Informal tourism entrepreneurs’ capital usage and conversion

ABSTRACT

This article examines informal entrepreneurs’ capital usage and conversion in the Thai tourism sector. On the Bourdieusian assumption that people perpetually transform tangible and intangible forms of capital, this study seeks to answer how informal tourism entrepreneurs transform intangible capital into tangible capital, and vice versa, at different stages of their development process. A visual dataset of 78 filmed interviews and of 426 photographs of informal entrepreneurs in three tourist-island destinations in Thailand was compiled and analysed using thematic qualitative analysis. The results show the importance of diversification of capital mix at informal entrepreneurs’ different development stages. Whereas cultural and symbolic capital are more salient for freelancers and small-size entrepreneurs, economic and social capital are more important for mid-size and large informal entrepreneurs. Furthermore, this study introduces dream capital as a new form of capital. Developing countries are recommended to introduce a policy on profiling informal tourism entrepreneurs so that the appropriate level of regulation can be applied in order to maintain or increase their benefits to society.     

The determinants of pay settlements: the influence of the national context

This article studies the influence of national context and collective bargaining on the factors taken into account when adjusting wages. Using data from Spanish and British manufacturing establishments, we examine the relative importance of the cost of living, the ability to recruit or retain employees, the financial performance of the organisation and the industrial relations climate on wage adjustments of manual workers at the establishment level. Our findings show that there are significant differences on the importance given to these factors in both countries. In part, these are related to differences in the incidence of collective bargaining.     

Why do consumers purchase goods and services in the informal economy?

To evaluate critically the dominant discourse that consumers acquiring goods and services in the informal economy are rational economic actors seeking a lower price, the results of a 2007 Eurobarometer survey involving 26,659 face-to-face interviews in 27 European Union member states form the basis for analysis. The finding is that achieving a lower price is the sole motive for just 44% of informal economy purchases, one of several rationales in 28% of transactions, and not a rationale in 28% of acquisitions. Consumers also use the informal economy to circumvent the shortcomings of the formal economy in terms of the availability, speed, and quality of goods and services provision, as well as for social and redistributive reasons, with multilevel mixed-effects logit regression analysis revealing how the prevalence of these rationales significantly varies across populations. The paper concludes by discussing the theoretical and policy implications of the findings.     

非正规金融与正规金融双重结构下货币政策工具比较研究

金融市场正规金融与非正规金融并存,使得货币政策工具的操作和传导具有更加复杂和非可控的微观因素。本文尝试将非正规金融纳入研究框架,建立四部门动态随机一般均衡(DSGE)模型,比较数量型和价格型货币政策工具的有效性。研究显示,价格型货币政策工具对宏观经济变量的影响大于数量型货币政策工具,且持续时间较短,导致的通货膨胀上升幅度小。在对非正规金融的影响上,价格型货币政策工具的效果更显著。     

山地—丘陵过渡区乡村聚落空间分布特征及其影响因素分析

乡村聚落是乡村地区各种形式的人口居住场所,是乡村人口空间分布的载体。以地跨陇东黄土丘陵区与西秦岭山地的天水市麦积区为实证研究对象,运用GIS与统计分析方法,计算分析了麦积区乡村聚落的景观指数、规模等级及空间分布特征。研究表明:①麦积区乡村聚落斑块面积相差悬殊,中小型聚落占主体;②分布呈现"北密南疏"格局,聚落分布的河流与道路指向性十分明显;③海拔和坡度对聚落空间分布具有显著的影响,海拔1 000—1500m和坡度5°—15°的范围是聚落的密集分布区,聚落随高程和坡度呈显著的正态分布;④乡村聚落的形成、发展及空间分布,是多种因素共同作用的结果。自然因素是乡村聚落形成和发展的基础,人文社会因素是乡村聚落发展及空间演变的主要驱动因素。     

