者薪酬制度改革的方向。设计长期激励性经营者年薪制是构建企业长期激励机制的基础,而年薪制结构是年薪制激励效果的基础。     

Welfare effects of the Telecommunication Reform in Mexico

The telecommunication sector in Mexico was highly concentrated until 2013. The sector was mostly composed by a dominant player, a rationed market (low density of services), a poor institutional design, high tariffs, and weak regulation agents. The Herfindahl-Hirschman (HHI) index was 5333 for mobile telephone and 7,029 for fixed telephone services—among the highest scores in the world. In order to promote competition in the sector, Congress approved a reform in 2013 to establish a new regulator empowered to impose asymmetrical rules in the case of the predominance of a single firm. A declaration of preponderance of the dominant player was issued, promoting free interconnection rates and the mandatory sharing of its passive and active infrastructure with the rest of the firms in the industry. The new institutional design led to increased competition in the sector, decreasing the mobile and fixed telephone prices while increasing the coverage and penetration of these services. In this article, an applied general equilibrium model for the Mexican economy is employed to assess the impact of the Telecommunication Reform in Mexico in the telephone sector, consumer welfare, and income distribution. The model is static, encompassing 10 types of consumers (rural and urban and the five income quintiles) and 40 sectors (of which four are disaggregate telecommunications industries). It assumes fixed wages and capital rental prices as well as idle resources. The main results indicate that the effects of the reform are not minor; the drop in telephone prices would reduce the general consumer price index by almost 2%, and the value added would increase by more than 3%, benefiting mainly households in the highest income quantiles.     

Co-evolution of the strategic reorientation of port actors: insights from the Port of Rotterdam and the Port of Barcelona

This paper explores changes in the strategic orientation of port authorities and terminal operators towards the hinterland network in the Ports of Rotterdam and Barcelona. Port authorities and terminal operators are economically, institutionally and geographically related organizations. The argument here is that such organizations experience a mutually influential and interactive effect in their strategy over time. The research explores the evolution of the market, institutional and governance forces behind these organizations’ strategic orientation, while acknowledging their interdependence and interrelationship. To that end, it builds a conceptual framework analysing these organizations’ strategies in different points in time. It draws upon firms and port theories to design a co-evolutionary framework, which is later refined with insights gained from an empirical study of the port context.     

Predation and network based price discrimination in Chile

This paper uses a model of strategic interaction among firms –that set discriminatory and nonlinear prices– in addition to public information on prices of the plans marketed by the three major mobile phone companies, to assess the extent to which on-net/off-net price differentials in the plans they offered could represent predatory practices in the mobile telephony market in Chile. The results show that the largest companies offered a few plans with an off-net/on-net price differential larger than what a competitive theoretical model predicts. This larger differential is consistent with the notion of predation defined by Hoernig (2007) as reducing a competitor's profits. Despite the fact that these plans were a small fraction of all the plans mobile phone firms offered, they were recently banned by the antitrust authority because of their potential anticompetitive effects.     

From Davos,Switzerland to Mombasa,Kenya: a position paper on the adoption of the ‘Davos declaration’ by hotels

Climate change has been identified as a major challenge in the achievement of sustainable development especially for developing countries like Kenya. There has been a wide acknowledgement that there is a need for long-term strategies for the industry players to reduce their contribution to climate change in line with other industries. Industries and societal sectors have sought ways of mitigating the causes of climate change. The Second International Conference on Climate Change and Tourism, held in Davos, Switzerland, on 3 October 2007, provided practical guidelines for the industry in response to climate change. This paper seeks to evaluate the adoption of the ‘Davos Declaration’ among selected Mombasa hotels in terms of water, energy and waste management. Results indicate that despite wide knowledge among hoteliers on the impacts of climate change and the role hotels can play in its mitigation, most hoteliers are slow in adopting the mitigation measures.     

The emergence of home-based accommodations in Iran: A study of self-organization

This paper examines the Iranian home-based accommodation sector using the theory of self-organization. With the aim of identifying the sector's organizing principles, interviews were conducted with the accommodation operators, providing 117 statements which were linked based on their key ideas and/or words. Using UCINET6, a network diagram of five organizing principles were identified: collective identity, balanced legitimacy, local embeddedness, mindful market, and networked finance. While the combination of these organizing principles is interpreted within the Iranian context, broad assumptions can be inferred. It is speculated that a collective aiming to organize itself needs to be considerate of its interactions with members of the collective, the authoritative body, the local community, the market, and capital. Additionally, each separate organizing principle might have relevance for small businesses in various industries. The study contributes to the commercial home and home-based accommodation literature while also providing insights into tourism development in Iran. Furthermore, the method used to identify organizing principles is considered novel and can be used with other collectives.     

国有企业经营者报酬契约模型研究

随着现代企业制度在我国的建立和发展,作为现代公司治理的重要内容和公司长远发展的关键因素,激励约束机制引起了学界的广泛关注。与发达的市场经济下的企业组织相比,由于体制原因和历史遗留问题,国有企业激励约束机制的构建面临着多方面的特殊因素,存在诸多困难。本文主要分析了国有企业委托代理关系的特殊性和复杂性,通过建立国企经营者激励约束的报酬契约模型,为国企激励约束机制的改进提供一个新的思路和方法。     

The potential for marrying local gastronomy and wine: The case of the ‘fortunate islands’

For centuries, the Mediterranean and other regions have become icons for their food, wine, laid-back lifestyle and benign weather, with each of these components ideally complementing the other three. The availability of a local cuisine and local wines provides consumers with memorable experiences. However, in many other regions little is known about ways in which the local cuisine and wine could be ‘married.’ This study examines the views of 55 small winery operators in a region that for decades has been widely known as a mass tourism destination: the Canary Island in Spain. While most operators recognise the potential for a perfect local cuisine–wine marriage, many also mention the missing link between the local hospitality and wine sectors. For instance, respondents argue that restaurateurs are not promoting local wines enough in favour of cheaper imports. The study also discusses the implications of the findings and identifies areas of future research.