Development in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Statistics at the Australian Bureau of Statistics

This paper outlines the ICT statistical developments that the ABS has undertaken over recent years. These developments have been on both the supply side (ICT industry) and the demand side (use of IT by sector). The content of ABS ICT surveys has changed significantly over the last few years and are expected to develop further in line with industry changes and emerging policy needs.
Recent developments in household collections have been the inclusion of IT use questions in the 2001 Census of Population and Housing and in various ABS social surveys such as Children's Participation in Culture and Leisure Activities. Annual business IT use surveys are now conducted and include topics such as Internet commerce and IT security. Biennial ICT industry surveys are conducted to provide data on ICT production, imports and exports, ICT industry employment, performance and structure information. An Internet activity survey is run every six months and provides regional Internet access details and infrastructure details on Internet service providers.
A major development for 2002–03 will be the compilation of an ICT satellite account. ABS intends to produce an ICT Information Development Plan to guide its future statistical development work in the ICT field.     

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.     

BUILDING CARS TO CUSTOMER ORDER — WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR INBOUND LOGISTICS OPERATIONS?

The automotive industry is undergoing a strategic transition. Cost pressure from rising stock levels in the market and increasing incentives needed to sell these vehicles are forcing vehicle manufacturers to rethink their prevalent “stock‐push” approach, building vehicles against a forecast and selling from stock, in favor of a stock‐less “build‐to‐order” order fulfillment strategy. More responsive order fulfillment at the vehicle manufacturer level however will not only require flexible and responsive component supply, but will also have wide ramifications for the logistics operations. Based on three case studies of major inbound logistics operations, this exploratory study assesses their ability to support such a build‐to‐order approach, as well as the potential implications of such transition. The paper concludes with a set of general strategies for how these implications could be mitigated.     

A variety-increasing view of the development of the semiconductor industry in Taiwan

The development of the semiconductor industry depends on its interactions with the environment. Developing countries face more constraints and the environmental interactions seem more complicated. The development process of the semiconductor industry could be better understood with regard to the interactions and social changes. This study proposes a variety-increasing viewpoint based on the concepts of variety increasing and internal learning to analyze the developmental experience of the semiconductor industry in Taiwan. The result shows that the development of Taiwanese semiconductor industry is a continuous variety-increasing process, which is achieved by searching and establishing successful associations in an increasingly wider and complex environment. Implications on the ongoing development of Taiwan's semiconductor industry and the development experiences of other East Asian countries are discussed.     

基于我国货物出口轨迹及效应分析的出口贸易战略调整取向

改革开放以来,我国根据各个时期所处国际国内环境的变化,制定了不同的出口贸易发展战略,取得了举世瞩目的成就,从1981年到2005年六个五年计划期间,我国出口额增长了34倍,由世界32位成长为世界第三大贸易国。但根据六个五年计划的出口贸易轨迹来看,还存在一些问题,另外国际国内环境不断变化,需要我们调整贸易战略,以适应不同的环境,完成我国从贸易大国向贸易强国的转变。     

日本循环经济的运作方式及启示

日本是世界上最早探索循环经济发展模式的国家之一,也是循环经济立法最全、资源循环利用率最高的国家。日本发展循环经济是客观资源条件、经济快速增长和实现可持续发展的要求,多年来,在循环经济的实践中取得了很大的成绩,积累了丰富的经验。目前我国已充分认识到发展循环经济的重要性,日本在建立循环型社会方面的运作方式给我们提供了经验和启示。     

What do interest rates reveal about the functioning of real business cycle models?

This paper begins by documenting the extent to which the predictions of standard Real Business Cycle (RBC) models are incompatible with observed movements in real interest rates. The main finding of the paper is that extending the baseline model to include habit persistence in consumption and adjustment costs to capital significantly improves the model's empirical performance. In our evaluation of the model's performance, we take special care of estimating and testing predictions of the model using both moments drawn directly from the data and moments calculated after identifying shocks to the stochastic trend.     

THE LAST MILE: AN EXAMINATION OF EFFECTS OF ONLINE RETAIL DELIVERY STRATEGIES ON CONSUMERS

The Internet has increased the level of importance of the end‐consumer market to transportation carriers. In two between subject experiments, carrier disclosure on retail merchant websites is examined as a strategic differentiation strategy. Predictions are offered concerning effects of carrier disclosure strategies on product delivery‐related expectations, consumer attitudes, and intentions to purchase a product online. Results from Study 1 reveal significant differences between disclosure and nondisclosure of the carrier for numerous product delivery‐related variables, as well as many differences between the six carriers examined in this first study. Study 2 extends these findings by showing that providing consumers with a choice of carrier leads to increased levels of satisfaction with the online experience and greater willingness to buy, relative to nondisclosure and disclosure strategies.     

新疆环境产业发展问题探析

我国经济的高速发展给生态环境带来了巨大的负面效应和不利影响,同时也给新疆环境产业提供了发展机遇。本文以可持续发展理念为前提,分析了新疆当前环境产业的现状及面临的挑战,提出了环境产业发展对策。     

我国大城市郊区化与汽车产业的发展

在我国大城市出现的郊区化现象与西方发达国家具有若干相似性 ,也存在大量的不同特征和不同的动力机制。郊区化是城市化发展到一定阶段的产物 ,是大城市空间结构调整的表现形式。在合理的城市与区域规划引导下 ,郊区化与汽车产业的发展将会相互促进 ,并推动大城市空间结构的优化