Institutional development and firm profitability in transition economies

Although transition economies experience significant institutional transformations that vary in their pace and magnitude, our understanding of how such changes influence firm performance is rather limited. We examine how variations in institutional reforms and international openness in 16 transition economies in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) influence firm profitability. We enhance the understanding of this subject by showing that such institutional changes have different effects on the competitive advantages and in turn profitability of domestic firms and foreign subsidiaries. Our analysis of over 230,000 observations reveals that institutional reforms benefit domestic firms. Conversely, a completely different pattern emerges for foreign subsidiaries, indicating that institutional reforms have negative consequences for their profitability. Hence, in contrast to the established assumption that developed institutional environments are advantageous for foreign subsidiaries, the nature of institutional changes makes domestic firms the main beneficiaries.     

省域农村居民旅游消费的空间计量研究

不同省域农村居民旅游消费的差异可以建立和运用空间计量经济学模型来研究,分析2004～2007年中国27个省市的面板数据的结果表明：我国省域农村居民旅游消费存在空间依赖性,旅游消费行为受到本地旅游消费和相邻省域旅游消费的共同影响,农村居民的人均收入对省域旅游消费的弹性系数显著为正。为此,政府在制定农村居民旅游消费政策时,必须考虑旅游消费引导的空间作用机制对不同省域农村居民旅游消费的差异化作用。     

Managing internationalization and innovation tradeoffs in entrepreneurial firms: Evidence from transition economies

For entrepreneurial firms (EFs), internationalization and innovation present two major avenues for growth. Prior research, based primarily on EFs from advanced economies, demonstrates mixed insights for the relationship between these strategies. A deeper understanding of the tradeoffs involved in the internationalization-innovation relationship may help better comprehend the issue. In this study, we draw on the organizational learning and capabilities-based literatures to examine the relationship in the context of EFs in transition economies (EFTEs). Our findings suggest that in EFTEs, internationalization is negatively associated with the likelihood of innovation. We also find that three knowledge-based capabilities of EFTEs (absorptive capacity, appropriation capability, and managerial capability) positively moderate the aforementioned negative relationship. We do not find any evidence of reverse causality (EFTE innovation impacting internationalization). Our research provides novel insights to the IE literature by shedding light on the internationalization–innovation tradeoffs that EFTEs experience.     

Marketing and advertising practices of Turkish entrepreneurs in transition economies: Evidence from Georgia

As a transition economy, Georgia has an uncertain, complex, and immature business environment, typical of transition economies in the Eurasian region. In an effort to provide insights into marketing and advertising practices in the Eurasian transition economies, this study empirically examines the marketing and advertising practices in Georgia through two surveys conducted with Turkish entrepreneurs in Georgia and Georgian consumers. On the one hand, the findings of the survey of the Turkish entrepreneurs indicated that an overall adaptation strategy is needed in Georgia; in addition, foreign entrepreneurs willing to enter the Georgian market are advised to offer a variety of products by collaborating with local distributors and agents. Although Georgian consumers do not have high income, low-price strategy does not always work as consumers equate low price with inferior quality. Marketing of prestigious products are to be sold at higher prices and appropriate product positioning strategies must be developed for each target market segment. Merchandising strategies must be congruent with the target market served as well as retail stores/outlets utilized. On the other hand, the Georgian consumers demand better customer service and increased variety of products; advertising is welcomed to a certain extent as long as advertising provides useful product/brand and company information.     

Does corruption boost or harm firms’ performance in developing and emerging economies? A firm-level study

In the last decade, a growing number of studies have addressed the ongoing debate about whether corruption “sands” or “greases” the wheels of business at the firm level. This study revisits this debate and proposes a comprehensive theoretical framework to test whether corruption harms or boosts firm performance, as well as the extent to which this relationship is mediated by the countries’ institutional settings, the size and strategic behaviour of the firms, and market competition. Based on a sample of 21,250 firms located in 117 emerging and developing countries, and resorting to instrumental variable (IV) estimations, three main results were found: (a) regardless of the proxy used for corruption and firm performance, the former clearly harms the latter; (b) corruption “greases the wheels” of business for African firms but it “sands the wheels” for firms in Latin America, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Southern Asia; and (c) the negative impact of corruption on performance is mitigated for larger and exporting firms.     

