The softwood lumber trade dispute between Canada and the United States has centered on the debate over the existence of a stumpage subsidy in Canada and recently on dumping by the Canadian softwood lumber producers in the U.S. markets. This thesis contains three essays that investigate the subsidy and dumping issues in this dispute. The results of these analyses indicate the economic performance of Ontario’s stumpage system. The first essay investigates the market performance of Ontario’s stumpage system by examining the long-run equilibrium and Granger-causality relationships between the stumpage prices and the market prices of various end products (lumber, pulp and wood composites) from June 1995 to February 2005 using Johansen’s multivariate co-integration approach and the Granger-causality test. Test results indicate that in terms of SPF (spruce, pine, fir) for lumber and pulp, Ontario’s stumpage system can establish stumpage prices that have the potential to reflect the market values of timber. However, there is a need to modify the system for the other products. In the second essay, an Enhanced Parity Bounds Model (EPBM) is developed and used to examine the discrepancy between the stumpage price of SPF timber for producing lumber and its market value from June 1995 to January 2007. The results show that in the short run, the stumpage prices were below or above the market values. However, in the long run, the underpayment and overpayment will even each other out. The results, therefore, imply that Ontario’s stumpage system has the ability to capture the full economic rents in the long run and thus does not confer a subsidy to Ontario’s softwood lumber producers. The third paper examines the issue of whether Ontario’s softwood lumber industry had dumped softwood lumber into a major US market from April 1996 to September 2006 using the EPBM. This is a critical issue for Ontario’s stumpage system because dumping could lead to lower stumpage prices under the current stumpage system. This analysis indicates that the industry gained considerably more profit from the U.S market than from the home market and did not dump lumber in the US market during this period.

In order to investigate if difference in personality is depended on the teat positions in piglets, Sus scrofa, 63 piglets, from 21 litters, were studied. The piglets were at an age between 9 and 31 days. 3 piglets in each of the 21 litters, one that suckled at an anterior teat, one at a middle teat, and one at a posterior teat, were studied during lactation, undisturbed activity, and introduction to a novel object respectively to new straw. In total thirteen behaviors were recorded. The only significant difference between the teat position were disputes during suckling (P=0.018). There was a tendency of playing during undisturbed activity (P=0.062) between the teat positions. There were significant differences between the litters for every behavior except for inactive piglet lying alone (P=0.108) and when exploring new straw (P=0.584). There is only evidence for behavioral differences for the frequency of disputes during suckling between piglets at different teat positions. A principal component analysis, which accounted for 64.2 % of the variance, suggested four personality traits: exploration (19.2 %), playfulness (17.5 %), interest in food (14.8 %), and interest in straw (10.9 %). However, no significant differences were found for these components for the different teat positions.

Due to the planned economy, the labor relations in China had been merely an extension of the administrative relations for long. Led by collectivism, collective labor relations based on individual interests actually did not exist in China. In fact, the labor relations, aimed to protect individual labor interests, turned out to be a complex of labor interests, trade unions, and the administration. Although the factors such as labor interests, trade unions, and governmental regulations could be found in China¡¦s labor market, the causes of them were quite different from those in western countries. Accordingly, the conceptions derived from Taiwan or other developed countries couldn¡¦t be entirely applied when we analyzed the labor relations in China. The transition of the legal system of labor relations in modern China can be grouped under the two categories: preventive regulations and remedy measures. The former contains the implementation of labor standards, the enforcement of collective labor contracts, and the administration of labor contract system while the latter covers labor supervision and labor disputes resolution regulations. During the establishment of China labor laws, the regulations of the labor dispute resolutions tend to correspond with labor condition rules. Different from the policies of dealing labor disputes in western countries, the labor dispute regulations in China strictly follow the three stages: mediation, arbitration, and litigation. In such an inflexible procedure, the clients have no freedom to choose preferred methods or measures. Most of all, since labor litigation is the final stage of the procedure, the judicial interpretation of the supreme civil court has a great impact on the results of labors¡¦ relief-seeking. In other words, it plays a crucial role in the field of labor dispute resolutions. To have a full understanding of the labor dispute resolution system in China, the research begins with labor litigation and systematically examines the relations between arbitration and judicial review.

