Importance Of Competition Research Articles

Causal Modelling of the Key Competitiveness Assessment Factors of Wellness Tourism Destinations: A DEMATEL Approach

Objectives: The objectives of this study are 1) to identify and prioritize the significant competitiveness factors that need to be considered in the context of wellness tourism destinations and 2) to identify the causal interrelationships between competitiveness factors that need to be considered in the context of wellness tourism destinations. Methods/Analysis: The theoretical framework of this research began with documentary research of secondary data, followed by semi-structured interviews and quantitative research using questionnaires to collect primary data from wellness tourism clusters and experts. Based on these responses, a multiple-criteria decision-making framework using the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method was implemented to prioritize wellness tourism destination competitiveness factors and their relationships. Findings: The destination strategy and roadmap for wellness tourism were the most important competitiveness factors for wellness tourism destinations, and the wellness service experience and activities factor was the most significant cause factor, with strategies to improve service and restoration being the most significant source of effect. Novelty/Improvement:This research sheds light on wellness tourism destinations' competitiveness assessment factors and indicators and how to improve them to attract wellness tourists seeking preventive health care or health promotion services. Doi: 10.28991/HEF-2023-04-02-01 Full Text: PDF

Research on the evolution and influence mechanism of international liquefied natural gas import competition pattern

With the continuous expansion of the scope and scale of liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade, global LNG import competition has become increasingly extensive and complex. However, there is currently a lack of research on the global LNG import competition pattern and its influence mechanism. This study first constructs a global LNG import competition network and uses the complex network method to analyse the global LNG import competition pattern and its evolution characteristics from 2000 to 2020. Then, an extended gravity model is established to explore the factors influencing the intensity of LNG import competition. The results show that the global LNG import competition becomes increasingly widespread and intense; the intensity of global LNG import competition is unevenly distributed and concentrated within Asia, within Europe, between Asia and Europe, and among a few large importers; large importers dominate the formation and evolution of the competition pattern; the position of Asian countries in the competition pattern has gradually improved, and the positions of European and American countries in the competition pattern have gradually declined, indicating that the centre of the competition pattern has gradually shifted to Asia; Japan has the most intense competition, but its position in the competition pattern has declined; and China has increasingly intense competition with other importers, and its position in the competition pattern has become increasingly important; The GDP and natural gas consumption of importers drive the competition intensity among importers, while the natural gas production, political risk, and technology level of importers and the distance between importers impede the competition intensity among importers. Finally, some policy recommendations are proposed to promote orderly and healthy competition in LNG.

Openness and the welfare state: risk and income effects in protection without protectionism

Have recent trends in globalization changed the positive link between trade openness and social insurance? The consensus view – that voters want better social insurance against income loss the more open the economy – is seemingly contested by the rise of new right-wing parties and the China shock. We present a theoretical framework of risk and income effects of globalization that captures the conventional view, but also shows when it will be modified: When the income effect is negative, the political support for social insurance can decline in spite of the risk effect. We construct an empirical measure of welfare state support across European regions and leverage the rapid integration of China into the world economy to show that higher import competition reduces the support for social insurance. Consistent with our framework, we use variations in employment losses between regions to decompose the overall effect of the shock into a (weak) positive risk effect and a (strong) negative income effect.

Banking Market Structure and Trade Shocks

The structure of the local banking market, characterized by bank specialization and bank concentration, can affect credit and labor market responses to an import shock to the local economy. During the surge in U.S. imports from China from 1998 to 2006, small business loans (SBL) decline in counties that face a larger import shock. Bank geographical specialization positively affects banks’ SBL origination in response to the import shock. Consistent with these results, average employment declines in counties hit by the import shock, while higher bank specialization attenuates this negative labor outcome. Furthermore, in the face of import competition, credit support by specialized banks helps small businesses to respond to the heightened competition through firm innovation. We find little evidence for such stabilizing effects for bank concentration.

Distributional Impacts of the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement

We examine the effects of the 1988 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) on employment and earnings inequality among low-, medium-, and high-income Canadian workers initially employed in manufacturing. Although the FTA tariff cuts drove large changes in trade flows, we find generally small effects on employment and cumulative earnings during 1989-2004. Workers faced negative effects of import competition and positive effects of access to the US export market, but these effects were largely offset by transitions into other industries and sectors. The effect on earnings inequality was small, with point estimates implying a slight reduction in earnings inequality.

