Mercantilism: a materialist approach

ABSTRACT

Historians and economists have shown renewed interest in mercantilism over the last couple of years. From this interest, a dispute has arisen about whether mercantilism should be seen as an incoherent economic thought or if it is possible to ‘reconstruct’ its basic principles. In line with this latter attempt, this paper is intended to provide a materialist explanation for varying degrees of belief in shared mercantilist assumptions. My hypothesis is that belief in mercantilist assumptions is significantly dependent upon how economic and security issues materially interact in a given time and space, with uncertainty and insecurity profoundly favouring mercantilist dispositions in economic thought. To analyse this hypothesis, the paper sets the first steps for relating the credibility of mercantilism with changes in British economic and military history from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. Section 3 presents ideas to further investigate this hypothesis. Section 4 concludes the paper.     

基于运行规划的能源综合服务系统能效管理研究

以浙江电网企业转型现代能源综合服务的具体战略与发展规划为研究背景,针对能源综合服务系统的运行规划目标,开展基于运行规划的能源综合服务系统能效管理研究。从系统工程的视角出发,以能源流为纽带,基于多尺度能源系统建模方法,构建了能源综合服务系统模型,并结合系统综合能效,采用粒子群优化算法来优化系统各设备单元的运行策略,以实现基于运行规划的最优能效管理。通过能源综合服务系统模型计算表明,大规模清洁能源和可再生能源的接入,可以明显提高系统综合能效;随着区域用户总冷量和/或总热量需求占总电力需求的比值增大,系统最优综合能效逐渐增大;与使用内燃机、燃气轮机及汽轮机为原动机的热电联产系统相比,使用燃料电池为原动机的热电联产系统可以使能源综合服务系统综合能效更优。     

中部地区对外贸易影响因素的实证分析

长期以来,尽管中部地区对外贸易取得了较快地发展,但在全国依然处于比较落后的地位。本文利用最新时间序列数据,通过建立多变量回归模型,对中部地区对外贸易的影响因素进行了实证分析。分析认为,中部地区出口贸易和进口贸易的影响因素存在很大差异。出口贸易影响因素主要是贸易条件、进口贸易和全社会固定资产投资;而进口贸易的主要影响因素是汇率、国内生产总值、外商直接投资和人力资本;很多影响因素对中部地区对外贸易没有起到应有的作用。     

International R&D Rivalry with Spillovers and Tariff Policies

This paper investigates the effects of R&D spillovers on the R&D choices of foreign exporters when the importing country adopts either uniform or discriminatory alternative tariff regimes. We show that the importing country should optimally choose a uniform tariff regime. A uniform tariff regime is also advantageous for foreign exporters if the R&D spillovers are sufficiently large. A comparison of free trade with the two tariff regimes reveals that there are some situations in which both the importing country and foreign exporters are better off under free trade, which supports trade liberalization.

Trade Liberalization and Environmental Taxation in Federal Systems

The literature on trade liberalization and environment has not yet considered federal structures. In this paper, we show how the design of environmental policy in a federal system has implications for the effects of trade reform. Trade liberalization leads to a decline in pollution taxes, regardless of whether pollution taxes are set at the federal (centralized) or local (decentralized) level, and it increases social welfare. The effect under a decentralized system is smaller than if these taxes are set by the federal government, and pollution emissions therefore decline in this case. Moreover, majority bias interacts with trade liberalization if federal taxes are used.     

Identifying terms of trade shocks in a developing country using a sign restrictions approach

Using annual data for Botswana from 1960 to 2012, we examine the responses of macroeconomic variables to four generalized positive terms of trade shocks – global demand, globalizing, sector-specific and global supply. A sign-restricted structural vector autoregression model with a penalty function is estimated to identify the four possible shocks. While positive global demand and globalization shocks are both expansionary, they have opposite effects on inflation. A positive commodity market specific shock dampens real GDP growth and is inflationary, suggesting a possible Dutch disease response. A negative global supply shock suppresses both output growth and inflation. All but the last shock leads to a significant declining interest rate. Monetary policy contraction is recommended for the first shock and expansion for the others.     

高校后勤管理干部素质探讨

高校后勤管理干部做为后勤管理工作的指挥者、组织者和协调者必须具备一定的理论和良好的道德素质、具备一定的文化和专业知识、具备一定的组织管理素质的创新能力。只有具备多方面的综合素质与修养,才能肩负起时代赋予高校后勤管理干部的历史使命。     

我国西部地区贸易对环境污染影响的分析——基于西部地区省际面板数据的检验

选取2000-2008年西部地区十一个省、直辖市和自治区的贸易与环境相关数据,利用面板数据模型对西部地区贸易对环境污染的影响进行实证分析,研究结果表明规模效应和贸易开放度的增加加剧了西部地区的环境污染,结构效应和环境政策则减少了西部地区的环境污染,而技术效应对西部地区环境污染的影响不显著。     

基于LSSC的物流企业成长机理——探索性多案例研究

文章基于"资源-能力-成长"的企业成长理论模型,对服务供应链、组织间网络和动态能力理论进行了梳理,报告了物流服务供应链(Logistics Service Supply Chain,LSSC)的网络属性对核心企业成长的影响的研究现状,并提出了文章的研究框架,通过采用探索性多案例的研究方法,对三个典型民营物流企业进行了调查,通过三个案例的一级编码、二级编码和三级编码,得出以下研究结论:物流服务供应链的网络结构和网络关系可以直接促进物流企业成长;物流服务供应链的网络结构和网络关系也可以通过动态能力的作用促进物流企业成长。研究表明:第三方物流企业的成长要通过网络化战略来实现,通过构建物流服务供应链模式,汲取组织间资源、提升企业动态能力并最终实现企业成长。