Securing small farmer participation in supermarket supply chains in South Africa

Urbanisation and a growing middle class with changing consumption patterns provide an ideal setting for supermarkets to prosper. With South Africa's urban population approaching 60 per cent, supermarket retail chains are now important players in the agro-food sector. Over the last two decades they have begun to purchase produce from in-house sourcing companies who buy mainly from large-scale farmers. Together with the strict requirements of the retail groups, this makes it difficult for small-scale farmers to supply these retailers. This paper highlights the market changes that could continue to exclude small producers from mass consumer markets. It uses a case study to show how small farmers can be integrated into the urban retail market and, using evidence from this study, proposes a number of strategies to help them participate in the mainstream agro-food supply chains and an innovative model for including them while maintaining profitable business operations.     

Developing a local retail strategy: A case study of Leicester

Retailing has experienced profound restructuring in recent years. The retail revolution has brought with it changes to employment practices and the organisation of retail businesses, the application of new technologies and shifts in the location of retailing activity, most notably through the growth of off-centre superstores. One consequence is that the retailing sector is now characterised by a particular set of problems which have a major impact on the retail workforce. This article uses evidence drawn from a study of issues concerning Leicester's retail sector to consider the need for, and the appropriate form of, sector-based strategies aimed at alleviating these problems in both Leicester and in other UK local economies.     

Jamaican working-class women: Producers and reproducers

Jamaica’s economy is underdeveloped, creating and maintaining relatively few income-generating opportunities for its population. To survive, working-class women who assume primary economic and social responsibilities for their children must be economically active, whether in the retrenching formal sector or in the growing informal sector. The following article examines how their culture and economy merge to define Jamaican women and their roles.     

THE SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM IN HONG KONG: ESTABLISHMENT AND READJUSTMENT OF THE LIBERAL WELFARE MODEL

Hong Kong's social security system has followed a “liberal” welfare state regime. The system has undergone changes along with the high economic growth, changes in the labor market, and transformation of the political environment, but has retained the fundamental principle of a social security system led by the private sector. In recent years, Hong Kong has responded to the aging population and growing unemployment by introducing the Mandatory Provident Fund Scheme that requires individuals to join private‐sector pension schemes and by intensifying cooperation with nongovernmental organizations. This indicates the deep‐seated nature of the influence of the liberal regime in Hong Kong.     

中国零售业规模经济问题研究

服务业是国民经济的重要组成部分,服务业的发展水平是衡量现代社会经济发达程度的重要标志。零售业作为传统服务业最重要的部分,对中国的发展正起着越来越重要的作用。本文以中国零售业数据为基础,对中国零售业规模经济问题进行探讨。主要研究思路是:先用施蒂格勒的生存技术法对中国零售业是否具有规模经济进行初步的判断,再用柯布-道格拉斯生产函数法对前面的判断做实证检验,从而得出结论并对此结论进行分析。     

The Price of Electricity in Indonesia

Persistent shortages of electric power and of capital to fund power system expansion have recently prompted the Indonesian government to allow the private sector to supply electricity. Price has become a controversial issue—both the retail price private producers would charge the public, and the wholesale price at which they would seil in bulk to the state utility, PLN The government has traditionally kept the retail price below cost to support economic development objectives, and subsidies have covered PLN's losses. Opponents of private power argue that without subsidies private suppliers would have to raise the retail price to unacceptable levels—according to PLN, almost 50% more per kilowatt-hour than its own price. The paper assesses PLN's claim by quantifying hidden subsidies, and demonstrates that, if these were properly taken into account, the average retail price per kilowatt-hour for 1980–93 should have been 46% higher than it was.     

Output and productivity comparisons of the Singapore and Hong Kong wholesale and retail trade sectors, 2001–2008

This paper employs the industry of origin approach to compare value‐added and labour productivity of Singapore and Hong Kong's wholesale and retail sectors for the period 2001–08. The direct comparison between these two economies was motivated by the statement of the Singapore Government that its services sector, especially the retail sector, lagged behind Hong Kong's productivity levels. The results show that since 2005, Singapore's wholesale and retail sector performance in terms of labour productivity has been below Hong Kong's level, largely due to the poor performance of its retail sector arising from an influx of foreign workers. Results from total factor productivity analysis of these two economies also suggest that Hong Kong's better performance (since 2005) was largely due to its ability to employ more educated and trained workers with limited use of capital. The results suggest that polices that have worked in Hong Kong may not work in Singapore because its population is more diverse, which poses a challenge to policymakers in raising its productivity level.     

