北京市下岗职工的再就业分析

该文利用独自收集到的有关北京市下岗职工的样本数据,分析了影响下岗职工失业持续时间的原因,探讨了影响下岗职工再就业前后收入变化的原因.通过分析得出以下主要结论:第一,下岗政策虽然在一定程度上促进了劳动力市场的形成,但随着下岗职工失业持续时间的延长,下岗政策已成为阻碍劳动力市场化的因素,同时也妨碍了市场经济体制下社会失业保障体制的建立和完善.第二,为了使更多的有在传统体制下工作经历的下岗职工,尤其是大量从事过企业管理工作的下岗职工尽快地实现再就业,不仅需要对他们进行各种技能的培训,而且更需要对他们进行如何适应新的经济环境的再教育.第三,"下岗"不仅是中国经济体制转型过程中的一个特殊时期的政策,实际上也是结构性失业在中国特有经济体制中表现出来的一种特有的现象.对于这种由于产业结构变化带来的失业问题,政府有必要制定更多的积极性的失业政策.     

The impact of knowledge diversity: Integrating two economic perspectives through the dynamic capability approach

This paper analyzes the two economic perspectives underlying the contradictory results of existing studies regarding the relationship between diversity and performance and integrates them using the dynamic capability approach. Transaction cost economics suggests that knowledge diversity has a negative impact on cost-saving performance, whereas evolutionary economics suggests that knowledge diversity has a positive impact on value-creation performance. According to the dynamic capability approach, the perspective of transaction cost economics is shown to relate to ordinary capabilities, whereas the perspective of evolutionary economics is shown to relate to dynamic capabilities. The former should be pursued in subservience to the latter.     

Two Types of Disagreement in Group Discussions of Japanese Undergraduates

In this study we investigated the nature of disagreement, which is a necessary component of a good discussion. We obtained 27 group discussion scenes by Japanese undergraduates that were evaluated by two ways: impression rating and ranking. As a result of factor analysis for the impression rating data, five factors were extracted: activeness, multidirection and unification of discussion, relationships of participants, development and sophistication of discussion, and sincerity of the participants, and each factor scores of each scene was simultaneously calculated. Each scene’s rank score was also calculated by relative comparisons. A significant positive correlation was found between the mean factor and the rank scores except for Factor 3 (relationships of participants). To consider the reason for the difference relating to Factor 3’s score, we scrutinized the discussion process of four scenes of the different patterns of the factor and rank scores. From the analysis of conversations, we suggested that this difference reflected ways of disagreement. By introducing a probative discourse tags for discussion (pDTD), we reasoned that the frequency of disagreement made Factor 3’s score negative and the absence of the second part of adjacency pairs made the rank score worse. The explicit speech and actions of blame such as emotional and aggressive expression, and neglect of treatment for the minor opinion made also the discussion unfair, but we think that these behaviors might erupt from the ground made by the accumulated implicit behaviors such as the absence of the second part. We finally concluded that the criticism type of disagreement increased the rank scores, and its censure type produced lower results, and the proper ways of disagreement in group discussions were discussed.     

E-GOVERNANCE AS STRATEGY OF PUBLIC SECTOR REFORM: PECULIARITY OF JAPANESE IT POLICY AND ITS INSTITUTIONAL ORIGIN

As the cases of public sector reform and e-governance projects have shown, e-governance can play a role in public sector reform. This paper describes Japanese e-governance policy and its status, focusing on the issues affecting the government and the public. Japan has implemented a series of political and administrative reforms in order to improve accountability. NPM reforms utilize various strategies to manage public policies, and e-governance is a public policy that directly affects other policies and brings about change. Its characteristics as public policy are different from those of other policies, especially in relation to public accountability.     

MARKET COMPETITION BEFORE AND AFTER BANK MERGER WAVE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF KOREA AND JAPAN

Abstract. Reflecting recent merger trends in the banking industry of Korea and Japan, this paper examines the degree of competition before and after the bank merger wave. Two major implications are derived from empirical analyses. First, high levels of banking market competitiveness are detected after mergers in both the Korean and Japanese metropolitan areas. Second, although the level of market competition remains low throughout Japanese local cities, it is competitive compared with the metropolitan area of Korea. This paper concludes that market concentration brought about by bank mergers does not always result in low competitiveness.     

Comparison of clothing purchase behaviour between US and Japanese female university students

The clothing purchase behaviour of US and Japanese female university students was compared. Evaluative criteria when buying clothing, an interest in clothing and fashion and source of fashion information were studied. Relationships between variables were investigated and the difference and similarity between the two countries were discussed. For evaluative criteria, fit and style/design were ranked the most important in both countries. US students tended to give higher scores for fit, quality, fashion and brand/designer name than Japanese students. Japanese students were more economical, and colour and style/design were important. We found differences in the meaning of fashion between the two countries by cluster analysis. Interest in clothing was almost at the same level in the two countries. But interest in fashion was different; Japanese students were more interested in fashion when they spent more money on clothing. The fashion information sources most frequently used were fashion magazines, store displays, friends and TV. US students were more active in collecting information about fashion and used family members and non-personal sources, such as catalogues, the cinema, newspapers and electronic sources. Japanese students used more retail-oriented sources such as store displays and sales people. In both countries, students who were information search oriented tended to rank evaluative criteria highly and to have more interest in clothing/fashion.     

Ownership Structure and Risk‐taking Behavior: Evidence from Banks in Korea and Japan

This study analyzes the effects of managerial ownership on the risk‐taking behavior of Korean and Japanese banks during the relatively regulated period of the late 1990s to the early 2000s. It finds that managerial ownership alone does not affect either the risk or the profit levels of Korean banks. In contrast, an increase in managerial ownership adds to the total risk of Japanese banks. However, increased risk‐taking behavior does not produce higher levels of profit for Japanese banks. The coefficients of the interaction term between franchise value and managerial ownership are negative and statistically significant for both the Korean and the Japanese banking industries. This means that an increase in managerial ownership in banks with high franchise values discourages risk‐taking behavior. The results confirm the disciplinary role of franchise value on the risk‐taking behavior of banks. These results also fall in line with previous literature supporting the moral hazard hypothesis based on research into the economies of the USA and other countries.     

The effects of skirt lining properties on comfort and movement

This study was conducted to clarify the influences of the lining properties of skirts upon comfort and movement. The comfort of lining fabrics and real skirts with and without lining was rated by sensory tests on the basis of sensorial comfort on the skin and body movement. Actual body movements were investigated by motion analysis while the skirts were being worn. The results are described: (1) Comfort on the skin, movement and overall preference for the lining fabrics were evaluated by sensory testing, comparing skirts made with five kinds of lining fabrics. Conventional non‐stretch cupro lining was ranked first on the basis of smoothness and good feel to the skin. Two‐way stretch lining was also ranked highly in terms of ease of movement. We discuss how sensorial comfort on the skin and ease of movement related to overall preference for lining fabrics. (2) Sensory test of the actual skirts with and without lining clearly confirmed that lining played a role in improving comfort. (3) For a non‐stretch fabric skirt, conventional lining was ranked highly for good feel to the skin, and two‐way stretch lining was considered useful for ease of movement. There was no significant difference between the two lining fabrics in overall preference. (4) For a stretch fabric skirt, stretch lining is the most useful because it maintains easy extension of the outer fabric, thus allowing ease of body movement. (5) Motion analysis showed that a combination of knitted stretch skirts with stretch lining was the best for ease of movement. Comparing the sidelines and the hemline of the stretch fabric skirts demonstrated a better shape using lining.