寻租、过度投资与地方保护

过度投资和地方保护一直是困扰中国经济发展的顽疾。由于这些行为的主体均是地方政府,很多文献试图从政府的角度来解释这两个现象,但是,这些解释与观察到的现实之间有很多差异。在本文中,为了更好的解释过度投资和地方保护现象,我们考虑了寻租动机对于地方政府行为的影响。在考虑了寻租动机后,我们发现,本地企业的最初的决策产能大于后期实际利用的产能。也就是说,存在我们通常说的产能过剩。为了利用这部分未被利用的产能,一个办法是本地企业独占市场,排挤外地厂商,要达到这一目的,只能通过提高外地厂商的成本,也就是实行地方保护主义。     

Inequality and endogenous trade policy outcomes

An enduring puzzle in international economics is why trade interventions are biased in favor of import-competing rather than export sectors and therefore restrict trade. In this paper, we show that if the government's objective reflects a concern for inequality then trade policy generally exhibits an anti-trade bias. Importantly, under neutral assumptions, the mechanism that we analyze generates the anti-trade bias independently of whether factors are specific or mobile across sectors. The mechanism also generates an anti-trade bias between large countries even after they sign reciprocal trade agreements that eliminate any terms-of-trade motivation for the use of trade protection.     

The Open Innovation Journey: How firms dynamically implement the emerging innovation management paradigm

Open Innovation is currently one of the most debated topics in management literature. Nevertheless, there are still many unanswered questions in Open Innovation research. Especially two issues require further investigation: (i) understanding the relevance of Open Innovation beyond high-tech industries and (ii) studying how firms implement Open Innovation in practice. The paper addresses these topics by studying, through an in-depth case study, the journey that the Italian leading cement manufacturer, has undergone to move from a Closed to an Open Innovation paradigm.The paper shows that the Open Innovation paradigm is implemented along a three-phase process that comprises the stages of unfreezing, moving and institutionalising. Moreover, it emerges that the changes through which Open Innovation has been implemented involve four major dimensions, i.e. networks, organisational structures, evaluation processes and knowledge management systems. They should be therefore conceived as the managerial and organisational levers an innovating firm can act upon to streamline its journey toward Open Innovation. Theoretical and managerial implications of using these levers for implementing Open Innovation are discussed at length.     

Foresighting FLOSS (free/libre/open source software) from a developing country perspective: The case of Turkey

Since free/libre open source software (FLOSS) promotes collaboration and contributions from different parties in software production and innovation processes, it can create a unique opportunity for developing countries, by generating an innovative capability in software technology. To benefit from this opportunity, it is important to understand the strategic factors and future trends that affect the development of an efficient FLOSS economy in developing countries.This paper aims to examine the strategic factors and future trends that are likely to affect the development and deployment of FLOSS in Turkey. Based on the internal and external factors identified through the practice of technological foresight, a SWOT analysis will be carried out to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for Turkey in creating a competitive software industry that can benefit from the advantages of FLOSS. Accordingly, with regard to the required technical infrastructure, an innovative/competitive business climate, skilled human resources and support for institutional structures, policy suggestions are outlined here that could be usefully implemented by government, industry and universities.     

Developmental approaches to B2B virtual communities

This paper analyses the development approaches of four business-to-business (B2B) virtual communities (VCs) and compares them through use of a cross-case analysis. The study indicated that there is no “one size fits all” method for developing VCs and that a structured, rigorous development methodology based on academic research is required in order to successfully create and manage VCs. It also found that the main challenge in creating successful VCs is not that of developing them, but that of developing an engagement and contribution culture.     

Open economy forecasting with a DSGE-VAR: Head to head with the RBNZ published forecasts

We construct a DSGE-VAR model for competing head to head with the long history of published forecasts of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. We also construct a Bayesian VAR model with a Minnesota prior for forecast comparison. The DSGE-VAR model combines a structural DSGE model with a statistical VAR model based on the in-sample fit over the majority of New Zealand’s inflation-targeting period. We evaluate the real-time out-of-sample forecasting performance of the DSGE-VAR model, and show that the forecasts from the DSGE-VAR are competitive with the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s published, judgmentally-adjusted forecasts. The Bayesian VAR model with a Minnesota prior also provides a competitive forecasting performance, and generally, with a few exceptions, out-performs both the DSGE-VAR and the Reserve Bank’s own forecasts.     

Does trade integration alter monetary policy transmission?

This paper explores the role of trade integration—or openness—for monetary policy transmission in a medium-scale new Keynesian model. Allowing for strategic complementarities in price setting, we highlight a new dimension of the exchange rate channel by which monetary policy directly impacts domestic inflation: a monetary contraction which appreciates the exchange rate lowers the local currency price of imported goods; this, in turn, induces domestic producers to lower their prices too. We pin down key parameters of the model by matching impulse responses obtained from a vector autoregression on time series for the US relative to the euro area. Our estimation procedure yields plausible parameter values and suggests a strong role for strategic complementarities. Counterfactual simulations show that openness alters monetary transmission significantly. While the contractionary effect of a monetary policy shock on inflation and output tends to increase in openness, we find that monetary policy's control over inflation increases, as the output decline which is necessary to bring about a given reduction of inflation is smaller in more open economies.     

英美中三国远程开放大学教学模式比较研究

本文对英国开放大学多种教学媒体支持的自主学习模式、美国国家技术大学的课堂教学远程传播模式、中国中央广播电视大学的"学导结合"的教学模式进行介绍和比较,并对我国发展现代远程开放教育进行了深入思考。