Good Leadership and Common Prosperity

正Beijing recently released a new white paper providing a comprehensive overview of a multitude of efforts to achieve a xiaokang, or moderately prosperous, society, on schedule in 2021, coinciding with the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China(CPC). First described in the modern era by Deng Xiaoping in 1979, subsequent generations of Chinese leadership made this concept central to national development goals.     

QUALITY OVER QUANTITY

Over the many years of accelerated economic growth in China,there has been a general tendency in m any corners to fetishize GDP growth rates as paramount indicators of economic developm ent The simple logic of "bigger is better" has always been an easy sell to citizens and investors alike,and particularly in the wake of China’s joining the WTO,it has been the story above all others,arguably,that has captivated international attention,along with the persistent concern that at some point,those rates would decline and then,perhaps,all bets would be off.     

Evaluating the Xi-Biden Summit

The virtual summit has come and gone and what has it changed? Virtually nothing. We had good reason to believe that more would be accomplished. Admittedly, the original meeting read-outs were relatively sparse, and new details emerged in the days that followed, indicating that more was said and done than either side initially conveyed. But the key questions facing us now are: Why did we expect more; why didn't we get it; and what does all of this mean for China-U.S. relations going forward?     

DANGERS OF DECOUPLING AMID THE VIRUS

While the current novel coronavirus outbreak continues to affect many in China,loom ing questions remain regarding global im pacts related to health,econom ics and geopolitics.Given current scie n tific understandings of the disease,including its transm ission rates and associated morbidity and mortality(and despite multiple studies indicating a relatively low fatality rate),the costs for China and in particular,Wuhan,the outbreaks epicenter,continue to be substantial.     

The Structure of Ownership Rights in Franchising: An Incomplete Contracting View

The paper offers an explanation for the structure of ownership rights in franchising networks which emphasize the role of intangible assets. By applying the incomplete contracting theory of the firm we argue that the structure of ownership rights depends on the distribution of intangible assets between the franchisor and the franchisee. The higher the franchisor's (franchisee's) intangible assets relative to the franchisee (franchisor), the more ownership rights should be transferred to him. This hypothesis was tested by using data from the Austrian franchise sector. The empirical results are supportive of the hypothesis.     

A property rights view of multi-unit franchising

This study develops a property rights explanation of the multi-unit (MU) ownership strategy of the franchise firm. According to the property rights theory, the allocation of residual rights of control (decision and ownership rights) in franchise firms depends on the contractibility of system-specific and local market assets (LMA). We develop and test the following hypotheses: Multi-unit franchising (MUF) is positively related to the franchisor’s intangible system-specific assets and negatively to the franchisee’s intangible LMA. In addition, we argue that impact of financial assets on the tendency toward MUF depends on the contractibility of LMA. Empirical results from the German franchise sector provide partial support of the hypotheses. Compared to the agency theory, which focuses on (complete) incentive contracts that specify residual income rights between the franchisor and franchisee, property rights theory focuses on incomplete contracts that allocate residual control rights between the franchisor and network partners. Furthermore, compared to the resource scarcity theory, property rights theory explains the impact of contractibility of resources/assets on the ownership strategy of the franchise firm.     

Tinker, Tailor, Policy-maker ... ... ... The Wider Context of Prosecution Service Work

This article explores the wider ambit of prosecutorial work outside classic criminal proceedings in 11 European criminal justice systems. It provides an overview of the roles a prosecutor is expected to play, e.g. whether a contribution to national or local crime prevention policy or to act in victim’s interest is expected. It further provides detail as to the setting within which prosecutors work, describing in how far they are politically accountable and/or subject to orders in their daily work.