The London Monetary and Economic Conference of 1933: A Public Goods Analysis

A bstract . Hegemony theorists attribute the duration and severity of the Great Depression to the fact that, in 1933, the United States refused to take the place of Great Britain as world economic leader. This argument is based on the proposition that a major power must coordinate the international monetary and trading systems if is to obtain in those sectors. This thesis is reappraised by applying the theories of public goods , clubs, and public choice to the London Monetary and Economic Conference of 1933, an occasion when the United States declined the role of world economic hegemon.
Dig deep tunnels, store grain everywhere, and never seek begemony.     

城市化与产业结构升级的两种模式

为探寻发达国家城市化的经验与教训,对美、英、法、德、日五国城市化与产业结构升级的关系进行了分析,并对美、德两国城市化与产业结构升级的关系进行了格兰杰因果检验。研究发现,以美国为代表的内生集中型城市化模式和以德国为代表的外生均衡型城市化模式代表了城市化与产业结构升级关系当中的两种不同模式。其中,德国模式不仅在快速城市化的同时避免了严重的"城市病",而且对产业结构升级起到了积极的推动作用。     

Books in Review

Book reviewed in this article:
DISCOVERY, CAPITALISM AND DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE Israel M. Kirzner.
MANAGEMENT AND HIGHER EDUCATION SINCE 1940: The Influence of America and Japan on West Germany, Great Britain and France Robert R. Locke.     

International Variation in Bank Accounting Information Content

This study explores the cross‐country impact of financial system and banking regulations on the information content of bank earnings and book value. Test results provide empirical evidence that financial system and banking regulations have a joint effect on the association of equity price with earnings and book value components in Germany, France, the United Kingdom and United States. This effect is explainable by the objective bank function, which shows that earnings of the period determine the terminal book value, thus consistent with the clean surplus accounting approach. Cross‐country variation in bank accounting information content calls for caution in interpreting international bank financial and operating ratios.     

International linkages between short-term real interest rates

Whereas previous studies have focused on the causal relation between nominal interest rates, this paper examines causal relationships between real rates for the United States and six other countries. Based on evidence from our full sample we find that U.S. and foreign interest rates are not highly informative for one another. This would suggest that even if the United States is regarded as a large player in international financial markets this does not necessarily translate into the transmission of U.S. real interest rates to other countries. However, an examination of various sub-periods of our sample reveals that this conclusion may be sensitive to the U.S. monetary policy regime. We also report results for linkages between European countries which indicate that Germany provides some information on real interest rates in France and the United Kingdom, but not in Italy. An analysis of various sub-periods for the European countries show that the result for France is not robust, with German rates having an impact only in the first period through March 1983. This latter evidence does not provide strong support for the hypothesis that Germany's monetary policy plays a dominant role in the European Monetary System. In general, we would argue that domestic factors play a prominent role in determining real interest rates, quite independently from the influence of interest rates from abroad.     

Would the Bundesbank have prevented the Great Inflation in the United States?

Policy counterfactuals based on estimated structural VARs routinely suggest that bringing Alan Greenspan back in the 1970s United States would not have prevented the Great Inflation. We show that a standard policy counterfactual suggests that the Bundesbank—which is near-universally credited for sparing West Germany the Great Inflation—would also not have been able to prevent the Great Inflation in the United States.The implausibility of this result sounds a cautionary note on taking the outcome of SVAR-based policy counterfactuals at face value, and raises questions on the reliability of such exercises.     

Corroborating social media echelon in cancer research

Worldwide medical facilities differ, and for this reason, the causes of death can vary. Cancer is considered the second leading cause of death after heart disease worldwide, and the same causes of death are observed in the United States (US). Therefore, the purposes of this study are to explore worldwide research levels in the field of cancer and the social collaboration of researchers and institutions in this field. This article examines the structural patterns of international co-authors and co-institutions in science citation index papers in cancer research. The study uses measures from the social network analysis method, including degree centrality, betweenness centrality, eigenvector centrality, and effectiveness, to investigate the effects of social networks in the area of cancer research. Empirical analysis results identify the US is the most central country, followed by Germany, Italy, France, and China, in terms of co-authored networks in this research field. Institutional analysis results indicate that the University of Milan is at the top in terms of degree centrality. The Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus in France and German University of Düsseldorf occupy the second and fourth positions, respectively. The University of California in Los Angeles and Harvard University, both in the US, are at third and fifth positions, respectively.     

