There is No Housing Bubble in the USA

There is no evidence of a housing “bubble” in the United States and housing demand should stay strong for years to come. Three major factors lead to this conclusion. First, the 77 million baby boomers are approaching the peak home ownership ages of 65-75 (over 83.0 percent versus a national average in 2004 of 69.0 percent). Second, immigrants, a growing share of the U.S. population, tend to buy houses ten years later than people born in the United States of the same income group and family size. Third, mortgage rates are not likely to go high enough (8.0 percent or more for 30-year fixed rate mortgages) to put a crimp in demand. Despite some areas of concern, overall homeowners’ equity is at record levels above $9 trillion. Delinquencies are still less than one percent of mortgages outstanding.JEL Classification L850,R210     

Why Agents for Automated Negotiations Should Be Adaptive

We show that adaptive agents on the Internet can learn to exploit bidding agents who use a (limited) number of fixed strategies. These learning agents can be generated by adapting a special kind of finite automata with evolutionary algorithms (EAs). Our approach is especially powerful if the adaptive agent participates in frequently occurring micro-transactions, where there is sufficient opportunity for the agent to learn online from past negotiations. More in general, results presented in this paper provide a solid basis for the further development of adaptive agents for Internet applications.     

Why People Don't Ask: Understanding Initiation Behavior in International Negotiations

Negotiation is an interactive process that is important to all aspects of organizational success, a process that begins with communicating one's wants or needs. For many individuals, engaging others and asking for what one wants (i.e., initiating a negotiation) is a challenging task, made more difficult in an international context. Yet due to the integration of world markets, this is exactly the type of environment that many organizational representatives are facing with increasing regularity. This article offers an overview of the personal characteristics and situational factors that influence an individual initiating a negotiation (engaging a counterpart, making a request, and optimizing that request), with specific attention to seven cultural factors that must be understood to be most effective in international settings. The ways in which these cultural factors are likely to affect one's decision to engage a counterpart and style of delivery are illustrated for three countries: the United States, China, and Brazil. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

遇到的障碍是没有不可逾越的——上船公司最大吨位首制船完整性下水

2009年11月15日11时零8分．喜庆的鞭炮声在上海船厂船舶有限公司（下称上船公司）崇明基地港池生产现场响起。此刻，上船公司为丹麦诺登公司建造的11．45万吨系列散货船中的首制船“诺登海豚”号．在拖船的牵引下正缓缓地离开港池．停靠公司1#码头。该船的完整性下水．使得上船公司造船史上最大吨位的远洋货船的建造取得了阶段性胜利。同时．也宣告了上船崇明基地海洋工程建设项目——港池的全面竣工。     

第三轮全球贸易优惠制谈判启动

<正> 在圣保罗参加联合国贸易和发展会议第11届大会的40多个发展中国家的代表6月16日举行的部长级特别会议上,决定发起第三轮发展中国家全球贸易优惠制谈判,以增加相互间的贸易往来,促进发展中国家、特别是最不发达国家的经济增长。根据会后发表的《圣保罗声明》,全球贸易优惠制协议的各签署国将从今年11月开始就减除关税壁垒进行谈判,并于2006年11月签署最后文件。贸发会议秘书长里库佩罗指出,这一协议将促进发展中国家的贸易增长,同时将有利于整个世界经济的发展。     

没有狂吠的狗

2002年初在美国做访问学者的时候，我曾专程去过哈佛大学肯尼迪学院拜会罗德里克（Danl Rodrlk）教授。对他“发展中国家不会自动从全球化或自由贸易中受益”以及“中国的成功有着其他发展中国家难以比拟的客观条件”等观点，我一直深有同感。那次谈话给我的印象，他是一个非常稳重和温和的人。     

Why Global Policy Co-ordination Is Crucial?

How times change! Months ago,world leaders gathered at the London Summit and agreed to co-ordinate economic policies.     

Why Global Policy Co-ordination Is Crucidl？

How times change! Months ago, world leaders gathered at the London Summit and agreed to co-ordinate economic policies. Acting together, they pulled the world economy back from the brink. Depression was avoided. Recovery followed.     

Dumping in a Global World: Why Product Quality Matters

Anti‐dumping actions are now the trade policy of choice of developing and transition economies. To understand why these economies have increasingly applied anti‐dumping laws, we build a simple theoretical model of vertical intra‐industry trade and investigate the strategic incentives of exporting firms to undertake dumping. We show that the definition of dumping matters. Based on a comparison of low‐quality and high‐quality prices, only unilateral dumping by the low‐quality firm obtains. By contrast, the standard WTO definition leads to either reciprocal or unilateral dumping by the high‐quality firm, depending on cross‐country differences in incomes, the height of tariff protection and on exchange rate changes.     

酱油食品中的3-MCPD与安全防范

酱油食品中的3-MCPD对人体健康存在着潜在的危险。本文分析了其产生的来源,并就如何减少酱油中的3-MCPD提出了可行的建议。     

车价混乱为哪般?

目前市场上的汽车价格有点乱：出现了有些“三厢车”比“二厢车”价低，高排量的车比低排量的车更便宜，品牌知名度高的进口车价格反低于知名度较低的进口车，标上04、05款车或限量版车就来个大降几千至上万元等一系列奇怪现象。11月10日刚上市的上海大众04款POLO虽然还没有现车，但经销商给出的报价比厂家指导价至少低2900元以上，最大的优惠幅度达6000多元。     

车市惨淡为哪般

前不久，记者应邀参加了一个座谈会，聚在一起的厂家、经销商、研究人员、消费者代表等各路神仙，对2004年的车市望闻问切的进行了一番诊断，发表了林林总总的一些意见。记者把它整理刊发出来，期望对2005年的车市能有所借鉴。     

吴杰：我的心中有个神

吴杰 1989年北京电影摄影系研究生毕业，留校任教。1998年创办北京方正影视制作有限公司。2000年入选《中国广告创意人》；2005年被评为“中国著名导演30强”。[编者按]     

Humour in Negotiations: A Pragmatic Analysis of Humour in Simulated Negotiations

This research attempts to shed light on the possible ways which humour could be used to improve the negotiation process in conflictual settings. Negotiators were observed for their use of humour in simulated negotiation scenarios, and a relationship has been observed between humour and laughter, and the structure of the negotiations. The structural and functional implications of humour observed and discussed in this research illustrate the potential for humour in negotiation processes at large.     

Why No.1 Document Targets Agricultural Technology?

Agricultural R&D needs to be closely related with production and financial input in agricultural science & technology should be:ensured to grow more rapidly than regular financial revenues,so as to make breakthroughts in reforming the agricultural science & technology system.     

Why No.1 Document Targets Agricultural Technology?

Agricultural R&D needs to be closely related with production and financial input in agricultural science & technology should be ensured to grow more rapidly than regular financial revenues,so as to make breakthroughs in reforming the agricultural science & technology system.