Exchange rate movements and foreign direct investment (FDI): Japanese investment in Asia, 1987–2008

The paper estimates the impact of exchange rate movements on foreign direct investment (FDI). By using the panel data of Japanese FDI flows to nine dynamic Asian economies during 1987–2008, the paper finds that (i) FDI declined with a depreciation of the yen against host country currencies; (ii) it increased with exchange rate volatility; and (iii) it was little affected by the Asian financial crisis, especially when disguised financial flows were removed from the data. A novel result concerns the negative response of FDI to the third moment of monthly exchange rate changes: the volume of FDI was smaller when the distribution was positively skewed (i.e., when the yen was biased towards relatively large depreciation shocks). If skewness proxies for expected mean-reverting changes, this supports the idea that source country investors care about the future stream of revenues and returns denominated in their own currency. These results are robust, with other standard control variables having statistically significant coefficients with expected signs.     

中国B2B电子商务发展的制度经济学分析

文章首先介绍了B2B电子商务在中国的发展现状,其次通过引入制度经济学的理论分析了B2B电子商务在我国发展的原因及进一步发展的阻力,最后得出B2B电子商务发展是制度变迁的结果的结论.     

浅析B2C商城的内部风险控制模式的确立

近年来,B2C电子商城多次出现价格标错等异常事件发生,对企业的声誉、经营及利润等带来很大的危害。为此,文章中提出根据电子商务企业的实际情况,建立一套相对完整、有效地内部风险控制模式。该内部风险控制模式主要包括人员管理控制、系统可靠性控制、流程控制及应急管理控制等四个方面的内容,从多个方面入手,努力降低突发异常事件对电子商务企业带来的伤害。     

仿真软件NS-2的分析

为了给网络协议进行性能评价，我们必须对仿真结果进行分析。本文介绍了NS-2的体系结构和使用过程，分析了NS-2的跟踪和输出格式，讨论了仿真结果的处理。     

基于服务便利理论的B2C服务结构维度探究

近年来,针对个人的电子商务在中国如火如荼地发展,B2C业务高速增长,引起了广泛关注。本文通过对B2C网站提供的电子商务服务的分析,结合服务便利理论,提出了B2C电子商务的便利服务的6个阶段,并把每个阶段分解为一个或若干个相关因子,同时对这些因子进行分析。     

Enlargement, the Lisbon Agenda, and the Economic Development of Member States

The issues of enlargement, the Lisbon Agenda, and economic development are important not only to new European Union (EU) member states but impact all 25 countries. EU membership may help the new members to foster long-term economic growth through increased credibility, effective use of structural funds, a better framework for economic growth, and entry into the European Monetary Union (EMU). The economic growth of all member states can be strengthened if the reforms related to the main goals of the Lisbon Agenda are completed. Action must be taken both at the member-state level and at the Community level. At the member-state level it is necessary to assure fiscal consolidation and deregulation. At the Community level the preservation of the Stability and Growth Pact, completion of the single market, especially in the service sector, and enforcement of limits on public aid are of the greatest importance.The 2006 Robert A. Mundell Distinguished Address presented at the Sixty-First International Atlantic Economic Conference. Berlin, Germany, 15–19 March 2006. In preparing this paper, I was assisted by Pawel Opala and Andrzej Rzońca. The usual caveats apply.     

ANTI-DUMPING AND MARKET ACCESS: A NOTE

For the duration of the currently stalled round of trade negotiations (the Doha Development Round) attention focused on the plight of developing countries under the current trade rules. One of the aspects under discussion is market access, and in particular the (ab)use of anti‐dumping measures to limit market access so that the progress made towards trade liberalisation is eroded. A popular assertion is that developed countries use anti‐dumping measures to protect their own industries against competition from developing countries. Part I of this short research note briefly takes stock of developments in this regard since the inception of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 1995. How has the use of anti‐dumping (AD) measures evolved? Who are the most active initiators of AD investigations and who are the victims? What is the spread between initiations of AD investigations and the actual imposition of AD measures? In Part II we consider selected AD issues, such as the determination of dumping margins and injury, administrative discretion, and the longevity of AD decrees.     

AID AND DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA: THE DEBATE, THE CHALLENGES AND THE WAY FORWARD

The article discusses the emerging literature and debates on aid, within the context of expected increases in aid flows to the continent. The trends in ODA flows indicate a reversal in aid flows to the continent since 2000, with subsequent increases in aid intensity and dependence. Although the more recent literature on aid is doubtful if aid only spurs growth in a in a good policy environment, the aid‐institutional debate indicates a clear aid‐institutional paradox, especially relating to the macroeconomic effects, the fiscal response, the absorptive capacity and the good governance aid debates. The literature further indicates that aid could serve as a barrier to vulnerable societies. From the donors' perspective, it is evident that quantity of aid does not imply quality and that the ultimate responsibility lies with recipient governments to ensure more efficient absorption of aid.     

Foreign investment,corporate governance and performance in the Chinese listed A Share companies

We present a novel lens on the presence and impact of qualified foreign institutional investors (QFII) in top shareholdings of the non-financial domestically listed Chinese ‘A’ share firms. The initial results suggest that the presence of a QFII as a top shareholder in these companies is associated with their better performance, using both Tobin’s Q and ROA as the performance measures. Our models include variables representing corporate governance mechanisms, foreign legal person shares, a proxy for international affiliations and a number of time-variant firm characteristics. Economically, the coefficient of impact on the market measure is the more significant, while the effect of having a QFII in top shareholdings on both performance measures is empirically significant. Previously, studies have often ignored the potential for reverse causality beyond using lagged regressors. This is problematic. Therefore, we follow up with a 2SLS instrumental variables and system GMM model to further mitigate this potential and find the empirical relationship holds. Contrary to earlier work on QFIIs and governance post-implementation of the QFII scheme, the findings from our models suggest that the presence of a QFII top shareholder augments market performance holding equal existing corporate governance mechanisms and other controls.