高科技中小企业风险投资国际比较及借鉴

本文通过对美国、英国、日本等发达国家中小企业风险投资的经验进行比较分析,提出完善我国中小企业风险投资业的国际借鉴。     

Psychological barriers to adjustment and how they affect coping strategies: Western business expatriates in China

Business expatriates currently assigned to the Chinese mainland, mainly from the USA, France, Germany, Australia and Great Britain participated in a survey examining two sets of psychological barriers to adjustment and their association with problem-focused and symptom-focused coping strategies. As presumed, there is a negative relationship between expatriates' perceived inability to adjust and problem-focused coping, while this psychological barrier had no significant association with symptom-focused coping. Unwillingness to adjust has a negative relationship with only one of the problem-focused coping variables, social involvement with host country nationals, whereas the same psychological barrier correlated only negatively with parent-country escapism of the symptom-focused strategies. Implications for Western business expatriates on the Chinese mainland and for their assigning companies are discussed as well as possible avenues for further research.     

Judicial regimes for employment rights disputes: comparing Germany,Great Britain and Japan

This article compares the judicial regimes for resolving individual employment rights disputes in Germany, Great Britain and Japan. First, we consider the form of institutional change; second, we examine the lay judge's role; and third, we assess the effectiveness of the three judicial regimes. We find that Japan made the least institutional change, layering a new procedure on top of an existing one. Paradoxically, however, its lay judges have a more extensive role than their counterparts in Germany and Britain, which established new institutions. As to effectiveness, there are several criteria. British labour courts are currently the least informal and speedy, but the cheapest. In both Britain and Germany, legal norms are publicised as adjudicatory hearings are open to the public and judgments are available for public scrutiny, unlike in Japan.     

Leading indicators of inflation in market economies

Inflation rates are cyclical in major market-oriented economies. Recently Geoffrey H. Moore and Stanley Kaish applied the well-known leading indicator approach to the development of a leading index of inflation cycles for the United States. Their index was based on measures of tightness in the labor market, and a measure of tightness in total credit markets, along with a measure of changes in industrial commodity prices. They found that this composite index reflects changes in inflation rate cycles reasonably well, and that it was more reliable than any of the three components taken alone. The present study broadens their study by attempting to duplicate the leading inflation index for forecasting changes in inflation rates in Canada, the United Kingdom, West Germany, France, Italy, and Japan. In general we find that the leading index is useful in anticipating changes in inflation rates in all these countries with the exception of France and Italy. As such we find that the forecasting properties of this index are often as promising in other countries as they have been in the U.S. Where they are not we conclude that there is a need for further research.     

The management strategies of public service employers in Europe

This article examines the reform of public services management in Europe drawing on material from Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. It considers the limitations of interpreting changing public service employment relations in terms of a convergence towards the new public management and outlines an alternative interpretation of these reforms.     

International Convergence of Accounting Practices: Choosing between IAS and US GAAP

This study examines reporting practices of a sample of foreign listed and domestic‐only listed companies from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan and Australia to determine the extent to which companies voluntarily use “international” standards. Two types of use of non‐national standards in the consolidated accounts presented to the public are considered: adoption of “international” standards instead of national standards, and supplementary use where “international” standards are used in conjunction with national standards. “International” standards are defined as US GAAP or IAS (now IFRS). The study tests for a preference for either set of standards and considers the relationship of choice of regime with firm attributes. The results show significant voluntary use of “international” standards in all five countries and among foreign listed and domestic‐only listed companies. Companies using “international” standards are likely to be larger, have more foreign revenue and to be listed on one or more foreign stock exchanges. US GAAP is the predominant choice, but IAS are used by many firms in Germany and some in Japan. Firms listed in the United States' regulated markets (NYSE and NASDAQ) are more likely to choose US GAAP, but companies traded in the OTC market often select IAS. The study demonstrates for managers and regulators that there is considerable support for “international” standards, and that choice of IAS or US GAAP relates to specific firm characteristics which differ according to a firm's country of origin. Most use of “international” standards reflects individual countries' institutional frameworks, confirming the key role of national regulators and standard setters in assisting companies to achieve more comparable international reporting.     

