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

Strategies Applied in Neologism Translation : a Perspective on Sino-Foreign Intercultural Communication

This study explores the strategies applied in Chinese neologism translation that perceptibly serve Sino-foreign intercultural communication. Conventional translation strategies, such as "transcription", "calque", "target language equivalent", "explanation", etc., are applicable to translating Chinese neologisms. However, for the purpose of teaching and learning Chinese as a second language, adaptive translation strategies are in demand to reduce the complexity involved in neologizing, as in cases resulting from polysemy. Furthermore, the adaptive approach is also supposed to encompass the relevant linguistic information, such as attaching the linguistic register of "internet slang", indicating the morphological traits, introducing the etymological root and so on

Multifunctional Bracts in the Dove Tree Davidia involucrata (Nyssaceae:Cornales)

Although there has been much experimental work on floral traits that are under selection from mutualists and antagonists, selection by abiotic environmental factors on flowers has been largely ignored. Here we test whether pollen susceptibility to rain damage could have played a role in the evolution of the reproductive architecture of Davidia involucrata, an endemic in the mountains of western China. Flowers in this tree species lack a perianth and are arranged in capitula surrounded by large (up to 10 cm#5 cm) bracts that at anthesis turn from green to white, losing their photosynthetic capability. Flowers are nectarless, and pollen grains are presented on the recurved anther walls for 5–7 days. Flower visitors, and likely pollinators, were mainly pollen-collecting bees from the genera Apis, Xylocopa, Halictus, and Lasioglossum. Capitula with natural or white paper bracts attracted significantly more bees per hour than capitula that had their bracts removed or replaced by green paper. Experimental immersion of pollen grains in water resulted in rapid loss of viability, and capitula with bracts lost less pollen to rain than did capitula that had their bracts removed, suggesting that the bracts protect the pollen from rain damage as well as attracting pollinators

Cell association with user behaviour awareness in heterogeneous cellular networks

In heterogeneous cellular networks (HetNets) with macro base station (BS) and multiple small BSs (SBSs), cell association of user equipment (UE) affects UE transmission rate and network throughput. Conventional cell association rules are usually based on UE received signal-to-interference-and-noise-ratio (SINR) without being aware of other UE statistical characteristics, such as user movement and distribution. User behaviors can indeed be exploited for improving long-term network performance. In this paper, we investigate UE cell association in HetNets by exploiting both individual and clustering user behaviors with the aim to maximize long-term system throughput. We model the problem as a stochastic optimization problem, and prove that it is PSPACE-hard. For mathematical tractability, we solve the problem in two steps. In the first step, we investigate UE association for a specific SBS. We use a restless multiarmed bandit model to derive an association priority index for the SBS. In the second step, we develop an index enabled association (IDEA) policy for making the cell association decisions in general HetNets based on the indices derived in the first step. IDEA determines a set of admissible BSs for a UE based on SINR, and then associates the UE with the BS that has the smallest index in the set. We conduct simulation experiments to compare IDEA with other three cell association policies. Numerical results demonstrate the significant advantages of IDEA in typical scenarios

Stackelberg Game for Access Permission in Femtocell Network with Multiple Network Operators

Femtocells are widely recognized as a promising technology to meet the requirements of indoor coverage in forthcoming fifth generation cellular networks (5G). As femtocell holders (FHs) can be users themselves or mobile network operators, it makes challenges to holistic network resource utilization. In particular, due to the selfishness nature, FHs are usually unwilling to accommodate extra users without compensation. This inspires us to develop an effective refunding mechanism, with aim to allow competitive network operators to employ truthful refunding policy, and to encourage FHs to make appropriate access permission. In this paper, we first define a refunding strategy function and price-coefficient for the refunding policy. We then formulate the access permission as a Stackelberg game and theoretically prove the existence of unique Nash Equilibrium. Numerical results validate the effectiveness of our proposed mechanism and overall network efficiency is improved significantly as well