The Export Trading Company Act:

The Export Trading Company Act (ETCA) was signed into law in 1982 by then President Ronald Reagan. The goal of this legislation was to promote U.S. exports by allowing U.S. banks to hold an equity U.S. exports by allowing U.S. banks to hold an equity position in Export Trading Companies (ETCs) and by exempting the overseas activities of these organiziations from U.S. antitrust laws. The writers of this legislation hoped that the American ETCs would eventually grow to rival the Japanese General Export Trading Cmopanies known as sogo shosha's. This paper focuses on the history of the ETCA, its problems, and the current state of Export Trading Companies (ETCs) in the U.S. When the ETCA was established, the dollar was on an upward trend and was relatively high compared to other major currencies, such as the Deutsche mark, Japanese yen, and pound sterling. The legislation had a somewhat minor effect of exports, as few companies came together to form ETCs. With the fall of the dollar, an important question to ask is: Has the drop of the dollar contributed to a rise in interest in forming ETCs?     

Impact of host‐country corruption on U.S. and Chinese cross‐border acquisitions

Does corruption in a target country create a similar effect on cross‐border acquisitions (CBAs) by firms from a developed and a developing country? This article empirically examines the relationship between corruption and CBAs by firms from China and the United States. Based on a combined sample of 10,236 completed acquisitions over the period of 1990–2006, the authors find that both Chinese and U.S. firms make a significantly greater number of acquisitions in less corrupt countries. However, unlike the U.S. CBAs, we find a significantly positive relationship between the transaction value of Chinese CBAs and the level of perceived corruption in the target country. It is suggested that having been schooled in weaker institutions themselves, Chinese firms may find it easier to deal with corrupt conditions in target countries, giving them an advantage over firms from less corrupt countries. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A comparative analysis of the role of national culture on foreign market acquisitions by U.S. firms and firms from emerging countries

Do firms from emerging economies differ from U.S. firms in their foreign market acquisition strategies? A comparison of cross-border acquisitions by firms from the United States and 18 emerging countries shows that (1) firms from both the United States and emerging countries target countries that are culturally closer to their home countries, (2) a strong interaction effect occurs between market potential and cultural distance for emerging country firms as the market potential increases (i.e., at high market potential, firms from emerging economies are willing to overlook cultural distance), (3) no interaction effect occurs between market potential and cultural distance for U.S. firms, and (4) different cultural dimensions affect the market entry strategies of U.S. firms and firms from emerging countries.     

U.s. Multinational staffing practices and implications for subsidiary performance in the u.k. And thailand

This study addresses two questions about the U.K. and Thai subsidiaries of U.S. multinationals: (1) What is the relationship between a company's staffing policy and subsidiary performance? and (2) When are companies more likely to use an expatriate rather than a local manager? The study concludes that local managers are most effective in subsidiaries located in a developing country, subsidiaries that rely on a local customer base, and subsidiaries with marketing themes similar to the themes used at their U.S. headquarters. Expatriates are more likely to be in charge of larger subsidiaries and those with a marketing theme similar to that of the headquarters. ? 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Movies and the Mystery of the Missing Trade: Is Hollywood Good for U.S. Exporters?

Research has shown that consumers have a preference for goods based on the origin of production. This is important because it suggests that, in some cases, even lowering trade barriers may not significantly increase trade flows. In particular, flows may be lower than are predicted by trade theories such as Heckscher-Ohlin. Despite evidence that home consumption bias exists in many countries, it is only recently that research has begun to examine the sources of this bias.

This article fills a gap in the literature by testing a model that addresses the source of this consumption bias. The paper's model incorporates consumers' exposure to foreign products and culture through media imports and tourist visits as factors affecting consumers' preferences for foreign products. Using panel data from 19 countries, the article's results support the hypothesis that lagged exports of U.S. movies have a positive impact on other U.S. exports. Some evidence is also found of a positive effect of tourist visits on U.S. exports.

Since U.S. media exports may generate demand for other U.S. goods and services, opening up foreign media markets should receive a higher priority in U.S. trade negotiations. Another interesting implication of the paper is that overall U.S. export losses resulting from media piracy may be lower than previously calculated, as the consumption of pirated media products may increase demand for other U.S. exports.     

The U.S. Multinational Advertising Agency and Public Policy

The overseas activities of U.S. multinational advertising agencies raise several important public policy issues. Host governments are likely to watch U.S. advertising agencies for unwanted signs of domination over local firms. They will also be sensitive to undesirable cultural influence along with several other real or imagined evils.

The U.S. government is unlikely to have significant interest in the specific activities of multinational advertising agencies. But. advertising agencies should be very wary of the impact of indirect regulation. Agency operation is going to be caught up in the increasing web of legislation designed for general regulation of multinational businesses.     

