Self‐help in housing and chengzhongcun in China's urbanization

This article focuses on the housing issues of rural migrants arising from urbanization, with particular reference to chengzhongcun, a topic with considerable impact on policymaking. An attempt is made to understand the underlying rationale of self‐help in housing and the important role of chengzhongcun in sheltering rural migrants in the context of China's rural‐urban dichotomy. As demonstrated in this study, chengzhongcun accommodate, with little in the way of government resources and assistance, millions of rural migrants because of their social accessibility and affordability. While not denying their social problems, we argue that chengzhongcun in fact act as an innovative and positive agent to promote urbanization in present day China by housing massive numbers of rural migrants and assimilating them into cities. Current government policies towards chengzhongcun have generated a wide range of interest conflicts and confrontations. The consequences of such conflicts show that the government policies were problematic and unworkable, as they violated basic market principles as well as citizen rights. Policy strategy towards the redevelopment of chengzhongcun must acknowledge their credibility in the Chinese road to urbanization and requires more thoughtful and prudent consideration of migrants' demands for affordable housing.     

Marketing Science and the Ivory Tower

How much has quantitative "marketing science" contributed to the practice of marketing? In my view, not much. In this article, based on extensive consulting experience, it is argued that well-established quantitative techniques like econometric models and diffusion models have produced little of either practical or scientific value. Other quantitative techniques, such as conjoint analysis, have been more useful for marketing decision-makers. But what is needed is a more pluralistic culture, drawing on a range of complementary disciplines.     

Focus: Information Ethics

"The overall goal of information ethics is to integrate information technology and human values in such a way that IT advances and protects human values rather than doing damage to them" (Simon Rogerson). We are pleased to present in this issue five papers from a recent European conference on information ethics edited and introduced by Simon Rogerson, Director of the Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility at De Montfort University, England.
We are also pleased to announce a major new feature of the Review, entitled Business Ethics on the Internet, which will be contributed from time to time by members of the Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility at De Montfort University. This will provide regular up-to-date information and comment on the resources which are becoming increasingly available on the Internet relating to the study of business ethics and the practice of ethical business. It will be launched in our July issue in an article entitled "Business Ethics on the Internet".     

On measuring the wealth of nations: the US economy, 1964-2001

This paper examines the methodology of Shaikh and Tonak (Measuringthe Wealth of Nations, 1994) underlying their calculation ofestimates of productive labour in the US economy from 1964 to2001. The focus is not on the results but on the methods thatgenerate them. The paper finds that the compromises made byShaikh and Tonak because of data unavailability are unreliable,and that better approximations are possible. On this latterbasis, the Shaikh and Tonak methodology can be used to providethe labour and wage estimates needed for empirical investigationsin the surplus-based tradition.     

中国货币政策紧缩 到底有多紧？

[英国路透社3月18日]中国反复重申，转向“紧缩”货币政策，取代之前“适度从紧”政策，以抑制创下10年新高的通货膨胀。     

Some Tests of APT Mispricing Using Mimicking Portfolios

Cross-sectional and time-series tests using mimicking portfolios are used to assess the exactness of the APT with(out) a residual market factor. The first factor seems to be sufficient to span the efficient set, whether the model is estimated using (un)conditional variance-covariance matrices that are (un)adjusted for nonsynchronous trading. Although the conditional standard deviations of the mimicking portfolios significantly explain the time-variability of security volatilities, the residuals of the mean equation still exhibit heteroskedasticity. Similar results are obtained for portfolios of CAPM-betaranked securities, and for randomly selected individual securities.     

商业银行资产负债结构与流动性风险控制

流动性风险产生的实质是由于资产、负债的不匹配所导致的。因此,合理调整资产负债结构,能有效地控制流动性风险。     

高等学校师资队伍建设问题的几点思考

普通高校师资队伍建设是一项系统工程,同时又是学校党政“一把手工程”。作者从教育人事管理工作的实践与现实角度出发,指出加强师资队伍建设,培养跨世纪学科、教学带头人是时代赋予的重任,选拔与培养途径的改革与完善是加强师资队伍建设的重要内容。本文提出了稳定骨干教师队伍,促进学科带头人脱颖而出的措施,从而在动态平衡中求得师资队伍的稳定和优化     

邓小平教育思想浅析

邓小平教育理论是邓小平理论的重要组成部分 ,本文从邓小平教育思想的战略地位 ,邓小平教育思想的指导思想及如何加强现阶段我国教育工作这三个方面的内容出发 ,使我们认识到认真学习和研究邓小平教育理论对迎接知识经济时代 ,全面实施科教兴国的战略方针 ,具有特别重要的意义。     

“海尔”发展的潜在危机与对策

本文在实地考察海尔集团的基础上,综合国内外近来对海尔的质疑和批评,结合笔者的分析,为海尔健康发展把脉进言:产权结构明晰化,企业文化个性化,目标资源匹配化。