Dissipative Competition: Evidence from a Quasi‐Natural Experiment

We document that contrary to the conventional view, the costs of domestic firms in terms of selling, general and administrative expenses and cost of goods sold increase significantly following exogenous shocks that increase competition, namely material import tariff cuts affecting US manufacturing industries over the period 1974–2005. Incompatible with an agency explanation, the cost increase is more pronounced among firms with higher CEO/insider/board ownership. We further find that the cost increase is more evident among firms with smaller market share and among focused firms. Generally, our results are consistent with the notion of ‘dissipative competition’ discussed in the seminal papers by Tullock.     

Driving force from authorities: the evolution of innovation system for biomedical industry in China

Over the past 30 years, China has fully exploited its advantage to steadily foster an innovation system for the biomedical industry with Chinese characteristics, that is, ‘Government-guided, resource-integrated and long-term planning.’ The system originated from historically famous ‘863 program’ in the 1980s, evolved with a series of favourable policies in the different periods, and eventually has taken shape in the industrial clusters across the country. It features with a systematic and integrated R&D infrastructure (or public platform) at different levels. In this study, China’s biomedical innovation system will be examined and the leading role of Chinese authorities will be explored from the perspective of Triple Helix theory. As the ‘highland of innovation’, Shanghai case is highlighted with plentiful information gathered from primary sources in the involved agencies for the first time, including the Shanghai Biopharma Service Platform.     

Railway development from the Japanese occupation period to the present – using Kaohsiung city as an example​​​​​​​​

This study intended to discuss the interactive influence of the emergence, transformation and decline of the railway in Kaohsiung Port on urban development, the population, the activities and the economy in the region during the period of 1895–2010, from the perspectives of urban planning, railway development, population and industry. This study used the crossover analysis method, and used the factors of railway development and urban planning, within a fixed time period, to explore the chain dependence relationship among the industry, the population, the regional economy and the railway stations in Kaohsiung city. This study found that urban planning, economic development, railway development and industry have an interactive influence on the overall urban development. Urban planning promotes the rapid growth of the population, and economic development propels the growth and shaping of the regional economy, thus increasing employment opportunities. In addition, the railway development process moves forward with urban development.     

The relationship between business diversification and productivity: considering the impact of process innovation at different corporate life cycles

This paper investigates the link between a firm's process innovation (PI) and its segment productivity at different life cycles. The results show that business diversification is negatively associated with a firm's productivity, and further reveal that a firm's PI moderates the above relationship. In addition, the corporate life cycle literature builds blocks for this study to explain that the involvement of administrative costs varies across life cycles when diversified firms get mature and bigger. Our empirical evidence indicates that the potential costs of a complex organisational structure contingent on business diversification at a firm's mature life cycle could be alleviated by the conduct of process innovation. As process innovation at different life cycles may alter managerial incentive that leads to different firm performance, the managerial implication is that diversified firms should appropriately engage in process innovation to prevent unfavourable liability from the development of their businesses.     

Does higher government debt link to higher social expenditure? New method,new evidence

Scholars believe that higher social expenditures are usually linked with higher government debts, whereas higher debts reduce social expenditures. However, it is reasonable to speculate that higher government debt may contribute to higher social spending, while fiscal deficits occur during a recession, which commonly creates greater demand for social expenditure. For a deeper investigation, this paper revisits the dynamic relationship between social spending and public debts in the time-frequency domain, using the novel wavelet-coherency analysis as well as the phase-difference technique to derive the co-moved and causal relationships between social spending and public debts in 13 OECD countries. The evidence identifies a dynamic relationship between variables. While higher social expenditures increase government debts, the shocks from government debts to social expenditures are conversely uncertain. We discover that higher government debt does reduce social expenditures, but it may be linked to higher social spending. The robustness of partial coherency and phase-difference discovers the role of a political party in the decision over social welfare programmes in the sample countries.     

社会主义与统一多民族国家的国家建设(1947-1965)

在民族区域自治制度的奠基过程中,通过社会主义宗旨所要求的贯彻群众路线、培养少数民族干部,成功促进了中央政府和各族人民群众的直接沟通;通过让各族人民群众翻身当家做主、改善民生福祉等社会主义性质的政治举措,形塑起各族人民群众对党和国家发自内心的认同;通过民族平等之制度前提、社会主义经济制度等制度性组织模式,以及相关具体实践途径,实现了中国各族人民大团结;在社会主义国家单一制、人民共和、中国共产党领导的制度基础之上,民族区域自治成功地将国家内部的不同民族凝聚成为具备有机整体结构的"中国人民",呈现为一种促进沟通、赢得认同、实现团结、巩固统一的统一多民族国家的国家建设过程。因此,民族区域自治成功实现清末以来统一多民族国家之国家建设质的飞跃的制度要义,恰在于社会主义这一国家根本制度。     

The effect of host country Internet infrastructure on foreign expansion of Korean MNCs

This study examines the effect of host country Internet infrastructure on a multinational corporation (MNC) foreign expansion. Using Heckman’s selection model on a sample of 2589 subsidiaries of 487 Korean MNCs between 1990 and 2011, we find that host country Internet infrastructure is important in MNC expansion decisions. In addition, we find that a well-developed Internet infrastructure within a host country leads to more investments from MNCs producing consumer over industrial goods and is more attractive to domestic market followers than market leaders. We find that the host country’s Internet infrastructure is important for an MNC foreign expansion decision, suggesting that efficient communication within an MNC is critical in coordinating globalized MNC subsidiary operations.     

基于主成分分析法的地铁运营关键绩效指标体系研究

目前国内研究尚缺乏一套科学的、系统的、有效的对地铁运营的评价体系.本文以成都地铁为研究对象,采用问卷调研法,将16个初级指标做成问卷让受访者进行打分,之后将数据导入SPSS软件,分析其效度与信度,剔除信度较低的指标,最终获得3个一级指标和15个重要的二级评价指标,并以此构建出一套对地铁运营绩效的评价指标.最后通过对受访者问卷的打分情况,分析出乘客看重哪些因子,并以此向相关部门提出建议.     

The impact of earnings pressure on exploratory innovation

While earnings expectation has been shown to determine a firm’s investment decisions, the knowledge about how such expectation influences a firm’s investment horizon for innovation is still blurred. This study therefore addresses this research issue by examining the relationship between earnings pressure and exploratory innovation while investigating the moderating effects of cross‐rival effect and resource availability. By examining high‐tech industrial firms in S&P 1500 from 2000 to 2012, the results indicate that stock analysts, as information intermediaries between innovation firms and the capital market, impose pressure through earnings forecasts on firms’ exploratory innovation. Our findings also reveal that the earnings pressure‐exploratory innovation relationship can be mitigated when its competitors encounter a higher level of earnings pressure. However, a firm’s financial slack shows less significant association to moderate the earnings pressure‐exploratory innovation relationship. Possible explanations for the results in regard to their theoretical and practical implications are discussed in this study.     

Are nontariff measures and tariffs substitutes? Some panel data evidence

Using new estimates of ad valorem equivalent of nontariff measures (NTMs) over time, this paper examines NTMs and tariffs’ relationship for a sample of 70 economies for 4,949 products at the 6‐digit harmonized system level over the period 2003–2015. A panel data methodology models the lagged adjustment of NTMs to tariffs, consistent with a causal relationship. Trade policy substitution is found when the models are estimated in both levels and changes; with this holding for both OECD and non‐OECD countries, but not for the agriculture sector in OECD countries. Overall, there is a fairly complete substitution between policy instruments in absolute terms.