Abstract South China Sea depute is a complex issue in the world, because it involves the island's sovereignty, rich nature resources and strategic advantage in this area. The states which involve in South China Sea dispute are Taiwan, China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei as well as the United States and Japan. Why South China Sea depute is so complex? in addition to the strategic location, it¡¦s also the major shipping channel in the world. But the key reason is the potential wealth of oil and gas just be discovered, the neighbor countries started to covet the nature resource, and lead to competition for the sovereignty of South China Sea. Furthermore, 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, also produced another trend of maritime delimitation in this area. China believes that the sovereignty of the South China Sea belongs to it, based on historical or legal status. China shows its ambition and intention toward claiming sovereignty in the South China Sea because of its strategic needs, demands for resources needed for economic growth and development, that¡¦s why China is so persistence in reinforcing its sovereignty. China¡¦s current national consensus on the South China Sea is "shelving the disputes and seeking for common development". Sovereignty over the South China Sea is to shelve the case, in order to develop peaceful negotiations. But in the process of negotiation, some countries demonstrate the attitude of willingness to negotiate; and others are continuing to build military facilities in the South China Sea islands. This study is mainly focus on policy research for the South China Sea, and expects for experts and author himself giving us the following answers: First, we have to notice the Chinese sea interests, and observe how China deals with the South China Sea policy. Second, what are the views of the U.S. and Japan on the disputes. Third, this study will suggest How Taiwan can use China¡¦s strategy on South China sea to gain its national interest. Key words¡G South China Sea, Sovereignty dispute, National interests, Joint development

Since the implementation of Government Procurement Act, the competent authority ¡X Public Construction Commission, Executive Yuan ¡X had set up 40 kinds of sub-laws and more than ten of related operation regulations so as to be the foundation of handling procurement for procuring organs and suppliers. The regulations of government procurement are therefore more complete. While under this circumstance, the dispute of government procurement is increasing day by day. What are the real causes behind the phenomenon? When the two parties had the dispute about procurement, it will incur numerous extra human and substantial costs. If we do not choose corrective approaches to resolve these disputes, not only the two parties waste resources, but also seriously impact the performance of dealing procuring dispute for organs. This situation will be more obvious to the port authority in our study that is located in the key position of sea transportation and transshipment. In this study case, the port authority will deeply suffer the dispute of procurement because it has to provide superior service for shipping company to match the tendency of vessels¡¦ type enlargement. This study explored the ever-happened dispute cases in a port authority and sorted out causes, types, settling ways of procurement dispute and performance of resolving procurement dispute from literatures, and then discussed with main professionals in related business fields to draft adequate questionnaire, going on survey to the members who real did the procurement duty in the port authority. This study got 105 copies of effective surveys, and then preceded factor analysis, correlation analysis, and path analysis to not only verify the hypotheses proposed, but also understand the practices and views of members in the port authority. The conclusions from this study included: 1. Most of procurement dispute happened in the stage of contract implementation. There is huge ratio of concerning cases from representatives. The usual way of resolving procurement dispute is through the appeal to Complaint Review Board of Government Procurement. 2. Different kinds of members got different cognitions in some dimensions. 3. The result of factor analysis shows that there are four significant factors, including perfect regulations, regulations¡¦ acknowledge, training enhancement, and complete documentation. But the primary factors affecting types of procurement dispute are regulations¡¦ acknowledge and training enhancement. Among all four factors, regulations¡¦ acknowledge has the most effect on type of procurement dispute. 4. Type of procurement dispute has positive effect on way of resolving procurement dispute. 5. Way of resolving procurement dispute has positive effect on performance of resolving procurement dispute.

