Informal Caregiving and the Retirement Decision

The probability of providing informal care grows with one's own age. While labor market effects due to caregiving are moderate, they could be concentrated in the years close to retirement. Therefore, I investigate whether care in the previous year leads to retirement in the year after by using German Socio‐Economic Panel data from 2001 to 2009 and discrete‐time hazard models. The effect of care on the retirement decision is indeed much higher than its effect on the labor or working hours of middle‐aged individuals. Women are affected to a larger extent but the retirement decision of men also reacts to their caregiving obligations.     

Strategies of Korean firms in china's high‐tech market: Striving for a new and sustainable business model

China has become a strategically important market for Korean companies. While cooperating with China is obviously important for their success and survival, a more difficult question lies in finding a new and sustainable business model applicable to China. This paper studies the current challenges and strategies of Korean Small and Medium‐sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the high‐tech market such as the mobile handset and online game industries that are trying to extend their business to China. It focuses on the issue that Korean firms face in order to find a way to survive and integrate with a rising China. By conducting an in‐depth firm level analysis, it examines their successes and failures in terms of what parts of the value chain they specialize in and how they establish a division of labor with China.     

Which Way is “Up” in Upgrading? Trajectories of Change in the Value Chain for South African Wine

Global Value Chain (GVC) analysis uses the concept of upgrading to highlight paths for developing country firms to “move up the value chain,” usually through the lenses of four categories—product, process, functional, and inter-sectoral upgrading. The implicit normative expectation is that these firms move toward producing higher value-added products and/or take on more sophisticated functions along a value chain. In this article, upgrading is approached more broadly as “reaching a better deal,” including a balance between rewards and risk. The case study of South African wine shows that better product quality, improved processes, and some functional upgrading have co-existed with processes of “downgrading,” higher risks, and limited rewards, especially in traditional export markets. A reflection on further conceptual development and directions for empirical research is also provided.     

The Hong Kong tourist satisfaction index

This study develops a tourist satisfaction assessment system based on a dual-model framework and demonstrates its general applicability. The first model concerns tourist satisfaction and its key antecedents and consequences. Structural equation modelling is employed to investigate the relationships amongst the constructs in the theoretical framework, and is then used as a basis for the computation of sectoral-level tourist satisfaction indexes. The second model is designed to estimate an aggregate service satisfaction index and an overall destination satisfaction index using a multiple indicator and multiple cause approach. The framework is applied to a large dataset that represents six tourism-related sectors and seven major source markets of inbound tourism to Hong Kong.     

Web users’ behavioural patterns of tourism information search: From online to offline

This paper presents a conceptual framework of Web users’ engagement in tourism information search for a comprehensive understanding of their integrated online and offline search behaviour. The information search experiences are characterised as a process constituting some common elements: prior knowledge and searching experiences, online searching strategies, processing and recording information, barriers to online searching, reasons for ending an online search, summarising information, exchanging information and searching for more information through other sources. Such behaviour goes beyond the scope of information searching and captures the other activities, including information processing, utilising and disseminating. The grounded theory research method is employed as an inductive investigative process in which the authors construct the framework by systematically collecting and analysing data. The aim of this research method is to build a theory. The data sets consist of both semi-structured in-depth interviews with subjects and their field observations based on online searching. A theoretical model incorporating 10 propositions is proposed for future testing.     

试探IGF2和H19基因与韦伯综合征的关系

笔者就韦伯综合征（Beckwith Wiedemannsyndrome,BWS）的特征,及IGF2与H19印迹基因各自生物学生性、印迹状况以及与BWS疾病的关系展开了详尽阐述。     

Vertical Specialization and Trade Growth in Northeast Asia

As the global economy has become further integrated, the international production chain has become more sophisticated, with diversified stages of production located in different countries. Economic theorists have argued that the fragmentation of the global production chain is partly attributable to the high growth in international trade over the past several decades. In this study, we examine vertical specialization in China, Japan and Korea, and its contribution to these nations' trade. Using a multilevel model, it is illustrated that vertical specialization has encouraged increases in trade among all three countries. In particular, China's outcome is remarkable considering how recently it became a member of the WTO.     

成本计量模式与企业成本控制机制研究

成本计量模式存在着制造环节、价值链与商业模式三个视角的划分,它们反映了不同成本效益对称情形,三者间具有层次演进性。从成本与利润的关系看,企业内部就是成本计量,利润则是市场角度的成本补偿计量,企业机制就可以视为在有意义的领域做出独特或某种与众不同的贡献而进行的成本流程安排。企业健康成本结构应该是一个开放的以接纳先进价值观的信息综合体。企业要获得可持续竞争力就必须树立科学的成本控制观念。     

基于古诺模型的四种市场的社会福利

市场根据垄断程度的不同。可以分为完全竞争、垄断竞争、寡头垄断和完全垄断市场四种类型。基于古诺模型，用博弈论方法研究n个厂商市场情形的总产量、价格、总收益和消费者剩余并把它们归纳为统一的公式。从四种市场情形总产量和价格的特点推出其供给曲线的形状，进而比较其社会福利的状况。研究结果表明，随着垄断性的加强，市场的社会福利会越来越劣，完全竞争市场的社会福利最好，垄断竞争市场次之，寡头垄断市场更次，完全垄断市场的社会福利最差。     

OUTPUT FLUCTUATIONS PERSISTENCE: DO CYCLICAL SHOCKS MATTER?

The aim of this paper is to identify the different sources of persistence of output fluctuations. We propose an unobserved components model that allows us to decompose GDP series into a trend component and a cyclical component. We let the drift of the trend component switch between different regimes according to a first‐order Markov process. To calculate an appropriate p‐value for a test of linearity we propose a bootstrap procedure, which allows for general forms of heteroscedasticity. The performance of the bootstrap is checked by means of a Monte Carlo simulation. Our study concerns the USA. We find that cyclical shocks appear to play an important role on the observed persistence of output.