Planned Economy Research Articles

New spatial econometric techniques and applications in regional science

The papers appearing in this special issue of Papers in Regional Science, which is devoted to spatial econometrics, come from the First International Conference of the Spatial Econometrics Association held in Cambridge (UK) 12-14 July 2008. This conference was the first official meeting of the new association, which was established in May 2006 in Rome and which has already attracted more than 150 members from around the world. At the Cambridge conference there were close to 120 delegates and more than 100 papers were presented. With regard to the eight papers appearing in this special issue, we would particularly like to thank the authors and the referees for their contribution to what we believe is an interesting and lively selection. Recent years have seen a real explosion in the application of spatial statistical models in all branches of social sciences and in particular in economics. Spatial econometrics models have been used to analyse different topics (see for example Anselin et al. 2004 for a review) and as a matter of fact spatial regression techniques are now becoming an established component in the applied econometrics toolbox, as witnessed by the increasing attention given to this topic in standard econometrics textbooks (Maddala 2001; Woolridge 2002; Gujarati 2003; Kennedy 2003; Baltagi 2008).

Infrastructure Development in the Pacific Region

DOI: 10.1355/ae25-2k Infrastructure Development in the Pacific Region. Edited by Akira Kohsaka. New York: Routledge, 2007. Pp. 256. This volume has an overview and eleven country chapters comprising Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, and the United States. It is based on a study by the Pacific Economic Outlook (PEO) Structure, a task force under the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) for projections and quantitative analysis. It is replete with statistics and figures, with six chapters' empirical estimates confirming the positive relationship between infrastructuregrowth nexus and productivity. Two trends are clearly underscored: private sector participation in infrastructure development punctuation somewhat by the Asian financial crisis and non-physical infrastructure including human and knowledge-based capital besides traditional infrastructure. Information communication technology has revolutionized electronic highways for over-the-wire or electronically mediated connectivity. The volume aims to draw implications for policy incentives to support a broader set of alternative providers of infrastructure, further challenged by diverse developmental stages in the PECC region and changing role of government with public-private partnerships in infrastructure. The overview chapter addresses the knowledgebased economy in the context of new technologies which impinge on institutions both in functions and modalities of infrastructure provision. Privatization and contracting-out have implications on ownership, management, finance and other operations. The overview on the current infrastructure status in the region draws on the World Bank for information and studies given its role in financing infrastructure. In addition, the PEO estimates of output elasticity of infrastructure investment suggest strong spillover effects with Japan as a case study. Among some policy issues raised, public investment is a declining trend among mature advanced economies in contrast to more privatization since the 1908s in developing economies, especially in non-physical, soft infrastructure in the knowledge-based economy. It is heartening to know that the Pacific emerging market economies have caught with the advanced economies on new infrastructure, though the gap between emerging markets and other developing economies remains in terms of output in personal computers. What seems remiss in the overview as hard-to-knit-together highlights of country chapters for overall PECC-wide policy implications is perhaps compensated by specific country details of uneven quality. Typically as for all chapters, Australia by Tony Makin and Satya Paul starts with the historical context and role of government at different levels as the traditional infrastructure provider, with the private sector more involved in a range of public private arrangements. Data from national accounts are supplemented by a review of empirical studies of public infrastructure on productivity growth under different approaches (production, cost and profit functions), noting a general equilibrium model for social rates of return is beyond the chapter. Kim Storey on Canada estimates the economic impact of infrastructure, noting different types of infrastructure (energy, transportation, telecommunications and social) under various levels of government and highlighting the importance of provincial and local levels especially in health care and education. Estimates of the economic impact of infrastructure for 1961-2000 have reasonable results. Like other advanced economies, Canada ponders how best to renew and expand infrastructure with diverse interests from the environment to innovation. Slow deregulation with political implications means less private sector participation in infrastructure compared to Australia. Guoqiang Yue's review of China's infrastructure development since 1978 is distinctly of a planned economy in five-year plans across the largest PECC economy with expected large regional diversity. …

