The global financial crisis and the evolution of markets, institutions and regulation

This paper analyses the recent global financial crisis in the context of the dual processes of market development and regulation. It discusses how, in the absence of a globally integrated financial framework, past and present regulations and interventions in reaction to national and global financial crises did not resolve the cross border regulatory arbitrage. The paper discusses how crises often lead to the emergence of new national and international institutions. It also analyses the proposed “new global framework” that needs to be in place if the policy recommendations contained in the G20 communiqué are going to be effectively implemented. The paper argues that unless international agreements are ratified by all nations and become part of national rules and laws, the presence of regulatory arbitrage and the lack of adequate cross border information and data may prevent the global economy from addressing the underlying causes of the recent global financial crisis. The paper also discusses the evolution of central banks and their new role in contributing to global financial stability. The paper argues that the recent global financial crisis has provided a unique opportunity to go beyond economic data and attempt to capture cross border financial data and other information that could assist international and national institutions to measure and manage financial risk more effectively. Finally, the paper discusses “too big to fail” and argues that only an internationally integrated financial system will make large banks global, both when operational and in the event of insolvency.     

Sustainability,accountability and corporate governance: exploring multinationals' reporting practices

Recent years have seen a rapid increase in accountability pressures on particularly large global companies. The increased call for transparency comes from two different angles, which show some (potential) convergence in terms of topics and audiences: accountability requirements in the context of corporate governance, which expand to staff‐related, ethical aspects; and sustainability reporting that has broadened from environment only to social and financial issues. This article examines to what extent and how current sustainability reporting of Fortune Global 250 companies incorporates corporate governance aspects. Many multinationals, particularly in Europe and Japan, have started to pay attention to board supervision and structuring of sustainability responsibilities, to compliance, ethics and external verification. While detailed disclosures are not yet common, some notable practices can be found. Underlying dilemmas and complexities for managers in dealing with accountability to shareholders and stakeholders, and the role of auditors, are indicated. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

The role of free economic zones in global supply chains—a case of reverselogistics

Schengen border crossings are moving from former European borders southeastwards. These changes influence some socioeconomic positions of regions and availability of human resources in the nodes of global supply chains. Free Economic Zone (FEZ) has been considered as a tool to make the flow of goods and the flow of human resources less exposed to risk. Considering the production function in activity cells of a global supply chain, the perturbations of NPV of activities in total chain are expressed in cases, where the availability of human resources and perturbations of lead time takes place, both of which are the result of activities at border crossings. The extended MRP approach with an extension to distribution and reverse logistic part of a supply chain is used to develop the model for evaluating the influence of the lead-time perturbations and perturbations in availability of properly skilled human resources in different regions separated by Schengen borders. Tax exemption in an FEZ is presented as a compensation for the negative impact of Schengen border on the net present value of a global supply chain and consequently as the compensation for shortages and costs of properly skilled workers. The paper gives answer to the question, what is the level of reduction of tax burden in the FEZ of accession countries, which is only a compensation for the higher labour costs, additional administrative costs and the cost of risks assumed at border crossings. We have explained why we are not able to talk about an unfair competition of producers in an FEZ’s atall.     

Staffing marketing positions during global hyper-competitiveness: a market-based perspective

As organizations globalize their operations, there appears to be an imperceptible shift in focus from internal tangible resources to those of external intangible relational resources; in other words, economies of scale appear to being replaced by economies of global scope. The strategic implications of this swing in the importance of resource bases can also have a significant impact on the international human resource management area. Identifying managers with local market knowledge and contacts becomes a critical consideration in the selection process. Maintaining on-going personal relations in foreign markets also helps to cement inter-organizational relationships such as strategic alliances. In the ‘think global, act local’ relational networks of global business, inpatriate managers appear to have the necessary characteristics of both organizational trust and local tacit knowledge to be effective global managers.     

Envelope and sensitivity analysis ‘in the large’

New results on global sensitivity analysis are derived. Relying on the saddle-point characterization of the Lagrangean, simple yet powerful results are shown to hold under general conditions. A generalized envelope result is obtained. It does not require differentiability assumptions or unique solution, and it holds for discrete changes.     

世界旅游发展：2011年回顾与2012年展望

回顾2011年,世界旅游在克服全球经济增长缓慢、各种重大灾害的冲击影响下,总体上保持了稳步发展态势,世界旅游经济保持了稳步增长,全球国际入境旅游在持续增长中增幅有所下降。展望2012年,世界旅游发展面临众多发展的变数,大国换届选举、经济增长低迷、自然灾害频繁发生、局部地区形势动荡和安全问题等,都对世界旅游发展形成严峻的挑战,因此世界旅游将在应对各种挑战中努力保持稳步发展。     

Modelling price pressure in financial markets

We present experimental evidence that, unlike traditional assumptions in economic theory, security prices do not respond to pressure from their own excess demand. Instead, prices respond to excess demand of all securities, despite the absence of a direct link between markets. We propose a model of price pressure that explains these findings. In our model, agents set order prices that reflect the marginal valuation of desired future holdings, called “aspiration levels.”In the short run, as agents encounter difficulties executing their orders, they scale back their aspiration levels. Marginal valuations, order prices, and hence, transaction prices change correspondingly. The resulting price adjustment process coincides with the Global Newton Method. The assumptions of the model as well as its empirical implications are fully borne out by the data. Our model thus provides an economic foundation for why markets appear to search for equilibrium according to Newton’s procedure.