For Almost Two Centuries the U.S.had the Monroe Doctrine - Now China has its Xi Doctrine

James Monroe was the fifth president of the United States. Under his administration what became known as the Monroe Doctrine was first stated in 1823. The doctrine became a long-standing tenet of U.S. foreign policy. It declared that the Western Hemisphere was America＇ s area of influence. The premise of the Monroe Doctrine was that further efforts by European nations to colonize or interfere in North or South America would be viewed by the United States as acts of aggression, thereby necessitating American intervention The establishment of the Monroe Doctrine was a defining moment in U.S. foreign policy Turning the clock almost 200 years later, China is aggressively implementing its own form of the Monroe Doctrine, not just for countries with which it shares borders, but extending throughout East Asia, South Asia and even into countries bordering the Indian Ocean.     

Integrating effective writing skills in the accounting curriculum

The J.M. Tull School of Accounting at the University of Georgia has developed a program for its accounting curriculum which integrates the teaching of effective writing skills with the regular accounting courses. Students in a three-course sequence write a total of eight papers — technical, memos, or reports. The assignments resemble on-the-job technical writing tasks actually encountered by professional accountants. A full-time writing consultant on the School's staff provides occasional lectures and handouts for students on effective writing skills; she also provides help to individual students who may need it. Papers are evaluated for both accounting content and effective writing     

Bank computing in a changing economic environment: the IBIS project in New Zealand

This paper examines a major bank computing redevelopment attempted in New Zealand in the 1980s - the IBIS project. After the expenditure of some hundreds of millions of dollars this project was not proceeded with and this paper looks at the factors that led to its eventual failure. We find that dreams of banking technology can be as costly as other failures experienced by banks, and that banks must have regard to the competitive environment in building their computer systems.     

Marginal Rates and Two-dimensional Level Curves in DEA

Of great importance to management, the computation of trade-offs presents particular difficulties within DEA since the piecewise linear nature of the envelopment surfaces does not allow for unique derivatives at every point. We present a comprehensive framework for analyzing marginal rates, and directional derivatives in general, on DEA frontiers. A useful characterization of these derivatives at given points can be provided in terms of the ranges they can take; equivalently, the bounds of these ranges correspond to derivatives to the rightand to the left at these points. We present two approaches for their computation: first, the dual equivalents calculation of minimum and maximum multiplier ratios / finite differences, and then a modified simplex tableau method. The simplex tableau method provides a more general application of the method introduced by Hackman et al. (1994) to generate any two-dimensional section of the isoquant and is a practical tool to generate level plots of the frontier. By giving a complete picture of trade-offs and allowing a better visualization of high dimensional production possibility sets, these tools can be very useful for managerial applications.     

We the living: the effects of living and deceased donor stories on charitable bequest giving intentions

Choosing messages to encourage charitable bequest giving may be particularly challenging given sensitivity to personal mortality reminders. Previous research suggests that people often react to mortality reminders with avoidance, including distancing themselves from those associated with death. We compare the effects of otherwise similar living and deceased bequest donor stories on subsequent intentions to leave a charitable bequest. Although both story types significantly increased subsequent intentions to leave a charitable bequest, living donor stories consistently outperformed otherwise identical deceased donor stories. Fundraisers may do well to emphasize stories of living planned bequest donors and de‐emphasize death and the deceased in charitable bequest fundraising messaging. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Testing the Linkages between Trade and Productivity Growth

The authors examine the effect of trade on productivity growth using data from nine manufacturing industries across 12 OECD countries over the period 1978–97. Because causality between productivity growth and trade share runs both ways, geographical characteristics of countries are used to instrument for average bilateral trade volumes over the 20‐year period. In addition, to exploit the time‐series nature of the data, the authors construct a panel dataset and employ dynamic panel data techniques. After controlling for industry‐specific heterogeneity, the results indicate that increased exposure to trade, in particular higher import volumes, exerts a positive influence on industries' productivity growth. However, the effect is rather small.     

Borders and Spatial Imaginaries in the Kuwaiti Identity

ABSTRACT

The Iraqi claims on and invasion of Kuwait have focused most of the scholarly attention on the drawing and defining of the Kuwaiti border. Issues of material delineation between the two countries have mattered a great deal for asserting sovereignty, but also for the exploration of oil and access to Gulf deep waters. Yet, the identity dimensions of the Kuwaiti border have often been overlooked. Building on the literature that sees more to the border than just a dividing line but seeks to include individual and collective narrative and experiences of borders, this article proposes to investigate the social–cultural perception of the Kuwaiti border and explores the complex connection between border and identities in the Kuwaiti case. Borders, it has been argued, have often played a significant role in identity building processes. Yet in the case of Kuwait where the border, contested by powerful neighbours, cuts across empty desert and tribal territories, the border seems to have played a limited one in shaping the national identity. This article investigates the interplay between the bordering process asserting sovereignty, on the one hand and the notions of identity and sense of belonging, on the other, resulting from a complex mix of socio-cultural legacies inherited from the pre-national period (the hadhar/badû dichotomy) and processes of ordering and othering enacted by the state and its welfare policies. Based on the analysis of the spatial imaginary as constructed by the Nationality Law of 1959, it argues that the urban core of the port-city or the interaction with it have remained the main benchmark of Kuwaiti identity, while the desert periphery has been imagined as culturally distinct and economically backward in the oil era – a representation that nevertheless provides a reservoir of symbols and narratives ready to be reimagined or appropriated.     

Financial and Institutional Reforms for an Entrepreneurial Society

In this paper, we introduce the special issue on Financial and Institutional Reforms for an Entrepreneurial Society in Europe. There are many reasons for Europe to want to make the transition to a more Entrepreneurial Society. And for decades now, policy makers are trying to bring that transition about with variations on the “educate, deregulate and finance” approach to entrepreneurship. We argue that more fundamental reforms are required to improve the entrepreneurial ecosystem and bring about this transition. We then discuss the 12 contributions that pertain to five different facets of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The first two papers address the most fundamental institutional foundations of the ecosystem. The next three papers discuss the (lack of) access to knowledge and incentives to start innovative entrepreneurial ventures. That is followed by three papers that focus on the institutions that (fail to) channel financial resources to such ventures and two papers that analyze the relevance of labor market institutions. The special issue concludes with two papers investigating how the interplay of institutions and productive entrepreneurship results in economic growth.