BOOK REVIEW | Cairo Cosmopolitan: Politics, Culture, and Urban Space in the New Globalized Middle East

In Cairo Cosmopolitan editors Diane Singerman and Paul Amar draw on an international field of contributors clustered in the disciplines of architecture, sociology, anthropology and geography to study contemporary changes in Cairo’s people, its physical space and the global causes and consequences of these trends. What emerges is a detailed, sensitive and wide-ranging look at Cairo from an array of qualitative social science perspectives. But beyond a study of Cairo and its place in the world, the editors bill the volume as the debut of the “Cairo School of Urban Studies” that will produce new interdisciplinary research agendas and methodologies. The editors explain their vision as follows: “This multinational, multidisciplinary Cairo School has aimed to forge a more nuanced, multi-level analysis of phenomena that strives to tie the mundane, common sensical, the everyday, and the local to global processes and flows without forgetting the geopolitics of war, terrorism, monopoly petro-capitalism, and resurgent Third World solidarity…. The Cairo School challenges disciplinary divides between comparative politics and international relations, between anthropology and political science, and between urban planning, geography and political economy.” A strength of this approach is its ability to live with ambiguity and multiple overlapping possibilities: “The Cairo School is comfortable with a certain amount of ambivalence in its representation and analysis of Cairene life”. But while successfully keeping theory from interfering with description of the city’s complex realities, this embrace of ambiguity comes at the price of some analytical clarity. Contributors often seem to approach the book’s key concepts such as “globalization” or “cosmopolitanism” using completely different definitions or underlying assumptions in spite of attempts to forge a shared understanding of these terms in the introduction.

Jak se rodila, kam směřovala a proč byla potlačena tzv. Šikova reforma (Vzpomínky novináře a ekonoma)

Studie je věnovana druhemu pokusu o reformu sovětskeho modelu mechanismu fungovani zestatněne, centralně planovane ekonomiky. Tento system působil v Ceskoslovensku od roku 1953. Na rozdil od nezdařeneho prvniho pokusu z konce padesatých let, spojovaneho zpravidla se jmenem prvniho naměstka Statni planovaci komise ing. K. Rozsypala, býva tato reforma spojovana se jmenem O. Sika, ředitele Ekonomickeho ustavu CSAV. Analyzuji se zde zejmena mocensko-politicke, ale i gnozeologicke limity při jejim startu a jejich vývoj vrcholici v obdobi tzv. Pražskeho jara 1968. Studie seznamuje s projekty dalsiho předpokladaneho postupu při přechodu od centralně planovane ekonomiky k peněžně-tržni. Jejich realizaci zastavila invaze vojsk Varsavske smlouvy.Třebaže gnozeologicka východiska již v te době vytvařela solidni předpoklady pro fungovani deetatizovane ekonomiky na bazi peněžně-tržniho mechanismu, zvrat v mocensko-politických poměrech pokracovani ekonomicke reformy neumožnil.

Role důvěryhodnosti pro finanční úspěch (Případová studie česká úvěrová družstva)

Úvěrová družstva ve střední Evropě patřila v dějinách družstevního hnutí k nejúspěšnějším a vysoce respektovaným institucím. Družstva nabízela finanční služby v nejvzdálenějších místech a proslula vynikající znalostí místních podmínek. Jejich činnost podpořila sociální stabilitu, a i proto se družstva těšila vysokému morálnímu vlivu. Jejich síť byla na počátku 50. let nahrazena státními spořitelnami; toto opatření bylo zavedeno jako součást centrálně plánovaného hospodářského systému. Po roce 1989 byla jejich obnova vedle existujících bankovních institucí umožněna novým zákonem. Nově vytvářená úvěrová družstva však byla velmi často zneužita pro egoistické osobní cíle podnikatelů. Mimořádně negativní zkušenosti některých úvěrových družstev vzbuzují podezření a nedůvěru obyvatelstva. Téměř úplné zhroucení systému následovalo z mnoha důvodů po roce 1999. Zásadní význam pro existenci tohoto sektoru se očekává v souvislosti s legislativním procesem Evropské unie.

