Regional Development of Manufacturing Industry in the Eastern and Midwestern Regions of China——Based on the Theory of “Home Market Effects”

“新经济地理理论”强调规模经济是地区贸易和国际贸易的驱动力,这种力量被克鲁格曼称为“本地市场效应”(Home Market Effects).本地市场效应理论不仅具有重要的理论意义,而且具有现实的经济意义.借助时间序列分析方法,笔者重点实证检验了中国东、中西部地区相关制造业的本地市场效应.检验结果表明:多数制造业部门在中国东、中西部区域经济发展中,本地需求规模起到了主要作用,企业劳动生产率和固定成本对本地市场效应的向心力和离心力作用.因此,在追求未来区域经济和谐发展的过程中,注重培育相关产业的本地市场效应十分重要.     

Analysis of the Effect and Mode of Strategy Integration of the Enterprise M＆A

Merger is a kind of strategic behavior of seeking long-term development. A new enterprise coming from merger is different from the one that come into existence. The strategy of new enterprise formed from merger is constituted through the integration of the strategy for each side. Strategy integration is the guide for the integration of other elements after merger, the way for enterprises to adapt the change of environment and the warranty for the enterprises to achieve strategy synergistic effect. Strategy integration of the merging-enterprises can be realized through several steps： preparation for strategy integration, readjustment to strategy, reorientation of the enterprise and effective communication with target enterprise in the course of carrying out the strategy.     

A Guide for Submissions to the Features and Information Section—A Wealth of Opportunities

The associate editor for the Features and Information (F&I) section of the Journal of Economic Education provides an overview of articles published in this section over the last 20 years with emphasis on pieces that serve as exceptional models for potential contributions. She also offers advice on topics and stylistic approach to authors considering a submission to F&I.     

Theory and Practice of Learning Organization ——Investigation and Thinking for the Management Committee of the Baotou Rare Earth High-tech Area

Nowadays, many countries and regions use the human resources development as the major approach in holding the initiative in competition. The Baotou Rare Earth High-tech Area implements the strategies for revitalizing the area through establishing science and education learning organization and developing the entire learning in Management Committee. In accordance with the fundamental of mathematics ＂The arithmetical mean is equal to or larger than its geometric mean to any positive real number＂, it submits ＂the theoretical model of proportional development advantage of the same element in the same level＂ in order to solve ＂the problem that a few people behind in the department block the development of the High-tech Area＂, realize every member＇s common progress and each department＇s proportional development, and finally make the effect of Rare Earth High-tech maximum by strengthening team cooperation and producing a multiplier effect.     

Competitiveness and the Benchmarking of Nations—A Critical Reflection

This paper provides a critical evaluation of the role and validity of indices used to measure national competitiveness. It examines the growth in the number and range of such indices and explores their growing importance in benchmarking national economic performance. It also provides a detailed critical interrogation of four of the most commonly used indices, and examines their robustness in relation to their ability to predict overall economic performance. The results indicate that the indices are poor proxies and predictors of growth and are thus potentially misleading for policy-makers. The paper concludes by reflecting on the broader benchmarking and image-making role played by competitiveness indices.     

On the Market for Principles of Economics Textbooks: Innovation and Product Differentiation—A Response

E. A. Ross was fired from Stanford University in 1900 because he had angered Jane L. Stanford, the surviving cofounder of the university, for violating her alleged prohibition of faculty participation in partisan political activity. The author argues that this prohibition may never have been written and that the injustice in the firing of Ross may have been compounded by deception.     

Wealth,Capital and the Theory of Distribution: Some Implications for Piketty’s Analysis

Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2014) has been spectacularly successful. One reason for this is that while it often challenges received views and supports a non-apologetic interpretation of capitalism, at the same time it relies on mainstream economics. This theoretical framework, however, is not always conducive to consistency and interpretative accuracy. This paper points out some of the book’s analytical weaknesses and shows that some empirical evidence, a clearer distinction between wealth and capital, and a different theoretical perspective, could lead to questioning some of the book’s claims. In particular, it argues that the increase in the wealth-to-output ratio (but not the capital-to-output ratio) cannot explain the observed changes in income shares. It also contends that non-mainstream perspectives on income distribution and growth suggest that changes in income distribution are due more to policy and power relations than to the factors Piketty identifies.     

Public–private partnerships for the provision of public goods: Theory and an application to NGOs

When will a public good or service be provided by the government, when will it be provided by a NGO, and when will we see a private–public partnership? This paper provides a model where a typical public good requires different inputs which raises the possibility of partnerships to exploit comparative advantages of different parties. But hold-up problems due to contractual incompleteness in specifying tasks discourage separation of ownership and management. The fact that public goods have the property of non-rivalry and non-excludability and that NGOs tend to be non-profits drives our key results. We apply the framework to NGOs in developing countries which, in the last few decades, have been increasingly involved in various capacities in the provision of a wide range of public goods and services.     

