Redefining “Offshore” in Latin America

Offshoring and outsourcing are two terms—often used interchangeably—that comprise an essential element of the modern post‐industrial global economy. Analysis of this phenomenon in the United States is often framed in the light of job loss and economic decline relating to the manufacturing or low‐end services sectors, but this paper will revisit the traditional offshore industry—that of offshore finance and offshore financial centers (OFCs) and compare OFC offshoring with traditional offshoring in Latin America. This paper argues that some similarities are evident when comparing OFC offshoring with traditional offshoring but many differences exist. Using the framework or “lens” of politics certain OFC offshoring issues and tensions with the onshore world relating to unfair tax competition, money laundering, sovereignty, secrecy, regulation, trust, and reputation are analyzed and are shown to be more onerous, tense and different from those occurring in the mainstream offshoring/outsourcing world. In addition, using the “lens” of cyberspace and e‐commerce, and a case study of the Cayman Islands and the Bahamas, this paper argues that the creation of an electronic infrastructure in the OFC offshoring world is as necessary as in the onshore world, but the actors and institutions creating and promoting such infrastructures are different. Future work could pursue more reputable and comparative data gathering to further more rigorous statistical modeling of the relationships both between OFCs as they compete for offshore capital, and between offshore and onshore as the onshore world seeks to further lift the veil of offshore financial opacity, particularly related to issues of money laundering.     

Institutional varieties,governance quality,and firm-level innovation in emerging economies: Case of India

This study examines how institutional varieties at the subnational (state) level influence firm-level innovation in an emerging economy—India. Knowledge of how institutional varieties influence firm-level innovation is derived principally from country-level studies involving multiple developed countries. Research on emerging economies is sparse and tends to follow country-level approaches involving multiple countries. Research involving a single emerging economy where there are substantial institutional varieties between regions is thin. The institutional varieties of some emerging countries are so striking that they can be viewed as several countries within a country, for example, India, China. This study contributes to the innovation literature on the role of institutional varieties on firm-level innovation by focusing on a different level of analysis—a single, emerging economy with substantial institutional varieties across the different states of India. Innovation in emerging economies is a topic of increasing academic interest. A multilevel study involving regional- and firm-level factors is employed. Firm-level data are from the World Bank Enterprise Survey and regional-level data are from statistical agencies in India. The results confirm that institutional varieties have major impacts on firm-level innovation. The research, policy, and managerial implications are discussed.     

From followers to market leaders: Asian electronics firms in the global economy

Abstract: This paper aims to explain how a number of leading electronics firms from Asian newly industrialised economies of Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan are articulated into global production networks and become major players in their respective market niches. Developing a triangular theoretical framework, I seek to explain the complex relationships between the dynamic articulation of these leading Asian electronics firms into different global production networks and their simultaneous upgrading from typical followers to market leaders. As a critique of the dominant developmental state discourse, I argue that the interplay between corporate strategies and home base advantages within the context of changing global production networks can offer a better explanation of the differentiated competitive outcomes of these Asian firms. This paper draws upon original data collected through personal interviews with top executives from leading electronics firms in the four Asian newly industrialised economies. I conclude the paper with some implications for theory and policy in relation to corporate development in Asian economies.     

Agglomeration of Services in American Metropolitan Areas

The growth of many service industries among American metropolitan areas stem from an eclectic set of forces. These include market penetration effects of increasing importance of services throughout the economy, agglomeration effects in immature and deregulated industries, and institutional and infrastructure constraints. These diverse forces are interpreted as urbanization and localization economies. A cycle of centralization of 27 fast growing service industries is documented for MS As in the period 1977-84. The two agglomeration effects are tested directly, using a power function model that relates employment and establishment growth to MSA size and initial level of employment in a local industry. Localization economies rather than the general advantages of metropolitan size best explain the growth patterns. This result implies that service industrial complexes are rapidly emerging in American metropolitan areas.     

