ANALYSIS OF POLICY CHANGES IN THE SEAFOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRY IN VIETNAM

Abstract. This paper examines firms’ competitiveness in the seafood processing industry in Vietnam and policy changes for global integration. We find that trade liberalization is a very important policy change that has generally positive impacts and generates strong reactions in the seafood processing industry. Exchange rate depreciation is also an important factor and receives strong responsiveness as most of firms’ intermediate inputs are tradable and seafood products are also tradable. Increasing electricity charges that reduce profitability also generate strong reactions. Oil and petrol comprise a small portion of intermediate inputs, hence increasing the oil price does not significantly hinder the industry and does not stimulate very strong reactions. The US anti‐dumping tariff strongly hurts firms’ profitability, not only seafood exporting firms but also non‐exporters.     

The Impact of Sovereign Credit Ratings on Corporations: A Literature Review and Research Recommendations

During the financial crisis, sovereign ratings have come under increased public scrutiny due to their strong impact on sovereign borrowing costs and hence financial stability of countries. However, their influence on corporations within and outside the respective nations has so far attracted only limited attention, although several academics have provided intriguing insights in this regard. In order to obtain a structured overview of this relatively young strand of research, this paper reviews key insights and conclusions that the extant literature offers on the role of sovereign creditworthiness for corporations. Herein, it focuses on the effects that have been observed for the corporate business environment, access to capital, and foreign investment activities. Different research issues providing fertile ground for future studies are identified.     

Time series momentum and moving average trading rules

We compare and contrast time series momentum (TSMOM) and moving average (MA) trading rules so as to better understand the sources of their profitability. These rules are closely related; however, there are important differences. TSMOM signals occur at points that coincide with a MA direction change, whereas MA buy (sell) signals only require price to move above (below) a MA. Our empirical results show MA rules frequently give earlier signals leading to meaningful return gains. Both rules perform best outside of large stock series which may explain the puzzle of their popularity with investors, yet lack of supportive evidence in academic studies.     

STRUCTURE AND PERFORMANCE OF THE UK FOOD AND DRINK INDUSTRIES

This paper analyses the structural characteristics of the food and drink industries and assesses their recent economic performance. Although classified among the less technologically intensive group of British manufacturing industries, the food and drink industries are found to share many of the features of the more technologically intensive group, such as product differentiation, product diversification and advertising intensity. They are also found to have achieved above-average growth in labour and total factor productivity through expansion in size, capital accumulation and shedding of labour.     

Affluent mature consumers: Preference and patronisation for financial services

Mature consumers have long been recognised as an important segment of market that no marketers of financial-service providers could ignore. The segment itself, however, is not homogeneous. Our study further segments the market basing on income and contrasts the differences between upscale mature consumers and lower scale ones in terms of their preference and patronisation for financial services. The study based on two large-scale studies designed to generate information that would fill gaps in our existing knowledge about upscale older consumers. Implications are discussed for marketers of financial services to fine-tune their differentiation strategies.     

泛北部湾区域贸易自由化问题研究

本文首先对贸易自由化问题进行了界定，然后就泛北部湾地区开展贸易自由化的各项因素进行了论述。一方面，笔者列举了一系列利于在该区域实现贸易自由化的潜在性因素；另一方面，笔者也注意到区域内各国基础设施条件和经济基础差异较大，贸易商品的层次不同、贸易间的关联度差以及各国在涉及国家经济安全，产业体系建立等贸易自由化政策方面所表现的不同倾向又为泛北部湾区域贸易自由化进程增添了障碍。本文在深入分析这些因素的基础上，从产业层次角度提出实现区域内贸易自由化的进程模式和方法。     

THE ESTIMATED EFFECT OF CATHOLIC SCHOOLING ON EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES USING PROPENSITY SCORE MATCHING

This paper examines the effect of attending a Catholic high school on educational outcomes. The statistical analysis is based on data obtained from the US National Educational Longitudinal Study. Using propensity score matching methods to control for selection bias, we find that Catholic schooling improves maths test scores, with stronger effects for males than for females, but appears to have little effect (if any) on reading scores. Catholic schooling also raises high school graduation rates and substantially increases the likelihood of enrolment in a 4‐year college. Use of the difference‐in‐difference method suggests that the effect of Catholic schooling on changes in maths scores is more muted, though still statistically significant.     

