FDI facilitated by agglomeration economies: evidence from manufacturing and services joint ventures in China

The open door policy of China’s economic reform since the 1980s has attracted heavy foreign direct investment (FDI) flows into China and especially to Guangdong (particularly the Pearl River Delta region, PRD) and induced significant economic growth during the past two decades. While there exist various classical theories of FDI in attempting to identify the determinants of FDI inflow and to explain the behavior of FDI flows, limited attention has been given from the perspective of agglomeration effects generated by a core-periphery (CP) relation.This paper intends to study the impacts of agglomerations on FDI inflows in the context of Krugman’s CP relation (1991) by investigating (1) the formation of a CP relation via gravity model analysis; (2) whether different types of industry FDI flows will respond differently in the CP-system, given agglomeration effects; and (3) whether FDI origin and firm scale matter in affecting FDI flows.A database consisting of a population frame of 37,742 firm-level manufacturing and services joint ventures investing in Guangdong in 1998 was used. Empirical results show that the agglomerations of the CP relation have affected FDI flow patterns. While both manufacturing and services FDI and sources of investment responded differently to the impacts, smaller firms were found more responsive to the CP-agglomeration settings regardless of FDI by industry type and by source. The significance and implications of the CP-system to further facilitate FDI in the region are discussed.     

Early Retirement and Bridge Employment Intentions Among Older Workers in Singapore

This paper examined the relevance of 14 demographic, cognitive, and affective factors in individuals' intentions to voluntarily retire early and to secure bridge employment after retirement. Results based on a sample of 361 respondents aged between 40 and 59 suggested that marital status, perceived negative age-health relationship, gender psychological readiness for retirement, and family orientation were related to early retirement intentions. Work centrality, perceived organisational attitude towards older employees, and psychological readiness for early retirement were related to bridge employment intentions. Implications for research were discussed.     

A video game to supplement a hybrid principles of microeconomics course

In this article, the author describes the structure and content of a video game that she developed for a hybrid principles of microeconomics course that consists of two 50-minute lectures and a 50-minute online portion per week. The game comprises seven modules, each of which was assigned to be played during the course of the semester for the online portion of the class. The concepts covered in the game include the circular flow model, demand and supply, externalities, comparative advantage, types of market structure, sunk costs, and game theory, and the article explains in detail how the gameplay was related to these concepts. The game can be downloaded for either Windows or Mac computers, or played online at https://sites.google.com/site/gamesforecon/.     

消费文化、认知偏差与消费行为偏差

本文放松了理性经济人假设,在行为经济学双曲线贴现模型框架下,以"自我控制"认知偏差及相应的模型参数设定对东西方消费文化差异进行了技术表达,进而阐明了消费过度(欧美国家)和消费不足(东亚国家)这两类消费行为偏差的形成机制。本文采用全球48个国家和地区1978—2007年的面板数据,以儒家虚拟变量和性生活指数作为消费文化的替代变量检验了文化与消费的关系。结果表明,在解释东西方消费率差异时,预防性储蓄等传统理论的解释力远低于不可观测的国家个体效应。儒家虚拟变量和性生活指数能分别解释国家个体效应的28%和58%。这表明消费文化等不随时间改变的个体因素比传统变量更能解释各国居民的消费差异。实践层面上,双曲线贴现模型中锁定技术能有效纠正"自我控制"认知偏差,从而消解儒家文化对消费的深度抑制,可为扩大内需政策创新提供思路启发和技术支撑。     

GENDER EARNINGS DIFFERENTIALS AND REGIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN URBAN CHINA, 1988–97

Gender earnings differentials in urban China by region and their changes during the first decade of economic reform are examined. It is found that the female–male earnings ratio increased during the early stage of reform. The male earnings premium, overall, showed an increasing trend in the later stage of reform. Decomposition of the gender earnings differential reveals that a relatively lower percentage of the differential could be explained by gender differences in productive characteristics in the fast growing regions and in regions with a rapid pace of reform. The cross-sectional results highlight the possible existence of gender discrimination, particularly in the later stages of economic reform and development. Both market competition and the effects of wage decentralization play a role in shaping the gender earnings differentials. Gender earnings differentials varied by region and over time, generally in tandem with the pace of economic reform and development. The decomposition of the over time changes in the earnings gap indicated that improvement in the productive characteristics of females during the reform period constantly enhanced the earnings of females relative to those of males. The changes over time in the return to female characteristics, however, work to counter any narrowing of the gender earnings gap.     

Outsourcing Internal Audit Services: An Empirical Study on Queensland Public-Sector Entities

A study of Queensland public-sector entities suggests outsourcing of internal audit services to be extensive (88%), with 51% of respondent agencies adopting co-sourcing and 37% of the agencies fully outsourcing. Results suggest that internal audit outsourcing is largely adopted for non-financial reasons such as lack of technological know-how and service quality rather than financial reasons. Deficiencies of current governance arrangements concerning internal audit outsourcing include (1) a lack of audit committee involvement in outsourcing processes, particularly in co-sourcing entities, and (2) inadequate segregation of duties whereby the same senior management is involved in key arrangements including selection, approval, negotiation and evaluation of contractual performance.     

Scheduling deteriorating jobs with CON/SLK due date assignment on a single machine

This paper considers the problem of scheduling deteriorating jobs and due date assignment on a single machine. The actual processing time of a job is a linear increasing function of its starting time. The problem is to determine the optimal due dates and the processing sequence simultaneously to minimize costs for earliness, due date assignment and weighted number of tardy jobs. We present polynomial-time algorithms to solve the problem in the case of two popular due date assignment methods: CON and SLK.     

Are Unrealistic Assumptions/Simplifications Acceptable? Some Methodological Issues in Economics

Are unrealistic assumptions acceptable? If results are not changed in a misleading way, they are acceptable. The same assumption may be acceptable in one context and not in another. Assuming identical pairs of individuals in the parity and limit theorems in general equilibrium theory is acceptable as results are not changed substantially. The alleged equivalence of the first‐price and second‐price auctions is based on misleading assumptions; Coase's case against taxing pollution is based on a misleading all‐or‐nothing comparison. The contrasting results (neutrality versus non‐neutrality of money) of perfect versus imperfect competition in macroeconomics with important real‐world policy relevance are also used to illustrate the point.