China’s direct investment in the European Union: challenges and policy responses

The dramatic rise of Chinese direct investment into the European Union (EU) has sparked a debate about the control that China may be seeking to take over European economies. Quite naturally, these concerns have led to repeated calls that action be taken to slow down, if not to halt entirely, this growing trend. The objective of the article is to shed light on this debate. Following a thorough analysis of Chinese direct investment in the EU, this article suggests that the challenges posed by these inflows are widely overblown. Despite this, the article concludes that it is necessary to have a systematic approach to regulating inbound foreign investment (including from China) in the EU. Such an approach may help guard against the risk of a protectionist drift inside the EU, as well as the possibility that some investors may one day pose a threat to national security. This article concludes that although the current fragmented regulatory approach is unsatisfactory, because of the difficulties associated with a unified EU-wide review process, the most realistic option is to promote a more systematic and coordinated use of existing mechanisms such as competition policy. Also, pushing for the negotiation of a China–EU BIT is certainly a promising avenue to enhance the EU’s bargaining leverage based on the principle of positive reciprocity.     

养老机构发展呼唤创新——基于北京市海淀区养老机构的调研

由于老龄人口剧增,加之社会转型、政府职能转变和家庭养老功能弱化,老年人群,特别是高龄和带病老年人对于社会服务的需求迅速增长,这无疑给现存的养老服务体系带来巨大的冲击和压力。通过对北京市海淀区养老机构长达数月的调研,我们了解到目前入住老人大多身患多种疾病,身体状况普遍较差,大部分老人选择入住养老机构是出于自己的意愿,但是,老人的收入水平限制了其对机构养老方式的选择。通过调研我们还发现,现存养老机构发展面临着资金不足、经营困难以及许多体制性障碍,为促进养老机构发展,在加大投入力度、加快投入步伐、创新投入方式满足社会对养老机构的需求外,应强化保障性养老机构中政府的作用和理顺养老机构的管理体制。此外,由于短时间内,大幅度增加养老机构确有困难,可以规范管理社会化居家养老服务,起到一定的补充、替代作用。     

土地职能和土地产权制度选择——中国土地产权私有化有效性质疑

本文明确反对土地私有化政策,并在重新界定土地职能的基础上,证明了土地私有化在带来生产增益和经济绩效改善的同时,必将对中国产生重大的不利影响。在中国的基本国情和当前生产力发展水平下,土地私有化将使中国爆发"马尔萨斯危机"的可能性处于不可控制的境地。另外,作为基础性制度安排的现有土地产权制度是中国特色经济发展模式的重要特征,是缓解经济危机失业压力的重要缓冲器。     

Expert opinion and cuisine reputation in the market for restaurant meals

As food is an experience good, the market for restaurant meals is a market where the cost of acquiring information regarding quality is relatively high. In such markets consumers often turn to reputation measures to guide purchase decisions. As Australia does not have a longstanding cuisine style of its own, and given Australia has been open to substantial immigration inflows since federation, it represents an especially appropriate market to study regarding the impact of individual restaurant reputation and collective cuisine reputation on meal prices. The following study uses the hedonic price approach to investigate the implicit price of individual reputation indicators, cuisine type reputation indicators and other objective indicators in the market for restaurant meals. The empirical findings presented suggest that both individual restaurant reputation and cuisine type reputation are important. Other important factors are shown to include the quality of the restaurant wine list, the availability of private dining rooms, and whether or not there is an outdoor dining option.     

