An evaluation of higher education sector to the economy

Economic sectors consider the contribution of higher education sector. The big majority of the students studying at universities in North Cyprus come from overseas and they compose a big proportion in the population of North Cyprus and they contribute to the economy of North Cyprus as well as to the others involved. According to educational economists, the main source of economic development is the quality and level of education individuals receive. The quality of education has a big effect on the socio-politic and economic structure of a community. This, obviously, indicates the importance of universities for the communities and economy. The aim of this study is to evaluate the contribution of individual education to economy and the development of the country as well as the positive contribution of the universities to the economy of the country. A case study, one of qualitative research models, was conducted in this study. As for the study group, an “intentional sampling”, a model without selection, model was used. In this process, representatives from sectors, public organizations, and organizations in economy operating in the North Cyprus were interviewed and questioned through semi-structured interview forms. The research data was analyzed through content-analysis method and the contribution of the research has been presented as suggestions for the future.     

非公经济发展政策执行的阻滞因素分析及对策

国务院关于《鼓励支持和引导个体私营等非公有制经济发展的若干意见》(以下简称《非公经济发展意见》)的出台,犹如一股强劲的春风,吹暖了民营企业家的心。但民营经济政策从出台到落实还有很长的路要走,很多障碍要克服,《非公经济发展意见》很难在短期内解决多年来积累的问题。一项政策出台,重要的是如何在日趋复杂的环境中有效地执行。政策执行这一被长期忽视的环     

The political economy of international trade and factor mobility

Abstract. Free trade in goods and factors is efficient. When we move away from economic theory and consider the policies actually followed by governments, we observe distortions being implemented both on goods and factors trades. It is natural then to question the relative merits of the two types of intervention, and the normative literature has provided only partial answers. We ask then why is the international flow of goods and factors not free, and the political economy literature has looked at the two issues only separately. In studying the determination of trade policy, a theoretical paradigm has emerged, focusing on the role of influence driven contributions. This approach has also found strong empirical support. The literature on the political economy of factor mobility, on the other hand, is fragmented. Distortions in labor and capital flows are typically the subject of different studies, and only recently a unified framework has been proposed. More work has to be done in this area as well as in integrating the political economy of trade and factor movements.     

区域经济发展与国际技术交流的融合——记第三届佛山(国际)物流合作洽谈会与第五届中日韩物流技术与应用交流会

6月的广东，与天气一样酷热的还有一浪高过一浪的物流热潮。以“物流”为主题的几大活动不约而同选择了我国改革开放、经济发展的前沿阵地，几乎在同一时间登台亮相。其中，第三届佛山（国际）物流合作洽谈会，和作为洽谈会重要活动之一的第五届中日韩物流技术与应用交流会，在佛山市同期召开，区域经济发展融入了更多的国际化色彩与专业化内容，因此吸引了更多人的关注，使两大会议都取得了圆满成功。     

World,country, and sector factors in international business cycles

Do sector-specific factors common to all countries play an important role in explaining business cycle co-movement? We address this question by analyzing international co-movements of value added (VA) growth in a multi-sector dynamic factor model. The model contains a world factor, country-specific factors, sector-specific factors, and idiosyncratic components. We estimate the model using Bayesian methods for 30 disaggregated sectors in the G7 economies for the 1974–2004 period. Our findings show that, although there is a substantial role for sector-specific factors, fluctuations are dominated by country-factors. The world factor appears to play a minimal role because, when using aggregate data, the world factor captures both the factor common to all countries and industries and the factor common to the same industry across countries. We then examine how these factors evolved as globalization deepened over the past two decades. Our results suggest that business cycles at a disaggregate level have not become more synchronized internationally. This is mainly driven by a substantial fall in the volatility of world shocks during the globalization period, rather than a lower sensitivity of sectoral growth to world factors. Our results also reveal that world factors appear to be more important for industries with a higher level of international vertical integration.     

An international study of causality-in-variance: Interest rate and financial sector returns

We demonstrate that causality-in-variance test could be employed to model the direction and lags in information flow between two variables and to avoid misspecifications. We apply this methodology to test the causality between the financial sector returns and interest rates of the G7 countries and show that the direction and the lead/lag structure of causality in the mean and the variance are more complex and dynamic than that have previously been reported. In most cases, we found two-way information flow both at the mean and the volatility level. Causality results give us insights into (i) how and when information is impacted on different market segments, and (ii) design more objective bi-variate models with the appropriate lag structure.     

