2018 WTO Trade Policy Review of Malaysia

This paper presents an academic analysis and review of the recently completed WTO Trade Policy Review (TPR) of Malaysia, 2018. This includes suggesting policies that can help to promote Malaysia's international competitiveness. We show that the sharp decline in commodity prices that started in 2014 contributed in narrowing Malaysia's trade balance and current account balance as a share of GDP. The faster decline of exports as a share of GDP compared to imports accounted for most of the substantial reduction. Further, the collapse of commodity prices was accompanied by a sharp depreciation of Ringgit Malaysia. We also show that Malaysia is losing international attractiveness in terms of FDI inflows relative to its economic size. This is evidenced by the downward trend in Malaysia's FDI performance index since 1992. Further, international tourism has fallen on average since 2014, due largely to a drop in tourist arrivals from Singapore. Policymakers should introduce policies to enhance international competitiveness, such as reforming the education system to produce skilled workers and reducing reliance on low‐skilled foreign workers.     

Europeanisation of Product Liability in the Asia-Pacific Region: A Preliminary Empirical Benchmark

This report draws primarily on a survey offering a tentative but empirical benchmark of the impact of strict-liability product liability law reforms in the Asia-Pacific Region. There has been a two-fold Europeanisation of product liability in this region. First, the reforms implemented in many jurisdictions during the last 15 years have usually been based on the 1985 EC Product Liability Directive. Secondly, moving beyond the “law in books,” the survey confirms other indications of considerable convergence in the “law in action.” This largely mirrors trends from Lovells’ baseline survey of European jurisdictions completed in 2002 for the European Commission. Similar effects associated with similar reforms include small but significant increases in claims, settlements, and reactions from companies. However, these tendencies are also affected by broader (arguably inter-related) factors such as shifts in consumer consciousness and media attention. Rather than the reforms directly, increased awareness of consumer rights and the media have been identified as being more influential to the increase in claims. These factors are also very important in generating more settlements. Conventional causes of action also continue to be invoked, and there is not much call for further reform. Thus, high levels of product liability litigation remain unique to the United States. However, growing case law in certain Asia-Pacific and European jurisdictions might be synthesised into “Strict Liability Product Liability Principles.” It also seems likely that the Asia-Pacific region will continue to follow more the EU in related areas such as consumer access to justice and product safety regulation, and such harmonization may accompany the proliferating Free Trade Agreements in the region.

RESTORING THE PRINCIPLE OF MINIMUM DIFFERENTIATION IN PRODUCT POSITIONING

Most research on product positioning supports the idea of differentiation. Product standardization (i.e., minimum differentiation) occurs only under very limiting assumptions. Yet, similar products are often observed in the marketplace. We attempt to restore the case for standardization by using more realistic assumptions than in previous work. We assume that consumers consider not only observable attributes in brand choice, but also attributes that are unobservable by the firms. We find that standardization is an equilibrium when consumers exhibit sufficient heterogeneity along the unobservable attributes under both positioning with exogenously given prices and price competition, We also show that, under insufficient heterogeneity along the unobservable attribute, our results coincide with past research that argues in favor of differentiation.     

Marketing journal hierarchies: Faculty perceptions, 1986-87

This article reviews the latest perceptions among AACSB school professionals in the field of marketing regarding journal hierarchies. With the proliferation of marketing journals during the past few years comes the need to address the relative position of all marketing journals. This study lists journal rankings using prestige and importance indices. The paper concludes with a discussion on the relative importance of journal rankings in the consideration of promotion and tenure among faculty members.     

The use of co-nomination to identify expert participants for Technology Foresight

The United Kingdom has been carrying out a major exercise in the field of Technology Foresight, involving fifteen panels engaged in wide consultation about the future of their areas. The objectives of the Programme are to help set priorities for publicly funded science and technology and to create new working partnerships between science and industry. The paper describes the process by which members of the panels, and those whom they subsequently consulted, were identified. A survey-based technique known as co-nomination was employed, whereby respondents were asked to identify suitable participants and at the same time to profile their own expertise. The process was repeated with those nominated. The patterns of expertise thus revealed are themselves of interest and are used to construct a map of the inter-relationship between the fields covered by the panels.     

Foresight in innovation policy: Shared visions for a science park and business-university links in a city region

The paper describes the process and outcomes of an exercise that used the 'success scenario' methodology to develop a shared vision of the future of business-university linkages in the city region of Manchester. The aim was to link the strategies of the four universities in the area (and in particular those of the two research universities that were in the process of merging) with the city's own self-vision of its future as a 'Knowledge Capital'. The resulting report presented a scenario of what success would look like in 2008 in five dimensions: infrastructure, human resources, university missions, inward investment, and networking. The exercise has had a significant impact on regional strategy. The paper considers the design factors involved in gaining this level of action commitment from a foresight activity.     

Preferenced Trading,Quote Competition,and Market Quality: Evidence from Decimalization on the NYSE

We examine the impact of decimalization on preferenced trading in NYSE‐listed stocks and show a significant decline in preferenced trading around decimalization. For the largest NYSE stocks, the total decline is nearly 22%. We also find a negative correlation between the changes in preferenced trading and the changes in quote competition intensity, and a positive correlation between the changes in preferenced trading and the changes in spreads. Consistent with the cream skimming hypothesis, we find that abnormal changes in information asymmetry cost for NYSE trades are positively correlated with the changes in preferenced trading.     

Can mergers increase output? Evidence from the lodging industry

We find that hotel mergers increase occupancy. In some specifications, price also rises. Because these effects occur only in markets with high capacity utilization and high uncertainty, we reject simple models of price or quantity competition in favor of models of “revenue management,” where firms price to fill available capacity in the face of uncertain demand.     

THE BROKERAGE FIRM EFFECT IN HERDING: EVIDENCE FROM INDONESIA

We examine herding behavior of domestic and foreign investors in the Indonesian stock market. We document that both domestic and foreign investors from a particular brokerage firm tend to herd. The foreign investors exhibit a greater propensity to herd than domestic investors. However, when examining investor trading across brokerage firms, we find only weak evidence of herding by domestic investors and no herding by foreign investors. Our overall findings suggest a strong brokerage firm effect on herding but a weak marketwide effect. Moreover, we find evidence that the strong brokerage effect on herding is likely driven by acting on common information.