The Motivation of Managerial Choices in the State-Controlled Economy of Belarus

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union the country of Belarus implemented market-oriented reforms, and it has become port of the world business environment. Two types of enterprises-the post-Soviet production enterprises and the new entrepreneurial firms-exist in Belarus concurrently. The purpose of this paper is to show how these two types of enterprises operate in the changing business environments, and how different business environments influence the motivations of middle managers.

Computing at the Malta Statistics Office, 1947-1970

Malta's establishment of a Statistics Office in 1947 occurred amid political instability and an economic depression. The official compilation and timely publication of statistics by a central government agency - made possible by the introduction of tabulating equipment soon after the Office's creation - proved invaluable for the development of a planned economy despite initial skepticism.

Too Much Shock, Not Enough Therapy: Transnational Capital and the Social Implications of Poland's Ongoing Transition to a Market

In this article, an argument is presented for the return of labour to centre stage in the critical study of transition. The transition to capitalism in Eastern Central Europe generally, and Poland in particular, is discussed and the negative social impacts of transnational capital in post-communist development and the reconstitution of the Polish state in favour of (transnational) capital interrogated, through an exploration of the ever-deeper embedding of neoliberalization. There has been a reworking of the institutional infrastructures where the communist and post-communist political economy was grounded and transnationally oriented social forces in the EU continue to export the core of the neoliberal deregulatory programme to the east. Enlargement measures have further embedded a highly selective application of Europeanisation in what is becoming an increasingly vituperative variant of neoliberalism. The article concludes by assessing the recent neo-populist turn in Poland and how this might be reconciled with neoliberal strategies.

Unemployment in East and West Europe

In this paper, we use 1991-2005 panel data on the unemployed, vacancies, inflow into unemployment, and outflow from unemployment in five former communist economies and in the western part of Germany (a benchmark western economy) to examine the evolution of unemployment together with that of inflows into unemployment and vacancies. The comparison of the transition economies with an otherwise similar and spatially close market economy is useful because it enables us to identify the main differences and similarities in the evolution of the key variables, and thus draw conclusions as to whether different or similar factors cause high unemployment.

Unemployment in East and West Europe

We use new 1991–2005 panel data to address the issue of unemployment in Central-East Europe. We compare the evolution of unemployment, its dynamics and related phenomena in five former communist economies in the Central Europe and use the geographically close West Germany as a benchmark for a mature market economy. We identify the differences and similarities in the evolution of the key labor market variables and contrast different outcomes with the diverse initial conditions and subsequent paths. All countries have experienced aggregate demand shocks, structural shocks and hysteresis. Despite diverse initial conditions and subsequent paths, the patterns observed are surprisingly similar. The eastern part of Germany appears to be a special case with extraordinary high unemployment inflows. Contrary to the theoretical models, in the transition economies we do not observe an initially rapid rise in the inflow rate, followed by a convergence of this rate to the levels of market economies. Rather, there is a relatively gradual rise in the inflow rate towards the level of market economies. The differences in unemployment rates turn out to be attributable to a considerable extent to the actual differences in the inflow rates. The trajectories in the unemployment-vacancy space observed in the Central-East European countries increasingly resemble those observed in the developed market economies. Interestingly, these similarities arise despite differences in the institutional setting across these economies.

Secondary Privatization in Transition Economies: The Evolution of Enterprise Ownership in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovenia by Barbara Blaszczyk Iraj Hoshi Richard Woodward (review)

