Supply Chain Strategies and International Tax Arbitrage

What motivates the geographic footprint of the supply chains that multinational firms (MNFs) deploy? Traditional research in the operations and supply chain management literature tends to recommend locations primarily based on differentials in production costs and the ramifications of physical distance ignoring the role of taxation. MNFs that strategically position parts of their supply chains in low‐tax locations can allocate the profits across the divisions to improve post‐tax profits. For the profit allocation to be defensible to tax authorities, the divisional operations must possess real decision authority and bear meaningful risks. Generally speaking, the greater the transfer of risk and control, the larger the allowable allocation of profit. These transfers may also create inefficiencies due to misalignment of business goals and attitudes toward risk. We model these trade‐offs in the context of placing in a low‐tax region a subsidiary that oversees product distribution (as a limited risk distributor commissionnaire, limited risk distributor, or fully fledged distributor). Our analysis demonstrates that the MNF's preferences regarding the operating structures are not necessarily an obvious ordering based on the amount of risk and decision authority transferred to the division in the low‐tax jurisdiction. We derive and analyze threshold values of the performance parameters that describe the main trade‐offs involved in selecting an operating structure. We find some of the optimal decisions to exhibit interesting non‐monotone behavior. For instance, profits can increase when the tax rate in the low‐tax jurisdiction increases. Numerical analysis shows that the Limited‐Risk Distributor structure is rarely optimal and quantifies when each alternative dominates it.     

Network domains in social networking sites: expectations,meanings, and social capital

This paper examines why the use of social networking sites (SNSs) leads to different results in cultivating bridging and bonding social capital for different groups of people. Based on in-depth interviews of 45 university students in Hong Kong, I find that Mainland Chinese students studying in Hong Kong actively use SNSs for seeking practical information about offline matters, and they obtain substantial enacted support from other Mainland students of the same university through SNS use. As a result, they accumulate both bridging and bonding social capital. Local Hong Kong students, however, use SNSs mainly for social information seeking and are only able to accrue limited bridging social capital through SNS use. Drawing on the theory of network domains, I argue that the different offline network structures in which students are located – namely, homogeneous and closed networks versus heterogeneous and open networks – explain this difference. Students with closed offline networks have defined expectations of online ties; they think of their online activities as practical and leading to real changes in their status among peers. Those with open networks have indefinite expectations of their online audience; thus, they interpret online activities differently, thinking of them as recreational, and they are playful in their online behaviour. These different outcomes of online activities consequently lead to diverse results in social capital accrual.     

Producing public goods in networks: Some effects of social comparison and endogenous network change

As actors participate in the production of public goods, processes of social comparison may affect the decisions about the individual contributions as well as the endogenously changing structure of an underlying social network. This leads to the transformation of an ordinary n-player Prisoner's Dilemma of collective action into an n-player coordination game. The paper uses agent-based simulations to trace the formation of public goods while varying network characteristics, such as density, segregation, or the strength of relationships. Additionally, the usage of both a forward- and a backward-looking agent model shows possible implications of different assumptions about the actors’ decision making.     

进一步完善来沪人员服务和管理,推进城乡统筹发展——上海解决“新二元结构”的途径、前景及举措

国家＂十二五＂规划明确提出,特大型城市要合理控制人口规模,同时要坚持因地制宜、分步推进,把有稳定劳动关系并在城镇居住一定年限的农民工及其家属逐步转为城镇居民;对暂时不具备在城镇落户的农民工,要改善公共服务,加强权益保护。上海作为外来人口规模庞大的特大型城市,必须高度重视解决＂新二元结构＂,既要积极改善来沪人员的公共服务,促进符合条件的来沪人员不断融入上海,又要合理控制人口规模,防止＂城市病＂。     

深圳特区产业结构变迁与经济增长

通过对深圳市1979—2009年的经济统计数据进行回归与图表分析,描述深圳市的产业结构状况及其形成过程,指出了深圳开Z30年来虽经济成就斐然,但产业结构相比20世纪90年代仍无实质改变。文章依据分析思路认为深圳尤应加速推进产业结构转换、升级,提升第三产业产值在GDP中的比重,形成更高效率经济增长方式并优化产业结构,从而实现经济体的现代化转型。     

