Analysing the determinants of US direct investment in Mexico

In this paper a simple model of foreign direct investment is developed and tested on investment flows from the USA to Mexico between 1967 and 1994 using cointegration analysis. Domestic demand and relative factor costs are found to influence direct investment flows, suggesting support for both the ‘cheap labour’ and ‘market size’ hypotheses. The short-run dynamics of the model indicate that exchange rate movements have an effect on the timing of the investment decision.     

‘Created’ enclaves for enterprise: an empirical study of Singapore's industrial parks in Indonesia,Vietnam and China

The dynamics of globalization have prompted governments to re-examine accustomed policies, and search for alternative strategies, in order to re-position their economies for the future. This paper explores the spatial context of state involvement in the new economics of competition, with the focus on Singapore's much publicized, and controversial, orchestration of its state enterprise network to encapsulate economic space for Singapore-based firms to expand into the Asian region. This strategic initiative is promulgated on the exportability of Singapore's ‘state credibility’, systemic and operational efficiencies, and technological competencies, to locations where these attributes are less certain. A logit model is applied to questionnaire surveys culled from Singapore's industrial-township projects in Indonesia, Vietnam and China and the findings are presented. The authors conclude that the strategic advantage created for the firms within these privileged investment enclaves, although remarkable, is often at risk from the administrative complexities, and socio-political milieux, of the host environments.     

Valuing consumer safety

Snowboarding is quickly becoming a popular sport at alpine resorts. In contrast to alpine skiing, where injuries to the knee and thumb are most common, the wrist (and forearm) and ankle are the most frequently injured body regions for snowboarders. Unfortunately, the rapid international growth of the sport has not been matched by detailed epidemiological evaluation of the injuries specific to snowboarding or the countermeasures to prevent them. The aim of this paper is to critically review the literature describing injury prevention measures, or countermeasures, for snowboarding. In doing so, it provides an evaluation of the extent to which these countermeasures have been demonstrated to be effective or associated with the occurrence of new types of injuries. Few countermeasures specific for snowboarding were found to have been formally evaluated. The countermeasures to which some attention has been paid are boots, bindings, wrist guards, skill level and methods of falling. Skill level and the other injury countermeasures apply more generally across the sport. Recommendations for countermeasure implementation include: education for snowboarders, adherence to snow conduct and safety codes, preparing snowboarders for their activity and maintenance of parks and runs. Recommendations for improved data collections include: standardising and maintaining existing data collections, collecting information about equipment used by snowboarders and monitoring injury trends. Further biomechanical and epidemiological research needs to be undertaken on knee/ankle and wrist/forearm injuries. Evaluation of countermeasures needs to keep pace with the rapid developments in this field. Particular attention should be directed towards evaluations of the role of wristguards, boots/bindings, fall technique and lessons in preventing injuries. Given the rapidly increasing popularity of the sport, the need for the safety equipment to be evaluated would seem to be a priority, along with identification of the mechanisms of injury.     

粮食危机大敌当前 人心恐慌不断升温

食品价格的疯长、愈加富裕的亚洲各国食品需求加大，使农民无法再承受高效的生产任务。简而言之，全世界正在面临一场粮食危机，而在局部地区这种危机已经愈演愈烈。     

The relationship between trainers’ media‐didactical competence and media‐didactical self‐efficacy,attitudes and use of digital media in training

The ongoing digitalization in the training sector produces new demands on the media‐didactical competence of trainers. We conducted an online survey of 279 trainers in Germany to investigate the relationships among media‐didactical competence, media‐didactical self‐efficacy, attitudes toward the use of digital media and the actual use of digital media in training. Furthermore, we compared trainers who attended a course on digital media with trainers who did not attend such a course. The analysis of the theoretically expected correlations between the variables resulted in not all hypotheses being accepted. The analysis of the group differences showed that the trainers who attended a course on digital media had higher media‐didactical competence and media‐didactical self‐efficacy scores and used digital media more often in training. There was no significant difference in negative attitudes. The implications for the promotion of the media‐didactical competence of trainers are discussed.     

Agents of change

Evolutionary accounts in economics have offered a new look at economic development. Advancing on the limited cognitive capacities, they have shown that structural change follows technological, institutional and ideological paths. The present examination suggests an add-on to this cognitive portrayal of change. Drawing on Schumpeter’s theory of innovation and Adam Smith’s theory of knowledge, it analyzes human motives as important drivers of development. It brings in the dynamic nature of human motives and particularly discusses the human will as a requirement of change.     

Internationalization strategies of EU and Asia–Pacific low fare airlines

We employ Dunning’s eclectic paradigm (OLI) to shed light onto low fare airlines’ internationalization strategies. In addition to 31 European low fare airlines, we also analyze the internationalization strategies of 41 low cost carriers in the Asia–Pacific region. The results indicate that homogenous groups of such airlines emerge with regard to their internationalization strategies and that capital and ownership structure as well as relative timing is especially closely related to low fare airline’s entry modal choice. We discuss inferences for the use of the OLI paradigm in further studies of airline internationalization.     

THE DOTHAN PRICING MODEL REVISITED

We compute zero‐coupon bond prices in the Dothan model by solving the associated PDE using integral representations of heat kernels and Hartman–Watson distributions. We obtain several integral formulas for the price P(t, T) at time t > 0 of a bond with maturity T > 0 that complete those of the original paper of Dothan, which are shown not to always satisfy the boundary condition P(T, T) = 1 .