HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTION: A CONCEPTUAL MODEL FOR TIME-USE STUDY IN THE UNITED STATES AND JAPAN

A conceptual model to use in explaining influences on household production time of wives in the United States and in Japan is presented. This model is tested on a national U.S. sample using variables suggested by both U.S. and Japanese time-use studies. The results support and expand those of earlier studies. It is suggested that the model be tested with Japanese data to determine its usefulness in cross-cultural comparisons.     

FOREIGN EXCHANGE RATES AND FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT IN THE UNITED STATES

The hypothesis that foreign direct investment into the United States responds to variations in exchange-rate levels and to exchange-rate uncertainty is tested for the period 1976-1998. We account for nonstationarity and cointegration in the data series and use conditional measures of exchange-rate uncertainty. While a long-run relationship exists among foreign direct investment in-flows as a share of GNP, the real exchange rate, and the GARCH measure of exchange-rate volatility, we find no discernible link between the real exchange rate and inward foreign direct investment in the short run. We also conclude that foreign direct investment decreases in response to increases in exchange-rate uncertainty in the short run when we use a conditional measure of exchange-rate uncertainty.     

A PRACTITIONER'S DECISION MODEL FOR THE TOTAL COST OF OUTSOURCING AND APPLICATION TO CHINA,MEXICO, AND THE UNITED STATES

Outsourcing of manufacturing to Mexico and China includes costs that are not always considered and benefits that are not always correctly quantified. An analytical model for determining outsourcing costs was developed and results from that model are presented. Using that model, the sensitivity of outsourcing costs to several variables was modeled and analyzed. Guidance is provided regarding factors to consider in an outsourcing decision.     

THE CASUAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND EMPLOYMENT IN THE MANUFACTURING SECTOR OF THE UNITED STATES

The impact of US trade barriers and demand factors on import prices of Canadian softwood lumber is examined using time series analysis of quarterly data from 1989–2006. The results suggest that the previous quarter import price of softwood lumber, US producer price, and US housing starts, and the current quarter US producer price of softwood lumber have significant impacts on the import price of Canadian softwood lumber with 0.69, 1.92, 0.10 and ?1.64 as respective elasticities. Among trade barriers examined, a softwood quota raises the import price but a high tariff lowers it.     

HOME ECONOMICS IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES: CURRENT TRENDS

Higher education programmes of home economics in the United States have experienced dynamic changes in recent years. Today, home economics programmes are marked by name and curricula changes, concern for cohesion in the field, student and faculty diversification, leadership and administrative structure changes, strengthened research efforts and by improved graduate programmes. Parallel with these trends is a movement to clarify the content and aims of the field by developing a contemporary definition of home economics.     

TASTE FOR VARIETY,TASTE FOR NOVELTY AND PRICE BEHAVIOUR

In this paper we propose a formulation of preferences that exhibit both love for variety and love for novelty. This enables us to investigate the effects of ageing on imperfect substitutes, as they became progressively old‐fashioned, due to the obsolescence of their aesthetic features. First, we assume that the industry is divided into several submarkets, each dominated by a monopolist producing a variety of a given vintage. We show that prices decrease, and the evolution of demand determines the equilibrium number of varieties at the point where the oldest vintage firm earns zero profits. Second, under a free entry condition assumption, the lifetime horizon of each variety will be characterized by decreasing prices accompanied by increasing demand levels.     

WAGE FLEXIBILITY AND THE STABILITY ARGUMENTS OF THE NEOCLASSICAL SYNTHESIS

This note fills a lacuna in the neoclassical synthesis and completes its dynamic disequilibrium processes by including adjustments of the money wage rate in response to excess demand on the labour market. A Walrasian and a Keynesian variant are distinguished. While in the first case local asymptotic stability is always ensured, the equilibrium is unstable in the Keynesian case if money wages are too flexible relative to the adjustment speeds on the product and money markets.     

INFLATION AND THE TIMING OF PRICE CHANGES (*)

Consider an oligopolistic industry in which the firms produce perfect substitutes and incur transaction costs of changing price. Under constant inflation, there is an equilibrium in which the firms change their nominal prices at equally spaced time-points. Increasing the inflation rate increases the size of price changes, increases the frequency of price changes, and increases the average real price paid by buyers. The analysis derives its significance from its implications for the welfare costs of inflation: the inflation-induced distortions in relative prices are larger the more sticky nominal prices are; and are larger the greater the tendency for firms to stagger (rather than synchronize) their price changes.     

