广东加快转变经济发展方式问题研究

加快转变经济发展方式是全面建设小康社会的重大战略举措,是广东有效破解多方面瓶颈制约,继续保持经济社会又好又快发展的内在要求。分析了当前广东经济社会发展面临的问题,探讨加快广东经济发展方式转变的路径与措施。     

Measuring Innovation in European Industry

This paper analyses the results of the 1993 Community Innovation Survey (CIS). Fifty per cent of European firms introduced a product or process innovation during 1990-92. The share of innovating firms varies between industrial sectors and firm size. The percentage of innovating firms is higher for large firms than for smaller ones. In high-tech sectors this share is two thirds and for traditional ones is one third. The largest part of firms' expenditure for innovation is linked to the adoption and diffusion of technologies through machinery and equipment, which absorbs 50% of firms' innovation expenditure. R&D activities represent, on average, 20% of total innovation expenditure while other innovative activities, such as design and trial production, account respectively for 10% and 11%. The mix of innovation inputs, especially R&D and investment, is strongly correlated with firm size, displays little change across countries and varies greatly across industries.     

Cultural Change and Marketing

ABSTRACT

The results of this study suggest that marketing strategies need to be adjusted to changing cultures. Culture affects marketing decisions regarding product, price, promotion and place (the 4 Ps). Many marketing studies have been reported based on Hofstede's seminal work on national culture (1980). Marketing managers need to be cautious about assuming the validity of the Anglo cluster equating the cultures of the United States (U.S.) and Canada. We should recognize that national cultures are changing in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, as well as most other countries in the world. Our findings for a very recent sample of people attending executive and MBA programs would seem to apply to the upwardly-mobile business class. Contrary to the ubiquitous Hofstede data found in textbooks, we found no significant differences in Power Distance between the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Our findings regarding differences in Uncertainty Avoidance show that Mexico did not have a significantly higher mean than the U.S., but that the U.S. had a higher mean than Canada. The U.S. and Canada did not differ significantly on Individualism/Collectivism. Our results suggest that caution should be taken in automatically assuming cultural parity between the U.S. and Canada and that established cultural positions between the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) member nations may be changing.     

Trade, technology, and the rise of the service sector: The effects on US wage inequality

This paper uses a multi-sector version of the Ricardo-Viner model of international trade to quantify empirically the effects of technological changes, international trade, changes in the sectoral composition of the economy, and other factors on the US wage premium. The main finding of the paper is that changes in the sectoral composition of the economy were the most important force behind the widening of the wage gap, accounting for about 60% of the relative increase in wages of skilled workers between 1970 and 1996. In essence, capital was reallocated to sectors where it is relatively complementary to skilled workers.     

Making the energy transition in rural east Africa: Is leapfrogging an alternative?

There is renewed optimism about the potential for leapfrogging in the rural energy sector of East Africa. By adopting highly efficient and renewable technologies many believe the region can rapidly bypass the conventional path of energy development and skip directly into the use of more efficient and environmentally friendly technologies. This study explores the potential for energy leapfrogging by examining three technological approaches targeted at rural households in East Africa: conventional grid expansion, renewable energy technologies supplying electricity, and improved cookstoves. The study identifies economic, social, political, and cultural factors limiting the ability of rural people to rapidly switch into using and/or supplying these technologies. The potential for leapfrogging may be overstated by planners and experts who focus on the technical and economic viability of the technologies while insufficiently considering the social conditions and economic realities of daily life in the region. Moreover, energy leapfrogging itself is considered a misconception. Energy transitions in rural areas are incremental processes—not leaps—dependent upon household and regional accumulations of technological capabilities. These capabilities have technical, organizational, and institutional components and are manifest in individuals' capacity to adapt to new technologies, their ability to take economic risks, and in their desire to modify their behavior. In designing technology dissemination or energy supply projects, planners must thoroughly account for the capabilities existing in rural areas.     

On the evolution of technological specialization patterns in emerging countries: comparing Asia and Latin America

This paper explores the role of technological opportunity and cumulativeness in the evolution of technological specialization patterns (TSP) in catching-up processes. Concretely, I assume that opportunity induces mobility while cumulativeness leads to diversification and stability. The empirical analysis uses patent data indicators for nine Asian and Latin American countries between 1978 and 2012. The paper shows that, during economic liberalization (although with different timings), emerging countries caught up and redefined the path of technological accumulation for Asian and Latin American countries. With the exception of Hong Kong, all the countries increased their technology share, but they ran in different directions. Asian countries made greater relative efforts in dynamic technologies, while Latin American countries focused on stagnant technologies. In this sense, Asian countries achieved a more successful performance, building new technological bases and taking a technological leap in some of the more dynamic technologies. Meanwhile, Latin American countries left their technological bases unchanged. The paper also shows that, at the beginning of the catching-up cycle, the TSPs were turbulent. Afterwards, cumulativeness in the technological choice induced the diversification and stabilization of the TSPs.     

论我国信托业制度变迁的路径锁定与突破

本文从制度经济学角度出发,阐明了中国经济体制改革制度变迁的特点,深入分析了我国信托业发展过程中存在问题及其根源,指出我国信托业陷入了一条与地方政府的非正常关系不断强化、坏账和风险不断增加的路径,形成了制度变迁的路径锁定.在此基础上,结合中国信托业发展的外部环境和自身发展特点,提出了突破信托业现有制度变迁的路径锁定.     

Retailing and consumption: evidence from war time Britain

Insufficient attention has been given to the place of the consumer in debates surrounding the history of retail development and retail change. This paper uses empirical data from the archive of Mass-Observation to explore directly consumers' reactions to the issue of retail development and change in early 1940s Britain. Mass-Observation data is shown to provide clear evidence of consumers' differing perceptions of the retail industry, their preferences for particular retail types and their reactions to retail change. It also confirms the need to remain alert to the importance of social relations in understanding consumers' reactions to the retail change process. The paper ends by arguing the case for further historical studies of the retailing and consumption interface.     

Research note: pricing behaviour across multiple distribution channels in the UK deposit account market: 1997-2001

In this research note the pricing behaviour of UK depository institutions is examined. The study uses daily interest rate data for 186 UK deposit saving accounts over the sample period, 1997-2001, which are distributed through branches and across postal and telephone networks. The relative level and dispersion of interest rates and the frequency and responsiveness of interest rate change are examined for deposit products that are distributed through different distribution channels. Slight and mostly insignificant interest rate differentials are recorded between deposit accounts distributed through branch, postal and telephone channels. Similarly, only small differences are recorded for the dispersion, frequency and responsiveness of interest rate change of deposit products distributed through different distribution channels.