The national security argument for protection of domestic industries

ABSTRACT

Tracing the origin of the national security argument for protection of domestic industries to Adam Smith, Alexander Hamilton, and Friedrich List, we study its post-GATT applications with reference to Article XXI of the WTO and highlight some recent abuses. We compare the use of tariff, production/input subsidy, and government procurement as alternative instruments of protection from the perspective of economic efficiency and study the disapproval of inward FDI to gain insights into the underlying national security concerns. The case studies of a) the US tariffs on aluminum and steel, b) German disapproval of the acquisition of a technology firm Leifeld Metal Spinning by a Chinese firm, and c) US’ all out global effort to cripple China’s telecom equipment giant Huawei are presented for illustration.     

Internal Migration Decision and Rural Income Inequality: A Counterfactual-Based Gini Decomposition Analysis

We examine the decision between internal migration and home production for Chinese rural households and its impact on rural income distribution. By constructing counterfactual scenarios under which households are allowed to switch freely between internal migration and home production, we find that the migrant households in the studied region could have earned higher simulated income if they choose to work in local sectors, with potential sample selection bias corrected by the two-step Heckit method. Based on the counterfactual results, we conduct a Gini decomposition analysis and illustrate that rural income inequality would also be reduced if migrants choose to work locally. The findings are compatible with the fact that a nontrivial portion of the internal migration in China tends to be involuntary.     

汉语广告翻译的探索与研究

本文探讨了汉英广告语翻译中的方法和策略。同时,研究了汉语广告词中的文化现象。从而得出结论,汉语广告语翻译不仅仅是字面语言的直译,而是中西方文化的翻译,只有译者在翻译时注意到这些,才能翻译出脍炙人口,有价值的广告语。     

“内生 外包 合作”——我国公共文化服务机制创新的类型及其经验分析

完善公共文化服务成为我国目前文化体制改革的重要内容和文化建设的重要目标。针对我国现阶段的公共文化服务领域的矛盾和新情况,我国各级各地政府及文化部门推行了一系列改革措施,创新了公共文化服务机制。本文通过案例分析,梳理和总结出国内公共文化服务出现的新机制类型,指出其各自的特点和经验。     

我国农民专业合作社发展的思考——以云南省红河州为例

农民专业合作社是农业发展中必不可少的一股力量,在促进农业现代化、产业化过程中发挥着巨大的作用。本文以云南省红河州为例,分析云南省红河州农民专业合作社的发展现状,影响云南省红河州农民合作社发展的制约因素,并提出了完善云南省红河州农民专业合作社的思考。     

Managing diversity: Impact of religion in the Indian workplace

Religious diversity in India stems from centuries of foreign traders and invaders ranging from the Mongols to the Mughals, French and British who came with their faiths. Religious diversity has created much political conflict and bloodshed in society at large (e.g. the recent blasts in Mumbai), but many differences have been reconciled in the workplace over time. MNCs seeking to engage in the Indian economy are attracted by the intellectual capital of this diverse nation. I examine the presence of religion in the Indian workplace through cultural values, beliefs and management practices and their impact on IHRM practices in managing diversity.     

Auditor selection and corporate social responsibility

This study examines the association between the selection of an industry‐specialist auditor and corporate social responsibility (CSR). We find that firms with higher CSR ratings are more likely to hire industry‐specialist auditors (national‐level industry leaders, city‐level industry leaders or joint city‐national industry leaders). Moreover, firms with better CSR performance related to product quality and the environment in controversial industries are found to select non‐specialized auditors. The results suggest that such firms may overinvest in CSR activities associated with the environment and product issues to disguise the sin nature of their manufactured goods, and simultaneously engage low quality auditors perhaps to avoid full disclosure of potential environmental and legal liabilities. Overall, we conclude that CSR is associated with the non‐controversial firms ensuring high quality financial reporting in response to societal expectations, and thus CSR firms in such industries have strong incentives to engage industry‐specialist auditors.     

An Option-Based Operational Risk Management Model for Pandemics

Abstract

In this paper we employ the theory of real option pricing to address problems in the area of operational risk management. We develop a two-stage model to help firms determine the optimal suspension-reactivation triggers in the events of pandemics. In the first stage, we propose a regime-dependent epidemic model to simulate the spread of the virus, depending on whether the firm is active or inactive. In the second stage, we view the reactivation decision as a call option and the suspension decision as a put option, and use dynamic programming methods to obtain the optimal switching thresholds. Our method can be regarded as a quantitative implementation of the CDC’s instructions for pandemic preparation. We find that when they take the uncertainty of disease transmission into consideration, firms are more conservative about the decisions of suspension and reactivation. We also find that when firms incur switching costs, the suspension threshold increases with costs, whereas the reactivation threshold decreases with costs. By adopting disease control policies, firms can increase their values in both regimes.     

智能变电站在线监测接入调度系统优化方案

变电在线监测装置的不稳定性要求有大量的装置远程化管控操作,而智能变电站要求在线监测数据直接送往调度主站。针对此现状,提出一种智能站在线监测网络结构优化方法,既满足在线监测装置远程化管控要求,又满足调度主站的数据要求,为智能站改造提供一种新的思路,具有示范推广意义。