市场经济主导下佛山空间结构演变的影响要素分析

佛山从历史上著名的“四大名镇”到“珠三角制造业重地”,集合了历史文化、村镇经济、广州辐射的多重动力,佛山市行政区划调整已历时近十年,佛山空间结构的演变,已成为中国快速城镇化值得探讨的生动案例。2002年底,行政调整后的佛山市在战略规划中确定了“2＋5”的组团结构,而后又相继提出“中心组团”、“东平新城”的空间布局概念并成立了相应的管理机构,与此同时佛山市下辖的南海区和顺德区也在进行适应产业提升的空间重新布局,貌似无序的村镇布局在市场经济的主导下,能否不断加以改善并实现城市产业转型和生活品质的提升,本文试图以佛山活跃的村镇经济为背景,解析佛山空间形态形成的动力,探索行政意愿和市场导向共同作用下的空间结构演变。     

江苏人口职业结构变迁与影响因素分析

人口职业结构变迁既是社会发展和经济发展的结果,也是社会及其经济发展程度的一个重要标志,社会结构的发展和经济结构的变迁可以通过人口职业结构的变迁表现出来。本文力图通过1978-2009年江苏地区相关统计数据分析,对江苏省人口职业结构变迁及其影响因素进行了深入分析。结果认为：经济结构与产业结构的优化调整,教育事业的快速发展积极推动了江苏省人口职业结构的变化,同时,人口结构的变化又为经济结构与产业结构的优化调整,教育事业的快速发展提供了基础资源。     

Mobilisation strategies of individual and institutional actors in Brussels’ artistic and cultural scenes

Though sharing a common territory, the cultural spaces of Brussels are divided according to a complex structure where Francophone and Flemish Communities play a dominant role. These two language-based communities set separate cultural policies and programming for their residents in Brussels. Within this fragmented structure, local socio-cultural actors have mobilised promoting cross-Community collaboration towards a shared vision for the Brussels-Capital Region (ex. Cultural Plan for Brussels). Further, individual artists themselves have developed strategies to participate in Community-defined cultural programming and to gain recognition for their talent as local (Bruxellois) artists regardless of their ethnic, linguistic or migrant background. This article explores how socio-cultural actors and artists have mobilised to reframe ‘culture’ in Brussels, and to gain access to cultural venues particularly in the case of migrant and migrant-origin artists whose engagement and recognition in Brussels’ cultural scenes have been little studied.     

上海城市人口总量控制与结构优化研究

上海的人口总量和结构一直与其独特的工业化、城镇化进程密不可分。工业化带动人口发展,人口发展推动城市发展。改革开放以来,上海正处于第四波工业化时期,人口增长较快。在人口结构上,户籍人口老龄化,而外来人口具有就近流动、城城流动、定居化特点,且教育水平逐年提高。从承载力上看,上海人口总量合理,但人口分布的不合理影响了人口结构的发展、城市社会的融合,带来了核心区人口过密、产城融合不畅的问题,以及偏好"人脑"、排斥"人手"的问题。面对人口老龄化和可能的人口逆流,上海应稳定人口总量,建设整体推进的多中心发展人口分布格局,完善户籍制度改革,破解"新二元结构",推动社会保障和公共服务均等化,同时结合政府改革,完善相关配套改革措施。     

上海服务业综合改革试点的成效及亟待突破的困境

上海首批服务业综合改革试点工作取得了显著成效,但也面临着困境。为了加快构筑以服务经济为主的产业结构、加快完善与国际接轨的服务经济制度,上海亟需在首批服务业综合改革试点工作的基础上,开展新一轮的服务业综合改革试点,实现"以点上的探索突破,带动面上的创新发展"。同时,为了深入推进服务业综合改革试点,上海需强化服务业综合改革试点工作的总体指导;建立全市层面的服务业综合改革的评价考核机制;完善服务业综合改革试点单位的申报和淘汰机制;对服务业综合改革试点单位给予权限下放或政策倾斜;总结服务业综合改革试点的创新经验,开展第二批试点工作。