The impact of foreign interest rates on the economy: The role of the exchange rate regime

It is often argued that many economies are affected by conditions in foreign countries. This paper explores the connection between interest rates in major industrial countries and annual real output growth in other countries. The results show that high foreign interest rates have a contractionary effect on annual real GDP growth in the domestic economy, but that this effect is centered on countries with fixed exchange rates. The paper then examines the potential channels through which major-country interest rates affect other economies. The effect of foreign interest rates on domestic interest rates is the most likely channel when compared with other possibilities, such as a trade effect.     

我国会计国际化：机遇与挑战

会计国际化作为未来会计的一种发展趋势，受到越来越多会计学界的关注。随着中国加入世贸组织，中国会计国际化的进程将进一步加快。本集中讨论了我国会计国际化所面临的机遇和挑战，以及促进国际化进程的建议。     

Arbitrage in the foreign exchange market: Turning on the microscope

This paper provides real-time evidence on the frequency, size, duration and economic significance of arbitrage opportunities in the foreign exchange market. We investigate deviations from the covered interest rate parity (CIP) condition using a unique data set for three major capital and foreign exchange markets that covers a period of more than seven months at tick frequency. The analysis unveils that: i) short-lived violations of CIP arise; ii) the size of CIP violations can be economically significant; iii) their duration is, on average, high enough to allow agents to exploit them, but low enough to explain why such opportunities have gone undetected in much previous research using data at lower frequency.     

Necessity and Opportunity Entrepreneurs and Their Duration in Self-employment: Evidence from German Micro Data

Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (GSOEP), we analyze whether necessity entrepreneurs differ from opportunity entrepreneurs in terms of self-employment duration. Using univariate statistics, we find that opportunity entrepreneurs remain in self-employment longer than necessity entrepreneurs. However, after controlling for the entrepreneurs’ education in the professional area where they start their venture, this effect is no longer significant. We therefore conclude that the difference observed is not an original effect but rather is due to selection. We then go on to discuss the implications of our findings for entrepreneurship-policy making, and give suggestions to improve governmental start-up programs.

The Resource-Based Theory of the Firm and Firm Survival

This paper examines the determinants of firm survival. We use hazard models to test a number of hypotheses mainly drawn from the Resource-Based Theory of the Firm. According to the Resource-Based View the ability of a firm to develop distinct capabilities enhances its ability to adapt to the changing competitive environment and improves its survival prospects. The results confirm that firms that develop firm-specific assets through advertising and making R&D (independently of the technological intensity of the industry) enjoy better survival prospects. Furthermore, failure risk increases up to about 20 years of trading, and then decreases to later rise in line with liability of “adolescence” and “senescence.”      

Legal reform and aggregate small and micro business bankruptcy rates: evidence from the 1997 Belgian bankruptcy code

Many Continental European countries recently reformed their bankruptcy legislations to stimulate reorganization and firm survival. We show that the Belgian 1997 bankruptcy code reform, which implemented several international best practice recommendations, significantly reduced aggregate small and micro business bankruptcy rates. However, using distributed lag models to control for the relationship between bankruptcy rates and macroeconomic variables such as real GDP growth, consumer confidence, inflation, etc., we find that the new code’s impact is not the same for all types of companies. Specifically, while the beneficial effect of the reform is largely similar between small firms (i.e. stock corporations) and micro firms (i.e. partnerships), it is only significant in certain industries (manufacturing and trade). Overall, our results indicate that especially the measures taken to limit domino bankruptcy effects are likely to have had a substantial impact. Our findings have several policy implications for the evaluation and modification of the bankruptcy system.

Sovereign default, interest rates and political uncertainty in emerging markets

A large body of the empirical literature shows that high turnover rates/length of tenure of policymakers and the degree of conflict within a country affects sovereign spreads, debt and default rates. We help to rationalize such claims by including these political features in a dynamic stochastic small open economy model of sovereign debt and default. In this way we offer a complementary approach to the econometric analyses in the literature. Consistent with the data, the quantitative analysis shows that politically unstable and more polarized economies experience higher default rates and larger level and volatility of sovereign interest rate spreads.     

Internationalisation of technology-oriented firms in Germany and the UK

Based on longitudinal data, this article examines empirically the long-term export behaviour of German and British technology-oriented firms founded between 1987 and 1996. Applying logit models, the results show that firms can overcome high entry costs by acquiring firm-specific assets. Similarly, firm-specific resources prevent high-tech companies from exiting the international market. The strategic role of investment in R&D is stressed in particular by the data.

Long-run real exchange rates in the Four Little Dragons

This paper analyses changes in the exchange rate arrangements and policy and their impact on the long-run real exchange rates of the Asian Four Little Dragons. It is found that purchasing power parity is a basic guide in formulating the exchange rate policy of the Four Little Dragons and that exchange rate regimes are very responsive to the effect of major external disturbances on prices. Thus, the exchange rate policy and arrangements are important factors in shaping the behaviour of the real exchange rates of the FLDs, which tend to return to the long-run average value. To test the null hypothesis that purchasing power parity does not hold between the Four Little Dragons and the United States, two cointegration tests, the augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test and the Johansen test, are applied. As the symmetry and proportionality conditions are not supported by the data, the tests are conducted in a trivariate system. While the ADF test does not support PPP, evidence of cointegration is found by the Johansen test.     

