带来机遇的泰国自由贸易区

在泰国，出于进口税收体制的原因，许多产品从他国进口时所承担的税负比使用进口部件所生产的产品还要低。对此，泰国政府采用“自由贸易区”（Free Zone）这一概念和体制予以改善，目的是把泰国打造成国内市场乃至亚洲（尤其是东盟）市场首选的制造基地。     

Performance Measurement in Health Care: History, Challenges and Prospects

A confluence of forces has resulted in massive changes to the collection and use of performance data in the UK health system over the past 25 years. Performance measurement offers major potential benefits for clinical professionals, managers, regulators, politicians, researchers, patients and citizens. However, uncritical reliance on performance data can lead to a number of unintended and adverse consequences. The National Health Service has pioneered the assembly and dissemination of performance data from the early 1980s. This article summarizes the history of performance measurement in the NHS, assesses its effectiveness to date, discusses the major challenges in deploying performance measures, and highlights priorities for policy-makers.     

Collective and individual forms of resistance in a public–private partnership: a case study of National Savings and Investments

This paper examines resistance at National Savings, which operates on two levels: firstly, the collective actions of the trade unions and their members, and, secondly, individual recalcitrance on the shop‐floor. It is argued that imposed organisational culture change has created more acrimonious employment relations.     

Biotechnology in the agricultural sector: a challenge to consumer welfare

The promises and pitfalls of agricultural biotechnology have long been debated. The public is often thwarted because consumers frequently perceive as risky, and therefore undesirable, those advances that they do not understand or of which they are unaware. A comparative study of the introduction of a biotechnology innovation in the United States (US) and in the European Union (EU) is a case in point. In the US, despite concerns of consumer protection and environmental groups that the use of genetically produced growth hormone in milk‐producing cows will adversely impact the safety of the milk supply, scientific evidence and governmental findings appear to indicate that milk from treated cows is identical in quality, taste and nutritional value to milk from untreated cows. Experience to date in the US demonstrates some consumer resistance to milk from those cows that have received the growth hormone, which typically leads to a 10% increase in milk production. In fact, if there is no perceived differentiation between the two forms of milk, the issue offers little choice to consumers at large, and may result in economic benefit only to selected dairy farmers, as well as the producers of the genetically produced growth hormone. This situation in the US is an example of dysfunctional technology transfer, with perceived desirable benefits to a few, and perceived undesirable benefits to society‐at‐large. The information suggests that the US may have reacted hastily in approving the use of bovine growth hormone in milk‐producing cows. The EU has taken a divergent approach by enacting moratoriums against its use. The differences identified in this study, contrasting responses to the bovine somatotrophin issue in the US and EU – driven in part by general consumer attitudes towards biotechnology – may provide insights into the issues and challenges that will be faced by both advocates and opponents of global proliferation of certain advances in biotechnology.     

A comparison of environmental visions of university students in Israel and Palestine

Young people's complex and contradictory understandings of the future are inevitably influenced by their past experiences and the environment in which they currently live. Where this environment is itself particularly complex or contradictory then the understandings young people hold of the future will be affected. This paper, based on foresighting workshops held at three Israeli/Palestinian universities, examines the differing environmental attitudes and understandings of the future that young people hold in Israel and Palestine, before analysing the implications of these for achieving more sustainable development in the region. Despite the very real challenges the region is facing, these foresighting workshops showed that young people think systematically and rationally about the future. They are not filled with pessimism but recognise the challenges they face and can identify realistic solutions to those problems which they see as being of the greatest importance. The foresighting workshops showed that there was some common understanding of the participants about the key future environmental challenges that they face together with possible means for tackling these challenges.     

A test of the convergent validity of self-explicated and decompositional conjoint measurement

An experiment was conducted to assess the convergent validity of a recently proposed conjunctive-compensatory self-explicated approach to conjoint measurement. A comparison of the self-explicated approach with the full profile conjoint method demonstrated that the self-explicated approach (1) was inconsistent in the identification of acceptable and unacceptable stimuli, and (2) didnot exhibit a high degree of convergent validity with respect to partworth and importance estimates when compared with the full profile approach. These findings identify potential problems with the conjunctive-compensatory self-explicated approach to conjoint measurement.     

The market phenomenon: An alternative theory and some metatheoretical research considerations

Past definitions of the construct “market” are examined and analyzed for explanatory power of the market phenomenon. A counter definition and theory supporting it is forwarded. Additionally, a metatheoretical research paradigm is presented as a framework for future research into theory of the market.     

Measuring Human Development

The uneven distribution of resources, income and wealth in the world makes it desirable to devise a method for evaluating the relative levels of human development in different countries, but a satisfactory approach needs to go beyond calibration of output per head. This paper explores key issues concerning the measurement of human development and examines the UNDP's modified Human Development Index, assessing its potential usefulness and limitations in enabling comparisons across countries. The extent to which the approach can provide the basis for a profile of an individual country is also analysed, using Singapore as a case study.     

Moody’s ratings and regionalization: State government general obligation bonds

For the period 1930, 1931, 1937–1987, the Scheffe’s test provides evidence of regionalization in Moody’s ratings of state government general obligation bonds. Sub-period analysis indicates a reduction in the extent of regionalization over time. Findings suggest this may be due to a change in the criteria used in rating such bonds. However, further study is necessary on this topic. The results also suggest that further study is necessary on the question of why two political-economic variables show no regionalization and the meaning of this finding to bond ratings.     

Action embedded in social structure: A systematic theory Part I,theory and evidence

This research develops a systematic theory, which premises a responsible and reasonable actor, of how social structure can affect rational social action, applies this general theory to explain 29 specific empirical findings about voting, and illustrates how deductive theories can synthesize prior empirical findings and provide a focus for subsequent empirical research. Part II, Explanations applies the systematic theory to account for specific empirical propositions that relate social statuses to the decisions voters make. Voters are classified by such graduated social statuses as socioeconomic class, age, and education; and by such nominal social statuses as religion, urban or rural residence, region, gender, race, and ethnicity. Positions on two key issues affect voting choice, the desire for economic equity and the desire for social equality. The members of the various social groups interpret these issues as they affect their own self-interest, and align with the party they perceive as furthering their interests. To corroborate aspects of the theory and to quantify the effects of the variables, survey data are analyzed.