FDI facilitated by agglomeration economies: evidence from manufacturing and services joint ventures in China

The open door policy of China’s economic reform since the 1980s has attracted heavy foreign direct investment (FDI) flows into China and especially to Guangdong (particularly the Pearl River Delta region, PRD) and induced significant economic growth during the past two decades. While there exist various classical theories of FDI in attempting to identify the determinants of FDI inflow and to explain the behavior of FDI flows, limited attention has been given from the perspective of agglomeration effects generated by a core-periphery (CP) relation.This paper intends to study the impacts of agglomerations on FDI inflows in the context of Krugman’s CP relation (1991) by investigating (1) the formation of a CP relation via gravity model analysis; (2) whether different types of industry FDI flows will respond differently in the CP-system, given agglomeration effects; and (3) whether FDI origin and firm scale matter in affecting FDI flows.A database consisting of a population frame of 37,742 firm-level manufacturing and services joint ventures investing in Guangdong in 1998 was used. Empirical results show that the agglomerations of the CP relation have affected FDI flow patterns. While both manufacturing and services FDI and sources of investment responded differently to the impacts, smaller firms were found more responsive to the CP-agglomeration settings regardless of FDI by industry type and by source. The significance and implications of the CP-system to further facilitate FDI in the region are discussed.     

城市旧住宅小区管理模式研究

城市旧住宅小区管理模式有物业管理模式、社区管理模式和单位自管模式之分。旧小区管理模式改革和创新是建立政府行政管理与居民(业主)自治管理相结合、社区管理与物业管理相结合的混合型管理模式,其实现途径是加强政府对旧小区管理的领导和支持,充分发挥小区自治组织的作用,积极推行物业管理模式,更新思想观念,提高物业管理服务水平,建立物业管理与社区管理相结合的运作机制,加强法制建理服务设。     

Problematische Umsetzung der Gesundheitsreform

Zusammenfassung   Als ein wesentliches Element der Gesundheitsreform wird am 1. Januar 2009 ein Gesundheitsfonds zur Finanzierung der Gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung eingeführt. Derzeit werden wichtige Weichen für die Gesundheitsreform gestellt. Wie ist es zu der Entscheidung für einen Gesundheitsfonds gekommen? Welche Probleme k?nnen durch die Gesundheitsreform gel?st werden und welche werden neu geschaffen? Wird der Wettbewerb im Krankenversicherungssystem gest?rkt? Welche Anreiz- und Budget- Wirkungen hat die Honorarreform? In welche Richtung zeigen die Strukturwandlungen im Sozialversicherungssystem? Die Autoren unseres Zeitgespr?chs: Prof. Dr. Wolfram F. Richter*, 59, lehrt ?ffentliche Finanzen an der Technischen Universit?t Dortmund und ist Mitglied des Wissenschaftlichen Beirats beim Bundesministerium der Finanzen. Dr. Klaus Jacobs, 51, ist Gesch?ftsführer des Wissenschaftlichen Instituts der AOK (WIdO) in Berlin. Prof. Dr. Jürgen Wasem, 49, ist Leiter des Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Stiftungs lehrstuhls für Medizinmanagement der Universit?t Duisburg-Essen; Anke Walendzik, 52, Dipl.-Volkswirtin, ist dort wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin. Prof. Dr. Frank Schulz-Nieswandt, 50, ist Direktor des Seminars für Sozialpolitik und Dekan an der Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftlichen Fakult?t der Universit?t zu K?ln. * Der Autor dankt Klaus-Dirk Henke für verschiedene hilfreiche Hinweise.     

与时俱进开拓创新促进我国保税区新的发展--"全国保税区发展高层论坛"综述

2002年11月30日,青岛市政府与经济日报社联合举办的“全国保税区发展论坛”在青岛市举行。会议邀请各方面领导、专家学者和在一线实践的同志,总结保税区的经验,探索发展的方向和途径。一、面对新的挑战,保税区要有新发展,更好地发挥对外开放的示范作用“论坛”的举办正值党的十六大刚刚胜利闭幕之际,与会同志欢欣鼓舞,畅所欲言,认真回顾了我国保税区的发展历程,总结成绩和经验,规划发展目标,展望前景,对我国保税区的发展充满了信心。与会者认为,我国的保税区事业已经走过了12年的发展历程,各地保税区的开发建设都取得了很大成就。保税区作为…     

Equity Volatility and Corporate Bond Yields

This paper explores the effect of equity volatility on corporate bond yields. Panel data for the late 1990s show that idiosyncratic firm‐level volatility can explain as much cross‐sectional variation in yields as can credit ratings. This finding, together with the upward trend in idiosyncratic equity volatility documented by Campbell, Lettau, Malkiel, and Xu (2001), helps to explain recent increases in corporate bond yields.     

The impacts of Hong Kong’s Currency Board reforms on the interbank market

Among the economies with a Currency Board System (CBS), Hong Kong (HK) is probably the one with the largest and most developed financial sector, as well as the highest capital mobility. Hence, studying HK’s CBS is not only crucial to HK, but also important for the understanding of the modern CBS. This paper outlines the major monetary reforms in HK since the late 1980s. The impacts of these reforms and the 1997–1998 Asian Financial Crisis are then examined empirically. We focus on the differentials between the US and HK interbank interest rates. We assume the conditional-mean equation follows an autoregressive process and the conditional-variance equation follows a generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity process. This model captures the time-varying level and volatility of the differential. In light of the empirical results we provide an assessment of the reforms in HK.     

优化河南投资环境途径探析

投资超常增长是促使经济快速发展的重要因素，河南投资环境基础比较好，应该扬长避短进一步优化，其具体途径可以从投资的国际经济环境、投资的国内经济环境、投资的区域经济环境入手。