REVIEWS 379 tryingto conceptualizethis along a two-dimensionalspectrum.Thus the book could have benefited from a final chapter offering critical perspective on the idea of 'soft' and 'hard' borders, seeking to reach some conceptual and theoreticalconclusions in the light of the wealth of empirical and case-based data and analysispresented here. Nevertheless, this is a welcome addition to the literature,notable for the consistentqualityof the chaptersand, often a problem with edited collections, the clarityof the organizationalstructureof the book as a whole. School of Government andInternational Affairs JOHN WILLIAMS DurhamUniversity Blaszczyk, Barbara; Hoshi, Iraj and Woodward, Richard (eds). Secondagy Privatization in Transition Economies: TheEvolution ofEnterprise Ownership in the CzechRepublic, PolandandSlovenia. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstokeand New York, 2003. xvi + 268 pp. Figures. Tables. Notes. Bibliographies. Index. ?55 ??o THE sixteen economists contributingto this study of the early phases of the privatizationof the economies of the three countries covered in this volume provide some interestinginsightsinto the differentapproachesto the transformation process adopted in each of these erstwhile Communist economies. What they don't do is address in any depth the political constraints that informed the choice of transformationmodel in the three countries.For, parallel to the marketizationof their economies was the democratizationof their political systems,which imposed certain limits on the speed and characterof the privatizationprocess, particularlyin Slovenia and Poland. Thus, the fear of 'un-election'and of blatant 'nomenklatura-capitalism' (whereformerCommunist officialsused theirposition to acquireand/or asset-stripthe enterprises being privatized)caused the new political leaders to delay and institutionally constrainthe privatizationprocess. Interviewsof individualsinvolved in this processin Slovenia and Poland by this reviewerin the early I990S indicated the extent of the fear of such distortions of the market and the political sensitivityof the issues. In the Czech Republic, which was led by more ideologically committed economic purists, such considerationswere less in evidence, and the privatizationprocess was much less carefullyregulated.In all three cases, however, the expectationwas that the ownershipchanges thatwould occur subsequentto the initialdistribution of assets to the population (via vouchers or certificatesof share entitlement ) would rationalize the fragmentationof ownership and lead to a more efficientconcentrationof ownershipand, hence, better corporategovernance. To some extent this has happened and, as the authors show, the residual influence of the state on economic processeshas steadilydeclined. Moreover, they show, through economic and econometric analysis,that the modes and effects of secondary privatization were ultimately quite similar, despite the differencesin the models of privatizationinitially adopted. One of the most significantdevelopmentsin the laterprogressof the three economies has been 380 SEER, 85, 2, 2007 the opening up of the respective economies to foreign direct and portfolio investments, which have entailed the introduction of international product and quality standards. On the other hand, the authors occasionally point out that the effect of multinationalpenetration has sometimes run counter to the fiscal needs of the individual countries because of the common resort to transferpricing and other methods of concealing the true profitabilityof the in-country enterpriseand, thus, its taxability. Among the more interesting aspects of the primary and secondary privatization processes were the various state-sponsored investment funds. These were set up in all three countriesto restructureindividualstate-owned enterpriseswhich were not immediately saleable and prepare them for eventual sale to private individualor corporateowners. The institutionsproved to be very inefficientand unprofitablein all cases. They did not have the capital to make significant improvement in the viability or performance of the enterprisesassigned to them, and they operated under strong pressuresfrom the state and tradeunions, which were unwillingto accept the drasticrestructuring and labour-forcecuts, let alone liquidation, that were often requirecl. In most cases they continued to operate long aftertheir expected use-by date. In Poland these so-called National Investment Funds were kept alive by the very high management fees they contracted to pay to domestic and Western management companies, for whom they representedan importantcash cow. Moreover, the fee structurethat was mandated involved a surprisinglysmall performancebonus component. It was littlewonder that the NIFs themselves became the object of competition for both domestic and foreignstrategicand portfolio investments. While the book offers many interesting and detailed perspectives on the transformationprocess,a few mildlycriticalobservationsare in order.For one thing, although econometric analysesare often helpful in indicating causality or the lack thereof in statisticalterms, they rely on data sets which are...

