华侨华人与中国软实力：作用、机制与政策思路

近年来,国内外诸多学者对中国软实力问题进行了探讨,但至今未见有从华侨华人和侨务工作视角系统探讨中国国家软实力的研究成果。论文着重探讨了华侨华人在中国软实力构建和发展过程中的具体作用、影响机制及面临的挑战。认为其作用主要体现在中华文化的传播、开展民间外交、中国国情和发展模式的宣传介绍以及对中国国家政策和行为的理解、支持和解释等方面,而机制在于通过华侨华人的个人行为和方式、海外华人传媒、华文教育以及华侨华人社团等发挥作用。同时,也要注意到华侨与华人的不同身份对中国软实力的作用和影响。对于如何在新时期开展侨务工作,笔者提出了一些思考和建议。     

旅游上市公司自愿性信息披露与业绩相关性研究

基于代理理论与信号理论,业绩优良的上市公司有动力通过自愿性信息披露来降低代理成本或传递其竞争优势。本文选取在沪深两市上市的20家旅游上市公司作为研究样本,采用实证分析方法对旅游上市公司自愿性信息披露行为进行研究,检验自愿性信息披露与公司业绩的相关性,以期促进旅游上市公司完善其信息披露制度。研究结果表明：我国旅游上市公司自愿性信息披露水平整体较低;景点类公司自愿性信息披露水平显著高于饭店类和综合类旅游上市公司。旅游上市公司自愿性信息披露与净资产收益率、总资产周转率、营业收入增长率呈现正相关关系,与资产负债率和詹森指数呈现负相关关系。     

Land Recycling, Community Revitalization, and Distributive Politics: An Analysis of EPA Brownfields Program Support

This article examines social, economic, and political factors influencing the distribution of resources to local governments under the EPA Brownfields Program, an innovative federal effort to encourage the remediation and redevelopment of contaminated properties. Signed into law in 2002, the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act provided the program with a congressional mandate, new tools to promote reuse such as liability protections, and increased funding up to a level of $250 million per year. This article contributes to research on environmental regulatory reform with an analysis of successful and unsuccessful local government applicants for EPA Brownfields Program support between 2003 and 2007. Building on prior research, we develop a series of expectations and an empirical model, and estimate the influence of program priorities, government and civic capacity, interest group pressures, and institutional politics. Results point to significant relationships between program priorities and award patterns. Contrary both to EPA's explicit commitments to equity and to analysis of pre-2003 award patterns, however, we find negative correlations between the proportions of local populations that are nonwhite or low-income and the likelihood of receiving an award. In addition, better-resourced governments and several dimensions of political representation show strong associations with the likelihood of winning awards. We conclude by discussing implications.     

论近代英国自愿捐助医院兴起的原因

自愿捐助医院在18-19世纪的英国大规模兴起。近代英国自愿捐助医院兴起的原因主要有人口增加及城市化的发展导致对医院的需求增加;资产阶级慈善事业的发展;医学教学的需要及医学专业化的发展;人们对疾病的理解,外科手术技术的发展及护理工作的改善改变了公众对医院的态度。这些自愿捐助医院已经不同于中世纪的医院,而是真正意义上的医疗救助中心,成为英国近代医院的开端。     

Local Community Characteristics and Cooperation for Shared Green Reputation

This article examines how basic socioeconomic and political factors are associated with higher levels of cooperation to garner a local community's shared green reputation. We analyze panel data on participation efforts in a collective voluntary environmental program, the Ecological Blue Flag Program, by the entire population of beach communities in Costa Rica between 2001 and 2009. Collective voluntary environmental programs are relatively new and aim to improve environmental performance and shared “green” reputation through joint participation and certification of multisector groups comprising businesses, governmental institutions, and nongovernmental organizations. Our results indicate that higher levels of within‐community cooperation for shared green reputation are more likely in seashore localities with lower income inequality and/or a higher number of businesses. These findings run counter to research suggesting these same characteristics are associated with lower levels of cooperation in the management of common pool natural resources such as fisheries and forests. We also find that within‐community cooperation is positively correlated with a greater proportion of expatriates from industrialized countries and/or with higher levels of democratic political participation.     

Multidisciplinary Cooperation in GIS Education: A Case Study of US Colleges and Universities

This paper examines the degree of multidisplinary cooperation for Geographic Information Science (GIS) education programs that award GIS-related degrees or certificates at US colleges and universities. We classified departments and courses into ten major disciplines using Dewey Decimal Classification. In the 2007–2008 academic year, approximately 40 per cent of GIS education programs related to multiple disciplines and nearly 20 per cent were involved with more than three disciplines. Geography was the major provider of GIS education programs, but the ratio between geography-related discipline and other disciplines combined was approximately 1:3. Fostering multidisciplinary GIS education programs should strengthen geography in general as well as GIS education.     

Do Voluntary Programs Reduce Pollution? Examining ISO 14001's Effectiveness across Countries

Voluntary environmental programs have emerged as important instruments of environmental policy. Despite considerable scholarly scrutiny, there remain debates about whether they reduce pollution among participants, and their overall impact at the country level. We present a cross‐national analysis of the efficacy of ISO 14001, the most widely adopted voluntary environmental program in the world. While several single country studies have explored the effect of ISO 14001 participation on pollution reduction at the facility level, this is the first article to assess (i) national level pollution reduction effects of ISO 14001 participation levels, (ii) across a large number of countries, and (iii) across two pollutants. We examine whether all else equal, the national level uptakes of ISO 14001 are associated with reductions in air emissions (sulfur dioxide, SO₂) and water pollution (biochemical oxygen demand, BOD). Because firms, regulators, and environmental groups tend to focus more on visible types of pollution than less visible ones, we hypothesize that ISO 14001 uptake will be associated with more pronounced reductions in air pollution (visible) in relation to water pollution (less visible). Our analyses of pollution levels for a panel of 138 (72 for BOD) countries for the 1991–2005 period suggest that a 1 percent increase in aggregate levels of ISO 14001 adoption is associated with about a 0.064 percent reduction in SO₂ emissions, all else equal. In contrast, we do not find a statistically significant relationship between ISO 14001 adoption levels and changes in water pollution (BOD).     

The Implications of Immigration Federalism for Non-citizens’ Rights and Immigration Opportunities: Canada and Australia Compared

This article explores the development of immigration federalism in Australia and Canada (expressed through the establishment of state/provincial/territorial immigrant selection programs) and its implications for immigrants’ rights and immigration opportunities. Given the very limited scholarship on the issue, and the lack of previous comparative studies on immigration federalism in Australia and Canada, our research is exploratory by nature. Our finding is that provincial/state/territorial programs offer some advantages to prospective applicants (such as increased immigration opportunities), but, at the same time, raise a number of concerns (such as an increased dependence on employers). As our study reveals, the costs and benefits of immigration opportunities under state/provincial/territorial programs differ for skilled and low-skilled workers, whereby the latter are given only limited access to permanent residence, and on more onerous conditions than skilled workers. Drawing on these findings, we identify areas in need of further research and policy response.