The EEC green paper : A faltering step in the right direction

This paper comments on the EEC Green Paper on the Development of the Common Market for Telecommunications Services and Equipment. Jonathan Solomon argues that only a radical change in European political thinking about telecommunications can prevent Europe from being left behind in the information race. The Green Paper represents a step in a long process of readjustment, though perhaps somewhat lacking in potency.     

The INTUG view on the EEC green paper

This paper is INTUG's response to the EEC's express wish to obtain a wide range of views from the community at large. It specifically handles each of the Green Paper's proposed positions, outlining them briefly and giving INTUG's attitudes to them. In general, INTUG welcomes the Green Paper, declaring a belief that it fulfills its purpose of provoking wide discussion, and trusting that it will result in a positive document committed to firm future plans.     

The meaning of work: American and Japanese paradigms

In this article it is argued that a fundamental difference exists between the Japanese view of the meaning of work and the American view of this construct. It is suggested that the American orientation is primarily environment-centered, and is based on a traditional stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model. In contrast, the Japanese orientation seems to be primarily person-centered, and is based on what might be called an organism-response (O-R) model. The reasons for this difference are explored and both the practical and theoretical implications are examined.In conclusion the author projects a revision of research methodology in the behavioural sciences leading to a more realistic appraisal of the transferability of Japanese management practices to the American environment.Portions of this paper were presented at the Pan Pacific Conference on Business and Technology, Honolulu, March, 1984. It was selected as the Best Paper in the Organizational Behaviour track. The author is indebted to Chuck Behling of Bowling Green State University and Ken Kim of The University of Toledo for their helpful suggestions and comments on an earlier version of this paper.     

Liberalization of telecommunications infrastructure and cable television networks: The European Commission's Green Paper

This paper reviews Parts I and II of the European Commission's Green Paper on the liberalization of telecommunications infrastructure and cable television networks. Part I is concerned with the basic principle and timetable to liberalization, and deals with the current regulatory situation and the expected benefits. The second part addresses particular issues arising out of infrastructure liberalization, le universal service, interconnection and interoperability, licensing procedures, conditions for fair competition, employment, and the information society.     

Willingness to pay for the “Green Food” in China

With use of payment card survey data of willingness to pay (WTP) for the “Green Food”, a unique food certification in China, this study finds that age and income are important for the WTP for the Green Food in China. There are structural differences in consumer preference for Green Food between the large city and the small county. Consumers in China, on average, are willing to pay 47% more for Green vegetables and 40% more for Green meat than for their conventional counterparts. Compared with the real markets and the previous studies, our results are very consistent and reliable.     

Is telecommunications regulation efficient? An international perspective

This article addresses the efficiency of regulation policy in the telecommunications sector. First, the concepts of static and dynamic efficiency are reviewed, with the main policies used into achieve these goals identified, while distinguishing effective competition from industrial policy. Indicators are proposed that enable assessment of components of sector efficiency. These indicators are used to empirically investigate the link between regulation policy and economic performance for OECD Member Countries. The investigation is based on national differences in regulation policy and efficiency indicators. The results support the notion that asymmetrical ex ante regulation alone is not necessarily efficient, and that an ex ante policy, integrating an industrial policy, could favor dynamic efficiency.     

瑞典国家创新体系探析与启示

创新能力反映一国的综合国力和核心竞争力,瑞典的全球创新指数和竞争力排名世界领先,主要原因是有运行有效的国家创新体系．它的主要特点是以绿色创新为战略导向,以服务创新为战略动向。瑞典政府积极完善创新战略,营造良好的创新环境,形成多方利益联盟,建立多渠道的成果转化机制,使得创新体系中四类要素（政府、大学、研发服务机构以及企业、集群）之间形成了复杂而有效的有机整体。与瑞典国家创新体系相比．中国的国家创新体系还需进一步完善。     

The Implications of the Value Chain and Financial Institutions for Work and Employment: Insights from the Video Game Industry in Poland,Sweden and Germany

What are the reasons for national differences of international market access in high‐risk software development and what is the role of employment regulation? This analysis elucidates this question based on national sector studies of the video games industry with particular focus on financial systems, skill formation as well as work and employment systems in Sweden, Germany and Poland. National financial architectures and education are a decisive factor. However, the results also suggest that the ‘varieties‐of‐capitalism’ (VoC) approach underestimates industry divergence within and across supposedly homogeneous national models, especially in the field of labour regulation. The author proposes to link VoC theory to a transnational perspective, which complementarily takes into account firm embeddedness in industry‐specific value chains.     

