The biological reserve: The future's last stand

This article addresses the societal and cultural aspects of bioreserves and environmental restoration programmes. It begins with a discussion of bioreserves, then uses the example of a Man and Biosphere (MAB) inspired study of the US Everglades to illustrate how land has been shaped historically by culture and technology. It then demonstrates how current conflicts of values and culture, from both inside and outside the region, from interest groups with both pragmatic and emotional stances, are determining the future of an environment—the Everglades. The article thereby shows how human values and perceptions impact on the development of a sustainable Everglades, using the findings of surveys and public meetings to highlight the interests of the competing communities, ethnic and interest groups involved. If bioreserves are to survive they cannot become alienated from the people in the regions in which they are located.     

Revisiting the Effective Rate of Protection in the Late Stages of Chinese Industrialisation

In this paper, we generalise conventional measures of the effective rate of protection by: (i) relaxing their small‐country assumptions; (ii) taking into account multiple stages of production; and (iii) abstracting away from their assumptions on the time‐invariance of the underlying technology using annual IO tables. We apply our new measure to China's structure of tariff protection from 1992 to 2010. When compared to conventional measures, we find its effective rates of protection to be smaller in magnitude and even negative in some sectors. The new measures are also related to industry characteristics in sensible ways, calling into question the applicability of conventional measures in the context of present‐day China.     

美国未来10年的10项预测

据国外媒体报道,美国社会和美国与世界的关系一直都是业界人士所谈论的话题,美国的新美国基金会又是怎么预测未来的十年呢?美国社会和美国与世界的关系又会怎样呢?     

Trade booms, trade busts, and trade costs

What has driven trade booms and trade busts in the past and present? We employ a micro-founded measure of trade frictions consistent with leading trade theories to gauge the importance of bilateral trade costs in determining international trade flows. We construct a new balanced sample of bilateral trade flows for 130 country pairs across the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania for the period from 1870 to 2000 and demonstrate an overriding role for declining trade costs in the pre-World War I trade boom. In contrast, for the post-World War II trade boom we identify changes in output as the dominant force. Finally, the entirety of the interwar trade bust is explained by increases in trade costs.     

商业周刊2009年度全球最佳品牌100强

品牌咨询公司Interbrand发布的“2009年度全球最佳品牌排行榜”显示,随着经济危机的加深,？肖费者对品牌的信任也在降低,不过像可口可乐和IBM这种长期上榜的品牌,其价值依然获得增长。     

2009年度全球最具创新力的25家公司

《商业周刊》2009年度全球最具创新力的25家公司排行榜主要是以波士顿咨询顾问集团的问卷调查为基础评选出来的。2008年12月,波士顿咨询顾问集团把一份由20个问题组成的调查问卷发给了世界各地的公司高管。     

Trade Blocs and Trade Wars during the Interwar Period

What precisely were the causes and consequences of the trade wars in the 1930s? Were there perhaps deeper forces at work in reorienting global trade prior to the outbreak of World War II? And what lessons may this particular historical episode provide for the present day? To answer these questions, we distinguish between long‐run secular trends in the period from 1920 to 1939 related to the formation of trade blocs and short‐run disruptions associated with the trade wars of the 1930s. We argue that the trade wars mainly served to intensify pre‐existing efforts toward the formation of trade blocs which dated from at least 1920. More speculatively, we argue that the trade wars of the present day may serve a similar purpose as those in the 1930s, that is, the intensification of China‐ and US‐centric trade blocs.