An analysis of the intra-firm sales activities of Japanese multinational enterprises in the United States: 1977 to 1989

This paper examines the activities of the largest Japanese multinational enterprises (MNEs) operating in the United States by looking at data on exports, imports, and intra-firm trade between the Japanese subsidiaries in the United States and their parent and other foreign groups. It also examines how much of the domestic sales in the United States are accounted for by local production of the Japanese subsidiaries. Sales data provide an indication of the advantages of being multinational, which are mirrored in the growth of the post-investment sales of overseas units (both manufacturing and non-manufacturing). Data on the flows and stocks of foreign direct investment (FDI) represent the initial decisions to undertake FDI and largely ignore the learning effects of having overseas production.The authors are from the City University of Hong Kong and NORTACK Software Limited. We would like to thank the Editor, Dr Leung Hing-Man, the anonymous referees, and Don Daly, Wendy Dobson, Hiroaki Izumi, Terutomo Ozawa, Alan M Rugman and Rob Tran for their helpful comments. All errors and omissions, however, remain the responsibility of the authors.     

Competition in the electricity industry in England and Wales

When the electricity industry was privatized, the governmentmade structural changes to encourage competition in generationand in supply to consumers. The conventional power stationswere only divided between two companies, however, and we showthat duopolistic competition in an unregulated spot market mightimply undesirably high prices. Most sales are hedged in thecontract market, which makes the spot market more competitive,and a realistic threat of entry could also force generatorsto keep their prices down. In the event, a large amount of entrytook place, supported by the regional electricity companies'franchise monopoly over smaller consumers. That monopoly endsin 1998, so that further entry might become very difficult,while competition between firms already in the generation marketis still limited. Vertical integration between the major generatorsand regional electricity companies might make entry even harder,and should be blocked until the industry is more competitive.     

A transactions data analysis of nonsynchronous trading

Weekly returns of stock portfolios exhibit substantial autocorrelation.Analytical studies suggest that nonsynchronous trading is capableof explaining from 5% to 65% of the autocorrelation. The varyingimportance of nonsynchronous trading in these studies arisesprimarily from differing assumptions regarding nontrading periodsof stocks. We simulate the effects of nonsynchronous tradingby sampling stock returns from a return generating process usingtransactions data to obtain the precise time of each stock'slast trade. We find that simulated weekly portfolio returnsexhibit autocorrelations that are roughly 25% that of theirobserved (CRSP) weekly returns.     

马克思主义的最高命题与中国共产党人的伟大实践

在马克思主义的经典理论中,人的全面发展理论是其重要的组成部分,而其核心：“一切人自由而全面的发展”则是马克思主义的最高命题。坚持马克思主义,首先应当坚持马克思主义的这一根本价值和最高命题。中国共产党人在中国革命与社会主义建设的进程中,将马克思主义与中国实际相结合,通过艰难探索,丰富和发展了人的全面发展理论。历代中央领导集体在践行这一最高命题上都作出了贡献,尤其是新一代中央领导集体在党的十六大以来提出了科学发展观和构建社会主义和谐社会等一系列重大战略思想,对马克思主义人的全面发展理论再度进行理论创新,在践行马克思主义最高命题上开辟了新道路。