Labor conflict mediators play a very important role during the process of labor dispute resolution; their competence will help enhance the quality of labor dispute mediation and improve the relationship between labor and management. The main purpose of this research is to probe into the criteria that labor conflict mediators should possess. Based on the Competence Theory, this research collects opinions from experts and scholars and utilizes Fuzzy Delphi Method and Analytic Network Process respectively to construct a competence-based model to select labor conflict mediators. Results are achieved as follows: 1. To firmly establish critical competence items and definition of labor conflict mediators, including practical experience, problem resolution, professional expertise, fairness and objectivity, integrity, thinking and judgment, and investigation ability, in order to set up the hierarchical structure of competency indices. 2. In consideration of the dependency relation among principles of competency, this research utilizes Analytic Network Process to systematize decomposition and quantify judgment, in order to firmly establish the weight of competency indices, as well as to construct a competence-based model with an evaluation standard of weight to select labor conflict mediators. 3. Through the empirical study, the competence-based model to select labor conflict mediators which is constructed in this research can effectively discriminate outstanding labor conflict mediators. 4. The competence-based model developed in this research to choose labor conflict mediators utilizes the following procedures: (1) collate the competence indices; (2) To utilize Fuzzy Delphi Method to identify critical items of competence; (3) To utilize Analytic Network Process to firmly establish the weight of competence items; (4) To develop the competence-based model; (5) To examine the effectiveness of competence-based model.

<p>The purpose of this thesis is to examine if there is a problem with compliance in the World Trade Organization, to investigate the validity of the managerial and the political economy approaches to compliance and to analyze reform proposals that tackle the issue of compliance, pursuing improvement of the system.</p><p>Drawing on the scenario of increasing legalization and cooperation in trade, the first question is examined by way of interviewing trade experts and officials as well as analyzing case studies that are pertinent to the research at hand. The second question – if management is preferred to enforcement as to induce compliance – is answered by analyzing official WTO Dispute Settlement reports, interviews, case reviews and articles on retaliation and compliance written by different authors. The third question is answered as a reflection of the findings of the first two questions.</p><p>Analysis on the managerial theory of compliance examine whether enforcement plays a minor role in inducing compliance in the WTO, if there is a propensity to comply amongst states and if noncompliance is inadvertent rather than a result of calculation of interests. In the other hand, tests conducted on the enforcement approach to compliance investigate the importance of retaliation in WTO Dispute Settlement, the necessity of an enforcement tool and the claim that noncompliance is a political decision.</p><p>Tests conducted suggest that the enforcement school of compliance is correct when stating that noncompliance is a political decision, resulted from careful calculation of interests. The research indicates that the WTO Dispute Settlement presents a dual facet of compliance, in which the enforcement tool is responsible for allowing the managerial effects to take place. In this regard, the enforcement tool alone is seen as inappropriate, especially if economic asymmetries are present. An approach that accommodates both enforcement and managerial aspects is prescribed.</p><p>The research has indicated that successful reform proposals should aim at increasing the credibility of the threat of retaliation as to follow the diagnosis verified by the tests conducted.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 230-239). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Persuasion scholars have documented the use of compliance-gaining messages in both negotiation and negotiation. The extant research offers suggestions for litigators and negotiators, but fails to compare the methods of persuasion in the two circumstances in order to advise attorneys and clients which communication messages to employ in the different contexts. The present study explores differences in use of 7 common compliance-gaining message strategies (“It's Up To You”, “This Is The Way Things Are”, “Equity”, “Benefit (Other)”, “Bargaining”, and “Cooperation”; Kellerman, 2004) in separate negotiation and litigation cases. Findings indicate that “This Is The Way Things Are” messages were more frequent in litigation than negotiation, but “Cooperation” messages were more common in negotiation than litigation. No other significant differences in strategy frequency across the different contexts were found. These results indicate that some differences exist between the messages used in negotiation and litigation and that future research should investigate what other messages may be used differently in the two contexts. / text