Free Trade Empire to Commonwealth of Nations: India,Britain and Imperial Preference, 1903–1932

This article examines the dialogue between British tariff reformers and Indian nationalists over the application of imperial trade preference in India from Joseph Chamberlain's 1903 Birmingham address to the 1932 Imperial Economic Conference. For both groups, this issue was a focal point to assess India's constitutional status and national participation within an emerging British Commonwealth and international system after the First World War. Specifically, it marked a comprehensive challenge to the orthodoxy of free trade and liberal empire seen increasingly as a determent to reconciling national prosperity and imperial unity. It is argued that prominent tariff reformers’ well-studied criticism of an ‘unpatriotic’ cosmopolitan free trade made them also sympathetic to longstanding Indian grievances that this fiscal policy exacerbated economic exploitation and racial discrimination. After 1919, Indian nationalists, including ‘historical economists’, utilized metropolitan advocacy for imperial preference to demand fiscal and political autonomy from Britain and national, as well as racial, equality in collective imperial decision. At the 1932 conference in Ottawa, India's voluntary and negotiated acceptance of preferential trade with Britain, beside the white self-governing Dominions, helped transform the British Commonwealth into an egalitarian organization recognizable after 1947.     

香港团队游客上海世博游决策的影响因素分析

上海世博会是2010年中国旅游行业最重要的盛事,深入理解和分析上海世博会旅游消费者的行为特征,对于未来中国节事旅游产品的开发和营销具有重要的意义。本文应用聚类分析和联合分析,从供需两个方面初步探究和分析了参团到访上海世博会的香港游客的消费者行为特征。研究结果显示,该客源市场可以细分为消遣型、综合型和融入型三个类别。三类游客对世博旅游产品具有不同的选择偏好。     

Influence of Son Preference on Contraceptive Method Mix: Some Evidences from ‘Two Bengals’

Although the people of Bangladesh and the state of West Bengal in India share common cultural practices, they differ in contraceptive adoption and practice. The use of modern contraceptive methods among women and couples of the two Bengals differ from each other. The use of natural method is significantly higher among women and couples in West Bengal compared to that of their counterparts in Bangladesh. The study analyses data from Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) using sequential logit models. Results show that greater reliance on natural methods among women of West Bengal is related to higher preference for sons compared to that in Bangladesh.     

深圳居民服务性消费行为的偏好与空间特征

服务性消费在深圳居民消费结构这一在居民消费结构中的重要性日益增加,本文首先对深圳居民的服务性消费偏好进行了分析,其次将服务性消费行为大致分为餐饮消费、美容美发消费、体育健身消费及酒吧消费等四种类型,分别研究了各种消费行为的空间特征。     

基于新休假制度的上海居民出游方式及特点研究

休假制度是影响居民出游活动的重要条件。本文以上海为例,在市场调查数据基础上,针对新的休假制度颁布后上海居民在出游方式选择上表现出来的各种偏好进行了分析和比较,并对相关特点展开了讨论。     

基于游客自愿拍摄法（VSEP）的旅游审美研究方法探索

旅游活动是一项审美实践活动。旅游者旅游审美偏好的影响因素是什么？西方学界强调以照片为基础的景观偏好（landscape preference）研究,中国学界重视经验性思考,但至今未有共识性结论。数码相机的普及使通过考察大众游客的摄影动机与行为来研究其审美行为成为可能。本文以游客受雇拍摄法（VEP）为基础,提出了＂游客自愿拍摄法＂（VSEP）;通过探测九寨沟、张家界、嵩山3个知名旅游地大众旅游者摄影动机与影响因素,研究检验了以往以照片为基础的景观偏好影响因素部分结论,探索了＂游客自愿拍摄法＂（VSEP）在研究旅游审美方面的可行性,并在此基础上有新的研究发现。     

黄山市入境国外旅游市场亲景度与竞争态分析

国际旅游客源市场的规模与质量直接影响旅游地旅游业的外向度,而外向度的提高是旅游地塑造国际化品牌形象,增加外汇收入,提高经济效益的基础。本文依据黄山市入境国外旅游市场1995-2005年的相关统计数据,通过亲景度、竞争态以及亲景度与竞争态的相关分析,认为客源市场亲景度的差异是导致市场竞争态差异的主要原因之一。最后文章对黄山市今后拓展入境国外旅游市场提出了对策与建议。如开通直航包机,多参加国际性旅游交易会,在境外召开产品说明会或旅游推介会,邀请境外旅行商和主流新闻媒体来黄山市考察,联合其他旅游城市共同促销等。     

Explaining State Budget Punctuations: Policy Transparency,Political Institutions,and Electoral Incentives

What factors cause policies experiencing long periods of stability to be interrupted occationally by a short period of large changes? This study argues that electoral incentives might influence the search, supply, and processing of information on constituency issues, as well as the associated cognitive or institutional frictions, and thus determine the presence and variation of punctuated policies. This article develops and evaluates this claim within a systemic framework consisting of policy transparency, political institutions, and electoral incentives. For the purpose of identifying policy punctuations, this research uses the Generalized Pareto Distribution in the Extreme Value Theory. This study analyzes budget spending data collected from FY 1988 to FY 2008 for all 50 American states. This study finds that greater policy transparency is associated with larger spending stability. By contrast, greater gubernatorial competition is more likely to produce extreme spending changes. Electoral incentives shaped by public preference and political term limits have a profound impact on nonincremental policy changes. The impact of policy transparency is conditional on public preference, while that of electoral competition and legislative professionalism is moderated by political term limits. Particularly, a transparent policy consistent with public preference and legislative professionalism with term limits are more likely to give rise to punctuated policies, while gubernatorial (legislative) competition leads to less punctuated changes when governors (legislators) are subject to term limits.     

Gender disparities in child health care seeking in northern Vietnam

Vietnam recently demonstrated a skewed sex ratio at birth. Little research has examined postnatal impacts of son preference in Vietnam, such as in child health care seeking. Past research in other Asian countries with son preference has found that parents are more likely to take sons to a health facility when they are sick, to do so more promptly, and invest more resources in care, than daughters. Using data from a paediatric hospital emergency department, we analyse gender differences in illnesses, referral patterns, and outcomes among children to understand how gender disparities in paediatric hospital admissions arise. Almost twice as many boys were brought into the facility as girls. Compared to girls, boys were significantly more likely to have bypassed lower-level facilities and entered care at the tertiary facility, controlling for severity of illness and socio-demographic characteristics. This suggests parents provide preferential treatment to boys, potentially leading to excess morbidity among girls who become ill. However, we find no significant differences in delay of care seeking or evidence of provider bias. Ensuring that girls are able to access appropriate, quality care when needed, will improve equity of access to care for all children.