How Russia Is Not Ruled: Reflections on Russian Political Development by Allen C. s> Lynch (review)

370 SEER, 85, 2, 2007 PittsburghPhD dissertation,'A CulturalAnalysisof the Russo-SovietAnekdot' (pp. 3-4). Those interestedin the role of the literaryanecdote should also be aware of David Macphail's recent and as yet unpublished PhD thesis on 'The Anecdote in Modern Russian Fiction', availablein (but not, apparently, borrowable from) Cambridge University Library: , then, via 'UniversityLibraryManuscriptsand Theses', to PhD.29292. Department of Slavonic Studies MARTIN DEWHIRST Universiy of Glasgow Lynch, Allen C. How Russia Is Not Ruled:Reflections on RussianPolitical Development. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York, 2005. xii + 276 pp. Tables. Notes. Select bibliography. Index. fi5.99 (paperback). A decade and a half has passed since the collapse of the Soviet socio-political order, long enough for seriousreflectionon its significanceand the prospects of the new Russia. Lynch's reading is a sombre one, though not entirely devoid of hope. He manages to touch in this not over-long book on a widle range of relevantdata and concludes, inter alia,that the country's'implosion'is not inevitable, but cannot be excluded. Russia's vastness and the poverty of her agriculture are shown as lying at the root of her woes, by generating a patrimonial absolutism defined as 'the distinctive integration of power as sovereignty and power as control of wealth (be it in land, minerals,or people)', and hence (quotingCharlesTilley) 'leavinglittle space for the accumulationand concentrationof capital outside the state' (p. I9). Lynch elaboratesRussia's contrastwith Western Europe in this and a range of subsidiaryrespects, most importantly in the need for a state 'powerfulenough to mobilize Russia's resources on an extensive basis, however inefficiently,at the expense of the living standardsof the population as a whole' (p. 39). The consolidation of Stalinist order intensifiedand perfected a new form of patrimonial absolutism,while the effects of the Soviet order's collapse in the wake of Gorbachev's reforms still shape the trajectory of post-Soviet development. These effects, alas, were to prove disastrous.In terms of the internationalcompetitivenessof its economic base Russia ranked last out of the world'sforty-ninemajor economies in I996, last out of fifty-ninein I999, and sixty-fourthout of eighty in 2002. In terms of social criteriathe situation was no better, e.g. male life expectancy is now no greaterthan it was in the I8gos. This bald summary of the book's core argument does scant justice to the richness of Lynch's analysisand his imaginativeuse of internationaland temporal comparisons. To take two examples, a contrast is drawn between Soviet war-time civilianmobilizationand the far less rigorousmobilizationin Nazi Germany (p. 58), while he notes that 'communist economies tended to be more backwardcompared to their Western counterpartsat the end of the REVIEWS 37I communist experience than at the beginning' (p. 49). Lynch calculates the number of violent deaths sufferedby Russians,from the Firstand the Second WorldWars, the Civil War, concentrationcamp hardships,famine and so on, at some thirtymillions (pp. 66-68). The bulk of his analysis,however, is devoted to the post-Communistyears. Gorbachev's reformswere to confront managers with the choice of treating their plant's assets as if they owned them, or yielding them to others willing to do so. Meanwhile, the leaders of the non-Russian republics faced an analogous choice, precipitatingthe collapse of the USSR. Lynch traces the variouspaths to personal enrichmentpursuedby the future 'oligarchs',while citing figures on the 'devastation' of the Russian economy as a whole, and condemns the attempt, encouraged by American and other Western supportersto institute massive and complex socioeconomic reforms without an adequate legal, administrative, fiscal or political foundation to sustain them' (p. 94). Breakneckprivatization proceeded, some 8o,ooo of them in 1992-93. Among the consequences were the vast undergroundeconomy and the syphoning off of profitsby criminal groups and corruptofficials.In 2002 small and medium businesses still numbered under a million (compared to about a half of the work force in Britain and the USA). Meanwhile the number of state employees kept rising. Social effects were no less alarming, e.g. less than a third of Russians under eighteen were judged healthy by medical authoritiesand a sixth were diagnosed with chronic illnesses(p. 99). Furtheralarmingdevelopmentsinclude the mass emigrationof scientistsas funding at home collapsed (p. II9...