基于灰色马尔科夫模型的农民收入质与量预测

本文以肥西县为样本,利用统计数据建立了灰色马尔科夫预测模型,通过比对预测信息与实际信息差距,建立信息反馈机制,分别对肥西县农民收入的数量和质量进行了为期5年的计算。模型建立与应用的过程,特别是进行的相关验证说明,应用该模型开展肥西及类似地区农民收入的预测是可行的。而农民人均纯收入将在数量上五年倍增、质量上大幅度提高的预测结论,又是与向好的宏观发展环境相符的。     

我国农民自我就业的收入效应及其影响因素

20世纪80年代末90年代初以来,我国农民自我就业发展迅猛,并成为农村非农生产部门增速最快的领域。对我国1988—2007年相关数据所作的协整分析和格兰杰因果检验表明,农民自我就业具有十分明显的收入效应,进一步提高农民自我就业水平,无疑是增加农民收入的必然选择。当前的农民自我就业,受制于资金、能力和市场因素,亟需从环境、服务、机会等多方面加以扶持和激励。     

社会基本医疗保险对家庭消费的影响

文章利用北京大学CFPS调查2010、2012年两期平衡面板数据,以双重差分-倾向匹配法构造了反实事分析框架,估计基本医疗保险对家庭消费支出的影响。研究结果显示,医保政策对于居民消费具有促进作用,医保带动农村消费的同时也加重了农村家庭医疗支出负担;从分收入层次看,医保对于农村低收入家庭的消费支出正向影响显著且大于城镇低收入家庭。     

SME development,economic growth,and government intervention in a developing country: The Indonesian story

There is an ongoing debate in the literature on the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in less developed countries (LDCs) on two issues: the survival of SMEs in the course of economic development and the importance of government promotion programs for SME development. This research paper aims to examine those issues empirically with Indonesian data. For this purpose, it develops and tests a set of hypotheses. It shows that both real gross domestic product per capita and government development expenditure (especially that used to finance SME development promotion programs) have positive impacts on SME growth. With this finding, the research argues that SMEs in LDCs can survive, and even grow in the long-run, for three main reasons: (a) they create a niche market for themselves, (b) they act as a “last resort” for the poor, and (c) they will grow along with large enterprises (LEs) because of their increasingly important production linkages with LEs in the form of subcontracting.

Strategies,technologies, and organizational learning for developing organizational innovativeness in emerging economies

Innovativeness is an important organizational capability for competitive advantage sustainability in the dynamic environment of Asia's emerging economies. Drawing upon dynamic capability theory, this study develops a research model of organizational innovativeness development for firms in emerging economies. The proactive strategic orientations reflected by entrepreneurship and technology oriented strategy provide important visions for organizational innovativeness. Further, the utilization of knowledge management systems and organizational learning are identified as intervention processes that translate these strategic orientations into real innovation capability. A survey involving 114 firms operating in China was conducted for hypothesis testing. The empirical results provide strong support and advance the knowledge of organizational innovativeness development for firms in Asia's emerging economies.     

日本提高外国游客人均消费金额的措施及特点

2018年,日本外国游客突破3119万人次,为日本带来45189亿日元的产值,旅游业已成为日本的支柱产业之一。但自2015年开始,在日游客人均消费额逐年下降,游客在消费上呈现出新的动向与新的变化。通过归纳、总结日本各界在此背景下,在提高外国游客人均消费金额方面采取的措施,并分析这些措施呈现出的特点,可为我国的旅游业发展提供参考。     

我国人均收入与服务业发展互动研究

本文基于VAR模型,我国使用1978-2011年期间相关数据,对人均收入与服务业发展之间的动态互动关系进行了实证分析。结果显示:我国人均收入与服务业发展存在滞后效应,人均收入在短期内的增长不但没有拉动服务业比重的增加,反而引致服务业比重下降;服务业比重短期的增加没有引起人均收入的立即增长,但二者从长期来看存在正向的互动关系,人均收入与服务业发展的滞后效应是导致我国人均收入与服务业发展之间弱对应关系的重要原因。因此,应突破二者动态互动的瓶颈,消除导致人均收入与服务业发展相互影响滞后的阻碍因素,促使二者良性互动关系健康发展。     

ON THE CONSISTENCY OF THE LUCAS PRICING FORMULA

In order to find the real market value of an asset in an exchange economy, one would typically apply the Lucas formula, developed in a discrete time framework. This theory has also been extended to continuous time models, in which case the same pricing formula has been universally applied.
While the discrete time theory is rather transparent, there has been some confusion regarding the continuous time analogue. In particular, the continuous time pricing formula must contain a certain type of a square covariance term that does not readily follow from the discrete time formulation. As a result, this term has sometimes been missing in situations where it should have been included.
In this paper, we reformulate the discrete time theory in such a way that this covariance term does not come as a mystery in the continuous time version.
In most real life situations dividends are paid out in lump sums, not in rates. This leads to a discontinuous model, and adding a continuous time framework, it appears that our framework is a most natural one in finance.
Finally, the Gordon growth formula is extended from its deterministic origin, to the present model of uncertainty, and it is indicated how this can be used to to possibly shed some light on the volatility puzzle.     

