Changing industrial structure and competitive patterns of manufacturing and non-manufacturing in a small open economy: An entropy measurement

This paper studies the industrial concentration and competitive patterns of Hong Kong, a typical small open economy, via an entropy measurement. A relatively low degree of concentration was found to exist. Manufacturing showed decreasing concentration for 1976-81 and increasing concentration after 1987. Non-manufacturing had decreasing concentration since 1982. A structural change between the sectors had occurred. The size of the domestic market seemed unimportant in determining the level of concentration in a small open economy with free trade. The open-door policy of the PRC which facilitated free resource mobility and outward investment between the two regions should be important to contribute such patterns.     

Spectral tests of the martingale hypothesis for exchange rates

A new family of spectral shape tests was proposed recently by Durlauf (1991) for testing the martingale hypothesis. Unlike the widely used variance ratio test, spectral shape tests are consistent against all stationary non-white-noise alternatives from the martingale null. In this paper we examine the finite sample properties of the spectral shape tests and find that the tests have good size and power properties even for small samples. We apply the tests to examine the martingale hypothesis for five major currencies vis-à-vis the US dollar for the period 1974–89. The results indicate that most currencies violate the martingale hypothesis. It appears that some rejections are due to long-memory influences.     

The Business School ‘Business’: Some Lessons from the US Experience*

US business schools dominate the business school landscape, particularly for the MBA degree. This fact has caused schools in other countries to imitate the US schools as a model for business education. But US business schools face a number of problems, many of them a result of offering a value proposition that primarily emphasizes the career‐enhancing, salary‐increasing aspects of business education as contrasted with the idea of organizational management as a profession to be pursued out of a sense of intrinsic interest or even service. We document some of the problems confronting US business schools and show how many of these arise from a combination of a market‐like orientation to education coupled with an absence of a professional ethos. In this tale, there are some lessons for educational organizations both in the US and elsewhere that are interested in learning from the US experience.     

Inferring future volatility from the information in implied volatility in Eurodollar options: a new approach

We study the information content of implied volatility fromseveral volatility specifications of the Heath-Jarrow-Morton(1992) (HJM) models relative to popular historical volatilitymodels in the Eurodollar options market. The implied volatilityfrom the HJM models explains much of the variation of realizedinterest rate volatility over both daily and monthly horizons.The implied volatility dominates the GARCH terms, the Glostenet al. (1993) type asymmetric volatility terms, and the interestrate level. However, it cannot explain that the impact of interestrate shocks on the volatility is lower when interest rates arelow than when they are high.     

Training and productive efficiency in transition economies

While low efficiency is constantly found in enterprises in China,not much is known about its underlying reasons. The presentstudy attempts to fill this gap with particular attention devotedto the effect of training provision on enterprise efficiency.Our results show that there is a positive relationship betweentraining provision and technical efficiency in enterprises.An estimation of group efficiency shows that the present patternof resource allocation in the state-owned enterprises can enhancetheir efficiency performance. This is of particular importancefor state-owned enterprises in which the allocation of resourcesis still under the control of the central government.     

HISTORICAL ALLEGORIES: LET US HAVE DIVERSITY

This paper points out that differences between “old” and “new” accounting history are not resolvable at the level of evidence because history is a form of allegory–a “true” allegory. In addition, it cautions against an overly zealous evangelization of particular “new”/critical faiths and argues instead for a “celebration of difference” in the telling of historical stories.