On cross-country differences in the persistence of real exchange rates

Previous findings of long-run purchasing power parity come mainly from data for industrial countries, raising the issue of whether the results suffer sample-selection bias and exaggerate the general relevance of parity reversion. This study uncovers substantial cross-country heterogeneity in the persistence of deviations from parity. The results show that it is more likely, rather than less likely, to find parity reversion for developing countries than industrial countries. Although some persistence variations may partly reflect country differences in structural characteristics such as inflation experience and government spending, a considerable portion of those variations seems unaccounted for.     

Commentary on “Governance and resource interaction in networks: Venture capital's role in a biotech start-up”

This commentary discusses the main findings and contributions of the article by Strömsten and Waluszewski (this issue) on the interplay between venture capitalists and start-ups. The commentary stresses the importance of bringing together analytically the three worlds of VC governance, innovation processes and network interactions, which management theory tend to treat as separate phenomena.     

张家口物流市场分析与构想

物流业对城市经济的拉动作用日益明显,高速发展的物流能极大地提高城市在局部区域内的经济地位。本文通过分析张家口市物流市场以及该市发展规划,对发展城市物流进行了有益探讨。     

黑龙江省物流产业发展与相应人才培养研究

黑龙江省针对本省物流业的发展状况,借鉴国外发达国家物流发展的经验,系统地研究了黑龙江省物流业发展战略。通过研究黑龙江省物流业的现状、存在的问题,分析对比中外物流业间存在的差距,提出了促进黑龙江省物流业发展、有针对性的改进措施和物流人才培养模式,为黑龙江省物流业发展提供借鉴和帮助。     

论我国水果罐头出口现状、机遇及挑战

近年来,我国水果罐头产品出口增长趋势较好,出口总量和出口总额都有所提升,丰富的产品也扩展了其他国外市场.我国水果罐头业在拥有世界需求趋旺、政府出台出口退税政策等良好机遇的同时.也面临着供求不一致、发展方式粗放和国外保护主义盛行等严峻挑战.     

Reciprocity and informal institutions in international market entry

This article first identifies two gaps in the literature: (1) the need to expand international market entry research beyond contractual modes of “make, buy, and ally;” and (2) the need to address the imbalance in the institution-based view that has paid inadequate attention to informal institutions. To help close the two gaps, we identify reciprocity—the mutually contingent exchange of gratifications that is supported by informal institutions—to be a non-contractual mode of international market entry. We focus on how informal institutions provide some of the conditions, motivations, and precipitating circumstances behind the use of reciprocity.     

Multinationals in the Middle East: Challenges and opportunities

This introduction to the special issue on Multinationals in the Middle East first reviews the historical growth and development of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the territory extending from Morocco to Turkey alongside the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean as far east as Iran, and south to Sudan and Yemen. Then, several opportunities and challenges affecting MNEs in the region are discussed, including economic and social diversity, non-market strategies and entry-mode choices, and animosity toward MNEs. The seven papers featured in the special issue that address these topics are then discussed.     

论中国利率市场化改革的次序性和渐进性原则

金融深化理论和各国金融自由化的实践表明，次序性和渐进性是大多数国家特别是发展中国家利率市场化所遵循的基本原则；经济市场化的次序决定了利率市场化在整个经济市场化进程中的次序，金融约束是金融抑制向金融自由化变革的合理过渡，各种利率的放开也具有次序性；另一方面，利率改革工程的启动需要相关的制度环境存在和成熟为基础务件，特别是中国经济改革的渐进战略，决定了中国利率市场化的渐进性。     

Weight Discrimination in the American Workplace: Ethical Issues and Analysis

Research providing consistent evidence of pervasive discrimination against overweight job applicants and employees in the American workplace raises important questions for organizational stakeholders. To what extent is the disparate treatment of job applicants or employees based on their weight ethically justified? Are there aspects of weight discrimination that make it more acceptable than discrimination based on other characteristics, such as race or gender? What operational steps can employers take to address concerns regarding the ethical treatment of overweight individuals in the workplace? This article investigates these and related questions. Its purpose is to provide information and analysis that will assist organizations in formulating ethical responses to a widespread phenomenon: weight discrimination in the workplace. Although its focus is the American workplace, the proposed employer ethical obligations and the practical guidance that is provided are viewed as generalizing across countries and cultures.     

Corporate governance reforms in China and India: Challenges and opportunities

In this article, we examine the evolution of corporate governance reforms in the emerging economies of China and India. We first describe the two major driving forces behind governance reforms in these countries: privatization and globalization. After summarizing the evolution of governance reforms in each context, we identify four major obstacles that impede their implementation in both countries, namely: (1) lack of incentives, (2) power of the dominant shareholder, (3) underdeveloped external monitoring systems, and (4) shortage of qualified independent directors. Next, we highlight practical implications of these governance challenges for foreign firms contemplating, or already involved in, major investments in these emerging economies. We emphasize that foreign firms that are sensitive to context-specific challenges are more likely to put in place appropriate contractual or other safeguards, as well as identify more practical and meaningful forms of participation in the governance of their ventures. Finally, we conclude with some implications for future research.     

诱致性农业技术创新模型及中国农业技术变革的实证研究

历史上不同国家有多种农业增长路径。诱致性技术创新理论认为,那些劳动力丰富而土地资源贫乏的国家,应该走生物和化学技术进步的道路;那些劳动力稀缺而土地面积相对丰富的国家,应该走机械技术进步的道路。本文结合中国农业增长的实际数据对该理论作了一个实证检验,结合检验结果提出我国农业技术进步应该以生物和化学技术进步为侧重点,同时不能忽视机械技术进步。