Development in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Statistics at the Australian Bureau of Statistics

This paper outlines the ICT statistical developments that the ABS has undertaken over recent years. These developments have been on both the supply side (ICT industry) and the demand side (use of IT by sector). The content of ABS ICT surveys has changed significantly over the last few years and are expected to develop further in line with industry changes and emerging policy needs.
Recent developments in household collections have been the inclusion of IT use questions in the 2001 Census of Population and Housing and in various ABS social surveys such as Children's Participation in Culture and Leisure Activities. Annual business IT use surveys are now conducted and include topics such as Internet commerce and IT security. Biennial ICT industry surveys are conducted to provide data on ICT production, imports and exports, ICT industry employment, performance and structure information. An Internet activity survey is run every six months and provides regional Internet access details and infrastructure details on Internet service providers.
A major development for 2002–03 will be the compilation of an ICT satellite account. ABS intends to produce an ICT Information Development Plan to guide its future statistical development work in the ICT field.     

FDI facilitated by agglomeration economies: evidence from manufacturing and services joint ventures in China

The open door policy of China’s economic reform since the 1980s has attracted heavy foreign direct investment (FDI) flows into China and especially to Guangdong (particularly the Pearl River Delta region, PRD) and induced significant economic growth during the past two decades. While there exist various classical theories of FDI in attempting to identify the determinants of FDI inflow and to explain the behavior of FDI flows, limited attention has been given from the perspective of agglomeration effects generated by a core-periphery (CP) relation.This paper intends to study the impacts of agglomerations on FDI inflows in the context of Krugman’s CP relation (1991) by investigating (1) the formation of a CP relation via gravity model analysis; (2) whether different types of industry FDI flows will respond differently in the CP-system, given agglomeration effects; and (3) whether FDI origin and firm scale matter in affecting FDI flows.A database consisting of a population frame of 37,742 firm-level manufacturing and services joint ventures investing in Guangdong in 1998 was used. Empirical results show that the agglomerations of the CP relation have affected FDI flow patterns. While both manufacturing and services FDI and sources of investment responded differently to the impacts, smaller firms were found more responsive to the CP-agglomeration settings regardless of FDI by industry type and by source. The significance and implications of the CP-system to further facilitate FDI in the region are discussed.     

BUILDING CARS TO CUSTOMER ORDER — WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR INBOUND LOGISTICS OPERATIONS?

The automotive industry is undergoing a strategic transition. Cost pressure from rising stock levels in the market and increasing incentives needed to sell these vehicles are forcing vehicle manufacturers to rethink their prevalent “stock‐push” approach, building vehicles against a forecast and selling from stock, in favor of a stock‐less “build‐to‐order” order fulfillment strategy. More responsive order fulfillment at the vehicle manufacturer level however will not only require flexible and responsive component supply, but will also have wide ramifications for the logistics operations. Based on three case studies of major inbound logistics operations, this exploratory study assesses their ability to support such a build‐to‐order approach, as well as the potential implications of such transition. The paper concludes with a set of general strategies for how these implications could be mitigated.     

THE LAST MILE: AN EXAMINATION OF EFFECTS OF ONLINE RETAIL DELIVERY STRATEGIES ON CONSUMERS

The Internet has increased the level of importance of the end‐consumer market to transportation carriers. In two between subject experiments, carrier disclosure on retail merchant websites is examined as a strategic differentiation strategy. Predictions are offered concerning effects of carrier disclosure strategies on product delivery‐related expectations, consumer attitudes, and intentions to purchase a product online. Results from Study 1 reveal significant differences between disclosure and nondisclosure of the carrier for numerous product delivery‐related variables, as well as many differences between the six carriers examined in this first study. Study 2 extends these findings by showing that providing consumers with a choice of carrier leads to increased levels of satisfaction with the online experience and greater willingness to buy, relative to nondisclosure and disclosure strategies.     

江南集中区与高校智力资源的联姻

从促进产业发展的角度看,江南产业转移集中区应当致力于提供六大综合性社会服务平台：政府政策与政府项目平台、创新教育与培训服务平台、投融资服务平台、研发转移服务平台、知识产权保护平台、创新型文化支撑平台。为提高社会服务能力,江南集中区管委会应当加强与高校资源的联姻,推进官产学联盟共同体建设。     

河北省高新技术产业发展环境系统定位研究

知识经济时代高新技术产业的发展需要良好的环境系统来支撑。本文在对河北省高新技术产业现状分析的基础上,结合高新技术产业发展的一般规律,构建了河北省高新技术产业发展的环境系统模型,并给出了具体的系统运行评价方法,对当前的环境系统运行状况进行了测评,最后提出了今后环境系统高效运行的政策建议。     

我国融资租赁业发展对策初探

融资租赁是以融物的方式来融资,以融资的方式来融物的一种集信贷、贸易和技术更新于一体的新型的金融产业,在现时期,对我国的经济发展能起到帮助国有大中型企业进行资产重组、解决中小型企业的融资困难、加速工业设备的流通等重要的作用。但是,我国目前的融资租赁业发展落后,管理和政策体系不健全,不具备良好的外部环境,应当从扩大融资租赁业的融资渠道、建立规范的管理政策体系、发展行业协会、建立风险防控机制等方面来发展我国的融资租赁业。     

产业集群与珠三角地区经济发展

产业集群作为区域经济发展理论的创新，在促进区域经济发展的过程中具有提高区域竞争力，带动整个区域经济发展的内在机理。本文以珠三角为例分析了以产业链为纽带构筑产业集群的经济框架，在此基础上提出了珠三角地区产业集群培育和发展的政策建议。     

试论产业政策的独立性

干预市场经济运行已经成为现代政府实现资源优化配置的重要手段,国家对经济的干预形式,一般被认为有两种:一种是宏观调控;另一种是微观规制。而产业政策是否可以并入宏观调控或微观规制,抑或它是一种独立的经济政策?目前学术界对此看法不一。文章通过分析微观规制、产业政策和宏观调控三者在实施的目的、作用的方式、作用的对象以及理论基础等方面存在的显著差别,说明了产业政策可以成为一种独立的国家干预经济的形式。     

汇率冲击和行业就业调整

根据Campa和Goldberg的贸易结构理论,我们对国内15个行业就业和汇率间的关系进行了实证研究。结果发现大多数行业在汇率冲击后的反应和理论一致,即人民币升值会抑制其就业增长,而贬值有利于其就业扩张,尤其是对高开放度和劳动密集型行业影响显著。但由于其他行业就业汇率弹性并不显著,因此降低了整体就业汇率弹性的显著性。此外,由于我国各行业开放度高于美国,因此就业汇率弹性也较大。