Minimum wage and export: evidence from Chinese firm-level data

This paper proposes a two-country trade equilibrium model with heterogeneous firms to investigate the influences of minimum wages and productivity on firms' exports. It shows that the influence of minimum wages on firms' exporting probability and foreign sales is negative while that of firms' productivity on their exports is positive. Econometric analysis based on the Annual Survey of Chinese Industrial Firms as well as the data of minimum wages collected ourselves from 1998 to 2007 verifies these predictions. Holding the other variables constant, if minimum wages and their productivity increase by 100%$, then the elasticity of minimum wage on firms' exporting sales is -8.6$ and increases by 1.6%$, respectively.Minimum wage, heterogeneous firm, productivity, export

Corporate Governance Implications of Foreign Stock Exchange Listing (or Cross-listing) for China’s Corporations

The first company from the People’s Republic of China listed outside Mainland China was an H-share enterprise listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on July 15, 1993. In the twenty years since then, the rapid development of the Mainland’s economy has created a climate in which China’s companies can internationalise, and some of China’s heavyweight State-owned Enterprises (SOEs) even tried to accelerate their overseas investment by means of transnational acquisitions and mergers. This thesis undertakes a detailed theoretical and empirical study exploring the corporate governance practices of Chinese companies that have listed on foreign stock exchanges; of particular interest has been the influence that foreign listing has exerted on the corporate governance practices of these Chinese companies. Several experts and scholars have provided valuable criticisms and remarks as part of the fieldwork for this thesis. A number of major propositions concerning the corporate governance of overseas listed Chinese companies are discussed and fieldwork data has been collected to test these propositions

Bridge approach slab analysis and design incorporating elastic soil support

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on June 7, 2012).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Thesis advisor: Dr. Vellore S. GopalaratnamIncludes bibliographical references.M.S. University of Missouri--Columbia 2011."December 2011"The development of equations necessary for the analysis of finite bridge approach slabs (BAS) on elastic soil support is reported in this thesis. Results are compared for moments and shear forces governing the design for a wide range of values of soil elastic modulus ranging from dense sand to very loose sand. Results from systematic studies assuming wash out of soil support are also presented using a customized uniaxial finite-difference model. The influences of wash-out length and location have been discussed. Moreover, the functions of sleeper slab at the pavement end of the conventional design are studied. It is replaced by a modified end-section reinforcement detailing to provide enhanced local two-way action, providing increased flexural rigidity in the direction transverse to the traffic direction. An Excel-based VBA program is developed for application of designing bridge approach slab incorporating partial elastic soil support. Additionally, a biaxial finite-difference model is developed using MATLAB for better understanding the performance of BAS in both longitudinal and transverse directions. Results from uniaxial and biaxial solutions are compared and discussed. Initial construction cost of this new design alternative is computed and presented to demonstrate that the BAS designed with consideration of elastic soil support results in a cost-effective design. Life cycle costs too are competitive if only agency costs are included, for rural traffic demands, this design is the most cost-effective alternatives among those considered

The consistency test on the cosmic evolution

We propose a new and robust method to test the consistency of the cosmic evolution given by a cosmological model. It is realized by comparing the combined quantity r_d^CMB/D_V^SN, which is derived from the comoving sound horizon r_d from cosmic microwave background (CMB) measurements and the effective distance D_V derived from low-redshift Type-Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) data, with direct and independent r_d/D_V obtained by baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements at median redshifts. We apply this test method for the Lambda-CDM and wCDM models, and investigate the consistency of the derived value of r_d/D_V from Planck 2015 and the SN Ia data sets of Union2.1 and JLA (z<1.5), and the r_d/D_V directly given by BAO data from six-degree-field galaxy survey (6dFGS), Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 Main Galaxy Survey (SDSS-DR7 MGS), DR11 of SDSS-III, WiggleZ and Ly-alpha forecast surveys from Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Data (BOSS) DR-11 over 0.1<z<2.36. We find that r_d^CMB/D_V^SN for both non-flat Lambda-CDM and flat wCDM models with Union2.1 and JLA data are well consistent with the BAO and CMB measurements within 1-sigma CL. Future surveys will further tight up the constraints significantly, and provide stronger test on the consistency.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables. Version accepted by PR