Is there Regional Tax Competition? Firm Level Evidence for Belgium

Summary This is the first paper that looks at regional tax competition within one single country. In many countries in Europe, regions within a country differ substantially in their economic development and attractiveness to firms. Belgium is a typical example of a country where the economic situation of its three regions is very different. Our findings are indicative of regional tax competition, with a lower Effective Tax Rate (ETR) in the peripheral region of Wallonia than in Flanders. In addition to location variables, our empirical model explaining firm level heterogeneity in ETRs includes firm characteristics, sector membership and variables capturing statutory tax breaks. We thank the Research Council of the Catholic University of Leuven for funding this research. A special thanks goes to Jozef Konings, Willem Buijink, Laurence van Lent, Wim Moesen, Christophe Croux and Frans Vanistendael, for providing useful feedback on this project. We also thank participants of a LICOS-K.U.Leuven seminar and a doctoral workshop at the Universities of Maastricht and Antwerp for useful comments.     

Government Policies and Private Enterprise Development in China： 2003-2006

The relationship between government policy and economic development has been a long- standing topic of academic research andpolicy debate. The government of a transitional economy plays an important role in the process of economic development. Over the past three decades, the Chinese economy has been growing very rapidly, in particular because of the rapid development of the private sector. However, the performance of private enterprises is still affected by government policies. In the present paper, we examine the changes in large Chinese private enterprises performance during 2003-2006 and test the determinants of such changes. We conclude that the Chinese Government＇s discriminating policies against private enterprises are the main cause of the private sector＇s downturn.     

零售企业高学历一线员工的激励机制分析

随着中国经济的高速发展,第三产业中尤其是零售业的从业人员队伍日渐庞大,越来越多的高学历员工加入了零售企业,他们为企业的生存与发展注入了新的动力。但与过去较低文化与专业素养的员工相比,高学历一线员工的关注与需要具有其特殊性,本文就如何满足这类员工的需求,发挥他们的能动作用,为企业创造更高的价值,提高零售企业的整体绩效进行了探讨。     

A view from behavioral political economy on China's institutional change

A behavioral political economy framework is built on the basis of prospect theory to explain the induced and imposed institutional changes during China's market reform, giving special attention to the integrated effects of economic and political institutions. According to prospect theory, how rulers frame their decisions — in the prospects of gains or losses, influences how much risk they will take. China's market reform has been largely framed in the prospects of economic gains, for which the continuously growing private sector is the driving force. China's central government adopts a growth-oriented incremental reform that coincides with the prediction of prospect theory.     

The non-globalisation of modern food retailing: the case of the failed Coop Norden merger

ABSTRACT

By discussing the creation and subsequent failure of Coop Norden, set up by the Scandinavian consumer co-operatives in 2002 as a common wholesale and food retail enterprise, this article provides insights into the nature of the Scandinavian food retail sector and co-operative enterprises in an era of globalisation. The article combines recent research on the globalisation of retailing with the academic literature on the economic position and development of consumer co-operative enterprises. The article concludes that the failure of Coop Norden can be seen as the natural consequence of two inherent problems: 1. A flawed vision among co-operative managers on how globalisation would impact retailing and 2. A misalignment between Danish, Norwegian and Swedish co-operative agendas. The article is based on comprehensive studies of the internal co-operative archives in Denmark and Norway.     

Informal retailing through home-based micro-enterprises: The role of spaza shops

The informal trade sector constitutes an important part of the South African economy, with estimated sales of R32 billion in 2002. Its emergence is largely attributed to the divergence between the growth in population, especially the urban population, and employment growth in the formal economy. Growth of informal enterprises, especially in the retail sector, is also thriving on the demand of less affluent households, whose household needs for unsophisticated and affordable products are aptly supplied by the informal sector. The aim of this article is to focus on one of the prominent sub-sectors of informal retailing, namely spaza or tuck shops, defined as small retail businesses which operate from a residential stand or home. Particular attention is paid to the size, role and characteristics of spaza trade in South Africa, which is estimated to account for nearly 3 per cent of South Africa's retail trade.     