The Impact of European Integration and German Unification on Industrial Relations in Germany

Can the present turmoil in German industrial relations be attributed to the effects of the Single Market, or to unification, or to other factors? European regulation or legislation may intervene in the German industrial relations system, may remove responsibilities from national actors, or may, by deregulation, induce stronger interdependence between national regimes. Various instances are considered to evaluate the actual and potential EU impact on German industrial relations. The evidence suggests that fears of ‘social dumping’ in the richer member-states are largely unfounded, and that the effects of unification and the recession on German industrial relations are currently more significant than the impact of European integration.     

Food safety regulation: an overview of contemporary issues

This article discusses a number of issues that are influencing the evolution of food safety regulation in developed and, to a lesser extent, developing countries. Whilst not definitive, it aims to highlight those factors which are considered crucial to an understanding of contemporary food safety controls in both the public and private spheres. These issues include criteria applied to assess the need/justification for food safety regulation, relationships between public and private food safety control systems, alternative forms that public food safety regulation can take, strategic responses to food safety regulation, and the trade implications of national food safety controls. The article serves as an introduction to these issues, which are discussed at greater length in the other papers that make up this special issue of Food Policy.     

Impact of roaming regulation on revenues and prices of mobile operators in the EU

We use a difference-in-differences approach to assess the impact of the EU roaming regulation on mobile operators’ average revenues per user (ARPU) and the retail prices of mobile services. Our results suggest that due to the regulation the ARPU of EU mobile operators decreased since 2007 on average by 9.1%. When considering purchasing power parities, the decline of ARPU is estimated on average at 5.8%, but in this case we cannot reject that there was no decrease at all. We also find that the impact of the regulation on ARPU depends on traffic imbalances, which may be related to tourism flows, and has a stronger negative impact on operators from countries with a surplus in tourism traffic. There is however no difference in the impact of the regulation on cross-country and national operators. Moreover, our results suggest that the Roam Like at Home (RLAH) regulation implemented in June 2017 had no impact on the tariffs of national mobile plans.     

Telecom reform: progress and prospects

The dominant activity in telecom reform is now shifting from policy development to implementation. This is a more difficult task that depends heavily on competent, independent regulation in both developed and developing countries. A speed up in the remaining steps to complete full institutional restructuring is needed, including clarification of the roles for national and regional regulation and for international governance. New national regulators must rapidly establish transparent participatory processes and decision criteria to minimise uncertainty and enhance credibility. Experience to date indicates that competition in reality may be a more limited instrument of policy than it has been in theory, and the goal of a global universal service will remain elusive unless given a higher priority in policy and practice. Telecom reform is leading to increasing integration of telecom with other sectors of the economy, and telecom policy with broader economic and social policy. Telecom networks are providing the foundation of information infrastructures, which in turn are rapidly becoming an indispensable component of the 21st century knowledge infrastructures. For the future, telecom policy and regulation must facilitate knowledge network development in new knowledge-based economies and societies. This raises a question of whether telecom regulation should assume a more proactive role in facilitating new network service applications, especially in the public sector.     

Risks and benefits of new communications services: The national perspective

New forms of data communications services influence the social, economic and strategic environment of a nation. The authors discuss new forms of data communications services from a Canadian perspective, and identify issues associated with the services and the new society they encourage. The relationships of new services to national sovereignty, employment, national trade balance, and regulation are discussed from a benefit-risk perspective. The authors conclude that a requirement exists for national planning and coordination mechanisms to assure that appropriate systems are in place to foster the orderly introduction, diffusion, and utilization of new forms of data communications.     

