Belonging or estrangement—The European Refugee Crisis and its effects on immigrant identity

This study examines the impact of the 2015 European Refugee Crisis on the ethnic identity of resident migrants in Germany. To derive plausibly causal estimates, I exploit the quasi-experimental setting in Germany, by which refugees are allocated to different counties by state authorities without being able to choose their locations themselves. This study finds that higher shares of refugees in a county increased migrants’ attachment to their home countries, while not affecting their perceived belonging to Germany. Further analyses uncover strong heterogeneities with respect to country of origin and suggest that concerns about xenophobia, experiences of discrimination, and the consumption of foreign media contributed to these effects. Lastly, I find that changes in ethnic identity coincide with the political polarization of migrants.     

Balanced scorecard based performance measurement of European airlines using a hybrid multicriteria decision making approach under the fuzzy environment

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance of the European airlines, using a balanced scorecard perspective. Within this scope, a hybrid multi-criteria approach was used by combining the Fuzzy DEMATEL, Fuzzy ANP, and MOORA methods. The results demonstrate that customer dimensions and profit per customer are the most significant key factors in the balanced scorecard perspective. Additionally, the airline companies with the largest profit (per employee) and highest number of passengers and flights (per employee) had the best scores in the multidimensional performance results. Furthermore, the airline companies with the highest profitability and efficiency are more successful than other companies. Therefore, we recommend European airlines to focus on these aspects in order to improve their performance. This study makes an important contribution to literature by helping to solve a significant problem in the market with the proposed methodology.     

The distinction between commercial and non-commercial bus services in Germany: Given by nature?

German public transport services by bus are characterized by a regulatory framework that distinguishes between commercial and non-commercial services. Contrary to the apparent views of legislators, this paper shows that costs and revenues are not the only parameters determining whether or not operators are able to provide services in a commercially viable way.Apart from the local characteristics of the specific service, we show that the classification of services as commercial versus non-commercial is determined in large part by the public transport authorities that set minimum quality standards to be provided by operators. Our analysis shows that the authorities awarding the contracts in some cases affect market organization significantly depending on how they make use of this power. Furthermore, market organization differs substantially with respect to the awarding structure and the contractual relationships, thus creating a challenge for operators and authorities in an embryonic market.     

Vertical intra-industry trade and foreign direct investment in East Asia

As economic integration in East Asia progresses, trade patterns within the region are displaying an ever-greater complexity: Though inter-industry trade still accounts for the majority, its share in overall trade is declining. Instead, intra-industry trade (IIT), which can be further divided into horizontal IIT (HIIT) and vertical IIT (VIIT), is growing in importance.In this paper, we set out to measure and examine vertical intra-industry trade patterns in the East Asian region and compare these with the results of previous studies focusing on the EU, to which such analyses so far have been confined. Based on the supposition that VIIT is closely related to offshore production by multinational enterprises, we then develop a model to capture the main determinants of VIIT that explicitly includes the role of FDI. The model is tested empirically using data from the electrical machinery industry. The findings support our hypothesis, showing that FDI plays a significant role in the rapid increase in VIIT in East Asia seen in recent years. J. Japanese Int. Economies 17 (4) (2003) 468–506.     

再看欧债危机后我国外贸企业的应对策略

继美国次贷危机后,09年爆发的欧洲债务危机再一次影响全球。欧债危机不仅令全球经济面临重大下行风险,而且危机的出现也对全球经济的复苏蒙上了阴影。近年来,我国出现的出口下滑,经济增速放缓以及人民币升值等现象也和欧债危机的出现不无联系,我国的外贸企业更是接连面对两次危机压力巨大。危机所带来的影响深入经济发展各个领域,短时期内难以消散,经济发展可能再次触底。面对危机我国应转变政府职能构建经济发展有利环境,转危机为时机加快产业结构优化升级,强化创新提升企业核心竞争力,完善现代企业制度促进国际交流与合作。外贸企业更应该把握其中隐藏的机遇,在对外交流中,不断完善现代企业制度,从而顺利度过危机。     

