Banking consolidation and small firm financing for research and development

This article examines the effect of increased market concentration of the banking industry caused by the Riegle–Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act (IBBEA) on the availability of finance for small firms engaged in research and development (R&D). I measure the financing decisions of these small firms using a balanced panel of Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) applications. Using difference-in-differences, I find IBBEA decreased the supply of finance for small R&D firms. This effect is larger for late adopters of IBBEA, which tended to be states with stronger small banking sectors pre-IBBEA.     

The effect of LCCs operations and scheduled services deregulation on air charter business in Japan

Recent aviation deregulation is producing structural changes within leisure industries in many parts of the world. This paper reviews the development of low cost carriers (LCCs) and assesses its effects on both of domestic and international charter markets in Japan since 2007. Furthermore, this paper analyzes the effect of scheduled services deregulation on international tourism to Japanese regional areas in relation to charter services. The results suggest that in the domestic market, LCC operations have seldom impacted charter traffic due to the differences in target markets and routes. In the international market, LCCs launched scheduled services to Japan but mainly on high demand routes. The deregulation of scheduled services led to a passenger shift from charters to newly scheduled flights and a concentration of tourist arrivals in regional centres. It also led to a decline in international tourist arrivals in some remote destinations. This paper indicates a current trend in which charter business is still an important sector in aviation and leisure markets.     

Margarine and the origins and timing of microeconomic reform in Australia

The production of margarine in Australia was for a long time the subject of strict quotas designed to limit the output of the industry in order to protect the dairy industry. The industry was effectively deregulated by the Whitlam, Dunstan (South Australia) and Wran (New South Wales) governments in the years 1975 and 1976. This move was effectively the first measure designed to deregulate an industry in modern Australian economic history and aimed to promote competition in order to improve efficiency and community welfare. It also began the long process of eliminating government intervention in the Australian dairy industry, which was not to be completed until 2000.     

Social Services and The GATS: Key Issues and Concerns

Concerns have been voiced about liberalizing social service such as health and education under the WTO’s General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), and how this may undermine national sovereignty and autonomy in social policy making. This paper indicates that these concerns mainly stem from misunderstandings and lack of information about the GATS. It tries to dispel unwarranted fears by highlighting the GATS framework and commitment structure and explaining how countries can retain their autonomy on policies concerning public services, under the GATS. The paper also points out certain problem areas that are due to ambiguities and weaknesses in the GATS framework. It suggests the need to strengthen the GATS framework and address these problems in the ongoing GATS 2000 negotiations.     

Transportation Regulation and Deregulation： A Literature Review

Regulation became one of the most important features of transportation sector. The development of transportation regulation arose the study interest of many economists, and transportation industry has become a hot area of industrial organization and regulation economics. This paper introduced and reviewed the relevant studies on the transportation regulation and deregulation.     

功能与限界:作为一种网络政治媒介的政务微博

以政务微博为代表的网络政治媒介的兴起很大程度上刺激了公民包括要求、支持和抵抗在内的政治参与,但研究表明,网络政治参与的作用主要集中在解决具体问题上,而难以在政策制定上发挥作用。究其原因,除却公民意见输入与政府行为之间有效链接机制的缺失等制度原因外,领导重视程度、公民意见类型、政务微博的功能定位与组织架构以及政府的"线下"问题处理能力也对政务微博的运行状况有重要影响,当然也理应作为改进微博运转效能的方向。     

Mergers in India. A Response to Regulatory Shocks

Recent empirical research shows that industry and regulatory shocks play a key role in determining merger activity in developed countries. We use this framework to analyze merger activity in India, using a comprehensive database spanning a thirty-year period, from 1973-74 to 2002-3. At the industry level, we identify clustering of merger activity in India, indicating that mergers may be a response to industry and regulatory shocks. At the firm level, the 1991 amendments to the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices (MRTP) Act, which removed premerger scrutiny, are found to have a positive and significant effect on merger behavior of firms that had been under its purview. After the 1991 amendments, firms underwent mergers that would have been scrutinized by the MRTP Act otherwise. These mergers were undertaken for expansionary reasons.     

Deregulation as (Welfare Reducing) Trade Reform: the Case of the Australian Wheat Board

State trading enterprises are distinguishable from private, commercial firms by the nature of their exclusive rights and objectives. Deregulation of the Australian Wheat Board is used to illustrate the effects of these rights and objectives on trade and welfare. Theoretical models are specified and the effects measured through calibrated, partial equilibrium models. It was found that the successive deregulations of the Australian Wheat Board caused it to switch from being equivalent to an export subsidy to, today, being equivalent to an export tax. At the same time, deregulation has not necessarily been welfare enhancing.     

Airline fleet composition and deregulation

Airline responses to deregulation have been analyzed using a variety of models. This paper presents and empirically tests a model of airline behavior which explicitly treats hub-and-spoke route structures which emerged after deregulation. The change to hub-and-spoke route structure implies an alteration of airline fleet use and acquisition of aircraft after deregulation. The empirical section of this paper investigates the nature of these changes using a data panel for airlines from 1970 to 1989. The changes observed in airline fleet use and composition indicate that the primary distortion of regulation on aircraft was inhibiting their use over efficient networks.This paper has benefited from the suggestions of Kenneth Boyer, Bruce Allen, Charles Ballard, and Stephen Martin at MSU, my colleagues Djeto Assane and Bernard Malamud at UNLV, and an anonymous referee. Any errors remaining are my own.