Economic effects of rules of origin

Economic Effects of Rules of Origin. — Rules of origin exist because governments wish to discriminate amongst products on the basis of their “country of origin”. Since the components and activities that make up the total value added of many products are not created in a single location, rules to define a unique geographical source for products must be somewhat arbitrary, and inevitably introduce distortions into production and trade patterns as producers seek to provide their products with the most favourable origin. This paper considers the structure of such rules and their economic consequences.     

中印熊市为何尚未严重拖累经济？

即使在全球信贷危机发生前，许多跨国企业就对中国和印度的新兴中产阶级寄予厚望。目前美国经济可能正步入衰退，来自这两个人口逾10亿的亚洲大国新消费者的需求，也就显得更为重要。     

Trade Liberalization and Technology Choice

This paper considers the links between trade liberalization and technology choice in the nonliberalizing country. Trade‐liberalization‐induced changes in relative product prices have direct effects on equilibrium relative factor returns. The consequent changes in relative input costs may also lead producers to switch to alternative technologies, which will in turn induce a further indirect change in relative factor returns. Will this indirect affect exacerbate or ameliorate the direct effect on relative factor returns? It is found that this depends on the relative cost savings across sectors and factor cost shares.     

精益制造将成明日之星

精益制造正在舞台上绽放光芒,是制造商的拯救者!这当然是夸张之言,但精益制造确能让制造商提高竞争力及在新兴的以需求为本的供应链中有效地运作,更可让企业在短时间内生产多种类但小批量产品的订货,以满足客户需要.过去十五年工业形态的不断转变无疑给制造业建立了一个全新的面貌,让制造商更努力地去提高生产效率.……     

Corporate Moral Agency: Review and Implications

The debate concerning corporate moral agency is normally conducted through philosophical arguments in articles which argue from only one point of view. This paper summarises both the arguments for and against corporate moral agency and concludes from this that the arguments in favour have more weight. The paper also addresses the way in which the law in the U.K. and the U.S.A. currently views this issue and shows how it is supportive of the concept of corporate moral agency. The paper concludes by considering the implications of the debate for business ethics in general, and stakeholder theory and virtue ethics in particular.     

Modernising pay in the UK public services: trends and implications

The emerging character of the UK government's public sector pay reforms during the second and third (New) Labour terms of office is reviewed and contextualised. Three settings are examined where pay reform has been actively employed – with the accent on harmonisation, simplification and devolution of practice, with the express intention of restoring public service workforce morale, while improving services to clients – namely, local government, the National Health Service and the Higher Education sector. The evidence is interpreted as illustrating undoubted change, but also significant areas where progress has been less than intended, measured against the government's original programme goals. Equal pay considerations appear to have dominated all three projects reviewed: the failure to date of public sector managements to capitalise on opportunities the new pay architecture affords them to change local working practices may be attributed to a combination of factors discussed in the article. These have given rise to tensions as efforts have been pursued to transplant private sector pay techniques, somewhat hastily in some cases, without due consideration of the institutional context within which public services and proximal institutions function.     

Social cultural influences on current and future coastal governance

Australians have strong attachments to the coast. The impact of climate change brings to the fore deep-seated socio-cultural values, which add to the already complex and uncertain biophysical changes that challenge our preparations for future climate change.Our research aims to examine the role of worldviews and deep seated values in decision-making in response to climate change. The objective is to show how a multi-layered discourse analysis using causal layered analysis (CLA) can provide a powerful means of revealing the underlying social and cultural influences on decision-making and provide more insight into potential pathways for more effective responses to complex phenomena such as climate change. A case study of coastal governance in the south west of Western Australia, which is highly vulnerable to sea-level rise, provides the context of the research.We have found that CLA as a critical research tool has proven to be a useful method in uncovering the dominance of the administrative rationalist worldview on coastal governance. In our view, future coastal governance would benefit from a shift towards greater participatory governance and the incorporation of more reflexive practice so that the deeper emotional and relational aspects of decision-making balance out the dominant problem-solving discourse.     

Coping with Crowding: Tourist Displacement in the New Zealand Backcountry

The displacement phenomenon in outdoor recreation has increased in importance in recent years. It is one of a number of cognitive and behavioural coping mechanisms that are being employed by recreationists in the New Zealand backcountry. Displacement may be divided into intra-site and inter-site displacement, and further segmented into spatial and temporal displacement. This paper, utilising data collected at 22 sites within the New Zealand backcountry, explores the extent to which displacement is occurring in our natural areas. It evaluates displacement at the key Department of Conservation tracks, namely, the Great Walks and investigates other cognitive and behavioural coping strategies that are being employed at these sites. Furthermore, management strategies that may be used to mitigate crowding and displacement are identified.