当前中国周边安全环境与战略选择

纵向观察,建国以来中国周边安全环境总体向好,但时起时伏;横向比较,当前中国周边安全环境依然严峻。当前中国周边安全环境的现状是北稳南动,西缓东急。当前中国周边安全环境面对的最大挑战有朝鲜半岛安全问题、中日钓鱼岛主权与东海划界问题、南中国海问题、美国对台军售问题,以及复杂的中印关系等。当前中国周边安全战略应继续坚持与邻为善,以邻为伴的大方针;继续坚持睦邻、友邻、安邻和富邻的周边外交政策;具体执行中采取睦北、缓西、稳南和进东战略,为中国未来10年黄金发展期创造和平安宁的周边环境。     

Food Prices Policy in Israel: A Strategic Instrument

Abstract:

The goal of this research is to demonstrate a significant importance of state policy of food prices supervision in Israel. The article begins with a detailed discussion of the healthy food basket’s components, based on the Israeli Ministry of Health recommendations. Next, we present the prices of the goods included in the basket, and a calculated estimate of the per capita cost of funding the basket. Based on this cost figure, we assess the economic ability of Israeli households to purchase the basket. The results show that two lowest quintiles would have trouble paying the price of a basic health food basket. Further, it describes the food prices in Israel and its significance, Israel’s food market and the major regulatory tools associated with the food market. In the end, we define the need for short-term and longer-term regulation of food costs, and the necessity of expanding competition in the food market.     

Land,Gender, and Food Security

Since 2008, a surge in large-scale land acquisitions, or land grabs, has been taking place in low- and middle-income countries around the globe. This contribution examines the gendered effects of and responses to these deals, drawing on nine studies, which include conceptual framing essays that bring in debates about human rights, studies that draw on previous waves of land acquisitions globally, and case studies that examine the gendered dimensions of land dispossession and loss of common property. Three key insights emerge: the evolving gender and land tenure literature provides valuable information for understanding the likely effects of land deals; some of the land deal issues transcend gender-equity concerns and relate to broader problems of dispossession and loss of livelihoods; and huge gaps remain in our knowledge of gender and land rights that require urgent attention and systematic integration of gender analysis into mainstream research.     

Personality traits,basic individual values and GMO risk perception of twitter users

Abstract

The present study investigates how the most foundational factors to individual differences – personality traits and personal values – affect the perceived safety of genetic modification and their relative importance. Publicly available communication data from 522 Twitter accounts discussing genetically modified foods and their safety was processed in two steps. First, accounts were categorized by the researchers as viewing GM foods as either safe or not safe. Second, using the IBM Watson platform, the Twitter communication data were subjected to lexical analysis to assign scores according to the Five Factor Model for personality traits and Schwartz’s basic individual values to the individual accounts. Logistic regression analyses were performed to determine how perceived GM food safety is linked to personality traits and individual values. Although both traits and values significantly contribute to explaining GM attitudes, personality traits strongly moderate the effect of individual values on risk perception.     

Understanding heterogeneity in price changes and firm responses to a national unhealthy food tax in Mexico

To address the high prevalence of overweight and obesity in Mexico, an eight percent ad valorem excise tax on non-essential energy-dense foods came into effect on 1 January 2014. This paper estimates price changes after the tax implementation among the top four food categories and by leading vs. non-leading firms using purchase information from over 6000 urban households in the 2012–2015 Nielsen Mexico Consumer Panel. We create product-city-month specific prices that correct for potential biases associated with household and retailer characteristics. Using these corrected prices, we conduct before and after quasi-experimental analyses and find that price increases were larger than eight percent for cookies but were less than eight percent for ready-to-eat cereals, salty snacks, and pre-packaged sweet bread. For the latter food group, event-study analyses on the gradual price change over time suggest that price changes might be the result of an increasing price trend rather than the tax implementation. Firm-level analyses mostly show that price increases by the leading firms were larger than the overall increase at the food market level, helping explain variability in post-tax declines in food purchases as reported in other research. We also find that price changes are generally underestimated when we do not correct prices for biases associated with households and retailers. These results improve our understanding of the mechanisms behind heterogeneous changes in purchases after the tax implementation. Additionally, these results can assist policymakers when designing or improving taxes on non-essential energy-dense foods at a time when these policy options are high on the agenda in many places.     

浅析新时期高校学生公寓安全问题新趋势及解决对策

学生公寓是大学生生活学习的主要场所。近年来,学生公寓中呈现的安全问题也日趋多样化、复杂化。文章就目前新时期高校所呈现的公寓安全问题新趋势进行了剖析,提出了相应的解决对策。