Productivity Growth, Efficiency and Outsourcing in Manufacturing and Service Industries

This paper is a survey of recent contributions to, and developments of, the relationship between outsourcing, efficiency and productivity growth in manufacturing and services. The objective is to provide a thorough and up–to–date survey that provides a significant discussion on data, as well as on the core methods of measuring efficiency and productivity. First, the readers are introduced to the measurement of partial and total factor productivity growth. Different parametric and non–parametric approaches to the productivity measurement in the context of static, dynamic and firm–specific modelling are discussed. Second, we survey the econometric approach to efficiency analysis. The issues of modelling, distributional assumptions and estimation methods are discussed assuming that cross–sectional or panel data are available. Third, the relationship between outsourcing and productivity growth in manufacturing and services is discussed. The correspondence between a number of hypotheses and empirical findings are examined. Examples of varieties of relevant empirical applications, their findings and implications are presented. Fourth, measurement of inputs and outputs in manufacturing and services are discussed. Finally, to promote useful research, a number of factors important to the analysis of outsourcing, efficiency and productivity growth in the service sector are summarised.     

风险投资背景异质性与退出时机选择——基于信任视角的实证研究

退出是风险投资获得投资回报、实现投资目标的关键环节,以我国2009—2016年深圳中小板和创业板IPO公司为研究样本,分析风险投资背景异质性对其退出时机的影响,并进一步检验风险投资机构与创业企业之间的信任在其中的调节作用。研究发现：风险投资背景异质性对其退出存在显著影响,与独立风险投资相比,公司风险投资在创业企业IPO后退出企业时间更晚;无论是基于声誉的信任还是基于制度的信任,风险投资机构与创业企业之间双向的信任都会促使公司风险投资更晚退出创业企业;相对于独立风险投资,公司风险投资更晚退出企业是为了追求战略回报。研究表明创业企业可以通过提升风险投资对其信任度来维护其投资管理,而风险投资机构则可以通过提升创业企业对其信任度来加深互惠互信的合作关系。     

Impacts of short-term interest rates on stock returns and exchange rates: Empirical evidence from EAGLE countries

In this study, we estimate Bayesian vector autoregression (BVAR) and time-varying structural VAR (TVP-VAR) models for Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico and Turkey to analyze the impacts of short-term interest rates on stock prices and exchange rates considering the relationships between these variables. BVAR and TVP-VAR models’ estimations indicate that monetary policy decisions of these countries lead to capital movements as well as capital movements may create a considerable amount of variation in exchange and stock markets both in the periods of economic stability and financial crisis. We also reveal that increases in interest rates intending to prevent capital outflows may lead to decrease in stock returns, which in turn may deteriorate the real economic activity in Indonesia, while changes in short-term interest rates in Brazil, Indonesia and Turkey cannot be used as a tool to stabilize the value of their home currencies against the USD. Our study highlights the importance of formulating an optimal monetary policy framework accompanied by macro-prudential polices, which help to reach inflation target and smooth the possible variations in exchange rates and stock prices during economic crisis conditions in Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico and Turkey.     

Does High Service Quality Reduce Risk or Create Idiosyncratic Returns?

This article explores the impact of service quality on idiosyncratic returns, idiosyncratic risk (nonsystematic risk), and beta (systematic risk). Service quality was derived from the airline quality rating, and three dependent variables were calculated by the Fama–French four-factor model. The data includes 1,512 monthly records from 1997 to 2006, across 21 airlines. Multiple regression and vector autoregressive models were applied to test relationships among all, low-cost, and non-low-cost airlines. The study found that service quality has a positive impact on idiosyncratic returns in non-low-cost airlines; non-low-cost airlines are less affected by changes in the external environment.     

依靠技术改造矿井 增加企业发展后劲

通过技术改造,广西右江矿务局长岭煤矿产量连年上升。文章分析了技术改造过程及其经济效益。     

谈手动涂胶泵系统在低成本、高价值企业中的应用

文章通过对手动涂胶泵系统与传统的支装胶手动涂胶系统进行对比,阐述了在车身制造过程中手动涂胶泵系统的运用给企业所带来的经济效益。     

Managing Returns in E-Business

ABSTRACT

This paper is a discussion of managing returned goods in e-business. After a discussion of literature on reverse logistics management issues it discusses some preliminary findings of a research project undertaken with the Australian e-business organisations. Research findings discussed in this paper indicate that a good return management process supports customer relationship management and enables capturing value by reselling, and redistributing returned products. It also highlights that effectively managing returns in e-business allows recapturing value from products. It is concluded from this research that reverse logistics is an important business process in e-business.     

商业退回逆向物流网络优化模型研究

针对如何使商业退回成本最小,文中建立了一个数学模型,将商业退回逆向物流系统用一个由顾客、初始回收点和回收中心三类联结点以及它们之间的运输路线组成的网络来表示。为了验证模型的有效性,文中将模型应用于案例分析,最终根据模型求解结果为案例提供了一个具体的解决方案,对案例的求解结果进行了检验。     

Expectation-driven fluctuations and welfare loss under free trade in two-country models

This paper investigates the interlinkage in the business cycles based on expectation-driven fluctuations of large-country economies in a free-trade equilibrium. We consider a two-country, two-good, two-factor general equilibrium model with sector-specific externalities. We show that some country's expectation-driven fluctuations can spread throughout the world once trade opens even if the other country has determinacy under autarky. We thus prove that under free trade, globalization and market integration can have destabilizing effects on a country's competitive equilibrium. Finally, we characterize a configuration in which opening to international trade improves the stationary welfare at the world level but deteriorates the stationary welfare of the country that imports investment goods and exports consumption goods. We conclude that in opposition to the standard belief, international trade might not be beneficial to all trading partners in the long run.     

Statistical properties of returns: Financial assets versus commercial real estate

This study examines the distribution of commercial real estate returns by region (east, midwest, south, and west), by property type (office, retail, R&D office, and warehouse) and in the aggregate, and compares their distributions to those of financial assets. Nominal and real returns are examined for quarterly, semiannual, and annual periods. The quarterly nominal returns on the financial assets are mostly normal with very little indication of autocorrelation. In contrast, non-normality and autocorrelation are present in most of the nominal quarterly real estate series. The non-normality is greatly reduced when semiannual or annual returns are considered or when the quarterly series are corrected for autocorrelation. The non-normality is also lower for real returns than it is for nominal returns.