Economic diplomacy: The “one–China policy” effect on trade

Chinese foreign policy is mainly characterized by the Beijing consensus and the one-China principle in international relations. More precisely, the situation faced by Taiwan is a “core interest” in China's economic diplomacy strategy. We investigate whether the “one-China policy” (OCP) has had visible effects on bilateral trade flows. In other words, does the compliance of diplomatic commitments with China undermine Taiwanese trade and enhance China's trade position? Using a structural gravity model based on worldwide panel data for the period 1948–2012, we approximate the OCP through two dummy variables: the vote by countries of the UN resolution about China's recognition in 1971 and the existence of diplomatic ties with China. The first component of the OCP drastically increased on average in trade flows with China regardless of the vote of trading partners concerning this UN resolution as well as that for Taiwan. On average, results suggest that diplomatic relations with China improve bilateral trade flows for China, but a trade-deteriorating effect appears for Taiwan with certain ex-colonies. We also find that the effects of these economic diplomacy components confirm previous results reported for the period studied.     

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.     

The effects of formal and informal child care on the Mother's labor supply—Evidence from urban China

The women's labor force participation rate in China has declined considerably during the last twenty years in urban China. Since the reforms started in the mid-1990s, publicly subsidized child care programs have decreased, and private care centers have increased. This might have increased the reliance of working mothers on informal child care and reduced their reliance on formal child care. Using post-reform data from the Project on Rural–Urban Migration in China (RUMiC) of 2008, I estimate the effects of formal and informal child care on the labor supply of mothers of young children. A recursive model with instrumental variables is employed to account for endogeneity. I find a positive and significant impact of informal child care in the form of grandchild care on the mother's labor force participation, while no significant effect of formal child care in the form of kindergartens or paid nannies. Considering recent tendencies in China to postpone retirement, one possible method to maintain mothers' presence in the labor market could be to reinforce the availability and affordability of formal child care.²³     

The effect of HIV on health care in sub‐Saharan Africa

This article is concerned with the hitherto neglected area of the effect of HIV on the delivery of health care in sub‐Saharan Africa. The task is hampered by a lack of usable data. In most countries there have been no sentinel HIV surveys, so we have no clear idea of the magnitude of the epidemic. However, it is certain that HIV will alter the demand for health care, and the supply and quality of services.

Demand will grow as infected adults and children seek care. Most HIV‐related illness is found in people who would not normally require care, and therefore creates additional demand. Demand for care will also be determined by the availability and accessibility of services. Ironically, the middle‐income countries may face higher bills, and in this sense the effect of the HIV epidemic may be worse in the more developed world.

The supply of services will be affected by increased morbidity and mortality among health care workers. This is already happening. The generous terms and conditions of service that most governments offer to workers in the public sector will make the problem worse.

HIV has served to improve the quality of health care in most of the developed world. Patients have sought to take control over their own care, and staff have been more rigorous in taking universal precautions. But in developing countries external aid often determines how health care is organised, and money spent on AIDS is diverted from other areas. This may also be true of local funding.

The effect of HIV on health care is lamentably under‐researched. This is particularly worrying as the effects of HIV will be felt first by the health care sector. The problem must be confronted urgently from the point of view of the suppliers of health care services, the users, and the policy‐makers.     

Measurement on Industry Contribution to Employment——The Case of Shaanxi

This paper applies a closed input-output model the framework of Shaanxi in 1992. The industry employment national industry employment contribution. to measure industry contribution to employment in contribution of Shaanxi is then compared with the     

A Study on Henry James＇ The Portrait of a Lady

Henry James （1843-1916） is a great American litterateur, literary critic and a famous novelist of psychological realism in the nineteenth century, who occupies an important position in American literary and history, even the whole world. Among all James＇ s literary works, the novels of the international theme dealing with the intercultural eonfliets between the innocence of American and the sophistication of European are the most eonspieuous and widely discussed.     

The effect of foreign direct investment on firm growth: the case of Taiwan’s manufacturers

Foreign direct investment (FDI) can be roughly separated into an expansionary type and a defensive type. Expansionary FDI seeks to exploit the firm-specific advantage in the host country whereas defensive FDI seeks cheap labor in the host country to reduce the cost of production. Based on Taiwanese data, we examine the effects of these two types of FDI on survival and growth performance of investing firms. Both types of FDI are shown to be beneficial to the survival of firms. Expansionary FDI has the additional benefit of contributing to the sales growth of investing firms at home while defensive FDI is neutral to sales growth. Both types of FDI are also shown to be uncorrelated with job creation or job displacement at home. Our results suggest that FDI will strengthen rather than weaken the viability and competitiveness of domestic industries. It cannot be blamed for industrial ‘hollowing-out’.     

The effect of value-added tax on leverage: Evidence from China’s value-added tax reform

In this paper, we use China’s value-added tax (VAT) reform in 2007, which was aimed to encourage fixed investment purchasing, as a natural experiment to explore the effect on firm financial leverage. Results show an expansion in firm balance sheet after the reform, manifested by greater liabilities (long-term, short-term and total liability) and asset. Moreover, in terms of the ratio to asset, it’s found that long-term liability rose while the short-term liability dropped, and as a net effect, the total asset-liability ratio declined as the latter effect dominated. To theoretically explain the observed patterns, three mechanisms are highlighted, “income effect”, “maturity-match effect” and “market disciplining effect”, where income effect corresponds to a proportional expansion of balance sheet while the latter two effects alter the composition of firm leverage.     

