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This paper addresses the issue of whether the financial environment is a mechanism determining club formation and membership. It first reviews the convergence debate and empirical approaches to the convergence issue. Then the empirical work follows Quah's non‐parametric approach and mirrors, to some extent, the work on international openness and convergence carried out by Proudman, Redding and Bianchi. The findings from the first stage of the study corroborate some previous studies in establishing twin‐peak dynamics in cross‐country income distribution evolution. Then 73 countries with financial data for the initial year are divided into two groups, one with a high degree of financial intermediation and a low level of financial repression and the other with the opposite features. It is found that countries in the former group tend to converge to the top end of income distribution while countries from the latter converge to the lower end. The empirical results give support to the belief that financial environment is an important factor influencing economic growth and shaping world income distribution.

As relações sino-vietnamitas durante a Guerra Fria constituem uma história conturbada, repleta de episódios de solidariedade revolucionária, misturados com desconfianças e conflitos. De modo geral, diversos fatores afetaram as relações sino-vietnamitas e destruíram a cooperação fraterna entre os dois países socialistas: a Conferência de Genebra de 1954; divergência sino-soviética; a Revolução Cultural chinesa; aproximação sino-americana; e apoio chinês ao Pol Pot e Khmer Rouge. Em 1975, as relações China-Vietnã começaram a deteriorar e, ao término da guerra do Vietnã, Beijing e Hanói acabaram se distanciando um do outro. Entre 1976 e 1978, surgiram conflitos nas fronteiras, culminando com o alinhamento do Vietnã ao campo soviético em novembro de 1978. Quando o Camboja foi invadido pelo Vietnã em janeiro de 1979, Beijing percebeu que perdera para a União Soviética sua influência sobre o Vietnã e sobre o resto da península indochinesa. Portanto, Deng Xiaoping resolveu ensinar ao Vietnã uma lição, lançando uma guerra de grande escala contra o regime de Hanói. Os conflitos duraram praticamente toda a década 1980 até que em 1990, depois do colapso do bloco soviético, os dois países fizeram as pazes e normalizaram as relações. Toda a história das relações sino-vietnamitas no período 1949-1990 pode ser contextualizada e compreendida à luz de dois jogos estratégicos triangulares, um entre China-Vietnã-União Soviética e outro, entre União Soviética-China-Estados Unidos. O artigo procura embasar parte das narrativas nessa complexidade histórica e geopolítica durante a Guerra Fria.

A lot of studies have been conducted to study school librarians (SLs)' educational role. Those studies have identified SLs' contribution in improving students' academic achievement, cultivating students' information literacy and fostering students' reading habits. However, those studies mainly focused on the European and American regions, studies on the non-English speaking countries, especially in the Chinese milieu, were limited. This study examined the educational role of SLs in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China, and investigated their staffing level and work distribution respectively. Questionnaires were sent to public primary school librarians in these three regions on a convenience-sampling basis, 25 responses were received from Hong Kong, 15 from Taiwan and 20 from Mainland China. Employing a mixed-method design, both quantitative data and qualitative data were collected and analyzed to get an understanding of SLs' perception on their educational role and to examine the related factors. Findings showed that SLs from all the three regions agreed that they have contributed towards students' academic performance. SLs in Hong Kong and Taiwan were found to be more proactive than their counterparts in Mainland China in supporting students' inquiry based learning in in these four aspects: Holding library lessons to teach IL, collaborating with teachers, holding reading programs and library/reading committees to promote reading and having professional development opportunities by broadening their professional network and participating in related conference. It is also found that there was still some deficiency of the educational role of SLs in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Instead of integrating the content of information literacy (IL) into subject courses, library lessons was still a prominent means to teach IL in Hong Kong and Taiwan. In both regions, SLs' educational role was undervalued. Hong Kong and Taiwan SLs perceived that the level of subject teaching has restricted their professional role. Disparities between Hong Kong and Taiwan were also noted. Taiwan SLs, who were originally subject teachers, held a more positive view on subject teaching and interacting with other teachers while Hong Kong SLs were better qualified. Those findings may shed some light on how SLs' educational role could be maximized in these three regions. It may provide some evidence for the government and principals to understand SLs' active impact on students' achievement and the different educational systems' impact on SLs' role, it will also bring out some practical recommendations for teachers and school administrators to support SLs' professional job. ; published_or_final_version ; Library and Information Management ; Master ; Master of Science in Library and Information Management

Includes bibliographical references and index. ; v. 1. Nation, state, & imperialism in early China, ca. 1600 B.C.-A.D. 8 -- v. 2. Frontier, immigration, and empire in Han China, 130 B.C.-A.D. 157. ; Mode of access: Internet.