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This chapter provides a review of the Chinese government policies that promote the internationalization of the Chinese currency, the renminbi or RMB, which include the RMB swap arrangements between the central banks, trading of the RMB across different markets, and establishment of the dim sum bond market. In particular, we update the development of the dim sum bond market in terms of the size, amount of the issues, coupon and tenor characteristics, issuers, and investment bankers of dim sum bond issues. The dim sum bond market appears to be a promising global asset class for investors.

The Dim Sum bond market in Hong Kong, which allows China to regulate the amount of offshore yuans that flow back into the mainland, has grown steadily since its inception in 2007 and is expected to surpass in 2013 the threshold level that would attract insurers and long-term issuers to the market. Yet, the market has not matured sufficiently relative to the yuan deposit market in Hong Kong that has grown at a much faster pace on account of trade liberalization and the use of yuans in China’s international trade settlements. Even though Hong Kong has fulfilled its role as an offshore currency center for the yuan, it is being challenged by Taiwan, Singapore, and London in terms of being the premier location for the issuance of yuan-denominated bonds outside of Mainland China.

1.1. Logical Necessity of the Three Dimensions as a Unit of Thought The mathematician does not look kindly on the simple question of why natural space should consist of precisely three dimensions. Instead of giving an answer he assumes a silent smile and shows us a version of space with an infinity of dimensions, as if space were some kind of toy for him to fiddle with to his heart's content.

Financial markets have experienced considerable turbulence over the past two decades. The recent subprime and sovereign debt crises in the United States and Europe, respectively, have resulted in significant new regulatory responses. They also prompted the re-evaluation of how best to manage and measure financial risk. The 20 chapters in this volume provide a number of different perspectives on financial risk in the post-crisis period where monetary easing has become a predominant monetary policy. While asset price volatility has now returned to levels experienced in the mid-2000s many lessons remain. Among the most important is the need to accurately measure and manage the complex risks that exist in financial markets. Our hope is that the chapters presented here provide a better understanding of how best to do this, while also giving insights for next suitable steps and further developments.

After the 2008 global financial crisis, the world has been through an improving economic integration. The scale of RMB cross-border transaction flows expands as well. Countries around China are gradually accepting the RMB as a means of trading and investing. Nowadays, the phenomenon of RMB substitutes the currencies of neighboring countries has become more and more widespread. As a frontier region for China's opening up to the outside world, Hong Kong's financial market is highly transparent with perfect infrastructures. The completion of the Hong Kong offshore RMB market leads to a rise of the RMB stock in Hong Kong, so there is a clear phenomenon of RMB substituting Hong Kong dollars (HKDs) in Hong Kong. This paper studies the substitution effect of RMB and HKD from both theoretical and empirical aspects, and puts forward policy recommendations based on the research results.

The successful standardization of service quality in the telecommunication industry across multiple nations demands, as a precondition, that the countries in question expose similar service quality dimensions and that the importance of these dimensions to overall satisfaction with the service is also similar. Investigates if these conditions are met in the telephone services sector of the telecommunication industry in the USA and Germany. Confirmatory factor analysis results of various alternative dimensionalities provide the best support for a five‐dimensional conceptualization in both countries. However, the two countries differ in their respective importance evaluations of particular service quality dimensions, which make it difficult to provide a standardized service quality solution. Briefly discusses implications of these results in terms of effective service quality design and delivery for global competitiveness.

The Bureau of Economics in the Federal Trade Commission has a three-part role in the Agency and the strength of its functions changed over time depending on the preferences and ideology of the FTC’s leaders, developments in the field of economics, and the tenor of the times. The over-riding current role is to provide well considered, unbiased economic advice regarding antitrust and consumer protection law enforcement cases to the legal staff and the Commission. The second role, which long ago was primary, is to provide reports on investigations of various industries to the public and public officials. This role was more recently called research or “policy R&D”. A third role is to advocate for competition and markets both domestically and internationally. As a practical matter, the provision of economic advice to the FTC and to the legal staff has required that the economists wear “two hats,” helping the legal staff investigate cases and provide evidence to support law enforcement cases while also providing advice to the legal bureaus and to the Commission on which cases to pursue (thus providing “a second set of eyes” to evaluate cases). There is sometimes a tension in those functions because building a case is not the same as evaluating a case. Economists and the Bureau of Economics have provided such services to the FTC for over 100 years proving that a sub-organization can survive while playing roles that sometimes conflict. Such a life is not, however, always easy or fun.

Nobody concerned with political economy can neglect the history of economic doctrines. Structural changes in the economy and society influence economic thinking and, conversely, innovative thought structures and attitudes have almost always forced economic institutions and modes of behaviour to adjust. We learn from the history of economic doctrines how a particular theory emerged and whether, and in which environment, it could take root. We can see how a school evolves out of a common methodological perception and similar techniques of analysis, and how it has to establish itself. The interaction between unresolved problems on the one hand, and the search for better solutions or explanations on the other, leads to a change in paradigma and to the formation of new lines of reasoning. As long as the real world is subject to progress and change scientific search for explanation must out of necessity continue.