Economies of Scale Could Be Key to Profitability

Abstract

The growth of China's tourism hotel industry has been accompanied by declining profitability. Using cross-province tourism hotels data of 2000, this study attempts to empirically quantify the impact of operation scale on hotel performance. Controlling for the effect of overcapacity, this study found a significant and positive association between operation scale and profitability. The findings suggest that to improve performance, the Chinese tourism hotel industry needs not only to reduce the overcapacity but also reverse the property-downsizing trend and pursue economies of scale.     

The impact of ethnic tourism on gender roles: A comparison between the Bai and the Mosuo of Yunnan province,PRC

The purpose of this exploratory study is to examine how ethnic tourism is impacting host women in two destinations in Yunnan. To accomplish this, the paper compares the perceived impacts of ethnic tourism on women from a matriarchal and a patriarchal host community. The findings reveal that tourism income had a greater effect on women from a patriarchal community and that both groups of women reported several other non-economic impacts. Implications for future research are discussed.     

How to escape poverty through education?: intergenerational evidence in Spain

This article analyses the determinants of escaping poverty through education in Spain, with this being the country that, is among the top European countries regarding the percentage of the population affected by poverty. Specifically, the article studies the transmission of poverty over two generations by analysing the factors that affect the probability of having completed the secondary level of education. To that end, we use the conceptual Quantity–Quality model of Becker–Lewis, empirically estimated by using the Survey of Living Conditions (2011) provided by the Spanish Statistical Institute. Our results confirm the intergenerational transmission of poverty in Spain, in such a way that the probability that the respondent has completed secondary education is determined, although not exclusively, by the family conditions of the respondents during their teenage years.     

Equilibrium implications of interest rate smoothing

We introduce a macro-finance model in which monetary authorities adjust the money supply by targeting not only output and inflation but also the slope of the yield curve. We study the impact of McCallum-type rules on capital growth, the volatility of interest rates, the spread between long- and short-term rates, and the persistence of monetary shocks. Our model supports the Federal Reserve's choice to incorporate financial data in their policy decisions and expand the monetary base to decrease the nominal interest rate spread at the cost of lower expected long-term growth.     

Construal level and collaborative consumption: An exploratory approach

What motivates the participation in collaborative consumption, a part of the economy that will move 300 billion dollars by 2025? The literature presents external factors to the consumer as a form of incentive or limitation, such as economic opportunity, search for a sustainable society or emergence of a marketplace with no regulations. A few quantitative articles focused on understanding this access phenomenon, by analyzing the consumer as the main subject of research. However, it is possible to analyze this behaviour in the light of a theory that has not yet being explored within the collaborative consumer literature: The Construal Level Theory (CLT). This article aims to demonstrate that CLT presents a plausible explanation for adoption and access to collaborative consumption. The CLT's main idea is that consumers develop their interpretations on two levels: a higher one, focused on more abstract and simple situations; and a lower one, where judgments are conducted more concretely and complexly. Studies on CLT have shown that attitudes are usually constructed at high levels of interpretation, while behaviour is interpreted within lower levels. We propose that collaborative consumption can be reflected by consumers’ high or low levels and so defining the consumer's behaviour in this context.     

Innovation in Chinese Manufacturing Enterprises: a Preliminary Analysis of Survey Data

MOCT-MOST: Economic Policy in Transitional Economies -