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This study aims to incorporate innovative technology (i.e. blockchain) into the design of an online travel agency (B-OTA). The authors accelerated the design of the prototype system through expert interviews to understand the convenience of the blockchain travel and accommodation platform for users. The authors further validated the prototype system design and improved reference capability through usability testing.

Rapid prototyping of B-OTA was carried out through the Delphi method and literature compilation. Design validation of usability testing was conducted using modified systematic evaluation methodology. Prototype system suggestions and improvements were collected through feedback from test subjects.

This study will be helpful for the development of B-OTAs and related technologies. Through usability testing, the authors verified that creating a familiar operating environment for users can reduce users’ fear of unfamiliar technology. The results of this research provide future B-OTA researchers and practitioners with design guidelines.

Beyond the blockchain-related technologies used, few studies have reported experiences and interface design of B-OTAs. This study states that, as many human–computer interaction-related papers have pointed out, the basic prerequisite for successful interface design is a clearer definition of users’ needs during operation. User experience and user interface design should provide a good user experience.

本研究旨在在线旅行社 (B-OTA) 的设计中融入创新技术（即区块链）。通过专家访谈了解了区块链旅行的方便性和用户打造的住宿平台, 从而加快了原型系统设计。我们进一步通过可用性测试验证原型系统设计并提高其参考能力。

进行了 B-OTA 的快速原型设计通过德尔菲法和文献汇编。设计验证可用性测试是使用修改后的系统评估进行的方法。通过收集受试者的建议对原型系统进行改进。

本研究将有助于B-OTAs及相关领域的发展技术。通过可用性测试, 我们验证了创建一个熟悉的用户的操作环境可以减少用户对陌生技术的恐惧。我们的研究结果为未来的 B-OTA 研究人员和从业者提供了设计相关的指南。

除了使用的区块链相关技术之外, 很少有研究报告了 B-OTA 的经验和界面设计。这项研究指出, 正如许多 HCI 相关论文所指出的, 成功的界面设计基本的先决条件是在使用过程中更清晰地定义用户需求。用户体验和用户界面设计应该提供良好的用户体验。

The aim of this paper was to study the initial corrosion behavior of copper in the substations of Zhanjiang and Zhuhai.

The copper exposed at the substation of Guangdong coastal region in southern China for up to 12 months. The rust layer formed on the copper has been examined by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray energy spectrum, X-ray diffraction and electrochemical polarization techniques.

The corrosion weight loss of copper at Zhanjiang exposure site is a little more serious than that at Zhuhai exposure site in every exposure period. The corrosion products of copper have different changes in color and composition at the two exposure sites. The tensile strength of copper has a slight decrease after one-year exposure.

The atmospheric exposure experiments of copper in the substations of Zhanjiang and Zhuhai have been adopted for the first time. The corrosion behavior of copper was investigated, and it can provide reference for material selection of the substation.

The study investigates the inter-linkages between geopolitical risk (GPR) and food price (FP).

By employing the bootstrap full- and sub-sample rolling-window Granger causality tests.

The empirical results show that there is a time-varying bidirectional causality between GPR and FP. High GPR leads to a rise in FP, suggesting that geopolitical events usually may disrupt supply and demand conditions in food markets, and even trigger global food crises. However, the negative effect of GPR on FP does not support this view in certain periods. This is mainly because GPR is also related to the global economic situation and oil price, which together have impacts on the food market. These results cannot always be supported by the inter-temporal capital asset pricing model, which states that GPR affects FP in a positive manner. Conversely, there is a positive impact of FP on GPR, indicating that the food market is an effective tool that can reflect global geopolitical environment.

In the context of the Russia–Ukraine conflict, these analyses can assist investors and policymakers to understand the sensitivity of FP to GPR. Also, it will provide significant revelations for governments to attach importance to the role of food price information in predicting geopolitical events, thus contributing to a more stable international environment.

This research examines the dynamic interrelationship between economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and the inflows of foreign direct investment (IFDI) in China.

This research used the Granger causality and sub-sample time-varying rolling window causality method.

The empirical results reveal that EPU tends to have a negative impact on the IFDI in most periods that have been taken into consideration. However, there has been a positive relationship observed between the periods of the US subprime crisis. That is to say that the uncertainty of the Chinese economic policy does not always impede the IFDI. These results are supported by the general equilibrium model, which states that there are certain influences that come into play when moving from EPU to IFDI. On the other hand, the IFDI exert a positive influence on EPU during times of economic crisis and trade war, which indicates that the uncertainty in the economy may increase due to the sudden soar of foreign investment.

