TEMPORAL and SPATIAL VARIABILITY OF CANADIAN INVENTIVE COMPANIES and THEIR INVENTIONS: AN ISSUE OF OWNERSHIP

Inventing is an important prerequisite for industrial economies to remain technologically competitive. Yet it is not well known how inventive companies of domestic or foreign ownership can affect a nation's technological base and, ultimately, its spatial-economic system. The present study examines this relationship in Canada by investigating the performance of its indigenous and foreign-owned inventive companies at the national, subnational, and urban levels. The results indicate that: (1) Canada's indigenous inventive companies are distinct from their foreign-owned counterparts in that they are generally smaller, are more apt to have teams of inventors, are more likely to develop product inventions, have come to manage a greater share of this nation's inventions, and are increasing their role in key Canadian industries; and (2) geographically, Canada's two largest cities and its core region were adversely affected by the declining inventiveness of American-controlled companies during the 1980s. L'esprit ?invention est une nécessité pour que les économies industrielles restent en conditions de concurrence technologique. Cependant, on connaît très peu de la manière que les entreprises inventives de propriété domestique ou étrangère affectent la base technologique ?un pays et, enfin, affectent son système spatio-écono-mique. La présente étude considère ces rapports au Canada au niveau national, sous-national et local, en exminant les performances des entreprises inventives indigènes et étrangères. Les résultats indiquent (1) qu'au Canada les entreprises indigènes et inventives diffèrent de leurs analogues étrangers: en général elles sont plus petites, ont plus tendance à consister en équipes ?inven-teurs, sont plus susceptibles de développer les inventions produites, produisent une plus grande part des inventions canadiennes, et sont en train ?augmenter leur rôle dans les industries canadiennes; et (2) que le déclin de ?esprit ?invention dans les entreprises dirigées par les américains a affecté défavorablement les deux villes les plus grandes au Canada, ainsi que la partie centrale du pays, pendant les années 1980. Mots-clés: invention, Canada, propriétéétrangère, technologie, produit     

Towards individualising couple finance: women’s housing assets and household decisions in Japan

Individualisation, which is increasingly promoted in European welfare states, tends to be absent from policy discourse as well as housing studies in Japan. It is largely because the ‘family as a unit’ is still a dominant approach in their household finance, social security and taxation systems, which also reflects women’s lack of home ownership. However, recent demographic trends such as falling marriage rates, low fertility and increased female labour participation indicate significant diversification in women’s life-course. Thus, today women making their own financial investment and house purchase have increasingly become popular practice. In this context, a new approach beyond the conventional ‘family as a unit’ may be required in the development of a new social contract. Drawing on data from qualitative research conducted among women in their 30s, this article explores the relationship between financial independence, household decisions and asset holding of partnered women in Japan, which reveals contested dimensions of women’s independence and autonomy in household and family life. Through the lens of home ownership, it considers the importance of promoting individual assets in order to foster gender equality in marriage.     

民国时期甘肃改土归流后土司辖地的归属纠纷

民国时期改土归流政策的推行,使土司辖地被纳入与内地一致的省县体系当中.这一过程在解决历史遗留问题的同时,也激化了新的土司辖地的归属纠纷,促使甘肃省政府展开界务调整,但实际勘划并不完全与相关勘界法规相符.狄道赵土司辖地乔家沟以耕种土地租户的籍贯为标准而划归渭源;河州何土司辖地何家堡则在甘青省界调整的过程中被划归永靖;卓尼...     

微观视角下中国大城市家庭汽车拥有情况研究——以北京市为例

目前国内从微观角度对家庭汽车所有权的研究很少。本文试图基于对北京市的一项大型问卷调查数据,从微观视角分析中国大城市家庭汽车所有权的主要影响因素。结果显示,中国城市家庭汽车所有权主要受能力因素和需求因素两方面影响。具体而言,家庭收入越高、持有驾照的成员数越多、户主受教育程度越高、户主年龄越大、离地铁站越远,家庭拥有汽车的可能性越大。家庭规模、家庭内的孩子数及是否住在内城等在国外研究中较为重要的解释变量在国内并不显著。有车家庭的户主在日常通勤中对汽车的使用强度较高,说明居民购买汽车主要为满足实际需要,"炫耀性"消费的因素不多。     

20世纪50年代上海新公私合营企业的工资改革

1956年,全行业公私合营后不久,鉴于建立统一的政治体制及与计划经济体制相适应的新工资制度的需要,国家开始在新公私合营企业中实行工资改革。上海新合营企业的工资改革与全国各地一样正式开始于1956年9月,但由于情况复杂,历经准备试点及全面推开等阶段,直到1957年10月才基本结束。其中工资改革的集中统一领导,工资水平与工资增长指标,新工资等级,变相工资、计件工资、保留工资等问题成为工资改革中最重要的内容。新合营企业工资改革的完成,标志着与计划经济体制相适应的统一的企业工资制度开始全面确立,在收入分配环节上,基本完成了对新合营企业从产权到治理结构、再到分配制度的崭新的企业制度安排。     

Bank Liquidity Creation in Russia

Two EU-based senior economists analyze the contribution of bank liquidity creation to the Russian economy, as well as changes in creation of liquidity occurring during the global financial crisis. Applying the methodology of Berger and Bouwman's (2009) study of U.S. banking to a rich panel dataset for Russian banks for the period 1999-2009, the authors compute three alternative measures of bank liquidity creation. They find evidence of increased creation of liquidity in real terms over the period and also determine that state-controlled (versus private) banks and Russia's largest banks (versus intermediate-size and small banks) contributed most to liquidity creation (lower in Russia than in the U.S.). Their findings suggest that consolidation of the Russian banking sector may prove more instrumental in increasing liquidity creation than privatization per se.     

