Trade, education, and innovation: Prospects for the U.S. economy

This paper examines international trade issues as vital indicators of the economic prospects of the United States and other developed economies. In particular, it challenges misuses of the doctrine of mutual gains from trade and instead argues that comparative advantage does not guarantee increases in benefits to both trading partners—especially when one partner seeks to distort the market mechanism in its favor. In the face of such mercantilist or protectionist practices, efforts to advance innovation, without retaining manufacturing jobs, will not ensure continued prosperity, as the number of jobs entailed in the invention process is small compared with the number of jobs associated with manufacturing an innovative product for mass consumption. These matters call for the urgent rethinking of trade policy by the United States and other developed nations, if they are to balance their imports and exports and ensure continued economic growth.     

Oil prices,stock market returns and volatility spillovers: Evidence from Turkey

This paper examines the relationship between crude oil prices and stock market returns in Turkey taking into account volatility spillovers that are exemplified by second moment effects. Using weekly data from 1990 to 2017 and time varying causality-in-mean and causality-in-variance tests and taking into account structural breaks, we model each series as an EGARCH process in order to capture any leverage effects in the volatility of returns. Empirical results suggest crude oil prices as measured by Brent benchmark have significant effects on stock market returns in Turkey. While we fail to document significant spillover effects stemming from oil prices in the entire sample, there are significant spillover effects from crude oil price changes to stock market returns in 1993 and 2008–09. These results suggest that government policies must take into account risk spillover effects between markets and that investors are better off monitoring crude oil markets in portfolio allocation decisions.     

经济全球化:如何达到"共赢和共存"

经济全球化是当代世界经济发展的客观趋势 ,其主要表现是生产活动全球化、国际贸易扩大、对外直接投资增加、世界金融市场急剧膨胀等方面。经济全球化对世界经济发展有双重作用 ,利弊同在。世界各国应加强经济技术的交流与合作 ,逐步改变不公正不合理的国际经济秩序 ,使经济全球化达到共赢和共存的目的。     

Existence and Coexistence in Acre: The Power of Educational Activism

This article presents a five-year action-research project of systemic change toward coexistence in Acre, a mixed Arab-Jewish city in Israel. Educational activism was the basis for this project. Because education in Acre was closely interwoven with discriminative politics, this project used a citywide systemic approach consisting of three layers: (a) work in schools that used cooperative learning to increase achievement, (b) work with parents in school-family literacy partnerships, and (c) work with the city's educational and political leadership for citywide change. Data presented for each layer show the potential of this long-term holistic approach to bring coexistence to the community even though regional and political factors worked against community coexistence.     

中印和平共处的历史教训与现实意义

和平共处五项原则为中印两国 5 0年前首倡。这些原则在处理今天的中印关系时仍具有重要的现实意义。在两国共同崛起于国际体系之际 ,如何以这些原则来处理和看待各自的地位与作用 ,甚至是一种挑战 ,即如何在求同存异的基础上降低双方分歧的重要性 ,突出共同利益 ,发扬妥协和解精神 ,抛弃“两强相争”的传统地缘政治观念 ,建立新的安全观。这在中印关系史上都是有教训可汲取的。     

Education for Coexistence and Arab-Jewish Encounters in Israel: Potential and Challenges

The killing of thirteen Arabs by Israeli police forces in October 2000 points to the mounting tension and hostility between Arabs and Jews in Israel. Encounter and coexistence programs constitute one of the few channels for the development of communication, trust, and genuine understanding of the complex Arab-Jewish reality in Israel. Thus, it is essential that these encounters be examined and professionally developed to respond to the needs of the two communities. This article examines certain shortcomings of these encounter programs and provides suggestions to improve their efficacy. The conclusions are based on an earlier empirical study conducted between 1992 and 1998, which investigated six encounter programs, and on a series of interviews with Arab-Jewish facilitators conducted in 2001.     

Firm internationalization and performance: Evidence for designing policies

The debate on the relationship between internationalization and performance is still open and is a hot topic for policymakers, but they ignore the impacts for most of the firms supported. The paper is based on a large database of seven years that considers quantitative-qualitative and control variables. To reduce industry and country heterogeneity we focused on the Italian automotive supply chain. We tested 5 modes of internationalization on firms’ profitability so to support the design of policies. Our results are partially in contrast with literature; therefore we identify specific environments where policies, namely for exporting, could be more effective.     

Maternity and family leave policies: a comparative analysis

This article compares maternity leave data from a 1981 Columbia study, a 1992 two county survey and a 1997 revisit to the same sample of Idaho employers. The data reflect a trend between 1981 and 1997 of shifting costs for specific benefits (pension, life and health insurance) from employer to employee. The findings also indicate that, regardless of the number of employees, all responding employers have health insurance that covers maternity and allow pregnant employees to work until delivery if able to do so. Additionally, the effects of the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 are considered by comparing policies reported in 1992 and those reported in 1997 by Idaho employers with 50 or more employees. The conclusions point to substantial changes in some leave benefits since the FMLA took effect but echo again the dilemma faced in the United States, that we are still out of step with most industrial societies in that we have an unpaid leave policy.     

