The impacts of risk-taking behaviour and competition on technical efficiency: Evidence from the Chinese banking industry

This paper tests the impact of risk and competition on efficiency in the Chinese banking industry over the period 2003–2013. Comprehensive types of risk-taking behaviour are considered including credit risk, liquidity risk, capital risk, and insolvency risk. Competition is measured by the Lerner index. The results are cross-checked using an alternative econometric technique as well as an alternative competition indicator. The findings show that the technical and pure technical efficiencies of Chinese commercial banks are significantly and negatively affected by liquidity risk. They further show that greater competition precedes declines in technical and pure technical efficiencies of Chinese commercial banks. The results suggest that Chinese bank efficiency is significantly affected by bank diversification, banking sector development, stock market development, inflation and GDP growth rate. The findings also indicate that, compared to state-owned commercial banks, joint-stock commercial banks and city commercial banks have lower technical and pure technical efficiencies.     

On the global supply of basic research

In a two-country Schumpeterian growth model, we study the incentives for basic research investments by governments in a globalized world. A country׳s basic research investments increase with the country׳s level of human capital and decline with its own market size. This may explain why some smaller countries invest so much in basic research. Compared with the optimal investments achievable when countries coordinate their basic research policies, a single country may over-invest in basic research. However, the total amount of decentralized basic research investments is always below the socially optimal investment level, which justifies policy coordination in this area.     

The accountable governance of provincial governments of a Pacific island country

ABSTRACT

Using the theory of indigenous alternatives and a benchmark of indigenous financial reporting expectations, this paper examines the challenges to accountable governance of the nine provincial governments of the Solomon Islands for the years 1998 to 2017. Every provincial government consistently received disclaimed or qualified opinions from the state auditor. The author explains why the regional development of all provinces of the Solomon Islands could be improved if rudimentary forms of financial reporting were to be addressed.     

新中国成立60周年新疆的工业发展回顾与成就

解放前，新疆的工业几乎一片空白。新疆成立后，在国家的大力支持下，新疆工业发展从无到有、从小到大，特别是改革开放三十年，更是新疆工业发展最快、成效最好的时期。本文通过对新疆工业发展历程的回顾，阐述了新疆工业发展取得的显著成就，即逐步形成了以石油天然气开采和石油化工为主导，以纺织、轻工、建材、钢铁、电力为支柱，包含煤炭、食品、机械电子、有色金属等门类较为齐全、产品丰富、特色鲜明的较为完善的现代工业体系。     

Uniform or spatially differentiated? Pricing Strategies for Information Goods under simultaneous and sequential decision-making in multi-market context

Product pricing has been one of the central issues in the field of marketing and consumer services for managers and researchers alike. However, pricing of information goods has not been paid much attention in literature. For information goods the marginal costs of production and transportation of information goods (online movies, video games, etc.) is almost zero. Hence, the pricing decisions need to be thought of purely in competitive profit maximizing terms. This paper proposes mechanisms for managers to evaluate and base their pricing decisions on rational frameworks that takes into account various situations when they enter a new market and when they are incumbent in a new market. This paper addresses the research gap of spatially differentiated pricing strategy for information goods that has not been studied in literature so far. We create stylized theoretical models under both, sequential and simultaneous decision-making conditions. We determine the equilibrium price and the equilibrium profit for the two firms for each of the four possible scenarios based on their pricing strategies. Our analysis reveals that the dominance of one pricing strategy over the other depends on product differentiation factor capturing joint effect of the product substitutability and consumer's price sensitivity under sequential decision making and the market size along with consumer's price sensitivity for simultaneous decision making. As an extension, we propose a generalized model demonstrating the uniform and spatially differentiated pricing strategies of the firms under simultaneous and sequential selection for multiple domestic and international markets.     

网络经济下的企业竞合关系的演变

随着信息技术的快速发展，社会经济转型加速，网络经济已经形成并迅速发展。企业的经济运行环境随之发生了巨大的变化，传统的企业间竞合关系认识以及相关战略已经很难适应网络经济下企业的发展需要。本文在回顾西方经济理论关于合作的理论的基础上，从网络经济的诸多特征出发，依据交易成本理论和博弈论方法分析了网络经济下企业广泛开展合作的动因，并介绍了企业合作的实现形式。     

基于生态位的奥运赞助企业品牌竞争研究

在当今社会,竞争涉及社会的各个领域,尤其是经济领域。而在经济领域,最重要,最突出的竞争就是品牌竞争。所谓企业品牌生态位就是企业在其品牌生态系统中所确定的"生态位",依据企业品牌生态位的形成探讨奥运赞助企业品牌的优势生态位,以此制定出奥运赞助企业品牌国际化的"生态"策略。     

涉农供应链时间竞争的基本障碍分析

在传统的农业技术条件和涉农供应链管理模式下,典型的涉农链在时间竞争的强化与柔性机制的建立上面临诸多局限和障碍：（1）横亘于涉农供应链两类制造业之间的“速度陷区”.（2）“刚性点阵”.（3）“弱刹车机制”.（4）异构性问题.（5）时间竞争工具的有限性.（6）涉农供应链特殊的物流路径特征模式.上述诸因素综合作用形成了现实中两种常见的涉农链时间反应模式：弱反应模式和高成本反应模式.而现代供应链管理理念指导下涉农供应链时间竞争追求的却是-种有效反应模式.建立涉农供应链时间竞争的有效反应模式是一个复杂艰巨的过程.     

Can Federal Grants Mitigate Social Competition?

The European economic integration leads to increasing mobilityof factors, thereby threatening the stability of social transferprograms. This article investigates the possibility to achieveby means of voluntary matching grants both the optimal allocationof factors and the optimal level of redistribution in the presenceof factor mobility. We use a fiscal competition model a la Wildasin(1991) in which states differ in their technologies and preferencesfor redistribution. We first investigate a simple process inwhich the federal authority progressively raises the matchinggrants to the district choosing the lowest transfer and alldistricts respond optimally to the resulting change in transfersall around. This process is shown to increase efficiency ofboth production and redistribution. However, it does not guaranteethat all districts gain, nor that an efficient level of redistributionis attained. Assuming complete information among districts,we derive the willingness of each district to match the contributionof other districts and we show that the aggregate willingnessto pay for matching rates converges to zero when both the efficientlevel of redistribution and the efficient allocation of factorsare achieved. We then describe an adjustment process for thematching rates that will lead districts to the efficient outcomeand guarantee that everyone will gain. (JEL Classification:H23, H70)     

Reforming the Taxation of Multijurisdictional Enterprises in Europe

In 2001, the European Commission proposed replacing the currentsystem of taxation of multinational companies by the taxationof a consolidated base, computed at the level of all the Europeanentities of a multinational enterprise, and then distributedfor taxation purposes among the various jurisdictions in whichthese entities operate, according to pre-established criteria.In this article, we propose a discussion, especially focusingon two related issues, the choice of the formula and the compositionof the consolidating area—either the entire European Union(EU) or some Member States within an Enhanced Cooperation Agreement—,as well as on their impact on the size and distribution of taxrevenue and economic activity, and on the intensity of tax competition.Our tentative policy conclusion is that the reform deservessupport provided that (i) the formula puts emphasis on criteriathat the firm may not too easily manipulate, (ii) the activitiesof the multijurisdictional enterprise are enough mobile, (iii)the consolidation is made compulsory within the consolidatingarea and (iv) the consolidating area protects its capacity toactually levy tax by adopting a crediting system vis-à-visthe rest of the world. (JEL code: H32, H73, H87)