China's Banking Reform

This article discusses the main problems facing the Chinese banking system and concludes that, despite serious problems, the risk seems small that, in the near future, a financial crisis will occur that will pose severe problems for the international financial system. An internal financial crisis, however, could occur. Without government support, the economic viability of many of China's banks is questionable. The government and central bank authorities acknowledge the situation and have taken some steps toward reform. The most serious threat to the banking system lies in the accumulation of non-performing loans (NPLs)--many of them policybased loans extended by state-owned banks to money-losing state-owned companies with little expectation that they would be completely repaid. China has been taking measures to keep the problem from worsening and has created four asset management companies to dispose of NPLs that still have value. Since the Chinese economic reforms began in 1978, Chinese authorities have made significant progress in modernising their banking system, although they still have a long way to go. However, there are several ameliorating factors that still keep its financial and foreign exchange system viable. China's continued high rate of growth and high savings rate have funneled deposits into the banking system, while a $20-30 billion annual trade surplus together with an inflow of foreign direct investment at about $40 billion per year have resulted in an accumulation of foreign exchange reserves exceeding $200 billion. China does not carry an unusually heavy debt burden, either domestic or international, although its short-term borrowing in foreign currencies has been increasing. China does not currently face a serious risk of either a domestic or international liquidity crisis--unless, of course, a severe and prolonged world recession occurs that adversely affects Chinese exports as well as the inflow of foreign direct investment.     

Regulating Work: Measuring the Scope and Burden of Occupational Licensure Among Low‐ and Moderate‐Income Occupations in the United States

This study examines the scope and burden of occupational licensing laws in the United States for 102 low‐ and moderate‐income occupations. Findings indicate that the licences studied require of aspiring workers, on average, $US209 in fees, one exam, and about nine months of education and training, plus minimum grade and age levels. Data also indicate striking disparities in requirements within and between occupations and within and between states. These inconsistencies likely reflect not the relative public health and safety risks of occupations, but instead the lobbying prowess of practitioners in securing laws to shut out competition.     

Fragmentation of work activity as a multi-dimensional construct and its association with ICT,employment and sociodemographic characteristics

A potential effect of ICTs is that they alleviate the traditional space-time constraints of paidwork activities and allow for the decomposition of work into multiple segments of subtasks, which can be performed at different times and/or locations. Such separation of activities into discrete pieces is commonly termed the fragmentation of activity. Regrettably, only limited empirical evidence is available on the fragmentation of work activity and the factors that contribute to it. The goal of this paper is to extend the previous work in the activity fragmentation arena in three ways: (i) to operationalize measures of spatial fragmentation and reformulate some of the temporal fragmentation measures for the specific purpose of investigating the fragmentation of the work activity; (ii) to analyse fragmentation not only in terms of the individual indicators, but also as a multi-dimensional construct including all dimensions of spatial and temporal fragmentation collectively; (iii) to test a detailed set of ICT-related, workrelated, and sociodemographic variables to identify the factors that are crucial in the occurrence of the fragmentation of the work activity. The study shows that there is heterogeneity in the fragmentation of work. Three internally homogenous patterns of fragmentation, which diverge in the degree of fragmentation, are identified: (1) a less temporally and spatially fragmented work pattern; (2) a less spatially and more temporally fragmented work pattern; (3) a more spatially and temporally fragmented work pattern. The multiple discriminant analysis suggests that ICT variables and work-related variables as well as personal-household attributes are associated with the fragmentation of work. However, the degree of association differs considerably among representative patterns of fragmentation.     

Regulatory impact assessment: a survey of selected developing and emerging economies

This paper reports on a survey of regulatory impact assessment (RIA) in 16 developing and emerging economies. RIA was playing an increasing role in these countries: eight had introduced RIA in the past 10 years; one had recently redesigned its existing RIA system; another had a long-standing RIA system in place. However, RIA was at an early stage of development in the majority of cases and six countries did not practise RIA.     

Factors affecting the breadth and depth of e-procurement use in small and medium enterprises

Organizations differ in the range of e-procurement functionalities they use (breadth of use) and in how much they rely on e-procurement (depth of use). Nonetheless, factors affecting the breadth and the depth of e-procurement use have never been studied in a single context. Therefore, it is unclear whether the differences between the effects discovered in past studies are due to the difference between the breadth and the depth of use, or to the difference between contexts. We test the effects of factors potentially affecting the breadth and the depth of e-procurement use in a single context, using data from 151 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector in New Zealand. The results indicate that the breadth and the depth of use of e-procurement in business organizations are influenced by different factors. Perceived relative advantage of using e-procurement, plus external pressure from suppliers and competitors to use e-procurement, result in the use of a broader range of e-procurement functionalities – in a greater breadth of e-procurement use. However, the extent of an organization’s reliance on e-procurement in organizational purchasing (i.e., depth of e-procurement use) is driven by compatibility of e-procurement with organizational values, practices, technology infrastructure, and strategy. Arguing that in order to benefit fully from e-procurement, an organization needs to integrate it deeply into its operations, we conclude that managers evaluating new e-procurement technologies should consider their compatibility with organizational norms and practices.     

China: A Major Economic Power?

For almost quarter of a century since the U.S. normalization of diplomatic relations with China and the beginning of economic reforms under the leadership of Deng Xioaping, two incidents virtually coinciding together, the PRC has achieved impressive, although not unprecedented, rates of economic growth. The future rate of growth of the Chinese economy will depend not only on continuing economic reforms, but also having a tolerable level of social unrest, and achieving a reasonable level of entrepreneurial and bureaucratic efficiency. On the international side, growth will require access to world markets for Chinese exports, continued access to foreign capital and technology, and regional peace. On current reckoning it seems that economic growth of anything between five and seven percent may continue for the forseeable future. This paper tries to analyze the problems and the prospects of China emerging as a major economic power and it's economic and political implications.     

Interstellar humanity

Fifty years after Olaf Stapledon's landmark essay “Interplanetary man?”, we propose the coming era of “interstellar humanity”. Over the next 1000 years the domain of humanity will increasingly spread to the stars, a process that will alter our future in profound ways. At least three factors will drive this expansion: (1) increased understanding of cosmic evolution, changing our perception of ourselves and our place in the universe; (2) contact with extraterrestrial intelligence, bringing knowledge, wisdom, and problems of culture contact now unforeseen; and (3) interstellar travel, transporting humanity's emissaries to at least the nearest stars. The consequences of these events are not predictable in detail, but may be studied by examining the lessons of cosmic evolution; by using history to analyze the reception of new world views and intellectual culture contacts on Earth; and by anticipating the likelihood of success in interstellar travel and its effects. The prospect of interstellar humanity during the next millennium is likely to have an effect on all branches of terrestrial endeavor, whether religion, philosophy, science or the arts. The stage of human drama will be vastly expanded.