Impairment of executive function in elderly patients with major unipolar depression: influence of psychomotor retardation

The results from several studies assessing the executive function in depressed patients compared to control subjects varied from significant impairment to normal performance. To assess the executive impairment in elderly patients with major unipolar depression and to evaluate the influence of psychomotor retardation and severity of depression in the executive deficits, the performance of 15 elderly patients with unipolar depression was compared to that of 15 elderly control subjects on executive tasks. The severity of depression was evaluated by the Montgomery and Asberg depressive scale and that of psychomotor retardation by the Widlöcher's scale. In depressed patients, deficits were found on tasks assessing cognitive flexibility (Modified card sorting test (MCST) and Trail making test B), planification and elaboration of strategies (cognitive estimates), motor initiation (graphic sequences), categorisation and hypothesis making (MCST) and interference resistance (Stroop test). However, depressed patients performed normally on the Hayling test assessing the inhibition processes. Intensity of psychomotor retardation was not correlated to the performance of executive tasks. Conversely, severity of depression was related to the scores of MCST (number of errors and perseverations), Stroop and Hayling tests (time taken to complete the end of the sentence). Unipolar depressed patients showed deficits in most tasks assessing executive function. However, inhibition processes appeared to be intact in depressed patients although their implementation was difficult. The severity of depression but not that of psychomotor retardation was associated with executive deficits.

The Sudden Rediscovery of Housing Supply as a Key Policy Challenge

Housing supply was suddenly rediscovered as a major challenge for English housing policy in the early 2000s, after nearly three decades of neglect. There does appear to be a problem of inadequate and unresponsive housing supply in England, by international or historical standards. Although shortcomings of the house building industry and limited public investment play a part, the most important factor explaining England's housing supply problem is the operation of the land-use planning system. Policies, procedures and incentives are all implicated. The most important impact is a long-term real rise in the price of housing, differentiated by region, which is damaging both economically and socially, although there are some compensating benefits in terms of the environment. The Barker Inquiry has proposed a radical supply agenda, which has been substantially accepted by the present government. This proposes that planning targets should be geared to affordability, with more land released and market-contingent mechanisms, more social housing and supporting infrastructure investment. There is room for debate about the magnitudes involved, the role for more proactive approaches to development and the best fiscal mechanisms and incentives. However, given the fraught political economy of housing and planning in the pressured regions, there is considerable doubt as to whether these measures will be implemented on the requisite scale.

Потребительские стили петербургского среднего класса: из экономики дефицита к новому быту

The paper is devoted to the analysis of the peculiarities of the consumer behavior of the representatives of the Russian middle class (on example of Saint-Petersburg). The authors focus on the role of individual consumer strategies in the production of remarkable socio-economic transformations and try to classify the specific characteristics of consumer behavior of post soviet middle class representatives. The first part of the paper determines the main definitions and analyzes consumer style under the conditions of post soviet economy as well as provides the hypotheses for the reasons of plan economy collapse. The second part is devoted to the analysis of the life style transformation and depicting of the peculiarities of consumer styles of Saint-Petersburg middle class under the market economy. The third part considers the leisure activities of the middle class and everyday life consumption practices of the essential commodities. The authors conclude that the transition of consumer styles of post soviet middle class has not finished yet. At the end of the paper the authors give the link between the micro-level of individual consumer styles and the macro-level of national socio-economic transformation of the last 20 years

Macho Media: Unapologetic Hypermasculinity in Vancouver's "Talk Radio for Guys"

In this article, the researchers report findings from a study that investigated the social construction of masculinity in programming offered by "MOJO Radio—Talk Radio for Guys," a station launched on August 6, 2002, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. These results support the notion that commercial media targeted toward certain male demographics employ traditional concepts of hypermasculinity to construct a representational space for "guys" to assert their gendered identities. The research also sheds light on the decisions that guided MOJO programming in relation to the shifting political and regulatory economy of commercial broadcasting in Canada.