Location choice of industrial land reduction in Metropolitan Area: Evidence from Shanghai in China

Under the background of supply side structural reform of the land market, this paper constructs a location choice behavior model of reduction from the perspective of rent maximization, explores how these factors affect the industrial land reduction location choice. We consider 100 industrial parcels in the suburbs of Shanghai as an example to analyze. It is found that the enterprises in development zones have greater advantages in economies of scale, labor productivity, pollution treatment, and tax payments than enterprises outside the development zone, so the low-efficiency enterprises outside the development zones are the preferred objects of reduction. The suburban areas have a stronger attraction than the outer suburbs in the process of location choice, and the closer the city center is, the more obvious the location advantages of enterprises in development zones. Under the control of the total amount of construction land, the land use structure should be constantly adjusted, inefficient enterprises outside the development zone should be preferred to the reduction object, and the government should actively guide enterprises to enter the development zones.     

Analysis on Weaknesses of the Theory of Natural Monopoly and Corresponding Revelations

Natural monopoly is characterized by economies of scale and production cost subadditivity in the traditional and new theory of natural monopoly.The paper thinks that they are incorrect in the method of judging some industry as natural monopoly.They neglect some important transaction(system) cost factors.Once giving up the old analytic framework, the authors find that economies of scale and production cost subadditivity are neither necessary nor sufficient for natural monopoly.Based on the analysis on weaknesses of the traditional and new theory of natural monopoly,the paper discusses the essential character of natural monopoly and educes some corresponding revelations about the reform of network industries.     

The Creative Economies of Texas Metropolitan Regions: A Comparative Analysis Before,During, and After the Recession

With the exception of Austin, metropolitan regions in Texas are not commonly included in research and analysis concerning creative economies—attention is largely focused on either the traditional capitals of creative production, New York and Los Angeles, or emerging, secondary regions such as Austin and Seattle, Washington. This article utilizes an industrial approach to examine the creative economies of the four most populous metropolitan regions of Texas—Austin, Dallas‐Ft. Worth, Houston, and San Antonio—and detail their scale, scope, and change between 2005 and 2015. Results help establish the creative economies of the Dallas‐Ft. Worth, Houston, and San Antonio metropolitan regions in the existing stream of creative research and discussion, offer further perspective on the dynamics and strength of the Austin region's creative economy, and provide insight into how regional creative economies emerge in rapidly urbanizing regions during the digital era. Additionally, special attention is paid to how these four creative economies transformed during the recessionary period from 2007 to 2009. Results of that attention build on prior research which points to the recession having a varied influence on creative economies depending on trends in the broader regional economies that house them.     

Historical Evolution of Vernacular Settlement in Tianshui City

Vernacular settlement is a sum of settlements that keep traditional landscapes in the process of urbanization, and its coverage coincides with that of urban community and rural settlement to some extent. It is a phenomenon of social development against the background of rapid urbanization. As a national famous historic and cultural city, Tianshui City should have had excellent traditional cultural genes as the driving force for its development, however, only fragments of some historic blocks have been left in the recent urbanization. This paper, on the basis of investigating the old urban district of Tianshui City, analyzing the historical phenomenon, summarized the root causes for the status quo of vernacular dwellings in the city, so as to raise the concerns on humanistic thought, and provide proper guidance for the sustainable development of vernacular settlement.     

No “Greek‐Letter Writing”: Local Models of Resource Economies

ABSTRACT In trying to understand resource economies, the article develops the idea of local models. A local model, in contrast to a universal model, is sensitive to the peculiarities of geographical context. Those peculiarities, rather than being reduced to some higher order of logic as in universal models, are kept intact, forming the very basis of understanding. Our approach to local modeling draws specifically on institutional economics. That tradition makes the argument that the economy is shaped by various institutions (not all of which are economic), which are continually changing and which take on different constellations in different places. By setting out a grid of central institutions operating in resource economies, and comparatively using the examples of the forest economies of British Columbia, Canada, North Island, New Zealand, and Tasmania, Australia, the article constructs three local models. Each has the same constituent elements, but how they are related and what eventuates are peculiar to the specific region.     

