Inflation targeting at the crossroads: Evidence from post-communist economies during the crisis

The objective of this paper is to assess if inflation targeting post-communist economies performed better, in terms of output growth, during the crisis than their non-inflation targeting counterparts. The paper also puts the issue in the context of the preconditions of inflation targeters to adopt this regime. 26 post-communist economies of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States are analyzed during the ongoing economic crisis. Results suggest that inflation targeters of those countries performed worse than non-inflation targeters. The growth decline in inflation targeters post-communist economies has been estimated to be deeper by about four percentage points than that in non-inflation targeters. The study finds very limited role of the preconditions for growth decline. Only the lower amount of monetary financing of the budget may have contributed in inflation-targeting countries to have gone through the crisis better.     

我国民事诉讼举证时限制度的完善

我国《民事诉讼法》在2012年8月31日修正后，举证时限制度在一定程度上得到了完善，使我国民事诉讼中的逾期证据从“严格失权”过渡到了“灵活失权”，然而细节方面的规定仍存在不足。文章指出，对民事举证时限的延期应做出具体规定，设定逾期证据的采纳标准，同时要建立相关的配套制度。     

Early Innovation Adoption: Effects of Performance-Based Motivation and Organizational Characteristics

Abstract

Early adopters of innovation play a critical role in the successful spread of the innovation by legitimizing the adoption of the innovation and/or providing evidence of its effectiveness. This article explores why some organizations adopt innovations before than others by focusing on determinants of early innovation adoption. Analysis reveals that there is a U-shaped influence of organizational performance on early innovation adoption. Most organizations are encouraged to be early adopters by their poor performance, but some organizations with very high performance tend to be innovation-friendly. Other organizational characteristics such as organizational size and pro-innovation bias also have positive impacts on early innovation adoption. These findings have practical implications about strategies for successfully diffusing innovations.     

The Adoption of State Climate Change Policies and Renewable Portfolio Standards: Regional Diffusion or Internal Determinants?

This paper draws upon policy innovation literature and quantitatively explains the adoption of state climate change policies, leading to a broader question—what makes states more likely to adopt policies that provide a global public good? First, existing empirical evidence relating to state climate change policy adoption is reviewed. Following this brief discussion, several analytic approaches are presented that test specific hypotheses derived from the internal determinants and regional diffusion models of policy adoption. Policy diffusion is tested as a function of the motivations, resources, and obstacles of policy change. Motivations for policy innovation include environmental conditions and demands of citizens. Resources include state financial and geographic resources, such as wind and solar potential. Obstacles include a state's reliance on carbon‐intensive industries such as coal and natural gas. The results show that internal factors, particularly citizens' demands, are stronger predictors of states' policies than are diffusion effects from neighboring states.     

The Diffusion of Human Trafficking Policies in the Post-Soviet Region: A Comparative Analysis of Policy Adoption in Ukraine,Latvia, and Russia

This paper analyzes how human trafficking policies diffused in the post-Soviet region. By adapting the diffusion of innovation framework to fit the international context, I examine whether human trafficking adoptions in the post-Soviet region were due to internal determinants and/or diffusion effects. A comparison of Russia, Latvia, and Ukraine found that internal determinants such as state commitment to human trafficking policy and interest group strength were more important to policy adoption than external pressures from the international community while state capacity and bureaucratic restructuring impeded policy adoption. I argue that policymaking, even in authoritarian regimes, is more nuanced than blind compliance with international treaties and shows that interest groups and policy entrepreneurs work within the constraints of national policymaking to adopt human trafficking policies.     

第三人利益的保护——善意取得还是无因性原则

我国正在制定的《物权法》,在第三人利益保护的问题上 ,存在着适用善意取得制度或物权无因性原则两种观点的争论。本文认为 ,善意取得制度更能体现法的正义性 ,也更切合我国的国情 ,所以应是我国立法的选择。但善意取得制度应吸取无因性原则的优点 ,对善意的认定应采用客观推定的办法。本文同时提出了其他方面完善的措施。     

A Review of: “Alison Pargeter. The New Frontiers of Jihad: Radical Islam in Europe.”

Recent years have witnessed a significant increase in the amount of counterterrorism legislation worldwide. The commonly held assumption behind the adoption of counterterrorism legislation links it to the terrorist threat in a state. However, little research has focused on empirically testing reasons driving states to legislate. This article addresses this void by analyzing the puzzle of why states choose to adopt new terrorism-specific legislation. The article presents empirical analysis of the probability of states to legislate before and after September 11, 2001, and is based on a new database of counterterrorism legislation. The findings reveal that before September 11, state decisions to adopt new legislation correlated with the number of terrorist organizations operating in their territory. Since September 11, however, the most significant predictors for the adoption of new legislation have become the existence of previous counterterrorism legislation and the participation of a state in the War on Terror.     

Expanding the Definition of Asian Diasporic Studies

Abstract

Korean and other Asian adoptees are increasingly becoming a part of the racial landscape in the United States, although their presence is omitted or minimally addressed in Asian diasporic studies. In 1999, after 45 years of “feeling shame and a sense of guilt” (Lee, 1999, para. 3) First Lady Hee-Ho Lee marked the South Korean government's official recognition of adoptees as overseas Koreans. As involuntary immigrants, this population has both shared and unique experiences with other Korean immigrants. Current literature on Asian American acculturation, assimilation, and identity does not capture the experiences of Asian adoptees (McDonald&Balgopal, 1998; Min&Kim, 2000; Oyserman&Sakamoto, 1997; Phinney et al., 2000; Tse, 1999). This article presents quantitative research that considered the constructs of ethnic and racial identity for Korean adoptees, their relationship to each other, and to the process of acculturation.

This study of adoptees (N = 69), ranging in age from early-adolescence to young adulthood, explored the relationships between racial identity, ethnic identity, and acculturation in transracial Korean adoptees. The research was exploratory in nature and entailed a quantitative design comprised of three objective instruments measuring racial identity, ethnic identity, and acculturation. Findings indicated that the group was characterized as embracing both their Korean heritage and white middle-class upbringing with a somewhat greater need for assimilation or inclusion into the Korean community than differentiation from it. While adoptees are highly acculturated into the mainstream, they seem to journey, as do other immigrants, through a process of defining what ethnicity and race means to them.     

The Mechanism of State Charter School Policy Adoption: The Case of American States

This article concentrates on charter school policy that is regarded as the fastest growing innovative policy in America. Its adoption is more impressive than other innovative policies in the public educational area. By 2008, 40 states among 50 American states have passed charter school law since Minnesota became the first pathfinder to create charter school law about two decades ago. However, 10 states have not adopted charter school law. Based on this dichotomous policy phenomenon, the primary research question of the study focuses on clarifying what factors drive American states to adopt charter school policy. To obtain answers for this research question, the study dedicates to analyzing main hypotheses from the regional diffusion model and state characteristics, using event history analysis. The results demonstrate that the three predictor variables—regional diffusion, similar innovation, and gubernatorial political tendency—positively have significant effects in explaining the adoption of American state charter school policy.     

Diffusion as a Process of Creative Adoption

This paper elaborates an integrated framework for understanding diffusion as a process of creative adoptions in the business sector. Within the context of the economics of localized technological change, adoption is viewed as a complementary component of a broader process of adjusting the technology when unexpected events in the product and factor markets push firms towards a creative reaction. When the stock of adoptions exerts a suitable combined effect both on the gross profitability of adoption and on the costs of adoption, such that the net profitability of adoption and hence the rates of new adoption follow a quadratic path, the dynamics of creative adoption can engender a S-shaped diffusion process.