Educational and other books received

SCOTLAND

A Development Plan for Scotland. By G. McRobbie. Planning. Vol. XXIX No. 476. 8 ½×5 ½. Pp. 30. London: Political and Economic Planning, 1963. 4s. 6d.

The Contour Road Book of Scotland. By H. R. G. Inglis, revised and extended by R. M. G. Inglis. 6 ½ × 3 ½. Pp. 28 + xx + 288 + 16. 4 pages of black and white maps. 24 pages of coloured maps. 146 pages of profile diagrams. Edinburgh: Gall &; Inglis, 1963. 8s. 6d.

The Highlands and Islands of Scotland. By A. C. O'Dell and K. Walton. 9 ¾ × 6 ¼. Pp.xii+ 353. One folding coloured map. 49 plates. 94 figures. Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson &; Sons Ltd., 1962. 50s.

Scotland's Eastern Coast. By L. Scott‐Moncrieff. 8 ¾ × 5 ½. Pp. xiv + 214. 41 plates. 2 end‐paper maps. Edinburgh: Oliver &; Boyd, 1963. 25s.

The Fortified House in Scotland. Volume Two, Central Scotland. By N. Tranter. 8 ½ × 5 ½. Pp. 183. 97 drawings. Edinburgh: Oliver &; Boyd, 1963. 25s.     

A Stake in Place? The Geography of Employee Ownership and its Implications for a Stakeholding Society

In recent years employee ownership has become a means by which some workers facing privatization, closure or takeover have attempted to defend their jobs and communities. Proponents of a 'stakeholding' society have advocated the widening of share ownership as a means of democratizing the economy, building partnerships and achieving consensus at work. But is employee ownership able to sustain local investment and industrial partnership? Through a detailed case study of a management and employee buyout in the railway industry, I suggest that the ability of employee ownership to fix investment in place may be enhanced by relations of 'stakeholding', increasing employee commitment to the firm and its future. In the case studied here, however, lack of employee power and finance effectively excluded most workers from the processes and philosophy of the buyout. The new ownership structure did little to reshape local relations between workers and those in control. While ownership cannot eradicate economic threats to community, it might, if used as a mechanism to promote new styles of management and employee commitment, foster long-term success. It is argued that government and trade unions can do more to promote wider employee ownership and participation at work in the future.     

Legal Frameworks in the Sermons of Caesarius of Arles

Abstract

The texts of Caesarius of Arles are rightly counted among the most important historical sources for the Early Middle Ages. Despite this well-known fact they are insufficiently studied from the point of view of social history. The domain of law is especially neglected. Information on this subject is contained mainly in the numerous comparisons which Caesarius drew between the religious beliefs, attitudes, and practices he strove to impose on his flock, and the social realities of Arles of his day. The juridical terminology which he occasionally used is also quite revealing. Most of the data is of course on canon law. It is less informative than one could have hoped but it does shed light on some important areas, such as the social make-up of the parishioners; attendance at church by women, youngsters, and slaves; baptismal practices; the tithe, and almsgiving. Caesarius’ sermons also contain valuable facts pertaining to the persistence of many Roman legal notions and practices belonging to what can be qualified as ‘civil law’. Of special interest are the different data concerning ownership rights. On the one hand, the sermons prove that Arlesians of the sixth century were for the most part content with quasi-legal notions sufficient to describe their rights in this domain. On the other hand, the bishop’s use of words leaves no doubt that the predominant legal notion regarding ownership, to the detriment of all others, was possession.     

Getting the China Story Right: Insights from National Economic Censuses

Two Hong Kong-based geographers critically interrogate competing interpretations of the nature and dynamics of China's ongoing economic transformation. Based on the data gathered from China's first and second national economic censuses, they examine the pattern and process of ownership transformation in the Chinese economy, focusing on employment, capital assets, and output as well as productivity and industrial innovation. Emphasis is placed on the following critical issues: (1) after three decades of opening, China's national economy continues to be dominated by domestic enterprises (with foreign and overseas Chinese-invested enterprises limited to only a few industrial sectors and highly specific locales); (2) the bulk of capital assets and key large-scale industrial sectors remain in state ownership; and (3) spontaneous, bottom-up privatization of the labor market has occurred without a corresponding privatization of the capital market. In examining these and other issues, the authors argue that the evolving, complex "China story" can be better understood only after abandoning reliance on preconceived theoretical models derived primarily from Western experience. They support their case by first challenging the conventional neoliberal view of privatization as an independent force or predetermined condition, arguing instead that it is conditioned by prevailing social and political influences. Likewise, they posit that rapid expansion of private and individual businesses at the grassroots level has owed more to relaxed state control than to active state involvement envisioned by the thesis of state corporatism. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: E22, E23, E24, O11, P20. 8 figures, 6 tables, 87 references.