Self-employment of Chinese rural labor force: Subsistence or opportunity?—An empirical study based on nationally representative micro-survey data

Self-employment is an essential form of non-agricultural employment, and its nature has been rarely identified in recent studies. From the perspectives of the human capital, social capital, and family assets of rural laborers, this study focuses on determining self-employment by using the nationally representative data on the rural labor force in China. Through the static comparative analysis between three groups of laborers in self-employment, wage employment, farming, and the dynamic comparative analysis of laborers entering into and exiting from self-employment, the study shows that self-employment of rural laborers in China is almost opportunity-driven or moving toward opportunistic self-employment. Human capital, social capital, and family assets promote rural laborers shifting from wage employment to self-employment and stimulate the establishment of high-value enterprises. The study suggests that local governments should increase the investments in rural education and vocational skills training and strengthen the availability of rural credit to lay a good foundation for self-employment activities in rural areas.     

Ideological taboos,entry barriers,and FDI attraction: Evidence from China

Developing and transitional countries often impose a wide variety of entry barriers on foreign direct investments (FDIs). One important reason behind these entry barriers is ideological taboos. However, do these taboos actually affect the inflow of FDIs? With the help of China’s “cultural system reform,” this study uses a panel data of 283 prefecture-level cities in China for 1994–2017 and the difference-in-differences method to evaluate the effect of the cultural system reform on regional FDI. We found that the cultural system reform remarkably promoted the inflow of FDIs by deregulating institutions and removing entry barriers, and the attraction of FDI has slowly increased along with the deepening of the reform. Our conclusions still hold after performing several robustness tests, thereby highlighting ideologies as important barriers to the inflow of FDIs into less developed countries.     

An analysis of the disruptive impact of the entry of Free Mobile into the French mobile telecommunications market

The issue of disruptive operators has recently gained interest among researchers and regulators. From a regulator's perspective, disruptive operators can increase competitive rivalry in markets dominated by a handful of large companies, thereby allowing consumers to obtain more benefits in terms of price and quality. Largely overlooked in this discussion has been the impact that the specific identity, complementary assets of operators, and their strategies have on the marketplace dynamics. In this paper we explore the impact that one such operator – Free Mobile – has had on the French mobile telecommunications market. Drawing on a wide range of secondary sources, our analysis finds that the entry and subsequent growth of Free Mobile has had a complex and multi-faceted impact on the market. Their growth has been at the expense of the other three mobile network operators active in the French market, while their innovative business model, which enables it to compete on the basis of low costs, has been copied by its rivals. The specific characteristics of Free Mobile and of its strategy have contributed to a significantly alteration to how competition occurs in this market. This, in turn, triggers a strong incentive for restructuring, which is actually restrained by regulatory concerns.     

Corporate Demography and Empirical Industrial Organization: A Critical Appraisal

The emerging field of corporate demography views corporations and industries in a similar way to human or animal individuals and groups. In spite of a surprisingly large overlap of subject matter with economics, corporate demography is not well-known by, nor easily accessible to economists. An extremely useful recent book, The Demography of Corporations and Industries, by Glenn R. Carroll and Michael T. Hannan (2000) should change that. This review essay critically examines corporate demography from an economic viewpoint. The very different view of competition in corporate demography gets particular attention.     

企业国际化经营的市场进入方式选择

随着世界经济一体化进程的加快和我国成功地加入世贸组织,企业越来越普遍地从事国际化经营活动。正确选择市场进入方式是企业国际化经营成败的关键。本文着重分析了影响进入方式选择的主要因素,并基于这一领域的交易成本理论、组织行为理论、折衷理论等尝试构建了一个企业国际化经营的进入方式综合决策模型,以期对我国企业实施“走出去”战略提供有益的借鉴。     

To Bundle or Not to Bundle: Firms’ Choices under Pure Bundling

We examine the economic implications of pure bundling under the settings of monopoly and duopoly. We show that under monopoly and pure bundling of goods with independent demands, the bundled price is strictly less than the sum of the unbundled prices. In the setting of duopoly and Nash prices, we examine whether bundling can be used as a tool to deter entry. In contrast to the findings of previous studies, we show that with low entry costs, entry is deterred by unbundled as opposed to bundled sales. With high entry costs, however, the incumbent chooses to bundle.     

人寿保险行业市场结构及影响因素研究

准入退出壁垒、市场集中度、规模经济和范围经济以及产品差异化等是影响人寿保险业市场结构的主要因素。中国保险市场准入、退出的行政性政策壁垒较高,市场集中度较高,属于寡占 III 型市场结构;寿险业保费规模、保险密度、保险深度、保险资产总额占 GDP 的比重、保险资产总额占整个金融资产的比重较低;寿险产品同质化现象较严重。鉴此,应降低市场进入壁垒,建立市场退出机制,达到优化市场结构,提高资源配置效率目的。     

中国工业企业动态演化效率研究：所有制视角

不同所有制企业陆续进入、退出市场以及在市场中展开竞争,是中国渐进式改革在企业层面的一个重要特征。本文借助中国工业企业数据库(1998~2007年),在VDF总量生产率增长分解框架下,测度了不同所有制企业的动态演进效率。研究发现国有企业在总量上的效率贡献最大,民营企业在增量上的效率贡献则最大。经济总量上,内部效率提升环节对总量生产率贡献最大,而增量上,退出环节对总量生产率贡献最大,表明中国经济已经走上了一条内生增长、创新驱动与优胜劣汰的发展道路。进入环节无论在何种情况下效率贡献均为负,说明中国依然是一个进入门槛较高的国家。不同所有制企业对总量生产率的贡献与企业生命周期有关。本文对澄清我国企业改革的所有制误区,推进混合所有制经济改革与寻找经济增长新动力有着重要的理论价值与现实意义。     

入世后宁波利用外资的特征、绩效及发展对策

入世以来宁波在外资利用方面呈现出了总量增加、投资来源地多样化、投资行业渐趋合理等特点,同时也暴露出了大项目数量少、产业集聚效应不强、辐射力差、总体质量偏低、结构不合理等弱点。为此,本论文提出了相应的对策与建议。     

Technology interdependence and entry modes of the Taiwanese technological multinational companies: moderating effects of political instability,technological uncertainty,and Confucian dynamism

This study aims to examine how technology interdependence and three environmental variables, namely political instability, technological uncertainty and Confucian dynamism, in the host country collectively influence Taiwanese technological multinational company’s (MNC) entry mode choice between joint venture (JV) and wholly owned subsidiary (WOS). Grounded on theories of transaction cost economies and organisational design, this study hypothesises a positive technology interdependence–WOS relationship that can be explained by appropriation and coordination concerns. Moreover, the aforementioned relationship can be positively moderated by technological uncertainty while negatively moderated by political instability and Confucian dynamism. These hypotheses were examined and supported using logistic regressions in the analysis of 195 foreign entries undertaken by Taiwanese information and electronic MNCs.