World Focus on the Moment

Chinese people would never forget the tnoment-14：28, on May 12, 2008, as the 8.0-magnitude earthquake shook the whole of Sichuan; at that moment the world＇s attention was focused on the southwest of China - the homeland of the Giant Panda. This rare yet catastrophic natural disaster has resulted in the heavy loss of lives and property throughout the region. Since this tragic disaster occurred, more and more lbreign countries and international organizations have offered their condolences and aid for the earthquake-affected areas. At home and abroad, the media has brought the quake to the world and let more people know what has happened to some of the most beautiful land in China.     

Yuan Appreciation——At the 7-Yuan Mark

On April 10, China's currency, the Yuan, opened at 6.9920 against the U.S.Dollar, compared to an exchange rate of 7.0017-to-1 on the previous day, breaking the 7-yuan mark for the first time since the govemment un-pegged it from the Dollar in 2005, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trading System.     

Helping IDPs of Pakistan in Action

More than 3 million people of Pakistan have been displaced and dislocated from Swat, Dirand Buner due to the violent activities of militants. Although, Pakistan has taken measures to assist these IDPs, they still need more help, especially cash donation. To help them to recovery from the disaster,     

Premium auctions and risk preferences

In a premium auction, the seller offers some “payback”, called premium, to a set of high bidders at the end of the auction. This paper investigates how the performance of such premium tactics is related to the bidders? risk preferences. We analyze a two-stage English premium auction model with symmetric interdependent values, in which the bidders may be risk averse or risk preferring. Upon establishing the existence and uniqueness of a symmetric equilibrium, we show that the premium causes the expected revenue to increase in the bidders? risk tolerance. A “net-premium effect” is key to this result.     

Fighting collusion in auctions: An experimental investigation

The danger of collusion presents a serious challenge for auctioneers. In this paper, we compare the collusive properties of two standard auctions, the English auction and the first-price sealed-bid auction, and a lesser-known format, the Amsterdam (second-price) auction. In the Amsterdam auction, the highest losing bidder earns a premium for stirring up the price. We study two settings: in one, all bidders can collude, and in another, only a subset is eligible. The experiments show that the Amsterdam auction triggers less collusion than the standard auctions. We compare experimental results to theoretical predictions, and provide an explanation where they differ.     

Benefits of shift from car to active transport

There is a growing awareness that significant benefits for our health and environment could be achieved by reducing our use of cars and shifting instead to active transport, i.e. walking and bicycling. The present article presents an estimate of the health impacts due to a shift from car to bicycling or walking, by evaluating four effects: the change in exposure to ambient air pollution for the individuals who change their transportation mode, their health benefit, the health benefit for the general population due to reduced pollution and the risk of accidents. We consider only mortality in detail, but at the end of the paper we also cite costs for other impacts, especially noise and congestion. For the dispersion of air pollution from cars we use results of the Transport phase of the ExternE project series and derive general results that can be applied in different regions. We calculate the health benefits of bicycling and walking based on the most recent review by the World Health Organization. For a driver who switches to bicycling for a commute of 5 km (one way) 5 days/week 46 weeks/yr the health benefit from the physical activity is worth about 1300 €/yr, and in a large city (>500,000) the value of the associated reduction of air pollution is on the order of 30 €/yr. For the individual who makes the switch, the change in air pollution exposure and dose implies a loss of about 20 €/yr under our standard scenario but that is highly variable with details of the trajectories and could even have the opposite sign. The results for walking are similar. The increased accident risk for bicyclists is extremely dependent on the local context; data for Paris and Amsterdam imply that the loss due to fatal accidents is at least an order of magnitude smaller than the health benefit of the physical activity. An analysis of the uncertainties shows that the general conclusion about the order of magnitude of these effects is robust. The results can be used for cost-benefit analysis of programs or projects to increase active transport, provided one can estimate the number of individuals who make a mode shift.     

Risk aversion and optimal reserve prices in first- and second-price auctions

We analyze the effects of buyer and seller risk aversion in first- and second-price auctions in the classic setting of symmetric and independent private values. We show that the seller's optimal reserve price decreases in his own risk aversion, and more so in the first-price auction. The reserve price also decreases in the buyers' risk aversion in the first-price auction. Thus, greater risk aversion increases ex post efficiency in both auctions - especially that of the first-price auction. At the interim stage, the first-price auction is preferred by all buyer types in a lower interval, as well as by the seller.     

Mexico： A Golden Opportunity

Mexico is the second largest producer of silver in the world and is ranked ,among the top 12 countries in terms of production of eighteen types of minerals. It has become one of the most internationally competitive countries for mining at the same time as the sector has taken on a key role in the country＇s own economic growth. According to the report from Behre Dolbear published in 2010, Mexico was the world＇s fourth-best investment destination for mining among a 25-country-list and in first place regarding the fiscal regime. Meanwhile,     

Sine-Danish Cooperation on Renewable Energy Development

Sino-Danish collaboration on renewable energy is growing rapidly. Denmark and China are both focusing on further use of renewable energy in the future, and today a new Sino- Danish programme saw the light of day.     

Strategic marketing planning for heritage tourism: a conceptual model and empirical findings from two emerging heritage regions

This paper examines the process of strategic marketing planning for heritage tourism, an inherently complex and fragmented system, requiring a coordinated approach among a range of stakeholders. A conceptual model, detailing key stakeholders and specific strategic functions, as well as a prescribed method of coordination, is presented. Two regions were investigated using a qualitative methodology, which examined five strategic documents and consisted of in-depth interviews with 11 key informants from the tourism industry. Key findings indicate that weak coordination, in terms of strategic marketing planning, has negative implications for heritage tourism marketing concerning four key strategic functions, strategic orientation, resource allocation, product service development and destination promotion. The paper emphasises the importance of strategic marketing planning for each function and considers the role of the public sector in terms of providing strategic direction. Furthermore, the paper highlights the potential difficulties of engaging in heritage tourism development in a non-traditional destination.