Labor Informality: Choice or Sign of Segmentation? A Quantile Regression Approach at the Regional Level for Colombia

The labor market in developing countries is remarkably heterogeneous, with a small productive formal sector characterized by high wages and attractive employment conditions, and a large informal sector characterized by low productivity and volatile wages. The informal sector is particularly diverse. In this paper, we examine the heterogeneity of the informal sector at the regional level in Colombia. In general, our findings suggest that both voluntary and involuntary informal employment co‐exist by choice and as a consequence of labor market segmentation. We also find that there are striking differences in labor market characteristics across cities, particularly with respect to informal employment.     

Analysis on Spatial-temporal Characteristics of the Coordinated Development Degree between Regional Urbanization and Social Economy： A Case Study of Anhni Province

城市化与社会经济发展的协调性是可持续发展实践的核心问题之一。文章利用经济发展的数量参数统计方法和地理空间匹配分析工具对安徽省区域城市化与社会经济协调发展度的时空特征进行分析。结果表明：安徽省区域城市化水平整体落后于社会经济发展综合水平;在2000-2007年,多数地级市的城市化与社会经济发展综合指数及二者协调发展度呈下降趋势;地理空间匹配分析表明,17个地级市的协调发展度的空间分异规律明显。表现为中南部较西北部地区的城市经济协调性水平高。由此看出,安徽省区域城市与经济协调发展具有地域性分片块状的特点,研究结果与实际情况较为符合。     

A comparison of preferences for two GLP-1 products – liraglutide and exenatide – for the treatment of type 2 diabetes

Abstract

Objective:

To use time trade-off (TTO) to compare patient preferences for profiles of two glucagon-like peptide (GLP-1) products for the treatment of type 2 diabetes (liraglutide and exenatide) that vary on four key attributes – efficacy (as measured by hemoglobin A_1C), incidence of nausea, incidence of hypoglycemia, and dosing frequency (QD vs. BID) – and measure the contribution of those attributes to preferences.

Methods:

A total of 382 people with T2DM were recruited to participate in an internet-based survey consisting of a series of health-related questions, a conjoint exercise and a set of time trade-off items. In the conjoint exercise, respondents were presented with eight pairs of hypothetical GLP-1 profiles, and completed a time-tradeoff exercise for each pair.

Results:

The product profile representing liraglutide was preferred by 96% of respondents and resulted in significantly higher health utilities (0.038) than the product profile representing exenatide (0.978 vs. 0.94, p?<?0.05). Estimated preference scores from the conjoint analysis revealed that efficacy measured by hemoglobin A_1C is the most important attribute, followed by nausea, hypoglycemia, and dosing schedule.

Limitations:

On-line participants may not represent ‘typical’ type 2 diabetes patients, and brief product profiles represented results from clinical trials, not clinical practice

Conclusion:

Based on the four attributes presented, patients prefer liraglutide over exenatide. Preference is based on superior efficacy and less nausea more than less hypoglycemia and once-daily dosing.     

A grey dynamic model for the evaluation of regional sustainable development and its empirical study

Currently, traditional development issues, such as economic stagnation, as well as new challenges like environmental degradation and globalization, need attention. Sustainable development, including economic, environmental, and social elements, is a main goal of decision-makers. The key to sustainable decision-making is to evaluate and forecast the status quo of sustainable development. Policy makers need a tool based on scientific information to forecast the effects of future actions on sustainability and make policies for sustainable development. This paper analyzes the relation of the economy, environment and social welfare by the grey dynamic model. The proposed method uses time series and basic indicators of ecological system, including economic, environmental and social sub-systems. It is applied to Heilongjiang Province and Jiangsu Province. The results have proved different status quo of sustainable development in these two regions, and suggestions are proposed, such as optimization of industrial structure and eco-industrial development. The conclusion is that there is no unique sustainable path, and accordingly, policy makers should choose different criteria and strategies to make efficient sustainable decisions for each region.     

How Much do Technological Gap,Firm Size,and Regional Characteristics Matter for the Absorptive Capacity of Italian Enterprises?

The absorptive capacity—the ability of enterprises to efficiently absorb and internalise knowledge from outside sources—represents the link between firms’ capabilities to implement new products and the external stock of technological opportunities, such as those gleamed from Multinational Enterprises (MNEs). This paper explores whether the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on the productivity of Italian domestically-owned firms (DOFs) is dependent on their absorptive capacity. In particular, given the peculiar characteristics of the Italian productive system, our analysis focuses on three different dimensions of the absorptive capacity: the size of the technological gap between foreign-owned firms (FOFs) and DOFs, firm size, and the regional distribution of firms. Our findings suggest that technological gap and firm size matter considerably for the spillover effect. Moreover, spillovers exhibit a sub-national dimension present only in the northeastern region of the peninsula.     

A Spatial Investigation of σ-convergence for County Economy——Taking the 136 Counties of Hebei Province as An Example

增强县域经济活力是解决＂三农＂问题的重要突破口,准确判断县域经济的发展差距是制定发展规划的科学依据。以河北省为例,使用17年实际农民人均纯收入数据研究该省136个县域经济发展的σ-趋同情况。研究结果表明,考虑县域间地理相关性特别是经济相关性后,σ值发生了显著变化。经典方法在σ-趋同计算结果中存在严重偏误,会导致对发展差距的误断。空间计量经济方法,特别是经济相关性矩阵的运用,可以显著矫正经济发展差距经典测度方法的不足。