Does rising consumer debt signal future recessions?: Testing the causal relationship between consumer debt and the economy

This paper examines the relationship between measures of the consumer debt burden and various economic indicators. The consumer loan delinquency rate is useful in predicting consumer spending on durable goods and retail sales, while various economic indicators are useful in predicting the ratio of consumer installment credit to disposable income. The results provide no evidence for the hypothesis that a rising consumer debt burden signals any slowdown in the growth of consumer spending and the economy. Instead, the results indicate that rising consumer indebtedness is a normal occurrence in an economic expansion. It remains to be seen whether innovations in credit card usage, along with the growing use of substitutes for traditional consumer loans, will have an impact on the causal relationship between consumer debt and the economy.     

以沃尔玛为例探寻我国零售业的发展之路

近几年,我国零售业异军突起,发展迅速。然而随着我国加入WTO以及对商业领域的进一步扩大开放,许多国外的零售巨头都把自己发展的方向瞄准了我国。已进入和尚未进入中国的国外零售巨头必然采取各种各样的举措来抢占我国的零售市场。作为中国本土的零售业,在面临机遇的同时也将面临来自国外零售企业的竞争压力。随着外资像沃尔玛、家乐福等国际零售业巨头的进入,我国零售业的现有竞争力还不能和他们这些外资巨头相抗衡。因此,加快提升我国零售业的企业竞争力已经迫在眉睫。我们在与外资竞争的同时,也要根据我国的特殊国情,充分借鉴外资零售业成功经营的理念来发展自身企业。     

Service sector development in Asia: an important instrument of growth

The under-developed service sector in Asia has the potential to become a new engine of economic growth for developing Asia, which has for a long time relied on export-oriented manufacturing to power its growth. The study seeks to achieve three objectives. First, to provide a comprehensive analysis of the service sector by detailing industry trends, its growing importance to the region, its synergy with industry, and its ability to achieve more inclusive growth. Second, to highlight productivity concerns in the sector and propose relevant strategies for achieving greater productivity gains. Finally, to establish a set of policy provisions based around the infrastructural, human capital, and regulatory gaps that exist across the Asian service sector. Overall, the analysis provides substantial cause for optimism about the role of the service sector as an engine of growth in Asia.     

Incomes and consumption of the russian population during the crisis and alternatives to the government policies in this sphere

The paper discusses the dynamics of income and consumption of the Russian population in the 2000s, factors of accelerated growth, and the most important changes in the structure of retail turnover within this period. The shifts in the structure of income use and the dynamics of turnover under the effect of the crisis that began in 2008 are analyzed. Forecast estimates for 2009 are presented. Suggestions are formulated for prior anticrisis measures and government policy in the consumption sector.     

对20世纪90年代以来美国经济增长中金融体系作用的分析与思考——基于内生增长理论的研究

本文以Aghion-Howitt内生增长理论为基础,建立了金融对经济增长作用机制的分析框架。运用这一框架,本文对美国经济增长和金融体系的作用进行了研究,认为美国金融体系既能够有效地促进资本积累,也能够推动创新,从而保持经济的平衡稳定增长,最后,结合两次金融危机指出了美国金融体系的内在缺陷。     

Markets and the state and the role of local regeneration strategies: A case study of the defence sector in the UK in the 1980s

This article reviews current practice and thinking in the UK with respect to changes occurring in the defence sector. Planned responses and interventionist measures to deal with the consequences of large scale job losses have not been approaches adopted by the UK Government during the 1980s. However, many of the changes have been triggered or directly caused by the Government's own policies to create a free trade and liberalised market economy. An opportunity has arisen for localities, through a growing local economic development function, to play a role in such readjustment. This article examines the extent to which such local responses can exercise any effective control over the future direction and impact of restructuring, and in particular address the role of the military-industrial complex, arms conversion and the peace dividend from this perspective.     

Bankruptcy dynamics in Japan

This paper attempts to enhance our understanding of macro aspects of bankruptcies in Japan. For this purpose, we estimate a vector autoregression comprised of three macroeconomic variables, two financial variables from the corporate sector and the bankruptcy rate, and construct its impulse responses. The estimation results generally show expected and consistent relationships between economic shocks and aggregate bankruptcies: in particular, a positive shock in the call rate clearly raises the bankruptcy rate. We also estimate industry-level models for manufacturing, construction, and wholesale and retail trade, the results of which show fundamental similarities, but differences as well, in the details by industry. We try to apply a standard framework for analysis aimed at establishing a clear benchmark for the study.