展望“里约＋20峰会”把握企业可持续发展趋势

1992年,联合国在巴西里约热内卢举办了联合国环境和发展大会,有183个国家的代表出席。当时各国已感受到生态破坏的威胁,推动了一系列的国际条约以及新的承诺,并正式提出了可持续发展的理念。时隔20年,“联合国可持续发展大会”将于今年6月在巴西里约热内卢举行,因此也被称为“里约＋20峰会”。     

论国际税法及其对国内税收制度的影响

通常认为,国际税法存在国内法规范和国际公法规范两方面的法律渊源.其中,国内法规范主要涉及规范跨境交易的国内税收制度,国际公法规范主要包括税收协定和共识性国际税法.共识性国际税法是以国际税收的机构、文书、解释三者为基础构建的共识性规范.在税基侵蚀和利润转移(BEPS)项目1.0时代,共识性国际税法推动了税收协定和国内相关税收制度的大量修改;迈入BEPS2.0时代,共识性国际税法能否在独立核算原则、独立交易原则和常设机构原则这三项国际税收基石性原则的根本性变革方面发挥作用,有待进一步考察.若BEPS2.0共识可以达成,将强有力地证明共识性国际税法的存在及其重要性.     

Why Are Managed Care Plans Less Expensive: Risk Selection,Utilization, or Reimbursement?

This article develops a new method of decomposing the cost difference between HMO and non‐HMO plans into observed risk selection, unobserved risk selection, utilization differences, and differences in provider reimbursement rates. We implement this method using a large national sample of employer‐sponsored health insurance enrollees from the Community Tracking Study Household Survey. We find no evidence that HMO plans attract a disproportionate share of low‐risk enrollees; the US$188 difference between HMO and non‐HMO medical expenditures per enrollee can be explained by the relatively low provider reimbursement rates paid by HMO plans. This indicates there may be little need for employers to risk adjust insurance premiums or otherwise restrict employee choice of plan types.     

Quality-efficiency trade-off when the state is the sole provider of hospital services: Evidence from New Zealand

The purpose of this study is to explore the trade-off between technical efficiency and the quality of hospital services when the state is the sole provider. Data from 20 New Zealand District Health Boards from 2011 to 2017 is used to estimate technical efficiency using the data envelopment analysis technique, which employs an additive inverse formulation for undesirable outcomes. The estimated average quality-adjusted technical efficiency score is 0.69. In comparison, when the quality variable was removed, the efficiency declined to 0.66. More importantly, the ranking of district health boards stays consistent across both models, indicating that there is very little trade-off between quality and efficiency. A sensitivity analysis also confirms the lack of a trade-off between quality and efficiency.     

Restricted electricity use among poor urban households

For a variety of reasons, this article argues, electricity must be seen by policy‐makers in South Africa not as the sole provider of all future household energy needs, but rather as one component of an energy mix which includes such ‘transitional’ fuels as coal, gas and paraffin. The reasons for this are that electricity is expensive for poor households; it is subject to power failures and disconnections for non‐payment; the poor find it difficult to monitor and to control their consumption; appliances are expensive and several are required to make best use of electricity; people prefer other fuels because they are familiar and have strong personal and cultural associations, and because Eskom is not trusted owing to its past ties to illegitimate local authorities and misunderstanding of electricity and how its use is monitored and charged for. Further, it is mistaken to equate ‘development’ with total electrification: most developed countries have fuel mixes which include gas and coal, particularly for cooking and heating. Accepting an affordable fuel mix for the poor in particular would focus attention on the problems currently associated with paraffin, gas and coal, namely fires, poisoning and air pollution.     

Mind the Gap: A Journey to Sustainable Supply Chains

Many companies still view Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as solely philanthropy rather than addressing their material issues. A few companies that have began to see the strategic advantages of being socially responsible and addressing their social, environmental and economic challenges. Developing an effective strategy can reward companies with reputation enhancement, license to operate, avoiding litigation, recruitment and retention of employees and developing process, product and strategic innovations. One company who has realized the value of investing and integrating CSR into the business model is the apparel retailer Gap Inc. This article will examine the evolution of Gap Inc. and its work developing an effective labor standards assurance program and stakeholder engagement strategy transformed historically adversarial relationships with key stakeholders into collaborative multi-stakeholder partnerships. Particular attention is put towards Gap Inc.’s learnings in the process and how these new insights innovated the company’s CSR strategy over time. An erratum to this article can be found at     

Create Value through Investment in Science A Business Overview of New Drug R＆D

This article is based on an invited presentation given at the opening ceremony of SAPA-GP Liaison Office at CPTTC Beijing Office on 25May2014. The author would like to thank Mr. Guozhong Rui and other CPTTC collaborators for their friendship and support, without which this article would be impossible.     

Ireland's Experiments with Pseudo-Keynesianism

How stands the Irish economy? Sean Barrett of Trinity College, Dublin examines the economic problems facing Mr Haughey's government.     

The perilous effects of capability loss on outsourcing management and performance

The outsourcing of manufacturing activities and business processes has emerged as a prevalent business practice in many industries. Given this state, the lackluster performance of an alarmingly high proportion of outsourcing initiatives is somewhat surprising. In an effort to achieve aggressive cost savings objectives, many outsourcing engagements are associated with organizational resources being disposed of which can lead to a significant operational capability loss on the part of the outsourcing firm. Surprisingly little empirical research has dealt with the issues arising from this capability loss frequently associated with outsourcing. This study strives to address this void. Drawing on multiple theoretical perspectives, this study investigates the direct impact that capability loss has on outsourcing performance, and also the impact it has on the outsourcing firm's ability to effectively manage its relationship with the outsourcing provider. Results from our hierarchical regression analysis on 198 outsourcing initiatives suggest an inadequate capability evaluation up front can lead to a more substantive capability loss. Subsequently, we find that a more extensive capability loss has a direct negative effect on outsourcing performance. Prior studies have established the significant positive effect that developing a committed and cooperative relationship with the provider has on outsourcing performance. Our results corroborate these previous findings, and also demonstrate that capability loss inhibits the outsourcing firm's efforts to develop a committed and cooperative relationship with the outsourcing provider.