A model of the effect of affect on economic decision making

The standard economic model of decision making assumes a decision maker’s current emotional state has no impact on his or her decisions. Yet there is a large psychological literature that shows that current emotional state, in particular mild positive affect, has a significant effect on decision making, problem solving, and behavior. This paper offers a way to incorporate this insight from psychology into economic modelling. Moreover, this paper shows that this simple insight can parsimoniously explain a wide variety of behaviors.

Growing East Asia

It was a busy exchanging period of East Asia in recent days. From October 28 to 31, 2007 the fourth China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) and the fourth China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit (CABIS) were held concurrently in Nanning, capital city of Guangxi Province in China. In the Expo,China witnessed a turnout of over 33,000 trade visitors and over 180 investment cooperation projects with ASEAN.     

Chambers of Commerce,Effective Bridges

Chambers of commerce across the world has played a key role in bringing closer economic and trade ties between different countries, and CCPIT/CCOIC is one of them. Established in May 1952,China Council for the Promotion of Internation- al Trade(CCPIT)comprises VIPs,enter- prises and organizations representing the economic and trade sectors in China.     

What Can China Do About Health Products Industry?

"We now watch advertisement on health products,beauty and body care products everyday everywhere,which actually shows how big the industry is and will be," Yu Xiucheng,former deputy director of Science& Technology and Education Department of Ministry of Health (MOH) said.     

An interactional perspective on perceived empowerment: the role of personal needs and task context

This study examines the influence of individual needs and task characteristics on a multifaceted definition of perceived empowerment using an interactional perspective. Respondents were Hong Kong Chinese employees and most of them lower-level or nonmanagerial level workers in business organizations. We used regression analyses to test a number of hypotheses informed by social psychology theories. The significant findings indicate that perceived empowerment is predicted by individual characteristics (need for achievement, need for power), task situations (receipt of task feedback, competency-based reward system, participation in goal setting) and their interactions. Limitations of the study and implications for future research are discussed.     

On the performance of tests by Wu and by Hausman for detecting the ordinary least squares bias problem

We first consider the performance of the Wu (1973) - Hausman (1978) (W-H) specification error test as a test for the existence of ordinary least squares (OLS) bias. We discuss power properties of the test under alternative null hypotheses, one of which has not previously been considered. We next consider how the W-H test performs as an indicator of the extent (rather than the existence) of an OLS bias problem, since this usage of the test seems common in applied studies. Finally Monte Carlo methods are used to evaluate Wu's two-step estimation procedure involving the W-H test as a pretest.     

Knowledge Networks and Careers: Academic Scientists in Industry–University Links*

abstract Careers are central to our understanding of the knowledge creation dynamics of network organizations. Based on the example of R&D project collaboration between firms and universities, this paper examines the emerging forms of career models that support knowledge flows between organizations. It explores how some large firms in the high‐technology sectors have sought to break away from the limitations of internal R&D and firm‐based careers for scientists by engaging in external collaborative projects to gain access to the open knowledge networks of university researchers. It examines how the firms seek to forge close institutional ties with their university partners and develop network career structures in order to engage academic scientists in joint knowledge production. It argues that firms have sought to extend their human resource and knowledge boundaries into the established internal labour markets of the universities with which they collaborate, leading to the formation of a pool of joint human resources with work experiences and career patterns straddling the two sectors. The paper develops the concept of an ‘overlapping internal labour market’ to provide a conceptual bridge between internal labour markets and network organizations.     

The Impact of a Conditional Cash Transfer Programme on Consumption in Colombia*

This paper studies the impact of a conditional cash transfer programme in Colombia on the total consumption of very poor households and on its components. Our evaluation methodology involves comparing household expenditures in areas in which the programme was not implemented (control) and those in which it was (treated). We use a quasi‐experimental approach, as the Familias en Acción programme was not randomly assigned across localities, for political reasons. We condition on a large range of household‐ and municipality‐level characteristics, and also control for pre‐programme differences in the outcomes of interest using a differences‐indifferences methodology. We find that the programme has been effective at greatly increasing total consumption and its main component, food consumption, in both rural and urban areas. The programme has also contributed to improvements in the quality of food consumed, in particular of items rich in proteins (milk, meat and eggs) and of cereals. Furthermore, the programme has created redistributive effects in favour of children through expenditure on education and children's clothing, while it has not significantly affected consumption of adult goods such as alcohol and tobacco or adults’clothing.     

Taxation Policies Adjust,Motor Vehicles Boost

In recent years,Chinese automotive industry,as one of the pillar industries has kept on rising.In 2006,Chinese auto production ranked the third in the world. The governmental authorities are also studying the corresponding taxations to boost the healthy development of Chinese automotive industry. Mr.Shi Yaobin,Chief-Director of Taxation Department, the Ministry of Finance of ER.C,gave a lecture on current taxation items in China's auto industry and released infor-