Identification of the Lorenz curve by Lorenz coefficient

Zusammenfassung Die Identifikation der Lorenzkurve durch Lorenzkoeffizienten. — Der aus der Lorenzkurve abgeleitete Gini-Koeffizient vermittelt einen guten Eindruck von dem Ma\ an Ungleichheit. W?hrend sich jedoch eine Lorenzkurve auf den Gini-Koeffizienten im Verh?ltnis eins zu eins übertragen l?\t, entspricht — in der entgegengesetzten Richtung — ein Gini-Koeffizient mehreren Lorenzkurven. In dieser Untersuchung wird die Lorenzkurve in einzelne Abschnitte aufgeteilt. Dann wird jedem Abschnitt ein gewogener Lorenz-Koeffizient zugeordnet, wodurch es m?glich wird, Lorenzkurven mit identischen Gini-Koeffizienten zu unterscheiden. Die Verbindung zwischen jedem Kurvenpaar kann aufgehoben werden, indem man von Abschnitt zu Abschnitt die jeweiligen Lorenz-Koeffizienten vergleicht. Ein empirisches Beispiel ist in dem Artikel enthalten.

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Résumé L’identification de la courbe de Lorenz par le coefficient de Lorenz. — Le coefficient de Gini dérivé de la courbe de Lorenz exprime un degré considérable de sens intuitif pour la mesure de l’inégalité. La reproduction de la courbe de Lorenz en coefficient de Gini est cependant dans le rapport un à un, celle du coefficient de Gini en courbe de Lorenz un à beaucoup. Cette étude veut partager la courbe de Lorenz en piéces détachées. Un sous-coefficient pondéré de Lorenz est associé avec chaque partie, une méthode qui permet à différencier les courbes de Lorenz avec des coefficients identiques de Gini. Le lien entre chaque paire de courbes peut être détaché si on part d’une comparaison de chaque sous-coefficient de Lorenz de partie à partie. L’auteur fournit une application empirique.

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Resumen Identificación de la curva de Lorenz por medio del coeficiente de Lorenz. — El coeficiente de Gini derivado de la curva de Lorenz transmite sentimientos intuitivos considerables para la medida de desigualdad. Sin embargo, el desdibujamiento de la curva de Lorenz hacia el coeficiente de Gini es uno a uno y el del coeficiente de Gini hacia la curva de Lorenz de uno a muchas veces. En este estudio se divide la curva de Lorenz en partes. Un sub-coeficiente de Lorenz se asocia con cada parte permitiéndonos diferenciar curvas de Lorenz con idénticos coeficientes de Gini. La unión entre cualquier par se puede quebrar procediendo a comparar cada sub-coeficiente de Lorenz de parte en parte. Se presenta una aplicación empírica.

     

Innovation in Labour Organisation and Social Conditionality: Implications for Farm Advisory Services

There is growing concern about the evolution of working conditions for employees on European farms. In the new Common Agriculture Policy (CAP), financial support to farmers will soon be subject to a social conditionality clause. As a result of this change in CAP regulations, in this paper we ask if the need for specific advice can already be foreseen? Examining recent investigations that focused on new forms of labour organisations on farms can help to answer this question. Investigations were conducted across France, combining qualitative field studies with a comprehensive analysis of statistical and administrative data. The results show a growing complexity of farm labour organisation that generates needs for new types of advice. In particular, an increasing proportion of the people working on farms are employed by another organisation (foreign and domestic service providers, employers’ alliances, etc.). The administrative data provides strong evidence of the scale of this trend which has little visibility in the agricultural census data. We should therefore be cautious about oversimplified representations of labour patterns at farm level. They can distort policy design, implementation and assessment by overlooking a part of the worker population and needs for new types of advice, including those that will be required to meet social conditionality requirements.     

Modeling farmers’ decisions on tea varieties in Vietnam: a multinomial logit analysis

This article analyzes households’ choice on tea varieties in Vietnam by using a multinomial logit model. The modeling takes into account the issue of unobserved individual heterogeneity and the endogeneity of some explanatory variables (use of chemical and organic fertilizers). The results show that important factors influencing the decision to adopt one type of tea varieties include income, age, household size, farming contract, and use of organic fertilizers, but also membership of professional associations such as the Tea Association and the Farmers Union.