中华人民共和国和美国的中国学研究:50年

美国的当代中国学研究作为一个领域,大约与中华人民共和国同龄。在第二次世界大战以前,美国曾有几所大学开设研究中国古文的入门课,当时被称作汉学,但是开设中国现代史课的大学却寥寥无几,更不用说讲授当代社会科学了。直到1 949年中国共产党建立政权之后,美国政府、基金会和学术机构才开始重视发展当代中国研究的必要性。在这方面,福特基金会决定出资30 0 0万美元用于建设东亚研究领域起了关键性的促进作用;同样,《国防教育法》决定对学习所谓“重要语言”(包括现代汉语)的学生颁发政府奖学金也对这一领域的发展起了推动作用。然而,中华人…     

Automobile prices and protection: The U.S.-Japan trade restraint

We examine the effects of the U.S.-Japan trade restraint on automobile prices and quality upgrading, for both Japanese imports and American small cars. From April 1981 to April 1984 the suggested retail price of all Japanese models increased by 15.8 percent, or 5.3 percent per year. We find that nearly the entire amount of this rise can be explained by the upgrading of individual models. This upgrading may benefit consumers who would purchase a luxury import in any case, but harms those who desire the basic imports. In addition to upgrading, we conclude that a second cost of the trade restraint has been to prevent the yen depreciation from being passed onto American consumers, in terms of lower imported auto prices. For U.S. small cars we find a 9.1 percent rise in the suggested retail price, or 3 percent per year, with a fraction of this amount due to model upgrading. If the yen depreciation had led to lower import prices without the trade restraint, then we expect that U.S. auto prices would have been lower, too.     

The O. J. Simpson Trial: Challenges to Science and Society

The O. J. Simpson murder and civil trials riveted the nation and much of the world for more than two years. Of tremendous scientific and public interest was the gulf in attitudes, perceptions, and reactions to the not guilty verdict at the criminal trial. The collection of articles in this issue of The Journal of Social Issues converged on the idea that race is an inadequate explanatory variable in understanding these differences in attitudes, perceptions, and reactions. Instead, race is a marker for a variety of cultural and experiential issues that affect cognitive, affective, and behavioral processes. This concluding article debunks simplistic ideas of race and points to the broader problems of racism and discrimination, criminal injustice, and violence in social relations. The article concludes with suggestions for future research and a call for a broader transformation in societal institutions that affect the quality of social relations.     

The U.S. Pollution Prevention Act: A policy implementation analysis

Over a decade after enactment, this paper examines the implementation of the U.S. Pollution Prevention Act to identify those factors related to implementation that contributed to, or detracted from, the achievement of policy success. Implementation is analyzed in the context of a conceptual framework which builds on existing policy implementation literature by merging top-down and bottom-up considerations [Najam, A. (1995). Learning from the literature on policy implementation: A synthesis perspective (Working Paper WP-95-61). Laxenburg: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis]. This model connects the variables affecting implementation, allowing them to be analyzed in relation to each other. Strategic use of these linkages may also help overcome the policy “implementation gap.” The nature of the case study and findings are examined in relation to one another towards refinement of the model and conceptual generalizations based on use of the analytical framework.     

Agriculture,trade, and macroeconomics: The U.S. case

The persistent appreciation of the U.S. dollar from 1980 through 1984 raise the issue of macroeconomic impacts on trade sectors as a critical policy concern. In this article a six-variable vector autoregressive model is utilized to evaluate the dynamic effects of macroeconomic shocks on U.S. agriculture, a key trade sector. The results suggest that the impacts are substantial. Expansion of the money supply or a decline in the real interest rate or the real value of the dollar has a positive effect on agricultural exports and relative prices, whereas autonomous inflationary shocks have negative effects.     

美国与印度的反恐合作：内容、问题与前景

九一一事件后美国和印度加强了在反恐方面的合作。双方的合作在一系列机制的基础上取得了进展,充实了美印战略伙伴关系。但是,美印反恐合作仍然存在诸多制约因素,主要表现为：双方在反恐问题上的利益和战略不同;双方对一些安全问题的看法不同以及印度国内反恐体系存在弊端等。2008年11月的孟买恐怖袭击案发生后,虽然美印双方都表示应加强反恐合作,但仍有一些不确定性因素将会影响合作的有效开展。