Differences in Labor versus Value Chain Industry Clusters: An Empirical Investigation

ABSTRACT Regional analysts often identify industry clusters according to a single dimension of industrial interdependence, typically by trading patterns as revealed in national or regionalized input–output data. This is despite the fact that the theory underpinning regional industry cluster applications draws heavily on Marshall's theory of external economies, including the important role of labor pooling economies and knowledge spillovers in addition to spatially co‐located suppliers. This article investigates whether industry clusters identified based on trading relationships (value chain clusters) are meaningfully different in industrial composition and geography than those derived from an analysis of occupational employment requirements (labor‐based clusters). The results suggest that value chain linkages are a weak proxy for shared labor requirements, and vice versa.     

Global Attractors for a Class of Pattern Formation Equations

A class of pattern formation equations is treated, the existence of its global attractor is considered and some estirnates of its dimension are given. This sort of pattern formation equations relate to turbulence phenomenon in chemistry and combustion, so it is of great physical importance. Besides, its important theoretical value lies in that the equation contains differential operator of the fourth order in space. The global attractor exists after a series sophisticated estimates by the means of interpolation inequity and embedding theorems in sobolev spaces. Furthermore, some estimates on its fractal dimension are given.     

Development prospects in Eastern Indonesia: Learning from Oelua's diverse economy

This paper explores the effects of different representations of informal economies in Third World settings. Both the neoclassical and political economy approaches have represented the informal economy as a transient entity, and the non‐capitalist practices it comprises as being remnant economic forms, or as already capitalist. Mainstream development discourse (that reflects the neoliberal paradigm) continues to ignore the value and potential of non‐capitalist practices and to represent them as inconsequential to development outcomes. Meanwhile contemporary livelihood studies across the social sciences have documented the continuing vibrancy of different and hybrid economic forms in the Asia Pacific. In this paper, I use a diverse‐economies approach to explore the complexities of the village economy of Oelua in Rote, in the so‐called lagging region of Eastern Indonesia. Drawing on anti‐essentialist Marxist theory in economic geography, I describe the multiple, locally specific and coexisting practices that comprise Oelua's diverse economy, which include distributions of surplus labour to promote social and economic well‐being. I argue that recognising informal village economies as an important development resource could begin a process of building diverse development trajectories in Eastern Indonesia, complementing mainstream development proposals to attract foreign direct investment, shore up development assistance and source out‐migration.     

福建省新一轮林改尚存的若干问题及对策探析

福建省新一轮林改虽已取得了初步的成效，但也面临着一些问题，对林改中存在的主要问题及其对策进行研究具有十分重要的意义。文章运用规范分析与实证分析相结合的方法，指出了当前林改中尚存的林木限额采伐、生态负外部性、资金短缺和规模不经济等问题。对此，不仅要按照“区别对待”和“逐步推进”的思路改革和完善限额采伐管理制度，还要妥善地解决部分分户后的山林被划为公益林问题，并采取约束与激励相结合的措施防范生态负外部性问题。同时，努力拓展多元化的林业筹资渠道，大力发展林业合作经济组织，力争实现规模效益，并注意规范林地使用费的收取和使用，从而实现林改的各项目标。     

Spectre of neoliberal gentrification in Fiji: the price Suva's poor must pay

This article seeks to examine Fiji's current housing crisis against the backdrop of neoliberal urbanism. In doing so, the article offers a fresh new perspective on the marginalisation, displacement and outright exclusion of the urban poor from the inner city areas of Suva. Among the trademark growth problems experienced by neoliberal cities across the globe, the crisis of urban housing affordability is perhaps more pronounced in Suva given economies of scale and constraints in Fiji's land tenure system. This article seeks to highlight that Suva's inner city spaces are being transformed along the lines of market fundamentalism and that this will exacerbate the social exclusion and displacement of Suva's poor.     

Structured regionalism in the Asia‐Pacific: Slow but sure progress

Abstract: Notwithstanding the existence of considerable intra‐regional trade, the Asia‐Pacific region was slow to catch onto the concept and phenomenon of regionalism. Not many regional integration arrangements were created in the region and the ones that were created did not go far. Over the preceding three‐and‐a‐half decades, the high performing Asian economies adopted outward‐oriented strategies, promoting brisk trade expansion trade and foreign investment. Asia‐Pacific regionalism was essentially market‐led and uninstitutionalised. Regional production networks were the consequence of market‐led economic dynamics in the region. Large corporations, including transnationals, contributed to the growth of a pan‐Asian industrialisation process and trade expansion. This scenario underwent a transformation in the 1990s, particularly during the Asian crisis of 1997–98. Conscious economic and monetary co‐operation with institutional support increased considerably. Asia‐Pacific economies are more committed to regionalism – both economically and institutionally – now than ever before.     