During tense global trade situations and complicated economic scenarios, the results suggest the Chinese government should dedicate itself to expanding its initiatives to open up and improve the domestic business environment in order to increase the foreign investors' confidence and prevent the decline in the IFDI. In addition to this, it also suggests that multinational companies pay attention to the policy environment of the host country, especially when they decide to invest there.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the non-linear threshold effects between trade openness and female labours to participate in the labour markets.

The authors consider data for nine Asian countries from 1990 to 2016 period and perform the panel threshold regression method.

Empirical results indicate that the threshold value is occurred. With the increase of trade openess, the female labour force participation rate shows a trend of rising first and then declining. Furthermore, exports also have an asymmetric threshold effect on female labour force participation, which is partly in accordance with the discrimination model (Becker, 1957). On the other hand, imports dependency will hinder female labour force participation regardless of a threshold effect. The authors obtain similar results when the authors consider the female employment rate as substitution.

Specifically, increased trade openness may contribute positively or negatively towards overall female labour force participation rate (FLFPR), attributed to the relative importance of these opposing effects. Thus, when the cost reduction effect, resulting from intensified competitive pressure and comparative advantages would enhance the participation rate, the technology channel operates in the opposite direction. Therefore, from the perspective of female employment, trade openness is not the more the better.

This study innovatively discusses the non-linear correlation between trade openness and FLFPR and distinguishes the different contributions from exports and imports. The advanced threshold regression model assumes the existence of threshold value from trade to female employment. Thereby, targeted policies for the government should be applied to promote active female in the labour market.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the causal relationship between Chinese housing and stock markets. The authors discuss the three transmission mechanisms between the two markets: wealth effect, modern portfolio theory and credit-price effect. Moreover, the authors focus on the effects of inflation on the relationship between the two markets.

This paper uses wavelet analysis to test the housing and stock markets relationship both in the frequency domain and time domain.

The empirical results indicate that housing prices have a positive effect on stock prices, and these have the same effect on housing prices. Moreover, this positive effect means that stock prices have a wealth effect on housing prices and these have a credit-price effect on stock prices.

These results provide information to financial institutions and individual investors in China to assist them in constructing investment portfolios within these two asset markets.

The authors first use wavelet analysis to analyze Chinese housing and stock markets and to provide information both on the frequency domain and time domain. Moreover, the authors take the inflation factor as a control variable in the causal relationship between the housing and stock markets.

This study aims to examine the unemployment hysteresis effects from the perspective of the heterogeneity of genders within Asian countries.

The authors use the annual unemployment rate dataset of 12 Asian countries ranging from 1991–2020. Traditional unit root tests are initially employed to investigate the unemployment hysteresis effect. Considering the structural break and cross-section dependence problems, the sequential panel selection method (SPSM) and the Kapetanios–Snell–Shin (KSS) panel unit root test with Fourier functions have proven to be more applicable.

The empirical results indicate that the unemployment rate is stationary in most Asian regions for both females and males, which confirms the mean reversion process of the natural unemployment hypothesis. This suggests that these countries' unemployment rates are flexible to quickly revert to its long-run equilibrium determined by the labor markets. However, only the female unemployment rate in Pakistan and Nepal and adult female unemployment rates in these two economies present non-stationary series. In line with the unemployment hysteresis effect, it means shocks will leave a permanent impact on their labor market.

On the one hand, in most of the Asian countries, it can be inferred that the trade-off between inflation and unemployment is temporary because the natural unemployment hypothesis holds. Therefore, policymakers may consider using monetary policy as a tool to control inflation and stimulate growth during a recession. Such policy measures should not have a long-run impact on unemployment or cause a permanent shift in the natural unemployment rate. On the other hand, the government should implement active labor protective programs such as education or training schemes, job search assistance programs and maternity protection, especially for female adults, to reduce the negative shocks in the economic downturn, which is beneficial for them away from being long-term unemployed. It is also necessary to improve the labor unions to reduce the discrimination between female and male labors.