Transactional and institutional alignment of entry modes in transition economies. A survival analysis of joint ventures and wholly owned subsidiaries in Vietnam

How do partially aligned entry modes predicted through theoretically pluralistic frameworks perform in terms of longevity? We build on transaction costs and neo-institutional economics and use event history method and Vietnamese data on 3835 joint ventures and wholly owned subsidiaries established by foreign firms from 1987 to 2008 to answer this question. We find that survival rates for entry modes that are partially aligned to transactional and institutional factors differ for JV- and WOS-based entries. We provide new evidence for the predictive power of the transactional and institutional approach for entry mode choice, performance, and survival in transition economies.     

欧盟居民有机食品消费与经济增长关系的实证分析

近年来,各国政府加大了对有机农业的推动,促进了有机食品生产和消费的快速增长。欧盟作为世界最大的有机食品消费市场,虽然起步早,但内部各国市场的发展并不均衡,呈现出不同类型和发展阶段市场并存的格局,其发展具有较强的代表性和借鉴意义。本文通过对欧盟有机食品市场的分析,建立欧盟有机食品市场需求决定模型,并运用模型以上海为例估计了我国大城市的有机食品市场容量。     

东北三省经济增长的阶段性特征及制约因素——基于扩展的Solow模型比较分析

在传统Solow模型基础上引入人力资本、市场化水平、服务业发展水平因素,然后运用该扩展的Solow模型对东北三省1978-2011年的经济增长进行了全要素分析,并按照东北三省的经济发展特点进行了分阶段研究结果表明,1978年以来东北三省经济年平均增长率由高到低依次是吉林、辽宁、黑龙江,但都呈现出不断加快的趋势物质资本和技术进步对东北三省经济增长的贡献率最高,而人力资本、市场化水平、服务业发展水平的贡献率则普遍较低,且在各省之间表现出不同的阶段性特征应加大对人力资本的投资力度;加快市场化改革进程;加快第三产业,特别是生产性服务业的发展.     

Market imperfections and the instability of open economies

In the presence of small market imperfections, the transitional dynamics of an open economy can become indeterminate, in that there exist an infinite number of equilibrium paths converging to a unique steady state. In contrast to closed economy models, in the open economy, such indeterminacy can arise independently of the curvature of the utility function in consumption. The results suggest that with market imperfections, open economies can be subject to fluctuations caused by randomness unrelated to the economy's fundamentals.     

Determinants of workers’ remittances: An empirical investigation for a panel of eleven developing Asian economies

We explore the key motives of migrant workers’ remittances from abroad for 11 major Asian migrant‐sending countries. Using panel regressions, we find that relative higher growth rate, interest rate and capital market returns of home over the host, investment, financial deepening at home have significant impact on remittance inflows into Asia, along with higher per capita incomes and international crude oil prices. With incorporation of per capita incomes and lagged impact of remittances, we observe an emergence of consumption motives to remit. Therefore, we conclude that both investment and altruistic motives are the driving forces for remittances inflows into the Asian economies.     

服务业外资对区域经济发展及产业结构的影响——以浙江省为例的实证分析

服务业利用外资占总利用外资的比重日益增加。本文对浙江省服务业外资与GDP、人均GDP、服务业比重之间的关系进行了实证分析,由此判断服务业外资在促进区域经济发展和产业结构升级中的作用,并在此基础上提出了政策建议。     

Gifts: intertwining market and moral economies and the rise of store bought gifts

Gifts are a major part of both economic and social life. This intertwined relationship between the market and moral economies has long been unsettling to those concerned about rationalized marketplace meanings contaminating and eroding the sacred social role of gift giving. Consumer researchers have analysed the important relationship work done through gift giving in the moral economy and the ways that the marketplace facilitates such work (or not). However, little has explored when, how, and why a store bought gift, rather than a homemade one, actually became acceptable. This article uses three case studies from the early to mid-1800s to trace the rise of the store bought gift in the American marketplace. It highlights how the sociocultural context, marketing innovations, retailers, and meanings surrounding gifting all helped to ensconce gift giving as both a central component in the contemporary marketplace and a tool for symbolic communication in social life.