“绿色壁垒”对石化企业的挑战

分析”绿色壁垒“产生的原因,背景及企业应对”绿色壁垒“的紧迫性,并提出了石化企业迎战”绿色壁垒“的对策。     

Extra‐Institutional Changes under Pressure from Posting

The posting of workers has become a key topic in debates about how national labour relations respond to pressures from EU market making. While most prior studies have shown that national employment relations are under pressure from above (via EU regulation) and from below (due to increasing use of posting), the question is whether these pressures will lead to erosion of employment relations or adaptation at the national level. Taking the case of posting in the Danish construction sector, the article shows that, while formal institutions stay the same through minor adaptation, the increasing use of posting has led to changes in the strategies of the social partners, shifts in predominant policy arenas and the appearance of new actors on the regulatory scene. As such, we argue that conflicts regarding posting are driving a process of extra‐institutional change.     

Low Pay and Wage Regulation in the European Community

The prospect of direct intervention in the process of wage determination as envisaged in the Social Charter has met with considerable criticism. In particular, employers' organizations and certain governments have rejected outright the proposal to require firms to pay an equitable wage. However, in all member-states except the UK and Ireland, arrangements exist to ensure that nearly all workers are covered by minimum wage protection (through national minimum wages or full-coverage collective agreements). In this article the nature of low-paid employment in member-states is examined and different methods of wage regulation are described. After reviewing the economic effects of wage regulation, we discuss possible initiatives on wage regulation at the Community level.     

Universal service issues in converging communications environments: the case of the UK

Convergent trends in telecommunications and broadcasting technologies and markets have called forth a re-examination of universal service provision in the communications sector and present an opportunity to update and re-formulate its provision. In the UK, proposed changes announced in the 2000 UK Communications White Paper and subsequent 2003 Communications Act, whilst still emphasising the importance of guaranteeing universal access to stipulated key public services and content across communications, suggest a closer relationship between economic and content regulation will be developed. This paper argues that whilst it is important to consider issues of economic efficiency in the communications sector, this should neither obscure nor compromise the need to create progressive, socially responsible, universal service reflective of the requirements of 21st century users. Crucial to the delivery of such a system in the UK is an actively supportive government policy backdrop and the development of the new convergent regulator the Office of Communications as an effective regulatory force.     

The impact of regulation on the retail prices in fixed-line telephony across the European Union

This paper estimates reduced-form models for incumbent prices in the fixed telecommunications industry using data for European Union (EU) countries from 1998 to 2002. The regulation of fixed-line telephony has a significant impact on prices for residential consumers. Liberalization of the telecommunications industry decreased retail prices by about 8.2%. The introduction of carrier pre-selection and number portability had a negative impact on price levels. The estimation results also suggest that a 1% decrease in termination charges on the incumbent network led on average to a 0.17% decrease in the cost of usage basket for residential consumers. Furthermore, in the pricing regressions for incumbent local and national calls at peak and off-peak times interconnection charges are significant only in the estimation of national peak prices. A 1% decrease in single transit interconnection charges on the incumbent network led to a 0.31% decrease in incumbent national prices at peak times, as calculated for the average prices in the EU in 2002.     

Current and future European regulation of electronic communications: A critical assessment

The current European regulation for electronic communications has been applicable since 2003 and is currently under a review that should lead to new rules applicable by 2010. This paper aims to assess the implementation of the current regulation and the proposals for reform tabled by the European Commission. It is argued that those proposals go in the right direction but should go further. First, the regulatory framework should clearly state that the objectives of regulators are to maximise the long-term welfare of European citizens. Secondly, the main body of economic regulation—the so-called Significant Market Power regime—should be based on a strong test aiming to identify structural market problems that cannot be efficiently dealt with by competition law. Thirdly, possible remedies applicable by the regulators should include structural and technological components, provided that a strict cost benefit analysis is undertaken. Fourthly, the institutional design should be improved by better aligning the incentives of the National Regulatory Authorities with the dynamic nature of the markets, by improving the checks and balances (in particular those provided by national courts and European Commission), and by improving coordination amongst the institutions (the national regulators and the national Courts).