纺织品吸湿排汗性能测试方法的研究

[目的] 正确评价吸湿排汗纺织品的功能性、服用性.[方法] 采用芯吸高度和水分蒸发率法对纺织品进行测试.[结果] 随着Coolplus纤维含量的增加,织物的吸湿排汗功能增大,测试结果与产品应具有的客观性能效果和不同组分含量引起的性能变化规律一致,多次试验重现性差异小.[结论] 该方法操作简便,重复性好,能够反映纺织品的吸湿排汗特性,具有实际应用价值.     

美国会计实务危机根源剖析以及对我国的启示

文章分析了美国会计实务危机的现状和成因 ,并指出在中国会计国际化进程中 ,如何借鉴美国会计的经验和教训 ,解决好中国自己的会计问题。     

试论价格与价值、供求的关系

价格与价值、供求之间的关系是价值理论争论的焦点。我们认为价值是价格的内在决定因素，供求价格的外在影响因素，在实践中我们既是坚持马克思的劳动价值论，又要吸收均衡价格论的合理因素，建立适应社会主义市场经济的科学价值论。     

THE DOUBLE ROLE OF SKILLED LABOR,NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND WAGE INEQUALITY

We examine the relationship between the supply of skilled labor, technological change and relative wages. In accounting for the role of skilled labor in both production activities and productivity‐ enhancing ‘support’ activities we derive the following results. First, an increase in the supply of skilled labor raises the employment share of non‐production labor within firms, without lowering relative wages. Second, new technologies raise wage inequality only in so far as they give incentives to firms to reallocate skilled labor towards non‐production activities. In contrast, skill‐biased technological change of the sort usually considered in the literature does not affect wage inequality.     

ASSET PRICE BUBBLES,LIQUIDITY PREFERENCE AND THE BUSINESS CYCLE

In his Treatise on Money, Keynes relied on two different themes to argue that the interest rate need not rise with rising levels of expenditure. One of these was the elasticity of the money supply, and the other was the interaction between financial and industrial circulation. A decrease (increase) in what Keynes called the bear position was similar in its impact to that of a policy‐induced increase (decrease) in the money supply. In the General Theory, this second line of argument lost much of its force as it became reformulated under the rubric of Keynes liquidity preference theory of interest. Assuming that the expected return on capital adjusts to the interest rate in short‐period equilibrium, Keynes ignored the effect of bull or bear sentiment in equity markets as a second‐order complication that can be ignored in analyzing the equilibrium level of investment and output. The objective of this paper is to go back to this old theme from the Treatise and underscore its importance for Keynesian theory of the business cycle.     

THE NATIONALIZED INDUSTRIES AND THE RETAIL PRICE INDEX 1962–1978

This paper explores the impact of nationalized industries upon the Retail Price Index. It shows that the prices of nationalized industries have increased at a faster rate than those for all retail prices and examines reasons for these differences. It also discusses why the prices of nationalized industries appear to play a role in determining consumer welfare larger than their statistical significance in household budgets.     

纺织品防紫外线性能测试方法及仪器研制

[目的]设计出满足GB/T17032-1997基本要求,软硬软件互补、操作简便、便于数据处理、显示、保存,人机对话功能良好,能准确、快速检测纺织品防紫外线性能的仪器.[方法]该项目运用系统分析、有效控制方法,采用先进技术,研究完成了我国首台自行设计、自行研究、自行制造的织物紫外线透过率的检测仪器.[结果]该仪器各项技术指标达到了以下要求紫外线相对强度精度≤1%;标准样片测试结果CV值≤3%;每份样品测试时间不超过10min;测试窗口尺寸小于10mm.[结论]经以中国工程院院士姚穆为首的审定委员会审定认为该仪器设计科学合理、结构严谨、自动化程度高,检测快速,结果准确,关键技术达到国际先进水平.     

THE STOCK PRICE REACTION TO SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT ADVERTISEMENTS AND COMPANY VALUE

The research examines the stock price reaction to the announcement of the adoption of supply chain management‐enhancing tools and technologies to determine whether there is a significant response from the capital markets. The results show that the adoption of supply chain management‐enhancement tools appears to be value creating. The strength of the stock price reaction is positively related to the degree of certainty regarding the publication date of the publication.     

美国的外来生物入侵现状和防控策略

在美国历史上,据估计已经有近5万种外来入侵物种（非本土）传入美国。外来入侵生物对美国的经济和环境造成的损失高达1200亿美元。针对外来生物入侵的严峻形势及其重大经济损失,自1999年起,美国相继颁布了第13112号行政令、《国家入侵物种管理规划》和《公共健康安全和生物恐怖预警法案》等,建立了国家外来生物入侵防控战略体系。本文综述了美国的外来生物入侵现状及其国家防控策略,