The AFF in China:When Culture Meets the Industry

Six countries, 300 delegates, the AFF (Asian Fashion Federation) army has got bigger in size and this time set in a bigger location, too. China has successfully hosted the Third time running AFF con-     

Industry Upgrading-Aiming at the Targeted Market Demand of New Century

According to the projections from relevant sources, in the next 50 years, the world fiber consumption will continue to grow at the rate of 2% annually, and the fiber growth will rely largely on the increased production of chemical fiber and other new fibers. And also from international sources, about a quarter of the existing yarn-spinning capacity is excessive, and 13% of the weaving capacity is also overloaded on a global basis. Therefore, it can be affirmed that in the early days of the new century, the market of China's textile machinery rests largely with the renovation and technical upgrading programs in the existing capacities in our textile industry, apart from a few capacity-in-creasing proiects     

The Politics of Partnership? Innovation in Employment Relations in the Scottish Spirits Industry

Perspectives that emphasize links between workplace innovation and broader HR policies, particularly of a 'mutual gains' nature, have become increasingly influential. This paper analyses the links and tensions between workplace change and industrial relations systems in the context of attempts to create a shop-floor politics of partnership during a period of corporate restructuring in two spirits companies. We argue that interface tensions between the employment relationship, the labour process and organizational governance are inextricably linked to the outcomes of partnership initiatives. While there are positive outcomes to more integrated approaches to partnership, a range of industrial relations issues, notably the ambivalent position of shop-stewards, remains problematic.     

The Survival of the Fittest,the Market Philosophy Works

In China, the cotton textile industry undertakes over 50% of the total fiber processing volume, rendering a great number of quality yarns & cloth to its downstream pipelines, such as knitting, dyeing & finishing, home-textiles and apparels industries. In 2005, the export of Chinese cotton textiles & apparels reached US$41.13 billion, import US$5.393 billion. At present, the total employment in the large-scale cotton textile enterprises is estimated for 2.512 million people, holding 26.5% of …     

China''''s Global Role in the Textile Industry

Author: Pamela Lilak, MBA Candidate, The George Washington University Full Time Management Consultant,also advisor to China Textile Planning Insititute of Construction     

Introduction to the Special Issue in “Celebrating 25 Years of the EU Single Market”

Review of Industrial Organization -     

Does Increasing the Market Share of Smaller Firms Result in Lower Prices? Empirical Evidence from the Canadian Retail Gasoline Industry

Some recent policy initiatives aimed at preserving the market share of smaller or independent gasoline retailers have either been implemented or proposed in both Canada and the United States. Employing monthly data on average retail prices and market shares across eleven Canadian cities between 1991 and 1997, I find that more aggregate market share in the hands of independent retailers is correlated with higher retail prices, but indirectly associated with lower prices through the corresponding fall in market concentration among vertically integrated firms. The sum of these impacts is negative as indirect effects are larger in magnitude than corresponding direct effects.JEL classification : L1, L4     

The Collusive Equilibrium in a Quantity-Setting Supergame: An Application to Taiwan’s Flour Industry

This paper examines the stability of the collusive equilibrium in Friedman’s repeated game through an empirical study of Taiwan’s flour market. We calculate the payoff streams following a deviation or adherence for each firm. The evidence shows that the specified punishment path is credible, and could sustain the collusive allocation.     

A Multivariate Commodity Analysis with Time-Dependent Volatility—Evidence from the German Energy Market

In recent years commodity markets (in particular electricity, coal, and emissions) encountered extreme price movements and phases of high price volatility. Utility companies are naturally exposed to these kinds of market movements and thus have to set-up an appropriate risk management system. We show that the nonstationary behavior of recent energy prices can be captured by time-dependent (and possibly stochastic) volatility models. We compare their statistical performance and their impact on risk management applications by calculating risk metrics such as value-at-risk. Based on a comprehensive backtesting study we conclude that our suggested models outperform stationary models in most cases and therefore should be considered superior for risk management applications.     

The Survival of National Bargaining in the Electrical Contracting Industry: A Deviant Case?

This article examines what is often seen to be a deviant case in bargaining structure in British industry, namely the electrical contracting industry, where multi-employer national bargaining is often said to have remained strong. The first main part of the paper briefly outlines the wider context of collective bargaining trends in British industry. The development of collective bargaining in electrical contracting is then outlined. The third part investigates recent developments and the degree to which arrangements in the industry have deviated from the rest of the private sector. In the final section, explanations are offered and implications explored.     

Will the Market Get it Right? The Placing of New Power Plants in Germany

This paper applies ELMOD, an economic-engineering model of the European electricity market to the issue of optimal investment placing of generation capacity in Germany under different market integration scenarios. The model is formulated as cost minimization approach. We conduct a scenario analysis comparing different rules for power plant placing in a national, a market-coupling and an integrated EU market approach. We find that there are great benefits for consumers and producers if taking into account network conditions and cross border congestion in generation location planning. Moreover a change from national planning to an integrated market planner perspective shows even more improvements in prices and network utilization.     