This paper innovatively concentrates on the heterogeneity performances between genders about the unemployment hysteresis effect within Asian countries. Furthermore, taking into account the age-specific characteristics, the youth and adult unemployment rates have been investigated. Additionally, the approximation of bootstrap distribution and the advanced panel KSS unit root test with a Fourier function are employed. Thereby, targeted policies for the government can be applied to reduce the discrimination and negative shocks on female adults in the labor market.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the causal link between foreign direct investment (FDI) and exports in China based on the knowledge capital model (KK model, Markusen, 2002).

The bootstrap Granger full-sample and sub-sample rolling window causality test is used to determine whether FDI can promote exports.

The full-sample causality test indicates no causal relationship from FDI to exports. However, considering structural changes of exports and FDI, the authors’ find that the full-sample test is not reliable. Instead, the authors use the rolling window causality test to revisit the dynamic causal relationship, and the results present significant effects from FDI on exports, mostly around periods in which the proportion of FDI from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan is increasing. Specifically, positive impacts of FDI on exports are stronger than the negative impacts in China.

The findings in this study suggest a significant time-varying nature of the correlation between FDI and exports. The promotion effect of FDI to exports is proved by the rolling window approach; it thus supports the KK model that divides FDI into lateral FDI and vertical FDI and proves that the constitution of FDI is critical to the relationship between FDI and exports.

China has been facing adjustment of its economic structure in recent years, and in this situation, increasing the proportion of FDI that can bring advanced production function is critical for the industrial structural adjustment.

This paper uses the bootstrap rolling window causality test to investigate the time-varying nature of the causality between FDI and exports, considering structural changes for the first time. The authors further deepen the previous research and draw a more realistic conclusion.

Recent studies in the accounting literature have investigated the economic consequences of R&D capitalization. Discretionary R&D capitalization for target beating can be characterized as a firm signaling private information on its future economic benefits or as opportunistic earnings management. R&D capitalization also has an impact on a firm’s marginal costs and product market competition. The purpose of this paper is to address how firms choose R&D levels for the purpose of meeting or beating their earnings targets and how this influences sequential product market competition.

The authors study this issue in a stylized game-theoretic model where R&D choices of a firm are not only strategically made but also used to convey proprietary information to its rival. The model provides a rationale for a firm distorting its R&D level to earn more profits and meet its earnings target.

The equilibrium result indicates that before the realization of common cost shock, a firm can influence the output of its accounting system (i.e. meeting an earnings target) through adjusting its R&D choices. This firm will overinvest in R&D, and this will give an opportunity to create some reserves to be used later to earn a higher profit and reach the earnings target.

This paper contributes to the research on real earnings management in terms of how R&D capitalization affects a firm’s R&D choices by influencing the output of its accounting system through adjusting its R&D choices and the strategic impact of those choices.

In this study, the Models-3/Community Multiscale Air Quality Model (CMAQ) coupled with the Mesoscale Modeling System Generation 5 (MM5) was employed to simulate the air pollution episodes over East Asia, northern China Plain (NCP), and southern Hebei (SHB), at a grid resolution of 36, 12, and 4 km, respectively in Oct. 2012. The PM₁₀ concentrations over SHB at 12-km are overpredicted with NMBs of 34.6% to 45.7% and also overestimated with that of 72.1% to 97.5% at 4-km which applied such a fine grid resolution over the SHB for the first time. It indicated that the simulation at 12-km performs better than the 4-km which may be related to the spatial allocation of the emissions, the lack of dust emissions and the limitations of model treatments. Five heavy episodes show the characteristics of sawtooth-shaped cycles over the NCP in fall (i.e. the maximum of PM₁₀ was up to 885.1 µg m⁻³ and PM_2.5 was up to 438.4 µg m⁻³ in Handan city) which resulting in the deterioration of visibility and periodically haze days. The concentrations of OC, EC, SO₄²⁻, NO₃⁻ and NH₄⁺ were significantly higher in heavy episodes than non-heavy pollution episodes. In comparison with other cities ([NO₃⁻]/[SO₄²⁻] > 1) at 12-km, the monthly-mean mass ratio of [NO₃⁻]/[SO₄²⁻] at Taiyuan (0.17−0.73), Shijiazhuang (0.28−2.34) was 0.43, 0.84 respectively, which means the stationary sources emissions were more important than the vehicle emission in the source areas. The influence of the regional transportation for pollutants compared with local emission was also an important factor for heavy pollution episodes. The regional joint framework should be established along with controlling the local emission over the SHB in China to improve the air quality.