Cointegration and market integration: An application to the Indonesian rice market

This article suggests improvements in the use of regression analysis to measure spatial market integration. The procedure pioneered by Ravallion is still widespread but is valid only under certain conditions of exogeneity. The alternative offered here is an error‐correction mechanism which makes it possible to test for exogeneity as well as indicating the direction and strength of causality in price formation between markets. The method is illustrated with data on rice prices in different parts of the Indonesian market. The results confirm, among other things, that supply sources are more important than demand sources in driving prices.     

Promoting Accountability in Multilevel Governance: A Network Approach

Abstract:  This article addresses problems of accountability in the system of multilevel governance, organised around networks, as it exists in the EU. An 'accountability deficit' arises when gaps are left by the accountability machinery of the several levels of government, supranational and national. This article suggests a new evaluative framework based on the concept of 'accountability network', questioning the hierarchical and pyramidal assumptions that presently underpin accountability theory in the EU context. Using case studies of the Community courts and European Ombudsman, the article suggests that 'accountability networks' may be emerging, composed of agencies specialising in a specific mode of accountability, which come together or coalesce in a relationship of support, fortified by shared professional expertise and ethos. At present fragmentary and imperfect, these might ultimately be capable of providing effective machinery for accountability in network governance systems.     

Language,gender, and Chinese culture

Conclusion The analysis of Chinese characters, idioms, and semantic placements provides the context for understanding the historical construction of gender roles, images, and ideas that inform the oppression of women in Chinese society. We have seen that language was crucial in the creation and perpetuation of the Chinese patriarchal system. The physical structure of the Chinese language testified to the continuing inequalities of gender within Chinese society, the roots of which revert to antiquity. The Chinese writing system that is by and for men serves to maintain patterns of behavior that reflect as well as reinforce gender inequality. We should recognize that social change creates linguistic and behavioral changes. Linguistic disparties reflect real and sustained social inequalities that can and should be changed. There is no other alternative for Chinese women seeking equality but to change the language and its usages. Once Chinese women expose the falseness of existing male meanings and encode their own language, a more objective social reality can be envisaged and perhaps ultimately achieved.