Go Tex：The First Choice to Open up South American Market

According to Brazilian FGV research report,the World Cup stadium and infrastructure cost direct investment of BRC 22.4 billion,driving supporting and indirect investment of BRC 112.8 billion,and national income increases by BRC63.5 billion through internal consumption,stimulating employment of 3.6 million and tax revenue increasing by BRC 18 billion.The impact will continue after the World Cup.     

For whom? – The governance of organic food and farming in the UK

The challenge of organic agriculture – that it might provide new forms of participation around food – has been hard to encapsulate in the conventional circuits of democracy. One answer to this ‘offer’ has been for consumers to purchase organic items as a way of demonstrating support for the organic sector. This paper argues that although this strategy may have been successful in the past, there is increasing evidence that there is a convergence between sections of the organic movement and the dominant multiple retailers. Through a wide range of evidence, including an analysis of how organic products are promoted and of how organic farm businesses are configured, this paper suggests that the potential of the organic movement is increasingly being circumscribed.     

Wages in the Steel Industry: Take the Money and Run?

Sharp increases occurred in the wages paid by integrated steel firms in the 1970s despite reductions in employment caused by the industry's decline. This article reviews several explanations suggested for this puzzling outcome and evaluates them using information on the size and timing of wage increases, on investment decisions, and on expectations about future inflation and demand growth. Overly optimistic expectations for demand growth and unexpected inflation appear to explain much of the data.     

Is the Information Deficiency in Real Estate Evident in Public Market Trading?

This paper examines the summary informativeness of trading in real estate securities. Prior literature on publicly traded real estate securities suggests that the information deficiency associated with local economies and unique rent dynamics will manifest itself as severe information asymmetry. To date, most studies concerned with these issues have focused on the conventional measures of liquidity (serial correlations, bid—ask spreads, etc.). However, the conventional measures have several shortcomings as pure measures of trading information. To address this issue, we use a vector autoregressive methodology pioneered by Hasbrouck. We examine the empirical proposition that information-gathering activities are related to trade informativeness. The evidence is consistent with a theoretical model in which traders are risk-averse and the number of information gatherers is small.     

Chinese Textile Industry,Five Years in the Past & Half a Decade in the Future

AchievementsinthePastfiveyearsThe following nine points characterize the panorama of achievements in the textile industry in past five years, known as 'the 10th Five-Year Plan Period'1.A sustained rapid and consistent growth2.A consistent improvement both in quality and benefits for the industry's economic performan3. Rapid enhancement in process technology and equipment4. Innovation capability largely strengthened5.Investment from non-governmental sectors is obviously strengthening its rol…     

The Financial Costs of Caring in the British Labour Market: Is There a Wage Penalty for Workers in Caring Occupations?

Recent evidence from the USA suggests that people engaged in occupations involving providing care for others, such as childcare and teaching, suffer a wage penalty. After taking into account job and individual characteristics such as level of education and work experience, people in these occupations in the American study earned about 6 per cent less than their peers in other types of occupation. However, we do not yet know if people working in similar occupations in other countries also suffer the same degree of disadvantage. The issue is important because, despite the perception that people in caring jobs place a relatively low weight on the level of remuneration when making career decisions, a number of studies have shown clear evidence of an association between pay and the propensity to give up working in a caring occupation. There are implications too for social inequality as many caring jobs are done by women and associated wage penalties could contribute to the persistent gender gap in pay. This study compares and contrasts the predictions of neoclassical economics, cultural feminist theory and social closure theory. Data are taken from 17 waves of the British Household Panel Survey and include a total of 23,773 individuals, giving 110,677 person‐year observations. These data are analysed using multi‐level linear regression. The results show clear evidence of a statistically significant wage penalty associated with working in some caring occupations. Those occupations requiring lower levels of educational qualification, such as nursing assistants and auxiliaries, are particularly hard‐hit by the wage penalty. On the other hand, some occupations, such as medicine and teaching, have fared better than comparable non‐caring occupations over the same period. We discuss the implications of these results for the gender gap in pay, poverty, social inequality and the future supply of caring workers.     

Collusion or Competition? Interfirm Relationships in the Chinese Auto Industry

The Chinese passenger‐vehicle industry contains a large number of manufacturers. Some of them are members of big corporate groups centered around state owned enterprises. These corporate relationships may facilitate collusion. This paper applies the non‐nested hypothesis test methodology to data on passenger vehicles to identify whether price collusion exists within corporate groups or across groups. Our empirical results support the assumption of Bertrand Nash competition in the Chinese passenger‐vehicle industry: We find no evidence for within or cross‐group price collusion. Our policy experiments show that indigenous brands will gain market shares and profits if within‐group companies merge.