Does import competition from China discipline overconfident CEOs in U.S. firms?

We examine how import competition from Chinese firms influences the behavior and investment performance of overconfident CEOs in U.S. firms. We show that the rise of Chinese import competition curbs investment and improves investment value and acquisition performance for firms with overconfident CEOs. Intensified Chinese product competition also reduces incentives for these firms to expand assets, invest out of cash flows, pursue aggressive financial policies, and increase risk exposure, and enhances their incentives to buy back shares. Overall, the evidence suggests that product market competition is an effective external governance mechanism for curbing the adverse effects of managerial overconfidence.

Short‐ and long‐run labor market adjustment to import competition

AbstractBy exploiting spatial variation in import exposure arising from initial differences in industry specialization, we analyze how local labor markets in Mexico adjusted to increased Chinese‐import competition over different time horizons. The initial adjustment to the shock took various forms: a decline in the number of wage employees, a substitution of wage employees with piece‐rate or outsourced workers, and a substitution of formal employees with informal employees. The negative effects on employment were mainly associated with job destruction from exiting firms, particularly those that were small and medium‐sized. During periods in which employment fell, the population that actively participated in the labor force fell. The negative short‐ and medium‐run effects mostly disappeared after 20 years.

International trade evolution and competition prediction of boron ore: Based on complex network and link prediction

As an important non-metallic strategic mineral resource, boron plays an important role in the development of national emerging strategic industries. In this study, a complex network approach, core-periphery model and link prediction model are used to analyze the evolution of international trade and potential future competition of boron ore. The study found that: (1) the international demand and trade volume of boron ore showed a growing trend yearly, with increasingly closer trade relations and higher trade efficiency. (2) Boron ore exports are closely related to resource endowment. Turkey, as the world's largest country in terms of reserves and production, holds the absolute export initiative in the boron ore international trade. Boron ore imports are mainly affected by the level of economic development, China and the United States belong to the control trade importers; European countries are important transit countries. (3) The import competition of boron ore international trade is becoming more and more intense and concentrated, mainly forming a competitive relationship with Turkey as the common import source. And at present, it is mostly a game between economically developed countries, the core of which is the competition of “China-US-India-Europe”; other import competitions are influenced by geographical location. (4) In the future, the potential import competition will gradually develop in emerging economies, and the competition center will gradually move from Europe and Asia to Latin America and Africa. Countries with geographical advantages such as coastal, ports and proximity to boron ore areas will have a greater degree of trade options and competitive development potential.

Unraveling Firms: Demand, Productivity and Markups Heterogeneity

Abstract We develop a novel framework that simultaneously allows recovering heterogeneity in demand, quantity total factor productivity and markups across firms while leaving the correlation between the three dimensions unrestricted. We accomplish this by explicitly introducing demand heterogeneity and systematically exploiting assumptions used in previous productivity estimation approaches. In doing so, we provide an exact decomposition of revenue productivity in terms of the underlying heterogeneities, thus bridging the gap between quantity and revenue productivity estimations. We use Belgian firms’ production data to quantify total factor productivity, demand and markups, and show how they are correlated with each other across time and with measures obtained from other approaches. In doing so, we find quantity total factor productivity and demand to be strongly negatively correlated with each other, so suggesting a trade-off between the quality of a firm’s products and their production cost. We also show how our framework provides deeper and sharper insights on the response of firms to increasing import competition from China. In particular, we find that changes in revenue productivity materialise as the outcome of complex and sometimes offsetting changes in quantity total factor productivity, demand, markups and production scale.

Import competition and firm productivity: Evidence from German manufacturing

AbstractWe study how different types of import competition affect firm productivity using firm‐product data from German manufacturing (2000–2014). Competition from high‐income countries causes affected domestic firms to increase their productivity and lower their prices. Oppositely, import competition from low‐wage countries does not lead to firm productivity gains. Instead, domestic firms' sales and input usage decline. Our findings confirm the intuition of ladder models that the effect of competition depends on the “closeness” of competitors. They are in line with widespread X‐inefficiencies throughout the economy, which firms reduce in response to competition from high‐income countries.