Error analysis of finite difference and Markov chain approximations for option pricing

Mijatovi? and Pistorius proposed an efficient Markov chain approximation method for pricing European and barrier options in general one‐dimensional Markovian models. However, sharp convergence rates of this method for realistic financial payoffs, which are nonsmooth, are rarely available. In this paper, we solve this problem for general one‐dimensional diffusion models, which play a fundamental role in financial applications. For such models, the Markov chain approximation method is equivalent to the method of lines using the central difference. Our analysis is based on the spectral representation of the exact solution and the approximate solution. By establishing the convergence rate for the eigenvalues and the eigenfunctions, we obtain sharp convergence rates for the transition density and the price of options with nonsmooth payoffs. In particular, we show that for call‐/put‐type payoffs, convergence is second order, while for digital‐type payoffs, convergence is generally only first order. Furthermore, we provide theoretical justification for two well‐known smoothing techniques that can restore second‐order convergence for digital‐type payoffs and explain oscillations observed in the convergence for options with nonsmooth payoffs. As an extension, we also establish sharp convergence rates for European options for a rich class of Markovian jump models constructed from diffusions via subordination. The theoretical estimates are confirmed using numerical examples.     

Risk of poverty in Southern Europe

We analyze whether the risk of poverty deteriorates with the crisis in France, Greece, Italy and Spain, for different categories of households, individual features and policy instruments, such as the regional European Structural Funds. We find that the impact of the economic recession was heterogeneous, deteriorating the status of temporary workers, self-employed, single and female-headed households, while the risk of poverty decreased relatively for larger households with dependent children and elderly members. We also find that targeted funds toward human capital investment are associated to decreasing the risk of poverty, but the crisis slowed down their effects.     

The contribution of granular and fundamental comparative advantage to European Union countries' export specialisation

This paper analyses the contribution of fundamental comparative advantage (a country-specific component) and granular comparative advantage (a firm-specific component) to European Union countries' export specialisation. We find that, on average, granular comparative advantage may explain export specialisation in 29% of industries, which account for 47% of total exports. We also show that 60% of the variation in export specialisation across countries and industries may be explained by granular comparative advantage. These results highlight that some outstanding firms may play a very important role in explaining European Union countries' export specialisation.     

阿苯达唑及其代谢物在欧洲鳗鲡体内的药代动力学及残留研究

在试验水温（25±2）℃条件下,按2 mg/kg的浓度给欧洲鳗鲡浸浴阿苯达唑36 h,高效液相色谱法测定血浆和肌肉组织中的药物浓度,研究阿苯达唑在欧洲鳗鲡体内的代谢及消除规律。结果显示：阿苯达唑和阿苯达唑亚砜的血药时间数据符合一级吸收二室开放模型,阿苯达唑砜符合一级吸收一室开放模型;其消除半衰期分别为34.15h、99.34h、46.00 h,最大血药浓度分别为3.887、6.830、1.738 mg/L,达峰时间分别为7.27h1、8.00h、40.67h,药时曲线下面积（AUC）分别为129.71、921.95、236.58 mg.h/L。选取可食组织肌肉作为残留检测的靶组织,以农业部残留限量100μg/kg为最高残留限量,在本试验条件下,建议休药期不低于23 d。     

欧盟轮胎滚动噪声技术法规及检测技术分析

对欧盟轮胎滚动噪声技术法规的主要技术内容进行了研究,阐明了欧盟轮胎滚动噪声的分级及标签、噪声限值等技术要求,分析了轮胎滚动噪声的产生机理、影响因素和轮胎滚动噪声测试方法。建议为应对欧盟技术壁垒,应建设我国自己技术领先的轮胎试验场,开展轮胎滚动噪声性能测试和分析;改进轮胎设计和生产工艺,进一步提升我国轮胎产品性能,促进我国轮胎产品顺利出口。