Do Anglo countries still form a values cluster? Evidence of the complexity of value change

To what extent does the Anglo Cluster remains a cultural cluster in today's managerial and professional workforce? Across six Anglo countries (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, U.K., and U.S.), we found significant differences in values orientations (openness to change, conservation, self-enhancement, and self-transcendence values) that challenge the concept of a cohesive Anglo cluster. We also explored the influence of micro-level factors on values orientations and found consistent life-stage and gender differences across countries. We conclude that, even within a group of countries perceived as similar, multi-level analyses are needed to fully capture the essence of values differences across and within countries.     

Issues and implications of implementing surcharges to improve the U.S. balance of trade

This article addresses the issue of implementing surcharges on goods imported into the U.S. Recent legislation calling for surcharges is reviewed and a theoretical analysis of the effects of such legislation is presented. It is suggested that the implementation of surcharges would not improve the U.S. balance of trade to the extent expected by proponents of the surcharges due to offsetting factors. Particular factors considered in this study include surcharge pass-throughs, exchange rate mechanisms, trade diversion and reaction abroad.     

Measuring Vulnerability to U.S. Foreign Economic Sanctions

Economic sanctions are an important instrument of U.S. foreign policy. While politicians look favorably on unilateral economic sanctions as a policy instrument, many scholars attribute significant long-term economic costs to the United States and have doubts about their effectiveness. We outline a simple approach to assess the vulnerability of target countries to sanctions in order to develop focused sanctions and reduce unnecessary costs to U.S. business, avoid the imposition of sanctions on countries when sanctions are unlikely to have the desired effects, and determine what other countries must join the United States in imposing sanctions if they are to be effective.JEL Classification K330,F190     

美国产业结构的调整与贸易逆差

美国贸易逆差问题一直是学者们关注的焦点。众多学者对美国贸易逆差产生的原因提出了不同的解释。本文认为美国贸易逆差的持续扩大是其实体经济结构不断调整的外部反映,美国服务业占国民经济比重的不断提高是其贸易逆差持续扩大的深层次根源。服务业所占比重的提高一方面增加了美国对制造业产品的进口;另一方面也大大削弱了其产品出口能力。与服务业所占比重提高相伴随的是制造业向海外的转移,而这种产业转移也在一定程度上导致了美国贸易逆差。本文进一步利用实证分析方法检验了以上观点。     

The New Zealand Fair Trading Act of 1986: Deceptive Advertising

In 1986, New Zealand introduced the Fair Trading Act, legislation aimed at consumer protection. This act was modeled after similar Australian legislation, while taking into account the legislation and precedents of other countries including the United States, England, and Canada. Although wording of different nations' legislation is often similar, unique national conditions may give rise to different interpretations. The emergence of the Act may indicate a movement toward minimal international standards in consumer protection legislation among common law countries and to a lesser extent, a large number of Western nations. This paper examines the content and performance of the Act concerning deceptive advertising. Available evidence suggests that the frequency and severity of deceptive advertising has declined. Knowledge of the New Zealand experience provides insight into the evolution of consumer protection legislation and insight for American firms planning commerce there.     

Decomposing the U.S. external returns differential

We decompose the returns differential between U.S. portfolio claims and liabilities into the composition, return, and timing effects. Our most striking and robust finding is that foreigners exhibit poor timing when reallocating between bonds and equities within their U.S. portfolios. The poor timing of foreign investors-caused primarily by deliberate trading, not a lack of portfolio rebalancing-contributes positively to the U.S. external returns differential. We find no evidence that the poor timing is driven by mechanical reserve accumulation by emerging market countries; rather, it is driven almost entirely by the poor timing of rich, developed (mainly European) countries. Finally, while poor foreign timing appears to be persistent across subsamples, other terms in our decomposition (the composition and return effects and U.S. timing abroad), as well as the overall differential, are sometimes negative, sometimes positive, and usually indistinguishable from zero.     

A Comparative Analysis of Ethical Perceptions in Marketing Research: U.S.A. vs. Canada

The study compares Canadian and U.S. marketing researchers' attitudes, perceptions and intentions related to several areas of ethical concern. A particular focus involves salience of norms common to marketing research codes of ethics (COEs) and familiarity of such codes to marketing research professionals. Researchers' attitudes towards today's ethical climate are identified and compared between the two countries. Relationships are examined between familiarity, ethical intention and salience. Results indicate that U.S. and Canadian marketing researchers have similar perceptions of the relative importance of specific ethical norms, but worldwide COEs do not reflect these perceptions. Canadian marketing researchers report having a greater familiarity with their firms' adopted COEs, but this finding is moderated by the type of researcher. Among other findings, results indicate that familiarity influences ethical intention only for highly salient issues.     