FROM MARKET ECONOMY TO CAPITALISTIC PLAN ECONOMY

The article analyses the trends in global capitalism. It is argued that liberalisation has increased competition between workers, smaller firms and states, as well as within the public sector. At the global level, however, competition and therefore genuine market economy has been weakened; economic power has been concentrated due to mergers and acquisitions and more cooperation between the transnational corporations. It is shown that the weight of these corporations has increased significantly between 1990 and 2001. On the basis of this evidence, it is argued that competitive market economy is giving way to capitalistic plan economy.

Research on Shanghai's general growth accounting and green GDP accounting

According to the theory of economic growth and economic growth accounting models(Barro,1999),we conduct a research on the general economic growth accounting for Shanghai,and in order to analyze the sustainable development problems such as green economic growth accounting,we make a study of the green GDP economic growth accounting models(Asheim,2000).Some important results concerning the calculation research on the economic growth of Shanghai are obtained.Firstly,before implementing reform and opening policy,the achievement of Shanghai's economic growth was mostly supported by the input of capital,human resources and labors.And wage policy ensured the input of human resources because of planned economy,but it failed to cause technological progress.After the reform and opening,the achievement of Shanghai's economic growth was benefited from the technological progress caused by some reasons such as institutional innovation and so on,but interfered by the revenue policy.Secondly,Shanghai's green NNP value is far lower than the GDP value,and the latter is at least 2 to 4 times of the former.The ratio between Shanghai's GDP value and green NNP value was maintained more than 3 times that in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.In recent years,the ratio reduced to a relatively rational level,being around 2 times between Shanghai's GDP value and green NNP value.This shows that people have awared to pay more attention to the environmental problems and resource wasting problems,and have taken actions to protect environment and reduce resource wasting.Thirdly,at present,we believe that,because of the accounting results of Shanghai's green NNP,green GDP should not be used as a unique index of measuring economic development,but it can be used as an index of measuring the effect on environment and the wasting of resource by economic development as well as a supplement for the GDP index.

Equilibria without the survival assumption

It is well known that an equilibrium in the Arrow–Debreu model may fail to exist if a very restrictive condition called the survival assumption is not satisfied. We study two approaches that allow for the relaxation of this condition. Danilov and Sotskov [Danilov, V.I., Sotskov, A.I., 1990. A generalized economic equilibrium. Journal of Mathematical Economics 19, 341–356], and Florig [Florig, M., 2001. Hierarchic competitive equilibria. Journal of Mathematical Economics 35, 515–546] developed a concept of a generalized equilibrium based on a notion of hierarchic prices. Marakulin [Marakulin, V., 1988. An equilibrium with nonstandard prices and its properties in mathematical models of economy. Discussion Paper No. 18. Institute of Mathematics, Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, 51 pp. (in Russian); Marakulin, V., 1990. Equilibrium with nonstandard prices in exchange economies. In: Quandt, R., Triska, D. (Eds.), Optimal Decisions in Market and Planned Economies. Westview Press, London, pp. 268–282] proposed a concept of an equilibrium with non-standard prices. In this paper, we establish the equivalence between non-standard and hierarchic equilibria. Furthermore, we show that for any specified system of dividends the set of such equilibria is generically finite. As a consequence, we have generic finiteness of Mas-Colell’s equilibria with slack, uniform dividend equilibria, and other special cases of our concept.

Using IT to create business value in China: what can be learned from IT research and practices in the developed countries

As China embarks on the journey of transforming itself from an isolated state-controlled central planning economy into a market-oriented world economic power house, information technology (IT) will increasingly play an important role. The knowledge and experiences accumulated in academic research on and managerial practices in IT in the developed countries over the last three decades can benefit tremendously such a transformation. How can IT be used to create business value in Chinese enterprises as IT begins to permeate all aspects of business operations? Is the 'IT doesn't matter' debate in the USA and developed countries relevant in China? How can China benefit from the successes of IT practices experienced in the developed economies while avoiding the pitfalls? What are the challenges? In this study, we examine different views of IT business value and provide recommendations regarding IT applications in China based on its unique set of cultural, economic and political characteristics. We discuss some lessons and implications for Chinese companies about how to best use the power of IT to create business value.