The role of antitrust in a small open economy: The Commerce Act in New Zealand

This paper reviews the New Zealand antitrust regime represented by the Commerce Act 1986. The context is a rapidly liberalising, small open economy with light-handed regulation. New Zealand antitrust draws on recent US microeconomics for its underlying economic principles, but more on the Australian Trade Practices Act for its legal framework. The influences of these and other countries on the operation of New Zealand antitrust are traced through precedent and an analysis of major cases. Increasingly interpretations have differed from those in Australia, with more weight being put on the promotion of efficiency and less on traditional competition objectives.I acknowledge the assistance of G. Connors, J. Feil, D. Round, G. Sellens and M. Malan. The views expressed are those of the author, and not the institutions with which he is associated.     

The Egalitarian Leader: A Comparison of Leadership in Australia and New Zealand

This article compares leadership in Australia and New Zealand based on data collected as a part of the GLOBE (Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness) 62-nation culture and leadership project. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to demonstrate that etic (universal) dimensions of Charismatic and Self-Protective leadership are evident in both cultures, but that the dimensions have emic (local) culturally determined manifestations. These emic manifestations were stronger in New Zealand than in Australia. Leadership effectiveness incorporated the negative emic dimension of Bureaucratic leadership (both countries), and the positive emic dimension of Egalitarian leadership in Australia and Team leadership in New Zealand. Both models of leadership nonetheless represent styles of leadership based on egalitarian principles.     

The Place of Authenticity in Technology in the New Zealand Curriculum

In 1999 Technology in the New Zealand Curriculum became mandatory. It was developed over a period of approximately four years from conception to publication, with wide consultation. It was first published in October 1995. During the three years between publication and gazetting many teachers were involved in professional development. During this time it became obvious that there was confusion amongst teachers about the meaning of `authenticity' in relation to technology programmes. Do technological problems need to be authentic to the students themselves or to the nature of technological practice? Many learning theories have informed the development of this document. Those selected here indicate quite clearly the meaning and context of authenticity with regard to technology education. By involving our students in activity that is authentic to technological practice or real world technology, teachers are able to provide stimulating and relevant learning for students. This was also the indication in recent communication from the Ministry of Education in New Zealand during the 1999 Technology Education New Zealand (TENZ) conference. By giving academic value to technology and developing our teachers in the fields of technological practice we hope our students will influence the economic status of our country in the future.     

Measuring the Extent of Structural Remedy in Section 7 Settlements: Was the US DOJ Successful in the 1990s?

This paper suggests an innovative measure of structural relief obtained in a typical Section 7 settlement. The fraction of competitive overlap subject to divestiture as a condition of the settlement is modeled as a function of merger-specific efficiencies, the proportion of the deal held “hostage” to antitrust review, the merger’s anticompetitive potential, and other factors. The model is applied to data on 86 recent Justice Department cases covering the period 1990–2003 and to the subsample of 1990s cases. All data are collected from publicly available documents only. The government is found to secure larger divestitures when the cost to the acquirer of delaying the settlement is high. The resulting estimates are used to predict several out-of-sample observations. I would like to thank the General Editor and two anonymous referees for many helpful suggestions on earlier drafts of this paper. The remaining errors are mine.     

EU Commission versus Volkswagen: New Evidence on Price Differentiation in the European Car Market

This paper is motivated by the large fine the EuropeanCommission imposed on Volkswagen in January 1998 forobstructing sales to foreigners. The first partdiscusses the competitive framework in which the carsector operates, especially the exclusive dealershipsystem. This is followed by a detailed examination ofthe degree of price-differentiation across nationalmarkets by 24 major manufacturers. The evidencereveals VW and Audi not to be special cases. Thisfinding implies that the Commission should reconsiderits own block exemption if it wants to establisha more competitive car market along the principles ofthe Common Market.     

Using the economics of platforms to understand the broadband-based market formation in the New Zealand Ultra-Fast Broadband Network

The government of New Zealand is currently building a nation-wide fibre-optics network, a project known as the Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) initiative. The UFB network will cover 75 percent of New Zealanders over 10 years and will cost NZD $1.5 billion to the New Zealand government. The technical and economic characteristics of the new network will have a deep impact on the current landscape of the telecommunications markets. Institutional arrangements are in place for the development of the New Zealand's UFB: a government-owned agency, Crown Fibre Holdings (CFH); private investors who jointly with CFH own the Local Fibre Companies (LFCs) which will operate the UFB; and Retail Service Providers (RSP) that will provide end-user services by purchasing wholesale services to the LFCs. Relying on a normative economics approach that uses recent advances in the theory of platform-based markets with cross-network effects – also known as theory of two-sided platforms – the paper proposes a novel view of the way markets over the UFB will unfold. On one hand, the theory is used to explain the rationale behind regulatory decisions already made and their effect on the development of UFB-based markets for contents and services. Such analysis is followed, on the other hand, by the introduction of a simple taxonomy for the RSPs which provides the framework to argue about the most likely scenarios for service deployment and competition to develop over the UFB. The analytical framework reveals that the UFB ecosystem will be fraught with cross-network externalities which are the basis for regulatory decisions already adopted and the source of particular forms of strategic behavior adopted by the UFB-based market innovators.     