The Structure of Trust in China and the U.S.

This article investigates the structure of trust in China and compares it with the U.S., using the 2000 and 2005 waves of the World Value Survey (WVS). We analyze two dimensions of trust – trust in people and trust in major companies. It is found that the level of trust has remained stable in China within the 5-year period. On the other hand, trust in major companies has declined dramatically in U.S. while trust in people has increased slightly. The structure of trust in companies is different from trust in people. For both countries, individuals with higher education tend to have a higher level of trust. Individuals who are divorced tend to have lower trust in people. Individuals who think that other people are fair are more likely to trust in people. Preference for competition has a positive effect on trust in major companies. On the other hand, some differences between the two countries are observed. Perception of fairness does not affect trust in major companies in China, while it has a positive effect in U.S. in year 2006. Preference for equality has a negative effect on trust in major companies in U.S. but no significant effect in China. The pattern of trust and its changes over time may reflect differences in market conditions in the two economies.     

The sensitivity of U.S. multinational enterprises to political and macroeconomic uncertainty: A sectoral analysis

This paper confronts two alternative approaches for explaining U.S. foreign direct investment (FDI) pattern in developing countries. According to the real options (RO) approach, FDI in capital-intensive industries should be particularly deterred by political and macroeconomic uncertainty. On the other hand, the supply chain risk management (SCRM) approach puts forward that multinational enterprises in vertically integrated industries are unlikely to locate their foreign activities in risky countries. Thanks to the use of sectoral data, it is demonstrated that the SCRM approach explains much better the pattern of U.S. FDI in developing countries than the RO approach.     

Evans,W. A. Advertising Today and Tomorrow. Great Britain: George Allen and Unwin, 1974

Abstract

This study reports on developments in the international advertising agency business during the 1970s. Findings suggest that U.S. agencies remain the dominant force in international advertising in contrast to the declining performance of U.S. industry in other sectors. Specifically, American agencies have found faster growth in their overseas markets leading to continually larger shares of their total billings; there has been a growing concentration in the international business of U.S. agencies and in the industry internationally; and, the international experience of U.S. agencies has led to a growing penetration of foreign markets, to growth in productivity, and to increasing domestic market power. Results of the study indicate however, that U.S. agencies may be facing increasing challenges from non-U.S. agencies in the future; notably from the West European, Japanese, and some developing countries.     

美国对于政府采购所实施贸易措施的分析

世界各国的政府采购是一个庞大的市场,美国的态度一直是积极倡导世界各国对外开放政府采购市场同时,我们可以发现美国在这个领域所采取的手段和措施具有比较明显的保护主义倾向,一方面美国想方设法为自己的企业打开别目的市场,同时在国内的立法和行政方面,对自己的政府采购市场采取了种种的保护手段。     

与发展中国家的贸易是否扩大了美国的相对工资差距

对外贸易不仅直接影响着相对工资差距,还通过技术创新效应间接影响着相对工资差距。本文运用美国制造业1997-2006年的面板数据,实证分析了美国与发展中国家的贸易对美国制造业相对工资差距的影响。研究结论是:来自发展中国家劳动密集型产品的进口竞争没有扩大美国制造业所有行业的相对工资差距,美国劳动密集制造部门相对工资差距的扩大与来自发展中国家的进口竞争有一定的关联,但技术密集制造部门相对工资差距的扩大与其无关;美国对发展中国家的出口贸易以及国内的技术创新在很大程度上扩大了美国制造业的相对工资差距。     

The Theory and Practice of Swedish Consumer Policy

Based upon Swedish sources including enacted legislation and personal interviews with experts and key enforcement personnel, the basic structure of Swedish consumer protection efforts is developed. It is shown where the underlying philosophy differs from that in the U.S. and how this has led to a different institutional structure in the consumer policy area. The fundamental philosophy is that the consumer is weak relative to the producer and that therefore government institutions need to shoulder the burden of the consumer's protection, information and general welfare. Similar developments in the two countries are exemplified, and some implications of the Swedish experience for the U.S. are discussed.     

Environmental Performance and U.S. Exports

U.S. industries have reduced their releases of toxic chemicals in recent years. These publicly reported environmental improvements can increase the demand for U.S. products abroad by increasing the perceived quality of these products in countries that are concerned about the environmental impacts of manufacturing. This article examines this possibility. It presents an analysis of the changes in the environmental performance and exports of 19 U.S. industries to 128 countries between 2002 and 2010.