基于人居自然适宜性的黄土高原地区人口空间分布格局分析

选取地形、植被、水资源、气候和灾害等自然因子构建人居自然适宜性模型,进行人居自然适宜性测评,并基于人居自然适宜性对黄土高原地区人口空间分布格局进行分析。结果表明:①黄土高原地区人居自然适宜指数整体上呈现由内向外逐渐升高的对称分布,并以城市为据点形成高人居环境指数包围格局。②黄土高原地区人口密度分布整体上呈现从东南向西北依次减少的趋势,局部由城区向周围地区依次减小。人口密度与人居环境指数显著相关,随着人居环境适宜度的降低,人口密度降低。③黄土高原地区人居环境面积分配相对均衡,而人口分布较为集中。相较于2000年,2010年人口空间分布格局趋向于不均衡化,其中人口空间分布与降水和湿度的趋于不均衡化,与地形、植被覆盖和土壤侵蚀空间分布趋向于均衡,但程度不明显。     

论我国劳动关系契约化中的正式约束与非正式约束

由于我国社会习俗、文化、价值观等非正式约束与正式约束的不匹配,导致《劳动合同法》的实施效果不尽如人意,这些非正式约束的限制主要表现在:关系经济降低了正式劳动合约的作用;集体主义制约了正式契约关系的拓展;等级制不利于建立平等的劳动契约关系;人治不利于劳动契约按法律的手段有效实施。正式制度只有在与非正式制度相容的情况下才能发挥作用,我国劳动关系契约化中正式约束与非正式约束不相适应会带来一些问题,主要表现在:它将影响我国社会从身份到契约的进程;影响我国《劳动合同法》的实施及其效果;它使劳动合同的作用难以发挥。     

The design and implementation of minibus taxi presumptive taxes

ABSTRACT

This paper assesses the design of Zimbabwe’s minibus taxi presumptive taxes that were first implemented in 2005 and evaluates them in terms of administrative effectiveness, equity and economic efficiency. The implications of these factors on tax compliance are also analysed. A mixed-methods approach was used where quantitative data were complemented by qualitative interviews with taxi operators and key informants from the country’s tax authority. The results suggest that presumptive taxes were poorly designed and administered with many operators going untaxed. The ‘informal taxes’ (bribes and ‘fees’) levied by corrupt officials, ‘committees’ and touts also resulted in taxes that did not promote equity or efficiency. Despite the numerous challenges identified, the article highlights key lessons for countries that are also trying to tax minibus taxis such as the importance of negotiating with taxi associations around taxation and the encouragement of quasi-voluntary compliance through the implementation of well-researched turnover-based presumptive taxes.     

Regulation of entry, labor market institutions and the informal sector

This paper develops a two-sector matching model that incorporates the main features of Latin American labor markets. It has an innovation in its matching structure that makes it more consistent with some key stylized facts of the informal sector in these countries. The model is numerically solved using Brazilian data and several policy simulations are performed. Reducing formal sector's entry cost significantly reduces the size of the informal sector and improves overall labor market performance. Increasing enforcement significantly reduces informality but has strong adverse effects on unemployment and welfare. Thus, the results indicate that the tradeoff between lower informal employment and higher unemployment rates is not present when one looks at policies that aim at reducing the costs of being formal, as opposed to policies that simply increase the costs of being informal.     

Human settlement＇s social network analysis based on spatial trend surface model：a case study of Chongqing Municipality

Integrated with GIS and remote sensing（RS） technology,a systematic analysis and its methodology for human-settlements social environment has been introduced.This methodology has been called spatial trend field model（STFM）.STFM＇s application history in the field of human-settlements social environment has been discussed at first.Then,some index data models have been created through STFM,which include population density trend field,human activity strength trend field,city-town spatial density trend field,urbanization ratio trend field,road density trend field,GDP spatial density trend field and PER-GDP spatial density trend field.With all above-mentioned indexes as input data,through Iterative Self-Organizing Data Analysis Techniques Algorithm（ISODATA）,this paper makes a verification study of Chongqing municipality.The result of the case study confirms that STFM methodology is credible and has high efficiency for regional human-settlements study.