The effect of customer perceived value on B ＆ R loyalty model --An empirical study on China＇s commercial banks

Under the economic globalization trend and new domestic and international competitive environment, how to develop and upgrade the comprehensive strength and international competence, and how to promote marketization and internationalization have becomes the very focuses of China＇s commercial banks. Since the 1990s, the marketing paradigm of customer-orientation has replaced the product-orientation, therefore, perceived value, the variable from consumer＇s perception, begins to draw academic and financial fields＇ attention. However, few studies tended to analyze the relationship between perceived value, word-of-mouth communication intention, and satisfaction. Also, no study combined customer perceived value with the loyalty model of B ＆ R, thus the authors make a new attempt in this regard, and hope that the conclusion will provide useful reference for financial activities.     

Are all trade agreements equal? The role of distance in shaping the effect of economic integration agreements on trade flows

Review of World Economics - How does geographic distance affect the impact of trade agreements on bilateral exports, and through what channels? This paper examines these questions in a gravity...     

The Six Relationships between Goodwill and Core Competence of Corporation—Review of Research on Goodwill Accounting

Goodwill and core competence of the corporation are two concepts and they are easy to be confused, moreover, it uneasy to differentiate the source of advantages gained by the corporate, and also leads to a serious distortion between the value of the corporation acknowledged by market and the record value of accounting. This paper analyses the substance of goodwill and that of corporate core competence before coming to the conclusion that goodwill is a kind of combined intangible asset while core competence is a reluctant intangible asset, which means that both goodwill and core competence of the corporate belong to intangible assets, but the composing factors are inter-crossing and inter-containing. Moreover, goodwill and core competence have similar characters and there are also some relationships between them, such as succession ＆ development, abstract ＆ concrete, and superficiality ＆ essence as well. At the same time, there are some distinct differences between them in the following aspects： origination of research, initial definition, research background and theoretical basis, composing factors, value identified and measurement methods, way of value manifested, principle of value contribution and its accounting, etc. In the end, this paper comes to the conclusion that it is core competence that stands for the capability to gain advantages profit while goodwill is only a purchasing price margin, which is the balance of the exchanging value and book value of the net assets of the enterprise purchased. So, the core competence theory should be combined into goodwill accounting so as to establish core competence accounting, which will manifest the source of advantages gained by the corporation.     

Impact of demographic dynamics on food consumption — A case study of energy intake in China

Most existing studies of food demand focus on economic factors, such as income and price. Physical factors which determine human energy intake requirement, given economic conditions, such as gender and age structures of the population as well as occupation, are usually not incorporated. While this is appropriate in the situation of a continuous, stable development of demographic structure, it might lead to biased result if drastic and irregular demographic changes have taken place. This paper provides a case study of China of the impact of demographic dynamics on the change of physical requirement and energy intake demand. The unique population pyramid in China, resulted from the big famine in the early 1960s and then the “One Child” policy” starting from the 1980s, has led to the irregular evolution of age groups and the consequent changes in the proportion of the “big-eaters”. As a result, given food price and income, the very age structure of the population at the time affects the overall weighted energy intake level of the population significantly. Using household survey data ranging from year 1991 to 2009, the index of Adult Male Equivalent Scale (AMES) is constructed to reflect the varying per capita physical requirement resulted from the demographic dynamic over the years in China. The AMES index, together with food price and income, has been applied to the per capita energy intake model. The empirical results show that the AMES index has statically strong impact on per capita energy intake, and the inclusion of the AMES index into the model has improved the model fitness. This finding sheds light on a possible way for improvement in projecting China's food demand in the future by incorporating the country's changing demographic factors.     

A kalman filter-gravity equation approach to assess the trade impact of economic integration: The case of Spain, 1986–1992

A Kaiman Filter-Gravity Equation Approach to Assess the Trade Impact of Economic Integration: The Case of Spain, 1986-1992. — The main objective of this paper is to propose an alternative method for evaluating the effects that economic integration between countries has on their trade flows. The trade impact model of reference is the gravity equation and the empirical application of the methodology focuses on Spain’s incorporation into the EEC in 1986. The principal contribution consists in the dynamization of the gravity equation by means of the Kaiman filter. By way of the Kalman algorithm, we use all the preintegration information in order to predict the coefficients of the gravity equation for the subsequent years, thereby defining a more credibleantimonde.     

Quantitative Analysis on External Benefits of Beijing Rail Transport Construction——The Valuation Model and Empirical Study

The investment of urban rail transport brings a large scale of benefits to the society, and the calculation of these benefits makes sense of evaluating of the investment return accurately and establishes the approach for return of urban rail transit development benefits. Theoretically this paper analyzes the relationship between railway construction and land price. Based on the property value method, we emphatically discuss the calculation methods for estimating the investment benefits through land price rising degree. The paper establishes the model of urban rail transport construction on land value impacts based on the data of No. 13, Beijing light rail, and gives the proof of model using another rail of Beijing——Batong Rail.     

A Brief Analysis on the Application of the Grammar Translation——Form the Perspective of Its Popularity and Adaptation in China

Proceeding from the historical retrospect of the Grammar-Translation Method, this essay clarifies its present application in China’s foreign language teaching and analyzes the reasons for its popularity and adaptation in China. Finally, some constructive suggestions are given on how to apply the Grammar’Translation Method more effectively and improve China’s foreign language teaching.