Clarity Needed on China’s Share Market

IMPORTANT economic issues and policies in China are honing in on its stock markets.These include proposals for the wider availability of short selling and the suggestion China’s pension funds should increase share purchases.     

Values,trust and democracy in Germany: Still in search of ‘inner unity’?

Twenty years after German reunification, surveys have persistently uncovered differences in political trust between the eastern and western parts of the country. Studies have offered disintegrated and inconclusive assessments of the cross‐regional variation. This variation is traced to a tenacious, retrospective sympathy for socialism steeped in political socialisation and experiential learning. Empirical analyses confirm the presence of two key effects. First, retrospective evaluations of socialism not only fuel popular distrust of political institutions, but are more strongly correlated with trust in the east. Second, East–West evaluations of socialism are sufficiently different to contribute towards explaining the contrasting levels of trust between the two regions. That socialist values constitute a core axis upon which East German attitudes pivot presents a challenge for nurturing trust in democratic institutions and renews attention to processes through which supportive attitudes to democracy are acquired in transitional countries.     

Flawed Western System Gives Chinese Banks Room to Expand

IN 2008, the U.S. and European banking system as a whole became insolvent, requiring US $1.7 trillion in taxpayer bailouts. Even this     

Using Reasonable Efforts Determinations to Improve Systems and Case Practice in Cases Involving Family Violence and Child Maltreatment

The Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) of 1997 reinforced that the safety, permanency, and well‐being of the child should be the primary concerns when making decisions about child protection interventions, child placement, and efforts at reunification. The court's role in oversight of agency practice in individual cases through the requirement of specific judicial findings as a condition of receipt of certain funding was also maintained and strengthened by ASFA. Based on the recognition of the number of cases where there is a co‐occurrence of domestic violence and child maltreatment, there is a need for communities and agencies to set reasonable expectations of good practice for responding to the issues raised. As the community sets the expectations of good practice through agency policy, training, and service delivery, the judiciary, through the findings regarding “continuation in the home” or “reasonable efforts” in each individual case, provides the oversight of practice required by ASFA. This article will explore the current applications of reasonable efforts, discuss ways that courts and communities are defining the concept, and examine the need for the development of a reasonable efforts protocol.     

THE DYNAMICS OF DELINQUENT PEERS AND DELINQUENT BEHAVIOR*

This analysis examines the dynamic reciprocal relationship between delinquent peer associations and delinquent behavior. It tests the hypothesis, derived from learning and interactional theories, that delinquent peers and delinquent behavior are reciprocally related—delinquent peer associations foster future delinquency, and delinquency increases the likelihood of associating with delinquent peers. It also tests the competing hypothesis, derived from control theories, that delinquent peers do not cause delinquency, but instead, the relationship is (1) spurious due to individual criminal propensity, (2) a result of the effects of delinquent behavior on future associations with delinquent peers, or (3) an artifact of problems of measuring delinquent peers. To test these propositions, we use data from the National Youth Survey and estimate a cross-lagged panel model that corrects for measurement error in indicators of delinquent peers and delinquent behavior. The model species a covariance structure model for ordinal measures. Parameters are estimated by (1) estimating a threshold model relating ordinal measures to continuous latent variables; (2) estimating a matrix of polychoric correlations relating observed variables, and (3) using an asymptotic distribution-free estimator to estimate structural parameters. The results suggest that delinquent peer associations and delinquent behavior are reciprocally related, but the effect of delinquency on peer associations is larger than that of peer associations on delinquency.     

Why China Will Grow Rich Before It Grows Old

正THE announcement of the relaxation of China’s one child policy created great discussion in China and internationally.But its significance was widely misunderstood.Contrary to myth,the increase in China’s labor supply plays little role in China’s rapid economic growth.In reality,96 percent of China’s economic growth comes from factors other than a rising labor supply.Therefore,there is no reason why China’s economy should slow significantly because China’s working age population stopped growing in 2012.The mistaken view,sometimes expressed,that China will grow old before it becomes rich is therefore the reverse of the reality:China will grow rich before it grows old.To demonstrate clearly why,first the facts will be stated and then their implications analysed.     

China＇s Changing Pattern of FDI

正INWARD investment into China continues to be the highest of any developing economy,at US$101 billion in 2013,according to UN fi gures,but its pattern is changing signifi cantly as the country develops,and this trend will inevitably deepen.In the first decades after the start of China’s economic reforms in 1978,foreign direct investment was primarily