An empirical analysis of international labour migration in the Philippines

This study empirically investigates the impact of economic, demographic, and political factors on the size of emigration from the Philippines. In 2007, overseas workers from the Philippines sent remittances in excess of US$14 billion annually to their families back home. Although these remittances are an important source of foreign exchange and play an important role in economic development, the determinants of emigration in the Philippines are not well established. A simple unrestricted error correction model of migration was specified and estimated using data spanning the period 1975–2005. Results indicate that the level of unemployment, adult literacy and population density are the key determinants of emigration in the Philippines. The result also indicates that government instability impacts negatively on emigration in the Philippines. The policy implications of the results are discussed.     

Franchisors do their homework before entering international markets: Experiences from the Australian franchising sector

Whilst the literature on international franchising practice is well established, an issue that remains unaddressed is the optimal timing for international expansion activities. In this study an Internet survey of the population of business format franchisors in Australia is conducted to obtain a profile of franchising, including international expansion data. In the second stage, a series of case studies with 16 Australian-based franchise systems is reported. The results indicate that franchisors do not wait until the domestic market is saturated before venturing overseas. Moreover, franchisors tend to develop their international expansion strategies after the business has demonstrated success in the local market.     

Exploring competitiveness in banking sector of a small island economy: a study of Fiji

The paper explores the competitiveness in the banking sector in Fiji using the Panzar and Rosse (J Ind Econ 35:443–456, 1987) method. We compute the concentration ratios and Herfindahl–Hirschman index based on total assets, loans, and deposits to examine the concentration level. To compute the Panzar-Rosse H-statistics, we use fixed effect regression method duly controlling for heterogeneity. The results show banks in Fiji exhibit monopolistic behavior and are biased towards monopoly/conjectural variation short-run oligopoly upon examining the significance level of the upper and lower bounds of the computed H-statistics. Moreover, the results also show that banks revenue are influenced positively by interest expenses, capital adequacy ratio, and the number of branches; and negatively by personnel expenses, other operating expenses, and firm size measured by total assets.     

Unionism and the public sector

It is incorrect and misleading to speak of unionization as a ‘human right’. The only human right is ‘self-ownership’, i.e. to pursue goals with one's own abilities but with no force or fraud against others. Government cannot dispense rights, only privileges and protections to some at the expense of others. A minimal degree of coercion exercised by government is unavoidable. But labor unions are not governments. Government has granted significant privileges to unions in the private sector, but such are not appropriate for public sector unions.     

Constructive Pressures And Incentives To Reform: Globalization and its impact on public sector performance and governance in developing countries

Contrary to widespread pessimism regarding the effects of globalization on nation states and the quality of governance in developing countries, this contribution stresses that several of its features can be made instrumental, and be beneficial, in terms of public policy making and state capability. Four ‘constructive pressures’ stemming from globalization could be seized constructively by citizens and governments in the developing world: First, better informed and better connected citizens, and an emerging global civil society, demand improvements in service delivery, transparency, and participation. Second, subnational governments, often backed by local NGOs and businesses, and keen to attract foreign investment, increasingly exert pressure vis-à-vis central governments. Third, global investment strategies by private businesses increase the demand for appropriate institutional arrangements within developing countries as well as credible government policies. Although with mixed results, forth, International Organizations, in particular IFIs, have been addressing public sector modernization in developing countries, also sponsoring global public policy networks in critical areas. Moreover, policy coordination and cooperation among states increases significantly, constraining arbitrary action by governments. Globalization, thus, advances the discussion about, and the demand for, new institutional arrangements, clearly with new opportunities for improvements in state capability and governance.     

The financial sector and the future of capitalism

Financial sector innovation and development since the 1970s contributed to global prosperity, but increased the probability of bank failures. The post-2007 financial crisis was one of many crises with idiosyncratic catalysts but common underlying causes. Public policies, such as deposit insurance, with moral hazard implications increased the likelihood of crises, and cheap money exacerbated the situation by encouraging highly leveraged investments. The policy challenge is to address moral hazard without repressing the financial sector. This is not the end of capitalism, but a reminder of the difficulty in policing the financial sector which is at the heart of capitalist economies.     

Housing and the Korean economy

This paper explores the nexus between housing and the Korean economy. It starts with an overview of the size, growth, and volatility of residential investment in conjunction with long-term resource allocation and short-term macroeconomic fluctuations. Then, the evolution of housing finance and its implications for recent house price run-up are discussed. The relationships among housing price, consumer spending, and inflation are also investigated. Particular attention is paid to the debate over house price bubbles, housing wealth effects on consumption, and the causality between house price and inflation. The paper concludes with a brief assessment of government intervention to stabilize house prices.