Taxation and anti-smoking campaigns: Complementary policies in tobacco control

We examine the optimal design of policies directed at regulating tobacco consumption through two types of instruments: taxation and anti-smoking mass media campaigns. We find that the main role of taxation is to correct for the population-average internal costs of smoking, while anti-smoking campaigns serve a complementary role. Namely, they add to the social welfare benefits of tobacco regulation as they are relatively more effective than taxation at discouraging smoking by individuals characterized by low degrees of self-control and high smoke-related health     

Promoting Coexistence by Means of Conflict Education: The MACBE Model

This article presents a conflict education program designed to restore relationships among adversaries experiencing protracted, seemingly intractable intergroup conflict. It is designed on the basis of a systems model. The underlying assumption is that breaking the escalation cycle and ameliorating the adversaries' relationships requires a comprehensive intervention. Consequently, the curriculum imparts knowledge about conflict dynamics and teaches constructive conflict resolution skills, enhancing the probability of behavior and attitude change. The program is deemed relevant to efforts of improving Arab-Jewish relations in Israel. Implementation of the intervention requires ample resources, cooperation of local communities, and forbearance of program initiators and participants, which rarely exist in tandem. Nonetheless, even partial implementation can contribute to peaceful coexistence of Arabs and Jews.     

中国—东盟自由贸易区:进程回顾与前景展望

通过对中国—东盟自由贸易区(CAFTA)四年半来的历程进行系统回顾和总结,重点分析早期收获计划、货物贸易自由化、服务贸易自由化、投资自由化等几个重要方面,最后对其前景及所面临的新形势和新挑战做出分析和展望。     

中国与印度经贸关系的发展及前景

中国与印度有着数千年的经贸交往史。进入21世纪,中印关系快速发展,尤其是经贸关系取得突破性进展,不断显示出互补性。2005年4月温家宝总理对印度的访问,具有里程碑意义。两国政府建立了面向21世纪的战略伙伴关系,签署了中印两国边境问题的政治指导性原则和全面经贸合作五年规划。在两国政府决心携手推动中印关系向前发展的形势下,中印经贸关系呈现出良好的前景。     

政府创新与民主:一个分析框架

随着我国社会主义市场经济的深入发展和全球化趋势的日益明显,我国各级地方政府开始主动地在政府观念、体制、过程等方面进行创造性的变革。这种变革的价值取向是民主、效率与公正。民主创新是政府发展的首要选择,发展民主是政府创新的根本方向。     

国际贸易的信息技术化与贸易的“量子化”——基于“贸易停滞与跨境电商激增”的统计现象分析

文章系统分析了国际贸易信息化过程中的“量子化”趋势,探索了跨境电商新模式、贸易与投资等领域深度融合的理论与实践发展,并揭示了当前贸易统计数据现象背后的结构性调整问题,提出建立综合的生态圈评价体系以充分体现和预测国际贸易的发展,并更好地发挥现代国际贸易的基本功能,推动中国的“一带一路”战略进程.     

Building assets from birth: Singapore’s policies

ABSTRACT

Singapore has created innovative, inclusive and comprehensive asset-building policies designed to promote social stability and development. Asset building from early childhood is an important part of this overall strategy. In 1993, Singapore’s government initiated a universal child asset-building policy, Edusave, which provides resources for improving educational outcomes. Since then, three additional asset-building policies for children have been implemented: the Baby Bonus and Child Development Accounts (CDAs), Post-Secondary Education Accounts (PSEAs) and Medisave, a health savings account. We discuss each of these asset-building accounts for children in Singapore. We point out distinctive features and assess key elements in overall policy design.     

Parents' Goals for Children: The Dynamic Coexistence of Individualism and Collectivism in Cultures and Individuals

Current scholarship on the cultural value systems of individualism and collectivism, and the associated developmental goals of autonomy and relatedness, has moved beyond grand divide theories to emphasize variation within individuals and cultures. We present a theoretical model on the dynamic coexistence of cultural value systems (at the macro level) and parents' developmental goals (at the micro level). We contend that cultural values and developmental goals that have largely been classified as polar opposites may be viewed as conflicting, additive, or functionally dependent. Parents may view the developmental goal of autonomy as interfering with the goal of relatedness (and vice versa); parents may endorse both autonomy and relatedness; and parents may consider the developmental goal of relatedness to be a path to the goal of autonomy and/or autonomy to be a path to relatedness. These forms of coexistence are themselves dynamic, changing across situations, developmental time, and in response to social, political, and economic contexts.     

Introduction to Improving Arab-Jewish Relations in Israel: Theory and Practice in Coexistence Educational Programs

Israeli Jewish and Arab experts within Israel have developed innovative intergroup relations programs, educational efforts designed to improve relations between Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs. Social scientists, educators, and practitioners on both sides of the Arab-Jewish conflict have dedicated themselves to lessening the hostility between these two groups within Israel through coexistence educational training. This issue presents theory, methods, and data from these coexistence educational programs. The introductory article presents a brief history of this conflict; the groups' differing perceptions regarding the dispute; some information about the role of culture, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity in the discord; and some of the social psychological processes that perpetuate and recreate the hostilities. Last, it provides a brief preface of this issue's articles.