Reforming state-market relations in rural China1

Because of the political importance of stable and affordable food prices, governments in transitional economies in Europe and Asia fkequently struggle to balance the desire to maintain state controls in the rural sector with the goal of promoting market development and privatizing or commercializing state agencies involved in rural trade or finance. This paper examines institutional change in China's rural state agencies during the reform period, focusing on the conflict between managerial incentives to maximize profits, on the one hand, and implement policy, on the other. We explain the reasons for changing contractual incentives and authority arrangements over time, assess the effects of new institutional forms on economic performance and policy implementation, and consider reform options.     

Russian commodity exchanges: A case study of organized markets in the transition process, 1990-96

Few developments are more significant in transitional economics than the development of organized commodity and financial markets. Working from a transaction costs framework, this paper analyses a set of these markets, the Russian commodity exchanges, and their attempts to order trade in commodities in the period 1990-96. These exchanges have incurred high transaction costs both in defining the property rights involved in trading and in overcoming the problems of agent search and 'immediacy'. Parallels between Russian commodity exchanges and other organized markets in Eastern Europe are drawn and remedies for the problems encountered are suggested.     

Wages distribution in Poland: The roles of privatization and international trade, 1992-96

This paper reports an investigation into the changes in the wage distribution in Poland in the first half of the 1990s. We concentrate on the effects of privatization and international trade. We show that the tendency towards increased dispersion in wages halted between 1992 and 1996, despite a rapid expansion in private-sector work. We also show that, during the same period, private-sector workers typically earned less than their state-sector counterparts on an hourly basis, and this gap widened. However, if one controls for experience, tenure and size of workplace, then there existed a small positive private-sector premium. On the effects of international trade, we find suggestive circumstantial evidence that the increase in trade with Western Europe raised wages and employment in manufacturing.     

Tourism and rural settlements Nepal’s Annapurna region

Functional and humanist perspectives relevant to counterurbanization studies are applied to examine the processes of growth and development of rural settlements affected by tourism. Based on a survey of tourism lodges located in several settlements in the Annapurna region of Nepal, this paper analyzes tourism-induced growth in such accommodations and its implications on changing characteristics. Results suggest the emergence of a hierarchical structure of rural settlements with core and peripheral traits. A normative classification of induced patterns defined by their development stage, size, and function is proposed. Historical, social, and economic influences on the transformation of rural settlements are discussed.     

Taiwan aboriginal ecotourism: Tanayiku Natural Ecology Park

This paper discusses research into an ethno/ecotourism site developed by the Tsou nation of southern Taiwan. The Tanayiku Natural Ecology Park receives approximately 450,000 tourists annually. This paper assesses, from a poststructuralist perspective, the theoretical implications of what is termed an “ecocultural renaissance”. It shows that the park functions in two contradictory ways. First, it is a site of geopolitical resistance to colonization for the Tsou. Second, it is as a site of topological consumption—which is, effectively, continued colonization—by tourists. Paradox notwithstanding, the paper discusses why Tanayiku represents a rare example of a successful community-based ecotourism operation owned and operated exclusively by an aboriginal group.     

建立和实施食品安全应急准备响应机制

依据ISO22000:2005和HAGGP对食品安全的应急准备响应机制进行阐述,提出针对食品链上相关组织的针对食品安全的应急准备与响应的系统模式,并在此基础上提出实施流程和要则。     

Competing industries in islands a new tourism approach

Many islands host both tourism and offshore finance, but their coexistence has been little researched. This paper examines their relationship via a case study of the British Channel Island of Jersey. Both sectors require labor, land, and capital—all frequently scarce in small islands. The study considers the nature of the relationship and resource competition. In light of the unusual context of small polities and the political power of external actors, it also analyzes the dynamics of tourism, offshore finance, and the state in islands. The overall impact of the relationship between tourism and offshore finance is further examined, to suggest how this affects islands’ economic development.     

To tell the truth or the perceived truth: Structural estimation of peer effects in China’s macroeconomic forecast

This study investigates the strategic interactions among China’s professional macroeconomic forecasters in the context of a static game with incomplete information. Professional forecasters attempt to be more precise than their peers when they are uncertain about others’ ability to forecast, given their own ability to forecast macroeconomy. We then empirically estimate the peer effects using the two-step method proposed by Bajari et al. (2010). The results identify a pronounced peer effect among professional forecasters and specify the asymmetric peer effect exerted by prominent professional forecasters. The results remain valid through several robustness checks. The forecast customers must thus address the peer effects due to competition among professional forecasters when they use forecasting reports.     

Hospitals’ strategic behaviours and patient mobility: Evidence from Italy

This study explores the behaviour of hospitals in Lombardy in attracting patients from outside the region and investigates the effects on the quality of care to regional patients, where treatment of the latter is constrained by a budget cap while extra-regional patients represent an unconstrained source of revenue. The data suggest that hospitals use waiting time and length of stay to attract extra-regional patients. Regional patients in both private and public hospitals with higher proportions of extra-regional patients are characterized by lower mortality rates and reimbursement costs. These results suggest that the market for extra-regional patients has no negative effects on resident patients. Finally, the pattern of reimbursement for extra-regional care generates a financial flow in favour of wealthier regions, exacerbating the North–South divide in the National Health Service. Some form of regulation for extra-regional mobility is advisable to reduce the gap.     

Economic geography and emerging market clusters: A co-evolutionary study of local and non-local networks in Bangalore

The presence of network ties within location plays a significant role in organization and evolution of clusters. This has proven to be particularly true for clusters specializing in knowledge intensive industries, where the organization of resources – people and technology – has been a primary driver for firm and regional performance. With the help of a longitudinal case study of the Bangalore IT cluster in India, we investigate the effect of local and non-local network ties on its evolution. We argue that networks – both local and non-local – play an important role in the development of cluster. We propose a non-linear relationship between cluster evolution phases and the type of network ties most prominent. Our study also outlines the role that embedding, expansion, and extension of ties plays in transitioning cluster from one phase to the other. The consideration of non-local ties is rather nascent in the cluster literature and promises to enhance the understanding of how clusters develop at both levels – policy as well as firm.