Resale Price Maintenance (RPM): The U.S. and E.U. perspectives

Resale Price Maintenance (RPM) is an important and very controversial pricing practice that describes attempts by upstream suppliers (often manufacturers) to control selling prices of their customers (often retailers or wholesaler). It was developed in the early 1900s to regulate and eliminate unfair trade practices within distribution channels in U.S. Although RPM has been analyzed from many different perspectives since it is inception, many questions remain. Whether RPM is good for competition and which forms are legal is still unclear. The study provides the historic evolution of the RPM concept and discusses some alternative strategies by which marketers have attempted to achieve the same ends. The study′s review includes landmark legal rulings and an overview of the relevant marketing and economic theory guiding the evaluation of RPM′s effect on markets and competition both in U.S. and E.U. The study, finally, addresses a road-map how to handle RPM rulings side effects for marketing patricians, academics and regulators.     

Tax Reform and Progressivity

The established theory of tax progressivity cannot handle basic tax reform questions, such as whether an increase in personal allowances makes the tax system more progressive, because the core results assume that tax liability is never zero. This paper generalises the core theory to allow for zero tax payments, and applies the new framework to the analysis of allowances, income-related deductions and tax credits. Log concavity of the tax schedule—a property quite distinct from any existing notion of progressivity—emerges as the critical determinant of whether the distribution of the tax burden becomes more progressive as allowances are increased.     

Knowledge Management in Practice: An Exploratory Case Study

Knowledge has been identified as one of the most important resources that contributes to the competitive advantage of an organization. The organizational and social issues associated with the development, implementation and use of information technology have increasingly attracted the attention of knowledge management researchers. The paper is based on an empirical investigation of knowledge sharing processes from an international organization, Buckman Laboratories. Through the socio-technical perspective, the paper traces the interactions between knowledge management practices and the organizational context. On the basis of the research, we propose a perspective of socio-technical theory relevant to knowledge management within organizations. We conclude that management and leadership play a critical role in establishing the multi-level context for the effective assimilation of knowledge management practice.     

CHINA'S GDP LEVEL AND GROWTH PERFORMANCE: ALTERNATIVE ESTIMATES AND THE IMPLICATIONS

This study critically evaluates alternative estimates of China's GDP level and growth, as well a s its PPP GDP conversions, and, based on this evaluation, it draws important implications for the understanding of China's economic performance in both historical and international perspectives. It finds that although almost all empirical results have supported the downward-bias hypothesis for China's GDP level and the upward-bias hypothesis for China's GDP growth, they vary greatly, and that PPP estimates for China are also diversified. These estimates, if accepted, may substantially alter the existing views on the Chinese economy, particularly, its size, TFP level and catch-up performance. The discussion focuses on the theories, methodologies and data used in these studies, and particularly, the possible biases in their results thereby. It argues, however, that despite differences in estimates, they could still provide sensible boundaries for researchers to gauge the "real" values and hence assess China's "real" living standard and growth performance.     

Labor Flexibility,Ownership and Firm Performance in China

Developed and developing countries alike areprivatizing or corporatizing state owned enterprises(SOEs), often citing the flexibility to hire and shedlabor as an advantage. However, there is littleempirical evidence on the extent to which thisimproves firm performance. This paper investigates thelinkage between labor flexibility, ownership and firmperformance using China as a case study. We find thatSOEs are much less able to adjust quickly to demandshocks than are other ownership forms and that thedegree of worker input into hiring and firingdecisions slows the ability of firms to adapt,negatively affecting firm performance.