中国和国际林产品贸易对森林保护和人民生计的影响

分析了中国林产品进出口的总量、结构、变化、增长趋势及对相关国家和地区人民生计的影响,提出了作为进口国消费国、生产国和加工国应采取的措施。1997年到2005年间,中国林产品进口总量折合原木材积增长了两倍多,从0.40亿m3增长到1.34亿m3,进口额也翻了一番。2005年,俄罗斯、马来西亚、印尼、泰国、巴布新几内亚列中国总木质林产品进口前5名,进口额占71.6%;加拿大、印尼、俄罗斯、智利、美国列纸浆进口前5位,进口额占77.6%;美国、日本、香港、欧盟是中国林产品出口的主要目的地。中国迅速增长的林产品贸易对国际社会也有消极影响,导致不可持续采伐、非法采伐等问题,但中国只是全球产业链上的一环,来自美国、欧盟和日本的购买者和零售商也负有不可推卸的责任。中国应认清其在国际林产品贸易中的关键地位,加快其林业部门的改革步伐,推动本国的林产品生产和供给,实现可持续的林业发展。     

Product chain collaboration for sustainability: A business case for life cycle management

Life cycle management (LCM) is frequently described as a holistic sustainability perspective along the product chain. It has mainly been a company internal practice. However, recent developments reveal a new type of LCM where companies collaborate in product‐chain‐specific initiatives. This raises questions concerning why corporations extend “corporate LCM” toward “product chain LCM”. Here, we explore rationales and challenges for corporations engaging in one such coalition: The Sustainable Transport Initiative. The study covers five companies in different product chain positions and practitioners in different corporate functions. The results show a broad range of rationales for engaging in product chain LCM, related both to self‐interest and a shared interest in the product chain. The importance of the “business case,” both for the individual companies and the product chain, is identified. The importance of sustainability managers as actors and as facilitators in discussions between managers from different corporate functions is also identified.     

Multinationals, skills, and wage elasticities

The increase in foreign direct investments raises concerns about labor market consequences in many countries. It is feared that multinational firms are inclined to shift jobs abroad and increase job volatility. We use firm-level data to examine if multinationality and foreign ownership affect the wage elasticity of labor demand. Unlike previous studies, we distinguish the effect on different skill groups of employees. We find no general difference in wage elasticity between foreign and domestic firms but the wage elasticity is higher in multinational firms than in national firms, in particular for medium-skilled workers.     

The sector perspective in social development

Agricultural society, industrial society, and post-industrial society are well-known terms for societies at different stages of development. All three are named after the dominant sector in the economy. These terms reflect a sector perspective in social development. This article discusses four different types of sector models, against the background of the future prospects that the respective models give rise to. The image of the future is influenced by the choice of sector classification.     

Multinationals,competition and productivity spillovers through worker mobility

Multinational firms are believed to impact the productivity of domestic firms through worker mobility. Fosfuri et al. (J Int Econ 53:205–222, 2001) suggest that worker mobility and technological spillovers are more likely to materialize when the local and the multinational firm do not compete fiercely in the product market. We assess empirically the importance of the hypothesis by using the Finnish longitudinal employer–employee data. Consistent with the predictions of the model, we find that competition is negatively related to worker mobility but only in high-tech industries where productivity spillovers are present. Thus, our results detail a channel through which competition may negatively affect the productivity of purely domestic firms .     

The Impact of Product-Country Image and Marketing Efforts on Retailer-Perceived Brand Equity: An Empirical Analysis

Although both product-country images (PCI) and firm assets such as brand equity have been extensively studied in separate contexts, we know very little about the combined performance effects of these two important constructs in international research. Extant research has investigated brand equity primarily from a consumer perspective, but rarely from the point of view of a retailer. Retailers represent the ultimate participants in the value chain selling the product to consumers. They have the ability to significantly influence consumers’ evaluations and purchase decisions. Based upon existing literature documenting the contributions of PCI and marketing activities on brand equity, this study extends these findings by investigating their effects on retailer-perceived brand equity (RPBE) and ultimate brand profitability performance. Results indicate that both marketing activities and PCI affect retailer-perceived brand equity with PCI also strongly and positively influencing brand profitability performance.     

Financial Constraints on German Firms after the Crisis: Evidence from Threshold Panel Estimation

This article studies the existence and magnitude of financial investment constraints in Germany between 2006 and 2012 with a special emphasis on small and medium‐sized firms. The core contention is that the sensitivity of the investment rate to the cash flow rate is a function of a firm's financial position contributing to its access to external finance. The application of a nonlinear panel threshold model reveals that the marginal effect of the cash flow rate on the investment rate is almost twice as strong for ‘high debt’ firms compared to ‘low debt’ firms. This result holds for six out of seven balance sheet threshold variables. For a single specification, the results reveal a non‐monotonic relationship between the cash flow rate and investment rate. Firm size, however, does not explain differences in the cash‐flow‐investment nexus.     

Can social spending cushion the inequality effect of globalization?

This paper examines whether social spending cushions the effect of globalization on within‐country inequality. Using information on disposable and market income inequality and data on overall social spending, and health and education spending from the ILO and the World Bank/WHO, we analyze whether social spending moderates the association between economic globalization and inequality. The results confirm that economic globalization—especially economic flows—associates with higher income inequality, an effect driven by non‐OECD countries. Health spending is strongly associated with lower inequality, but we find no robust evidence that any kind of social spending negatively moderates the association between economic globalization and inequality.