Import competition and firm energy intensity: Evidence from China

The impact of trade on environmental performance has recently become a hot topic. However, little is known about whether import trade affects the energy use of developing countries. Therefore, we use detailed micro-firm data on China’s manufacturing sector to investigate the impact of import competition on firms’ coal energy intensity. We measure the degree of import competition by import penetration and estimate firm-level data for 2001–2010 using a fixed effects model and 2SLS strategy. The findings suggest that import competition significantly reduces coal energy intensity for Chinese firms, which implies that increasing imports will make it easier for China to meet the objective of “carbon peaking, carbon neutral”. By decomposing import competition, we find that differences in the sources of import competition can explain decline changes in firm energy intensity. The theoretical framework and mechanism tests show that the improvement of production and technology application efficiency are the main channels through which import competition decreases energy intensity. However, there is no evidence that import competition has driven firm green transformation process. Finally, we constructed an industry correlation index using the input–output relationship between industries to confirm that import competition affects the energy intensity of near-neighbor industries.

Protect or Compete? Evidence of Firms’ Innovation from Import Penetration

This paper reassesses the long-debated relationship between market competition and firms’ innovation. While competition is traditionally measured at the industry level using historical data, our study utilizes two recently developed text-based measures of competitive threats which are forward-looking and constructed at the level of individual firms. We address the potential endogeneity concerns and provide causal inference using instrumental variables including import tariffs and trade-weighted exchange rates, along with the propensity score matching (PSM) of firms that experienced exogenous shock from import competition. Our results show that an increase in competition unambiguously promotes firms’ innovation in terms of both quality and quantity.

Import Competition, Destinations, and Firms’ Patent Strategies

Import Competition, Destinations, and Firms’ Patent Strategies

Import competition and pressure in the international crude oil trade: A network analysis

As crude oil demand grows, the international crude oil trade grows as well, thus import trade competition between crude oil importers intensifies. It further leads to the increasing import pressure faced by importers. We defined and calculated the import competition pressure. Taking crude oil importers as nodes, the import competition relationships between importers as edges, the direction of import competition pressure as the edges’ direction, and the crude oil importing competitive pressures forced on importers are weights, the paper builds a crude oil import trade competition pressure network. Using a complex network theory analysis method, according to complex network characteristics, the paper analyzes crude oil import trade competition pressure network evolution law from 2000 to 2020. The results showed that: (1) The import competition intensity difference is larger, concentrated between Asian and European countries; (2) The most import competitive markets for crude oil are Russia and Saudi Arabia, and the crude oil dependence of China on Saudi Arabia is higher than USA; (3) The crude oil trade relationships are roughly divided into four categories, namely import-dependence, importer-oriented, close cooperation, and loose trade relationships; (4) China has gotten increasing competitive pressure from Germany and Netherlands in Russia in recent years, but decreasing in Angola and Saudi Arabia. Based on the above results, we recommend diversifying the supply, expanding the global circle of trusted trading partners and establishing a risk response mechanism. The above analysis can help countries identify competition pressure and provide suggestions for improving competitive advantages about crude oil.

Distributional effect of import shocks on British local labour markets

Abstract This article investigates the causal effect of import shocks on the wage distribution using individual-level data from the UK in the period 1997–2010. The analysis exploits regional variation in initial industrial structure and concentration for identification, and applies a group IV quantile approach to estimate the effect of import shocks on workers at different parts of the wage distribution. The study finds that the effect of import shocks generated by increased import competition is concentrated on the middle of the wage distribution: while the import shocks negatively and significantly affect workers at the bottom-middle of the wage distribution, its effect on the very bottom and upper parts of the wage groups is insignificant. Moreover, the study finds that this labour market adjustment takes place through a reduction in the hourly wage rather than a decline in total hours worked.

Is the Global Economy Deglobalizing? If So, Why? And What Is Next?

ABSTRACT: Data on global trade as well as capital and labor flows indicate a slowdown, but not reversal, of globalization since the 2008–2009 financial crisis. Yet profound changes in the policy environment and public sentiment in the largest economies over the past five years suggest the beginning of a new era. Increasing anxiety about the labor market effects of import competition from low-wage countries, especially China, laid the groundwork but was not the catalyst for the reversal in attitudes toward globalization. Similarly, the COVID-19 pandemic provided novel arguments against free trade based on global supply chain resilience, but neither the pandemic nor short-run policy response had enduring effects on trade flows. We demonstrate that global trade was remarkably resilient during the pandemic and that supply shortages would likely have been more severe in the absence of international trade. After a temporary decline in 2020, global trade in goods and services increased sharply in 2021. Russia's invasion of Ukraine raised new concerns about national security and the exposure of supply chains to geopolitical risk. This was followed by demands to diversify away from "non-friendly" countries and toward the employment of trade policy, export restrictions in particular, to halt China's technological development. The future of globalization is highly uncertain at this point, but these new policies will likely slow global growth, innovation, and poverty reduction even if they benefit certain industries in certain countries. Regarding resilience, the main goal of recent trade policy changes, measures of trade volatility or concentration can be helpful, but resilience will be elusive as long as we lack benchmarks against which policy performance can be measured.

