Shipping route choice across geographies: Coastal vs. landlocked countries

This paper investigates how geography and transportation costs influence the decisions by shippers of which port of export to use. Using a large sample of disaggregated shipments originating from several countries in Europe, we show that European logistics networks exhibit a low level of international integration that affects shipping route choice. Furthermore, we find significant differences in shipping behaviors across landlocked and coastal countries, with shippers in landlocked countries avoiding long land transportation, crossing borders readily, and placing more value on transportation infrastructure. These findings have implications in designing port competitiveness strategies and economic development policies in landlocked countries.     

The impact of agricultural policy on farm income concentration: the case of regional implementation of the CAP direct payments in Italy

One of the objectives of agricultural policy worldwide concerns the support of farm income. Common Agricultural Policy direct payments (DPs) are the main instruments to support farm income in the European Union. This article addresses their role in the concentration of farm income. This is done by calculating the Gini coefficient and its disaggregation in a large sample of Italian farms in the period between 2006 and 2007. Although this approach has been used to develop ex‐post analysis in previous studies, this article is innovative given that it is used here in an ex ante analysis aimed at evaluating the likely impact of a recent reform proposal. This latter requests changing the current model to a regional model of DPs application to make payment rates (i.e., payment per hectare) homogeneous among farms in the same region. The analysis shows that DPs and farm incomes are both very concentrated but that DPs allow for an income concentration reduction in Italian farms. The shift to a regional implementation reduces DPs concentration and, to a limited extent, farm income concentration. Of the considered regionalization scenarios, those that redistribute DPs among regions are the most effective in reducing concentration. The extension of the Gini considered approach to an ex ante setting seems effective because it provides insights that could feed the policy debate regarding the forthcoming reform.     

New product development in foreign customer relationships: a study of international SMEs

Abstract

This study identifies a gap in research concerning how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can benefit from pursuing locally (rather than globally) oriented internationalization strategies. Becoming overly dependent on one single foreign market could potentially reduce the inflow and diversity of new knowledge that can serve as input for new product development. This study discusses how this risk can be minimized. In this endeavour we create a theoretical model that investigates how the local sales concentration and relationship-specific commitment of SMEs relates to new product development. To do this we draw on the behavioural internationalization process framework. The theoretical model is tested on an effective sample of 188 Swedish SMEs. The results show that relationship-specific commitment mediates the effect of local sales concentration on new product development. The implication is that investments which enable collaboration in important business relationships are crucial requisites for keeping firms innovative and in pace with market fluctuations. The findings thus contribute to international business literature by showing that a local market scope of operations combined with a relationship orientation are beneficial for new product development in international SMEs.     

钢材期货推出对于钢铁产业链的影响研究

本文从钢铁期货推出后对钢铁企业及其上下游的影响作了系统深入的分析,提出了钢材期货推出后应注意的问题,并得出结论:整体而言,钢材期货的推出利大于弊,是适应目前经济发展的合理举措。     

基于生态视角下的建筑业创新问题模拟研究

目前关于建筑行业创新投入、技术扩散、对建筑产业整体收益、产业集中度的影响难以用实际数据分析,因而从个体企业行为角度出发,根据多智能体理论,使用多主体仿真平台(Netlogo)建模平台,建立我国建筑业的交易行为互动流程,模拟运行建筑产业创新行为,观察并分析论证创新使产业集中度产生波动,创新企业数量与产业收益是U型关系,技术扩散速度对产业收益有极大影响的结论。     

降低阳极效应系数节能减排研究

文章对发生阳极效应时的损耗和降低阳极效应系数的可行性进行了分析,制定了相应措施保证电解质中氧化铝浓度,从而提高了效应受控率,达到节能减排的目的。     

跨国公司生产性服务业FDI地理集聚因素研究——基于中国1997—2009年的数据分析

信息壁垒的存在及高质量服务购买时的经验性特征,使跨国公司生产性服务业FDI在最初进入时往往会追随制造业。实证研究表明:除了制造业FDI,生产性服务业FDI往往和东道国制造业表现出很大的关联度;一国受教育程度、开放度等都是影响因素之一;东道国生产性服务业种类的上升会降低东道国制造业的生产成本。     

Participation index: a measure to identify rural transport disadvantage?

This paper develops a composite participation index (PI) to identify patterns of transport disadvantage in space and time. It is operationalised using 157 weekly activity-travel diaries data collected from three case study areas in rural Northern Ireland. A review of activity space and travel behaviour research found that six dimensional indicators of activity spaces were typically used including the number of unique locations visited, distance travelled, area of activity spaces, frequency of activity participation, types of activity participated in, and duration of participation in order to identify transport disadvantage. A combined measure using six individual indices were developed based on the six dimensional indicators of activity spaces, by taking into account the relativity of the measures for weekdays, weekends, and for a week. Factor analyses were conducted to derive weights of these indices to form the PI measure. Multivariate analysis using general linear models of the different indicators/indices identified new patterns of transport disadvantage. The research found that: indicator based measures and index based measures are complement each other; interactions between different factors generated new patterns of transport disadvantage; and that these patterns vary in space and time. The analysis also indicates that the transport needs of different disadvantaged groups are varied.     

促进我国装备制造业产业升级的思考

装备制造业是一国国民经济发展的战略性产业,先进的装备制造业,是实现工业化的必备条件,也是衡量一国国际竞争力的重要指标,它决定了一国在经济全球化进程中国际分工的地位。鉴于装备制造业如此重要的地位,文章从装备制造业的现状出发,分析我国装备制造业与发达国家的差距,提出了提高产业规模、促进技术进步、实施名牌战略和重视人才作用等改进措施。     

适合我国国情的矿产资源环境经济政策

我国是一个矿业大国,矿石产量名列世界前茅,我国又是一个矿业污染大国,每年破坏和占用的土地多达40千平方公里,而土地复垦率不足10％。目前,国家正处于资本积累期,有限的税收很少能分配到矿山环境保护上;矿业法制、法规不健全,矿山经营者的环境意识差,矿山企业没有自觉改善环境的动力。“谁污染、谁付费,谁治理、谁受益”的机制没有建立起来,没有人投资于矿山环保。在这种条件下,本文提出了实行排岩收费的设想。开创矿山环保产业,既符合“污染者付费原则”,体现了公平公正的原则,又为矿山土地复垦筹集到足够的资金,是一个利国、利民的好政策。