The New Zealand Dairy Board: A Case of Group-Internalization or a Monopolistic Anomaly in a Deregulated Free Market Economy

This paper examines the New Zealand dairy industry and in particular the pivotal role of the New Zealand Dairy Board which, historically, has had sole responsibility for the international marketing of dairy industry output. The structure of the dairy industry is examined identifying the links between the dairy cooperatives and the Board using the concepts of the ownership, location, internalization (OLI) paradigm and alliance capitalism. The paper concludes that the structure of the New Zealand dairy industry and the New Zealand Dairy Board, more closely resembles the network structures of alliance capitalism, rather than being a monopolistic anomaly in a hierarchical capitalist system.     

The impact of industry environment on early market entry decisions by B2B managers in the U.S. and Japan

Managers form simplified mental models to cope with market environment uncertainties and to process information. A critical decision is whether to enter a high-potential market early. Large innovation and development investments involved in this decision increase uncertainty. We examine the importance ascribed by U.S. and Japanese managers to competitive forces when making early market entry decisions. We expect that the competitive forces will have different effects on the likelihood of early market entry in the U.S. versus Japan due to cultural and business environment differences, and we thereby develop several propositions. We develop a decision-making exercise simulating early market entry decisions, and tested our propositions with managers in medium to large business-to-business (B2B) firms from both countries. We assessed impacts of the competitive market forces on entry strategy selection via relative weights, repeated-measures analysis of variance, and frequency analysis. Our findings revealed differences in the mental models of Japanese and U.S. managers. Buyer power had a larger effect on the decision to make an early market entry for Japanese managers, while threat of new firm entry had a larger effect for U.S. managers; these findings were consistent with our propositions. We also found several areas of agreement between U.S. and Japanese managers. We conclude with theoretical implications and recommendations to B2B management.     

澳大利亚新西兰农产品环境贸易措施初探

澳大利亚、新西兰两国近年来与中国的贸易关系不断升温,本文关注的是两国在农产品贸易领域的环境措施。首先明确农产品环境贸易措施的概念,并与绿色贸易壁垒这一概念进行区别。接着从管理机构、法律法规、技术标准和进口程序方面介绍两国的环境贸易措施,最后指出中国的对策。     

纽约商业交易所原油期货合约浅析

以美国纽约商业交易所(NYMEX)的低硫轻质原油期货合约为例，介绍了国际原油期货合约的基本交易规则，并结合我国期货贸易的开展情况，提出了建立和发展我国原油期货贸易的建议。     

经济环境与企业社会责任的协同演进研究

回顾了在中国经济改革的不同阶段企业社会责任的发展。1949年～1978年,由于实行高度集中的计划经济以及国有企业一只独秀,而国有企业作为政府的附属机构承担着各级政府指派的各种社会责任,因此在这个时期谈社会责任完全没有必要。即使在1978年～1992年间乡镇企业和私营企业迅速出现,国有企业的情形依然没有改变,而乡镇和私营企业在极端恶劣的社会环境中不得不“头戴红帽”,生存的艰辛远远超过了对社会责任的关注。1993年～2002年,市场经济导向正式确立,但中央“以经济建设为中心”的大政方针和政府系统内部“以经济增长”为核心的考评体系,导致企业社会责任在中国被忽视了。从2002年开始,企业社会责任开始受到了重视,但在现阶段显示三个特点：第一,企业社会责任仍处于起步阶段;第二,经济责任仍然是第一位的;第三,企业承担社会责任是政府导向的。     

Technological Opportunity and Economies of Scale in Research Productivity: A Study on Three Global Industries

In this study, the author tests for economies of scale with the use of patent citationsand assesses the impacts of technological opportunity on research productivity inthree global industries, namely, computer, chemical, and electrical and electronic.Technological opportunity in an industry is jointly represented by knowledgespillovers, inter-firm research overlap and scope of research. In particular, the effect of knowledge spillovers is decomposed into internal, intra-industry and inter-industry spillovers. The results suggest no evidence for economies of scale, but the impacts of various aspects of technological opportunity on research productivity are significantly positive. Moreover, the data indicate that if the number of firms in each overlapping research area is small, a rise in the number of these areas enhances research productivity.     

Effects of Transparency in Procurement Practices on Government Expenditure: A Case Study of Municipal Public Works

This paper examines the effect of improved transparency in the bidder qualification process, using the experience gained from a case study of municipal public works auctions. A difference-in-differences analysis reveals that improved transparency reduces procurement cost by up to 8%. This finding is robust with regard to the concerns of both endogeneity and sample selectivity. The bidding-function estimates, combined with features of Japanese procurement system, imply that the introduction of transparent practices is insufficient to bring about efficiency in public procurement.      

高职院校高技能人才培养模式的优化策略研究 ——以V学院为例

高技能人才培养模式关系到学校的教学质量和毕业生的就业率.本文通过探讨高职院校高技能人才培养中出现的问题,以V学院为例,提出了高技能人才培养模式的具体优化策略.通过创新人才培养理念、完善校企合作多元化人才培养模式、加强人才培养平台建设、创新职教集团合作发展模式、1+X证书制度提高学生专业技能等途径,提高了学院的教学发...