The impact of the Chinese import shock on Finnish regional labor markets

The rapid rise of Chinese exports over the past few decades has raised concerns about manufacturing jobs and internal labor market outcomes in high-income countries. I analyze the effect of rising Chinese import competition on Finnish regional manufacturing employment between 1995 and 2007. The analysis exploits the cross-regional variation in initial industry structures and uses Chinese imports to other high-income countries as an instrument for Chinese imports to Finland. I find that rising Chinese import competition has a negative effect on the share of manufacturing employment in Finnish sub-regions.

Training Periodization, Intensity Distribution, and Volume in Trained Cyclists: A Systematic Review.

To identify the main characteristics of periodization models and physiological parameters of trained road cyclists as described by discernable training intensity distribution (TID), volume, and periodization models. The electronic databases Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science were searched using a comprehensive list of relevant terms. Studies that investigated the effect of the periodization of training in cyclists and described training load (volume, TID) and periodization details were included in the systematic review. Seven studies met the inclusion criteria. Block periodization (characterized by employment of highly concentrated training workload phases) ranged between 1- and 8-week blocks of high-, medium-, or low-intensity training. Training volume ranged from 8.75 to 11.68 h·wk-1 and both pyramidal and polarized TID were used. Traditional periodization (characterized by a first period of high-volume/low-intensity training, before reducing volume and increasing the proportion of high-intensity training) was characterized by a cyclic progressive increase in training load, the training volume ranged from 7.5 to 10.76 h·wk-1, and pyramidal TID was used. Block periodization improved maximum oxygen uptake (VO2max), peak aerobic power, lactate, and ventilatory thresholds, while traditional periodization improved VO2max, peak aerobic power, and lactate thresholds. In addition, a day-by-day programming approach improved VO2max and ventilatory thresholds. No evidence is currently available favoring a specific periodization model during 8 to 12weeks in trained road cyclists. However, few studies have examined seasonal impact of different periodization models in a systematic way.

Stalled Racial Progress and Japanese Trade in the 1970s and 1980s

Abstract We assess the impact of a rapid rise in Japanese import competition on the growth in racial earnings and employment gaps during the 1970s and 80s. Using commuting zone level variation in exposure, we find Japanese competition led to a decrease in manufacturing employment and labour force participation for blacks. This was driven by a shift in demand for skill in manufacturing. The difference in effects between the 10th percentile most and least exposed commuting zone was equivalent to 36–46% of the relative rise in black non-labour force participation, and 78–96% of the relative decline in black median male earnings.

Self-esteem and competition

This paper explores the relations between self-esteem and competition. Self-esteem is a very important good and competition is a widespread phenomenon. They are commonly linked, as people often seek self-esteem through success in competition. Although competition in fact generates valuable consequences and can to some extent foster self-esteem, empirical research suggests that competition has a strong tendency to undermine self-esteem. To be sure, competition is not the source of all problematic deficits in self-esteem, and it can arise for, or undercut goods other than self-esteem. But the relation between competition and access to self-esteem is still significant, and it is worth asking how we might foster a desirable distribution of the latter in the face of difficulties created by the former. That is the question addressed in this paper. The approach I propose neither recommends self-denial nor the uncritical celebration of the rat race. It charts instead a solidaristic path to support the social conditions of the self-esteem of each individual. The paper proceeds as follows. I start, in section 2, by clarifying key concepts involved in the discussion. In section 3, I identify ten mechanisms that support individuals’ self-esteem and impose limits on competition. I focus, in particular, on the challenges faced by people in their practices of work. In section 4, I outline prudential and moral arguments to justify the use of the proposed mechanisms. Section 5 concludes with remarks on the role of social criticism in the processes of change implementing the mechanisms.