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How Wegmans Became a Leader in Improving Food Safety

Re: Ray A. Goldberg

Ray Goldberg discusses how the CEO of the Wegmans grocery chain faced a food safety issue and then helped the industry become more proactive. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Corruption, Government Subsidies, and Innovation: Evidence from China

by Lily Fang, Josh Lerner, Chaopeng Wu, and Qi Zhang

Governments subsidize a growing number of innovation efforts, many of which may face the challenge of corruption. Using Chinese data, this study finds corruption-related distortions in government R&D subsidies, which diminished after the 2012 anti-corruption campaign and rotation of provincial officials. It provide insights for designing effective R&D subsidy programs.

Should US Companies Still Care About the Paris Climate Change Agreement?

Re: Vincent Pons

American President Donald Trump pulled out of the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change one year ago. Vincent Pons discusses what it means for US business leaders in confronting environmental challenges. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Some Facts of High-Tech Patenting

by Michael Webb, Nick Short, Nicholas Bloom, and Josh Lerner

This study details the growth of patenting in software, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and related technologies in the twenty-first century, and the continuing dominance of inventors in large US, Japanese, and Korean companies. Researchers still need to understand the impact of such trends on social welfare more generally.

Op-Ed: The Trouble with Tariffs

by Willy C. Shih

The world's economies are interconnected by globalization, which makes threats of tariff wars doubly dangerous, says Willy Shih. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Government Incentives and Financial Intermediaries: The Case of Chinese Sell-Side Analysts

by Sheng Cao, Xianjie He, Charles C.Y. Wang, and Huifang Yin

This study is the first to examine analysts’ incentives vis-à-vis the government in a context where government has the ability and motives to influence capital market institutions. The paper highlights the role of government incentives in analysts’ behavior and output.

Subjectivity in Tournaments: Implicit Rewards and Penalties and Subsequent Performance

by Wei Cai and Susanna Gallani

Analyzing data from a Chinese manufacturing company, this study explores side effects of subjective performance evaluations in a setting where workers are rewarded based on performance rankings and subject to both rewards and penalties. Among other contributions the paper highlights factors that could impact the overall effectiveness of incentive systems.

Catering Through Disclosure: Evidence from Shanghai-Hong Kong Connect

by Aaron S. Yoon

The researcher studies firms’ use of disclosure to build investor confidence when they operate in a market where the institutions that support the supply of credible information are weak.

Making Health Insurance That Consumers Actually Like

Re: Regina E. Herzlinger

By motivating its insurance customers to take care of themselves, South African firm Vitality has expanded to the United Kingdom and China. In this podcast, Professor Regina Herzlinger discusses potential impacts of this model for health care in the United States. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Is China About to Overtake the US for World Trade Leadership?

by James Heskett

SUMMING UP. It's better for the United States if China is an economic ally rather than a competitor for world trade leadership, James Heskett's readers conclude. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Capturing Value from IP in a Global Environment

by Juan Alcácer, Karin Beukel, and Bruno Cassiman

Challenges to capturing value from know-how and reputation through the use of different IP tools is an increasingly important matter of strategy for global enterprises. They will need to combine different institutional, market, and non-market mechanisms, but the precise combination of tools will depend on local and regional institutional and market conditions.

Can China Maintain Its Economic Power?

by Deborah Blagg

Professor F. Warren McFarlan made his first visit to China in 1979 and has been returning ever since. He discusses the country's market-based reforms and its challenges to further growth. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Intellectual Property Rights Protection, Ownership, and Innovation: Evidence from China

by Lily Fang, Josh Lerner, and Chaopeng Wu

As China’s top leaders promote innovation as the key to the country’s sustained economic growth, the extent to which the state can drive innovation without sound institutions and economic incentives remains in question. The evidence in this study of innovation and intellectual property rights (IPR) protection strongly supports the view that effective economic institutions matter, even in China. In order to successfully transition the country from a development model dependent on cheap labor and physical investments to one that is innovation-driven, these results suggest that the role of the private sector will be crucial. Private firms are more innovative both in terms of quantity and quality of patents, and are more so in cities with strong IPR protection.

The Dyadic Ties of Managers and Financial Analysts and Their Externality on a Firm's Information Environment

by Zengquan Li, T.J. Wong, and Gwen Yu

Research by Gwen Yu and colleagues examines whether firms use private networks with financial analysts to disclose information to the capital market. Using a sample of listed firms and financial analysts from 2005 to 2014 in China, the study shows that firms with connected analysts have higher quality consensus forecast. Also, when a connected analyst drops coverage of a firm, there is a decrease in the quality of the forecasts of other analysts following the firm. The finding suggests that in emerging markets, connected analysts can be a channel of information dissemination to the capital market.

Urbanization with Chinese Characteristics? China’s Gamble for Modernization

by Kristen Looney and Meg Rithmire

If the Chinese Communist Party has its way in the coming decades, it will urbanize hundreds of millions of people, transform agriculture, and sustain economic growth--all without political instability. This paper details the risks and opportunities of China’s new-style urbanization reforms, arguing that proposals for urbanization and economic transformation are not a radical departure from the institutions that have structured Chinese society for the last 30 years.

Land Institutions and Chinese Political Economy: Institutional Complementarities and Macroeconomic Management

by Meg Rithmire

This paper shows the ways in which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has used land as a policy tool. CCP leaders intentionally reorganized fiscal, financial, and land institutions to put land at the center of local government finances in the mid-1990s. Since the late 1990s, the CCP has used the land supply as a key tool of macroeconomic expansion and contraction. Local officials act as agents of the center: pursuing land development when pushed to so do by central authorities concerned about managing economic growth.

The Globalization of Angel Investments: Evidence across Countries

by Josh Lerner, Antoinette Schoar, Stanislav Sokolinksi & Karen Wilson

Examining a cross-section of 13 angel groups who considered transactions across 21 countries, this study finds that angel investors have a positive impact on the growth of the firms they fund, their performance, and survival, while the selection of firms that apply for angel funding varies across countries.

The Historian Who Came in from the Cold

by Dina Gerdeman

While much has been written about the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, Jeremy S. Friedman’s Shadow Cold War: The Sino-Soviet Competition for the Third World is the first book to explore in detail the significance of the “Second Cold War” that China and the Soviet Union fought in the shadow of the communist and capitalist struggle. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Explaining China's Crash

by Christina Pazzanese

After a decade of massive growth, China’s stock market began a precipitous summer slide that that hasn't slowed yet. Dante Roscini explains what's deflating markets worldwide. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Obama’s Clean Power Plan: Can Nuclear Power Beat the Global Threat of Coal?

by Carmen Nobel

Joe Lassiter believes the smart use of nuclear power is an essential ingredient in fighting the worldwide threat of coal-fired power plant emissions. Open for comment; 2 Comment(s) posted.