Estimating transport costs and trade barriers in China: Direct evidence from Chinese agricultural traders

Using a unique survey data on agricultural traders in China in 2004, this study provides direct evidence on the significance of inter-regional trade barriers and their key components. Our major findings are as follows. (1) The trade barriers within China are fairly small, accounting for about 20% of trade value. (2) Transport and non-transport costs respectively contribute 42% and 58% to the trade barriers. (3) Labor and transport-related taxes are the two largest proportions of total transport costs, and respectively account for 35% and 30%. (4) Artificial trade barriers created by the government are not sizable as we perceived. (5) Road quality is crucial for reducing transport costs within China: increasing transport speed by 1 km per hour, the total transport costs for Chinese agricultural traders would decrease by 0.6%, mainly due to improved fuel-burning efficiency and reduced labor requirement.     

Konjunktur- und Strukturkomponenten der Länderhaushalte

Deutschland hat im August 2009 eine Schuldenregel im Grundgesetz verankert. Die Bundesl?nder müssen bis 2020 ihre Ausgaben grunds?tzlich ohne Kredite fi nanzieren. Konjunkturbedingte Defi zite sind weiterhin m?glich, die in konjunkturell guten Zeiten ausgeglichen werden müssen. Das RWI hat ein Verfahren entwickelt, wie die Konjunktur- und Strukturkomponenten der Landeshaushalte berechnet werden sollten.     

Anstieg der Staatsverschuldung stellt Finanzpolitik vor große Herausforderungen

Zusammenfassung  Aufgrund der derzeitigen Finanz- und Wirtschaftskrise wird die Verschuldung der ?ffentlichen Haushalte in diesem und dem kommenden Jahr so erheblich steigen, dass es selbst unter günstigen gesamt- und finanzwirtschaftlichen Rahmenbedingungen mindestens ein Jahrzehnt dauern k?nnte, bis Deutschland wieder beide Verschuldungsgrenzen des Maastricht-Vertrages einhalten wird. Wie rasch kann die hohe Staatsschuldenquote zurückgeführt werden? Welchen Beitrag kann die Finanzpolitik für ein angemessenes Wirtschaftswachstum leisten? Wie sollte die Konsolidierungsstrategie ausgerichtet sein? Heinz Gebhardt, 56, Dipl.-Volkswirt, arbeitet in den Kompetenzbereichen „?ffentliche Finanzen“ und „Wachstum und Konjunktur“ des RWI Essen; Dr. Rainer Kambeck, 47, ist Leiter des Kompetenzbereichs „?ffentliche Finanzen“. Die Autoren danken Christoph M. Schmidt für kritische Anmerkungen und hilfreiche Kommentare.     

Antecedents and consequences of effectuation and causation in the international new venture creation process

The selection of the entry mode in an international market is of key importance for the venture. A process-based perspective on entry mode selection can add to the International Business and International Entrepreneurship literature. Framing the international market entry as an entrepreneurial process, this paper analyzes the antecedents and consequences of causation and effectuation in the entry mode selection. For the analysis, regression-based techniques were used on a sample of 65 gazelles. The results indicate that experienced entrepreneurs tend to apply effectuation rather than causation, while uncertainty does not have a systematic influence. Entrepreneurs using causation-based international new venture creation processes tend to engage in export-type entry modes, while effectuation-based international new venture creation processes do not predetermine the entry mode.     

Manual dishwashing process – a pre‐assigned behaviour?

Global studies have observed many techniques of manual dishwashing causing different levels of performance and using quite different amounts of water, energy, time and detergent. It is not known, however, if these techniques are pre‐assigned to a person and persist when dishes are washed under different conditions, or are adapted to the specific type of dish‐cleaning process. Here we explored this question in a study with 40 test subjects selected equally from Germany and East European countries by asking them to wash two place settings of dishes with different amounts of soil three times. The results showed that the test subjects did not adapt their washing‐up behaviour to the amount of soil. In general, no significant differences were found in the water, energy and detergent consumption for all test subjects. Only the time used by the German test subjects to wash the fully soiled dishes was significantly longer compared with the dishes with only a quarter the quantity of soil, and no significant difference was observed for all other parts. The only significant difference found between the level of soiling of the dishes was the cleaning result achieved: The less soiled the dishes were, the better the final cleaning result was, and this related to all test subjects. This lends support to the proposition that the consumers did not adapt their washing‐up behaviour to the specific circumstances of the dishwashing job to be done but retained some pre‐assigned behaviour.     

Geriatrische Rehabilitation ist professionelle Teamarbeit

Aktivierende, therapeutische und rehabilitative Pflege - Das Bild der Pflege in der Geriatrie hat sich in den letzten Jahren deutlich gewandelt. Denn die Entwicklung verl?uft dynamisch: von einem Assistenzberuf für ?rzte hin zu einer Berufsgruppe, die wesentliche Akzente für die Gesundheitsversorgung in eigener Regie setzt.