China,More than Self-Sufficient

At the moment,the whole world faces the most severe inflation in food prices in history,as grain and soybean prices climb to all-time highs.Although some observers blame the weather for the decrease in crop yields and that the growing demand for cereals used for bio-fuel production has conspired toward continuous price rises on world grain ma ket;others regard it simply as a matter of demand outpacing supply.In seven of the last eight years,world grain production has fallen behind rates of consumption.     

A Third Eye On Two Sessions

China announced March 11 that it would reorganize the central government by creating five so-called superministries,including one responsible for improving environmental protection. But the plan stopped short of creating a single agency to oversee the contentious issue of energy oolicy.     

Does the role of observer countries in the regional trade agreement matter for intra-regional trade ?

This article investigates the effects of trade by observed economies on the intra-regional trade by South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) members using Poison pseudo maximum likelihood estimator (PPML) gravity models with panel data over the period 2008–2014. Eight SAARC members and eight observed countries, including the EU, are analysed in capturing the trade effect of observed economies on intra-regional trade in SAARC. This article provides an empirical measure of observers’ trade, FDI and Official development assistance (ODA) with SAARC if the exports and imports of observers to/from SAARC have positive or negative signs for intra-regional exports and imports. The results show that the exports and imports of observers to SAARC members have positive effects on bilateral exports among the members. The FDI of observers reduces the bilateral intra-imports in SAARC and ODA also has a negative effect on bilateral exports among the members. These results imply that the imports by SAARC members from observer countries increase intra-regional trade in the region. The FDI and ODA increase and decrease intra-regional trade in SAARC, respectively, implying that the policies for both FDI inflow from observers and efficient aid management are needed to increase regional welfare. The study also recommends that trade between SAARC members and its observers help to increase intra-regional trade in SAARC.     

Victims' and observers' perceptions of sexual harassment: implications for employers' legal risk in North America

The way in which victims and observers perceive potentially harassing behaviours and employers' responses to sexual harassment complaints significantly affect organizations' liability risk under sexual harassment law in North America. This article examines studies in the sexual harassment literature that focus on the perceptions of sexual harassment victims and observers, and identifies legal and extra-legal factors that influence their harassment judgments. The implications of research findings for employer liability and future research are discussed.