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This chapter, by virtue of a generalized specification, examines the equilibrium growth paths under two distinct scenarios, namely, a small open economy and a small semiopen economy in a two-sector, endogenous growth model of money. We show that these two scenarios end up with very different characteristics of equilibrium and the steady-state effects of inflation targeting (IT). In a small open economy, there is a nonbalanced-growth path equilibrium (hence, great ratios are nonstationary), while in a small semiopen economy there is a balanced-growth path equilibrium (great ratios are stationary). This provides a convincing reconciliation of the discrepancy in the empirical literature on great ratios. In addition, our steady-state analysis implicitly suggests that a lower inflation target gives rise to a positive GDP growth effect only for those IT countries which are more open to international trade. This enables us to explain why IT countries are relatively open to the international market and why some IT countries with a high degree of trade openness continuously lowered their inflation targets in the 1990s.

Traditionally, international monetary economists focus their attention on the framework of either a pure fixed or a pure flexible exchange rate system. With the demise of the Bretton Woods system, many countries have begun to use an intervention policy in the foreign exchange market and adopted the regime of managed floating exchange rates. Such a change has encouraged many economists into the field of this system. Although the contributions in this area are very rich, there is no systematic analysis concerning whether intervention policy will enhance or weaken the effectiveness of macroeconomic policies. That is why this article is written.

Comparisons of the relative effectiveness of Fiscal and monetary policies under flexible vis à vis fixed exchange rates have a long history. The problem can be tackled by using the following relationship:

Analyses how the status of balance of payments follows se\ill\ fulfilling expectations of currency devaluation. It is found that before a currency devaluation, whether the economy w\ill\ experience a balance‐of‐payments surplus or deficit crucial depends on the degree of capital mobility.

The proliferation of digital communication on social media provides new opportunities for businesses to take advantage of Internet memes to boost customer engagement. Academic literature on digital communications mostly focuses on popular forms such as selfies, branded posts, and branded emoticons. Less attention has been paid to brand memes and their implications for brand management. Based on the cue utilization theory, this research aims to investigate the informational cues of brand memes foster brand partnerships.

The structural equation modeling and importance-performance matrix analysis were used to empirically validate the research hypotheses with 595 respondents to an online survey.

Three informational cues of brand memes (i.e. comprehensibility, novelty, and meme-brand congruity) stimulated consumers' attitudes, which in turn impacted consumer-brand relationships. Another brand meme informational cue, sarcasm, negatively moderated the relationships between the three informational cues and consumer-brand relationships.

Our findings indicate that a brand can engage consumers in conversations on social media and foster long-term consumer-brand relationships through brand memes.

Third-party payments were first introduced by the US firm PayPal. Soon after, China developed a localized version of PayPal – Alipay, which became the main payment method for online transactions in China. Currently, the number of global transactions conducted with Alipay is three times that of PayPal. In addition to online transactions, Alipay also integrates with mobile payment applications to provide offline services, making physical transactions more convenient for users. The authors, in this paper, aim to address how third-party payments technology seems to be playing out an innovation-imitation-catch up story.

Krugman (1966) proposed a general-equilibrium model of product cycles under perfect competition where high-tech products are innovated by an “advanced” country and imitated by a “developing” country. The competition between US–China online technologies (e.g. third-party payments) seems to be playing out this innovation-imitation-catch up story.

The USA has already put a lot of effort into the operations of credit cards and checks, as well as other infrastructure such as human resources and installation of relevant systems. China lacks the infrastructure for payments made with credit cards and checks, and therefore China’s opportunity cost of moving directly from cash transactions to third-party payments is much less than that of the USA, which is why China holds follower advantage in third-party payment markets.

The third-party payment technologies appear to be a good example of the argument made by Krugman (1966) regarding the US–China competition on advanced technology, which states that an imitator can catch up with an inventor when the former acquires comparative advantages against the latter.