Renminbi appreciation and Global Value Chains in China: exploring the linkages

China has experienced a rapid integration into Global Value Chains and a decade long appreciation of its exchange rate. However, these trends have been analysed largely in isolation from each other. In this paper, we explore the linkages between the two based on interviews with a sample of firms in Jiangsu Province. We show (1) how the distribution of the costs and benefits of exchange rate appreciation depends on the power hierarchies between firms in GVCs; (2) how exchange rate changes are important drivers of upgrading and even downgrading in GVCs; and (3) that the firm heterogeneity evident in GVCs provides additional insights into the politics of exchange rate determination in China.     

中国服务外包产业发展的现状、问题及对策探讨——基于相关文献的综述分析

近年来,中国服务外包产业持续快速发展的良好势头非常抢眼,从而极大地弥补了该产业在中国起步时间较晚的相对不足.目前,服务外包产业不仅成为中国各类企业更多地参与和更好地角逐全球市场的新舞台与新高地,更成为进一步促动和实现中国经济发展方式新的转变以及产业结构升级转型的一条重要途径.由此,对中国服务外包产业发展进行现状评估、问题分析和对策探讨就成为国内学术界和实务界关注的重点.     

论信息化带动工业化的非均衡路径

以信息化带动工业化,就是以"带"为手段,大力发展信息技术,以"动"为传导,优化产业结构,提升企业竞争力,目的是实现社会生产力的跨越式发展。分析制约信息化战略的供给与需求两方面因素发现,赶超战略的可行途径与应有之义具有非均衡性,大力推进城市信息基础设施建设,积极参与国际商务中心竞争,培育若干个都市群的国际竞争优势,以此带动中小城镇与整个国民经济发展是实施信息化战略的现实选择。     

对油田企业技能操作人才培养模式的认识

加强企业技能人才队伍建设是企业实现改革发展、提升核心竞争力的需要。技术工人是社会发展与经济建设的重要力量,技术工人的整体技能水平一定程度上制约了国民经济的发展。胜利油田要实现"十二五"战略发展目标,进而建设百年胜利的宏伟愿景,就必须深入调查分析技能人才队伍的建设情况,积极探寻油田企业技能人才的成长成才途径,探索创新技能人才培养模式,培养造就一大批素质过硬的技能人才。     

Incumbency,internal processes and renomination in Indian parties

This paper analyses a critical aspect of the internal functioning of five major Indian political parties, namely the nomination of candidates for parliamentary elections, focusing on the pattern of renomination of former candidates and incumbents. The data are analysed against the literature on the structure and functioning of Indian parties, and interview material on the process of nomination in the 2009 and 2004 elections. From the perspective of a six-fold typology of centralisation of nomination processes drawn from the comparative literature, it is found that all the parties analysed are in either the second-most centralised, or even most centralised categories, and that for the three major national parties, Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party and Communist Party of India (Marxist), past performance plays a role in nominations, the majority of incumbents being renominated in the post-1989 period.     

R&D人员投入与天津传统产业升级

R&D人员投入对传统产业的优化升级具有重要意义,考虑到天津在R&D人员投入方面存在的差距,天津应当以R&D人员投入为切入点,加大人才引进力度,优化R&D人员投入结构和经费支出结构,以完成天津传统产业升级这一重要历史使命。     

Mini-Stimulus to Fuel Reforms

正At the present time,China is in need of economic stimulus,a fact testified to by the struggling branches of some banks and the sluggish manufacturing industry.The country should no longer base its optimistic mood solely on the explosive growth of the information technology(IT)and e-commerce industries.Without the upgrading of its manufacturing sector,China’s economy will     

Revisiting the Character of Congress

SUMMARY

This article examines how character assessments affected the electoral fortunes of incumbent members of the U.S. House of Representatives during the period from 1966-1996. The findings of several linear regressions suggest that party affiliation constrains both when voters react to allegations of scandalous behavior and how they react to different kinds of allegations. The electoral cycle assists incumbent members who have engaged in scandalous behavior escape retribution from their constituents, allowing the majority to be reelected. Also reviewed are findings from the 1998-2002 timeframe. It concludes that voters do concern themselves with character issues, but that the party affiliation of the member and the type of scandal work in concert with the electoral process to mitigate the negative impact on the vote.     

Policy Reforms and Evolution of Market Structure in an Emerging Economy: The Case of India

Policy reforms have facilitated entry of quite a few transnational corporations (TNC) into Indian industries. This has important implications for the evolution of competitive industrial structure. This article focuses on the issue of the response mechanism of local firms to competition from new entrant TNCs and the possible strategies of TNCs in penetrating the Indian market. It develops a conceptual framework by incorporating elements of intangible assets theory and new institutional economics into a simple sequential entry oligopoly model. This yields interesting insights into qualitative behaviour of firms in the post-reforms period. A few hypotheses drawn from the conceptual framework are empirically tested on the basis of firm level panel data drawn from a set of Indian industries.     

Mapping Urban Revitalization: Using GIS Spatial Analysis to Evaluate a New Housing Policy

This longitudinal, multimethod study uses geographical information system (GIS) software to evaluate the community-wide impact of a neighborhood revitalization project. Unsystematic visual examination and analysis of GIS maps are offered as a complementary tool to quantitative analysis and one that is much more compelling, meaningful, and effective in presentation to community and nonscientific professional audiences. The centerpiece of the intervention was the development of a new, middle-class housing subdivision in an area that was declining physically and economically. This represents three major urban/housing policy directions: (1) the emphasis on home ownership for working-class families, (2) the deconcentration of poverty through development of mixed-income neighborhoods, and (3) the clean up and redevelopment of contaminated, former industrial brownfields. Resident survey responses, objective environmental assessment observations, and building permit data were collected, geocoded at the address level, and aggregated to the block level on 60 street blocks in the older neighborhoods surrounding the new housing in two waves: during site clearing and housing construction (Time 1: 1993–95) and three years post-completion (Time 2: 1998–99). Variables mapped include (a) Time 1–2 change in self-reported home repairs and improvements, (b) change in the assessed physical condition of yards and exteriors of 925 individual residential properties, (c) change in residents' home pride, and (d) a city archive of building permits at Time 2. Physical conditions improved overall in the neighborhood, but spatial analysis of the maps suggest that the spillover effects, if any, of the new housing were geographically limited and included unintended negative psychological consequences. Results argue for greater use of GIS and the street block level in community research and of psychological and behavioral variables in planning research and decisions.