Do Japanese MNCs use expatriates to contain risk in Asian host countries?

We investigate the impact of host-country risk on the expatriation strategies of multinational firms, using data on Japanese subsidiary firms in manufacturing industries in 13 host countries in Asia. We find that country risk is negatively correlated with the degree of expatriation and that, rather than host-country risk, firm-specific factors (particularly capital intensity, ownership share of parent firms in subsidiaries and the age of the venture) explain most of the variation in the degree to which subsidiaries rely on Japanese expatriates. Contrary to previous studies, the capital intensity of production is a key explanatory firm-specific variable that correlates positively with the degree of expatriation. Japanese multinational companies do not rely on expatria127=tes to off-set host-country risk, but to mitigate risk to parent investment in subsidiaries.     

贸易战略选择:一般情形与大国情形

发展中国家普遍具有的二元经济结构的特征决定了这些国家经济发展的一个根本途径就是实行工业化。可供选择的实现工业化的手段包括出口促进和进口替代战略,而不同战略的业绩比较一直是学者们争论的焦点。文章通过一个简单的三部门模型,讨论了一般情况下不同贸易战略的绩效,并讨论了大国条件下不同贸易战略选择的特殊性以及有关我国贸易战略选择的问题。     

Boosting Int＇l SMEs Cooperation——Interview with Zhu Shuhai,Director,Department for SMEs,Trade Development Bureau,Ministry of Commerce

Either in the developed countries or developing countries,the small and medium enterprises（SMEs）have been playing a significant role in promoting the technological progress,employment,export, etc.Especially in the modern society with efficient development of knowledge and information,which is making the production and business operation smaller and more dispersed,and with more family participation as well,SMEs are becoming a more and more important force of the social and economic development. Although the SMEs have made very important contributions to the national economic development and the increase of employment,they are thirsty of more government and social supports,especially for the overseas development.In order to meet the mission of promoting the SMEs development,the Ministry of Commerce has established Department for SMEs. In July,China＇s Foreign Trade inte viewed Zhu Shuhai,Director of Department for SMEs,Trade Development Bureau,Ministry,of Commerce.     

Country terms of trade: trends,unit roots,over-differencing,endogeneity, time dummies,and heterogeneity

The debate about the Prebisch-Singer thesis has focused on primary commodities with some extensions to manufactures. We analyse trends in country terms-of-trade for goods and services rather than those for commodities according to the World Bank income classification. We find that the natural logarithm of the terms of trade for all groups except for the poorest has common unit roots, but none has individual unit roots. As low-income countries have no unit roots over-differencing is inefficient and biases significance levels in first differences against the fall in the terms of trade. For the low-income countries the terms of trade of goods and services are falling at a rate that is significantly negative without and with endogeneity treatment by system GMM. A comprehensive analysis of the effects of time dummies supports the result of falling terms of trade for low-income countries. When all coefficients are country-specific 50% of all low-income countries have falling terms of trade in a simultaneous equation estimation using the SUR method. Food and financial crisis have no effect on the number of countries with falling terms of trade, but (dis-)improve the terms of trade or the significance of the results for a very small number of countries.     

发达国家移民政策中的人才筛选及启示

发达国家移民政策中引进的人才可分为基于国家战略需要的杰出人才、基于劳动力市场需求的高技能人才、基于人力资本存储形式的潜人才和基于国家经济发展需要的创业投资人才等四类,这四类人才的筛选原则是：特殊贡献和学术机构推荐、移民职业清单和积分评估、学历层次和学术成就、经济贡献等.我国应当借鉴发达国家移民政策人才筛选的成功经验,引入积分评估制度,适当放宽技术移民的筛选条件,完善投资移民的评估体系.     

世界银行治理结构改革与中国的应对策略

世界银行在全球经济治理中发挥着重要作用,但随着新兴经济体的崛起和近年来金融危机、债务危机频发,世界银行治理结构所存在的制度性缺陷显露无遗,相应改革势在必行。但是,由于世界银行具有公共组织与股份公司的双重属性,使得改革方向出现分歧,改革进程推进缓慢。从根本上说,世界银行改革中发达国家与发展中国家并不存在不可调和的利益冲突,在减贫等问题上双方存在着合作的基础。中国应积极推进世界银行治理结构改革：首先,必须明确“负责任、有作为的大国”定位,表现出推动改革的积极态度;其次,要紧密围绕“发展”主题,注重长远利益;再次,要加强对世界银行人事安排的参与;最后,要积极构建世界银行框架下发展中国家沟通与合作的正式协调机制。     

The interplay between home and host institutions on CBA ownership decision

Cross-border acquisitions (CBAs) are one of the key strategies for internationalization. However, most of what is known about CBA strategies relies on the effects of the host country's environment or the home country's conditions. In this article, we analyze the interplay between these two important factors. We show that companies from less institutionally developed countries are more influenced by poor institutional conditions found in host countries. We analyzed a dataset of 1,390 cross-border acquisitions performed by Latin American firms. The literature on the subject points out that less developed host environments lead to fewer shares of ownership acquired in CBAs. However, we confirmed that the quality of the home country's institutional environment positively moderates the effects of the host environment over ownership choice in the acquisition. This effect is due to companies from less developed environments being able to use their embedded capabilities to better navigate faulty institutional environments abroad.     

How do controversial foreign country images affect consumers?

Research shows that controversial political–economic, social, and environmental country images affect consumer responses to foreign products. This study adds to the existing evidence by examining the contingent role of subjective country knowledge and (domestic vs. foreign) country image congruence in the relationships between foreign country image and two major determinants of country-driven (anti-)consumption: foreign product judgements and consumer animosity. The findings draw on survey data (N = 400) on Spanish consumers' views of China and Chinese apparel products. The results indicate that higher subjective knowledge about social and environmental issues (negatively) affecting the foreign country can lead to attenuated (positive) relationships between such country images and foreign product judgements. Further, more negative foreign product judgements can result from incongruent country images—that is, when consumers are more critical of the foreign than of their home country in political–economic, social, and environmental areas. Instead, there is limited support for the hypotheses involving consumer animosity as an outcome. Implications for theory, policy, and practice are discussed.     

海岛产业发展及布局的国际案例及借鉴——以长岛县为例

论文从分析长岛县海岛产业的发展现状入手。然后,分析了全球海洋产业的发展趋势-"四高"倾向以及产业结构调整、港口经济迅速发展等。最后,通过分析国内外海岛产业发展的成功经验,提出了长岛县开发的几点有益借鉴,包括:1)渔业要向品牌、高效、生态方向发展,完善渔业法规条例以及制定发展计划;2)发展特色工业,重点发展海洋水产加工业;3)实施旅游精品战略以及改善交通条件和规划旅游地产开发;4)政府要重视海岛开发前后角色转变,制定科学规划以及平衡开发与保护。