我国专利权行政保护机制探讨

在竞争不断加剧的国际背景下,专利权的保护水平已经成为了衡量国家综合国力的重要指标之一。专利权的司法和行政双轨制保护是我国知识产权制度的一大特色。文章通过国内外专利权行政保护的比较研究指出,在较长一段时期内,中国保持较强的专利权行政保护符合我国现阶段社会发展的需要。借鉴美国、德国及其他发达国家和地区有关专利权行政保护成功经验,改善我国专利权行政保护机制以维护国家利益和本土专利权主体的合法权益。     

Britain's future in Europe: a personal view

Differentiation is now 'official' in the EU and the idea of a several-speed Europe is acceptable. The major member-States, Germany apart, no longer favour a federal United States of Europe. Additions to the 'acquis communautaire' will be small in number and EU regulation will increase more lowly. Britain should work within the EU to keep it 'open and flexible'.     

浅谈艺术装饰风格

20世纪20-30年代,在欧洲大陆和美国流行着一种设计风格为艺术装饰风格。艺术装饰风格不是一种单一的设计风格,而是多方面设计风格的统称。它以富丽和新奇的现代形式影响着建筑、室内设计、家具、玻璃陶瓷、服装等设计领域。     

National policies towards biotechnology

The ‘new biotechnology’ is still a very young technology - half-in, half-out of the research laboratory. This paper surveys the policies that have been emerging towards this new technology from six governments - those of the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, West Germany and the Netherlands. It suggests that the publicity ‘hype’ associated with the new biotechnology firms of the U.S., and the naming of biotechnology as a ‘next generation base technology’ by the Japanese government, together played a seminal role in pressurising governments into a positive policy stance. Looking across national policies, eight common characteristics of policy are identified: substantial support for basic research; increasing emphasis on applied research; expansion of traditional policies for supporting R & D; a new emphasis on linkage between academic and industrial research; gradual convergence towards corporatist or quasi-corporatist policies; the popularity of the collaborative approach; the promotion of small firms and the venture capital market; concern with the regulatory environment.     

An index aggregation approach to comparing the overall performance of emerging and developed countries

An index aggregation approach is proposed to carry out comparisons of BRICSAM, a populous rapidly growing economic group consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), and Mexico with Group of Seven (G7), the most developed country club including Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Germany, United Kingdom and the United States. It is estimated that by 2050 the accelerated economic activity of BRICSAM could have significant impact on investment flows, legal and regulatory frameworks, the stability of political institutions, human capital and migration flows, competition policy, intellectual property rights, and social and environmental policies. The comparison analyses of BRICSAM and G7 countries could assist people to better understand the status quo of these countries in the global economy and international system, particularly in the areas of economics and responsible activities such as sustainable development, global commitments and transparent practices. Many country-ranking indices, such as the indices given in the global competitiveness report by the World Economic Forum, and the environmental sustainability index by Yale University, constitute evaluations of countries from different perspectives. This paper proposes a data envelopment analysis-based approach to aggregate different ranking indices for BRICSAM and the G7 countries. The approach can provide a fair overall assessment of a country's standing by maximizing its possibility of obtaining the best possible result.     

Going green,going clean: Lean‐green sustainability strategy and firm growth

Despite the widespread recognition of the paybacks of “going green” and “going clean,” limited research has focused on the impact of lean‐green strategy on firm growth. In this study, we contribute to strategy and environmental sustainability literatures by investigating the possibility that the influence on lean‐green strategy and firm growth is driven by different levels of industry competition, managerial power, and family ties. Using panel data from 732 firms in four major industrialized economies (the United States, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom), we found that lean‐green strategy positively relates to firm growth and this relationship is amplified at higher levels of competition, managerial power, and family ties. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are also discussed.     

高职学生关键能力培养研究

近年来,在职业教育中培养关键能力的研究已经引起了世界范围的关注,德国、英国、美国、加拿大、澳大利亚等国家都相继提出要把培养关键能力作为今后职业教育的一个重要目标。结合我国高职教育现状,笔者在本文中提出自己对高职学生关键能力培养的几点建议。