Urban heritage and cultural tourism development: a case study of Valletta’s role in Malta’s tourism

ABSTRACT

Despite significant potential for cultural tourism, the predominant form of tourism in Malta is sun and sea. This paper evaluates Malta’s potential for cultural tourism with a focus on Valletta, a fortified historic city that overlooks the Grand Harbour. Valletta’s rich urban heritage and historic narrative makes it ideal for the development of a more culture-oriented tourism. The paper explores how, over more than half a century of tourism activity in Malta, culture and heritage retained a secondary role. Since the mid-nineties, Malta’s tourism policy shifted with culture and heritage being given greater importance, even if the sun and sea tourism remained a priority. Public and private investment brought about changes in Valletta that made it more amenable to cultural activity and tourism. Although European Capital of Culture Valletta 2018 provides new opportunities for cultural tourism to Malta, it is unclear whether this will bring a lasting legacy for Malta’s tourism. This Valletta case study shows that, for destinations with an established form of tourism, the development of cultural tourism meets with difficulties, in spite the presence of a rich urban heritage.     

Sustainable efficiency drivers in Eurasian airports: Fuzzy NDEA approach based on Shannon's entropy

This research explores the physical infrastructure and flight consolidation efficiency drivers of Eurasian airports regarding their infrastructure and movement productivity levels. A novel Fuzzy Double-Frontier Network DEA (FDFNDEA) model is proposed to investigate the relationship between desirable (freight and passenger turnovers) and undesirable (pollutant emission levels due to aircraft movements) outputs against the respective infrastructure usage, fuel consumed, and movements performed at each of the 23 Eurasian airports from 2000 to 2018. This balance between desirable and undesirable outputs emerges spatially and temporally due to the evolution of the airport system's productive resources at each one of the Eurasian countries over the period observed. Shannon's entropy is used as the cornerstone to quantify the input and output vagueness of this evolution in Triangular Fuzzy Numbers (TFN), thus allowing the accurate building of alternative optimistic and pessimistic double-frontier efficiency. Differently from previous research, Shannon's entropy is the key for measuring input and output vagueness levels in light of the maximal entropy principle. This principle states that the distribution that best represents the current state of knowledge is the one with largest entropy. Maximal entropy yields bias-free decision-making in the sense that the input/output distributional profiles for Eurasian airports contain the maximal possible heterogeneity, working as a robust or best/worst-case scenario against eventual unconsidered assumptions. Hence, optimistic and pessimistic Malmquist Productivity Indexes (MPI) for overall and each stage productivity results are subsequently regressed against contextual variables related to airport characteristics and regional socio-demographic and economic indicators of each Eurasian country using bootstrapped Cauchy regressions. The findings revealed the spatial heterogeneity of productivity factors and airport performance across Eurasia. Results also demonstrated the negative impact of income inequality and the positive impact of private participation on technological progression in the Eurasian airport industry.     

海峡两岸反垄断法实施之比较分析

反垄断法是维护市场经济秩序的基本法律制度。台湾地区公平交易法实施已逾二十载,反垄断执法、司法制度日渐成熟。大陆反垄断法自2008年实施以来,虽然存在许多问题,但亦在逐步的向前发展。立足于两岸反垄断法实施现实,选取执法对象、执法主体、和解制度、司法程序以及法律责任等两岸典型的反垄断实施制度进行比较研究,以期对大陆反垄断法的合理实施及具体制度的完善有所裨益。     

Corporate Governance and the Goal of the Firm: In Defense of Shareholder Wealth Maximization

This essay is based on my keynote address at the 2016 annual meeting of the Eastern Finance Association. I propose that misunderstandings about the traditional model of corporate governance, with its emphasis on shareholder wealth maximization, contribute to negative societal attitudes about corporations. I discuss the implications of shareholder wealth maximization for other corporate stakeholders, the dangers of deviating from shareholder wealth maximization, and the roles that the media and the government play in the governance of corporations.     