On the drivers of UK direct investment in the Spanish regions: A spatial Durbin approach

This paper empirically examines the key factors driving UK direct investment in the Spanish regions over the period 2000–2016 and, consequently, tries to unveil its main motivation. Applying a spatial Durbin panel model to capture spatial linkages, the results point to the existence of complementarity between the FDI received by a region and that of the remaining ones. This outcome, along with a positive and statistically significant spillover effect of market potential, reveals that complex-vertical FDI motivation with agglomeration economies prevails among UK MNEs investing in Spain. Additionally, our findings unveil the role played by some other FDI drivers, such as wages and infrastructure. Furthermore, the paper is unique in decomposing the average direct and spillover effects by region and pairs of regions, so that remarkable differences can be identified. This breakdown has strong significance from a policy perspective since it can guide regional policy makers. In short, our findings point out to the fact that FDI policy should be jointly designed by those regions presenting strong bilateral spillover effects. Thus, greater cooperation among policy makers would be welcome.     

An Analysis on China Neutral Technological Progress by Embodied Spillovers from North America

This paper empirically discusses the mechanism of China Neutral Technology by Embodied Spillovers from North America, and the effect on China economic growth. The simulations show that the effects of technology spillovers on both the innovating and the receiving economies depend on SS and AC. The three sectors spillovers of North America can improve China's Hicks-neutral technological progress, but only the third industry can increase the output of same industry of China, and decrease the output of other two industries. Based on the simulations, some advices are given on China trade policy.     

Development of Researching the Synthetical Application of Compound Microorganisms

This article summarized that compound microorganisms had many advantages compared with single strain such as symbiosis, co prosperity co culture, so it can cut down the cost, unchain the feedback repression in fermentation and improve the efficiency of production. It described the resources, constitutes and physiological characteristics of compound microorganisms with examples, which displayed its superiority farther. It is showed that the application of compound microorganisms to the agriculture,industry,medicine and environment variable analyzed etc. The problems lying in the application of the compound microorganisms technology and some views on solving these problems. Compound microorganisms are expected to serve all the fields more and achieve more economic and social efficiency.     

State Characteristics and the Locational Choice of Foreign Direct Investment: Evidence from Regional FDI in Mexico 1989–2006

ABSTRACT Despite the growing importance of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Mexican economy, statistical evidence on the determinants of the regional distribution of foreign‐owned firms is seriously limited. In this paper, empirical findings are presented from a variety of econometric models that identify several regional characteristics influencing the locational choice of FDI. The main findings are threefold. First, several locational factors appear to be potentially important; these include regional demand, wages, schooling, infrastructure, and agglomeration economies. Second, the effect of agglomeration economies stems from several sources. In particular, the regional presence of agglomerations of manufacturing activity and of foreign‐owned manufacturing firms both have an independent positive effect on the locational decision of new FDI. Third, the locational process of maquiladora firms differs from the locational process of overall FDI. The actual findings suggest that regional demand and infrastructure, as suggested above, are not important locational factors for export‐oriented firms. Furthermore, whereas agglomeration economies from manufacturing and the presence of existing FDI attract new maquiladora investment, the presence of a regional agglomeration of services deters the location of new maquiladora firms. Finally, agglomeration economies appear to be more important in the locational process of maquiladora firms.     

information Asymmetry Theory and Its Application in the Project Management

This paper introduces the basic content of information asymmetry theory and comments on the theory of information asymmetries.It establishes an information model in project management and analyzes the phenomenon of information asymmetries between owner and contractor in the phase of bidding and fulfilling.It presents some countermeasures of resolving information asymmetries in the project management such as building information network,devising reasonable contract,reinforcing government' s guidance,strengthening the good faith,breeding intermediate agency,building the system of early risk warning and so on.