基于极大代数理论的城市轨道交通模型研究

利用极大代数方法建立了一线型开环城市轨道交通模型,通过引入周期输入控制,讨论了列车发车间隔与运行时间矩阵及系统无阻塞之间的关系。通过分析得到结论:当列车发车间隔不小于列车运行时间矩阵中的最大值时,系统将是无阻塞的,并且对于时间参数的摄动具有一定的鲁棒性,超过该范围时,需要对列车进行调整。     

论铁路犯罪现场摄影

铁路刑事案件主要是指发生在铁路公安机关管辖的铁路站场、列车、线路空间范围内的各种犯罪。由于在案件构成上具有一定的特殊性，铁路犯罪现场摄影应该根据铁路犯罪现场的属性来系统地记录现场状况。认识铁路犯罪现场的重要性和特殊性，是搞好铁路犯罪现场摄影的内在要求。铁路犯罪现场摄影特殊性主要是在拍摄铁路犯罪现场照片过程中，如何结合铁路犯罪现场构成的特性以及铁路犯罪现场存在、处置的条件和专业要求等来做好现场摄影工作。铁路犯罪现场摄影应按照及时、全面、客观、细致的要求来完成。     

中三角城市群与长三角城市群市场一体化及影响因素比较研究

采用相对价格法和1 246组城市对数据,对1999-2013年中三角城市群和长三角城市群市场一体化程度进行测度与比较分析,运用熵权法构建了复合指标和固定效应模型,对两大城市群市场一体化影响因素进行了实证研究。结果显示：近15年来,两大城市群市场一体化水平均呈上升趋势,但中三角城市群市场一体化水平和进程均滞后于长三角城市群;地方保护主义、经济外向度和交通基础设施是影响两大城市群市场一体化的共同因素。其中,地方保护主义和经济外向度是两大城市群市场一体化的主要障碍,而交通基础设施有利于促进两大城市群市场一体化;信息通达度、经济发展水平和城镇化水平是影响两大城市群市场一体化的差异化因素。其中,经济发展水平和城镇化水平制约了中三角城市群市场一体化,却促进了长三角城市群市场一体化,信息通达度阻碍了长三角城市群市场一体化,却促进了中三角城市群市场一体化。     

税收征管数字化升级与上市公司信息披露违规——“金税三期”工程的治理效应检验

上市公司的信息披露违规行为阻碍了资本市场的健康平稳发展,以“金税三期”工程为代表的税收征管数字化升级则为治理信息披露违规提供了一条有效路径。将“金税三期”工程作为一项准自然实验,采用2007—2021年沪深A股上市公司数据,通过多时点双重差分模型检验税收征管数字化升级对上市公司信息披露违规行为的治理效应,结果发现：税收征管数字化升级显著抑制了上市公司信息披露违规的发生和次数,其中存在通过改善信息环境和优化公司治理抑制信息披露违规的双重传导路径;地区税收征管强度和行业竞争程度的提高会强化税收征管数字化升级对上市公司信息披露违规行为的抑制作用,内部控制质量的提高可以强化税收征管数字化升级对信息披露违规次数的抑制作用,而对信息披露违规发生则表现出两者具有替代关系。因此,政府部门应持续推进税收征管数字化升级,强化税收征管并采取差异化措施,企业则应不断提高内部控制质量,以充分发挥税收大数据的治理功效。     

社会事业与公共财政

加快发展社会事业、全面改善人民生活是实现我国社会经济协调发展的必然要求,也是人民对全面建设小康社会、构建社会主义和谐社会新的期待。就性质而言,社会事业与公共财政具有天然的一致性。要想促进社会事业健康快速发展,则必须有公共财政的大力支持与推动。为使公共财政对社会事业的支持效益最大化,推动效果科学化,势必通过探赜社会事业的科学内涵与了解其在我国的认知实践历程及其区域特征,从而厘清其发展逻辑;势必通过正视社会事业对于解决基本民生和构建和谐社会的重要作用与现实意义,从而树立其科学的发展思路与坚定的发展观。只有这样,公共财政才能自觉地担负起其对社会事业的基础性、引导性和保障性责任。