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| Seminars and Talks |
Autumn 2002 |
10/18/02
Speaker: LI Yan (Sociology)
Topic: Ambivalent Racial Stereotypes in the U.S.
Abstract:
Understanding the social psychological process of racial stereotyping is of fundamental importance to understanding and containing racial conflicts. While it has been generally held that group stereotypes are either positive or negative, recent development in social psychological theory and research has pointed out that group stereotypes can be ambivalent--i.e., people may hold both positive and negative stereotypes about a social group. Applying the ambivalent stereotypes theory, this study uses data from a 1994 Los Angeles survey to explore how racial groups (Whites, Blacks, Asians, and Hispanics) in the U.S. metropolis stereotype each other. I dissect racial stereotypes into three elements: richness, competence, and warmth. Results indicate that when an out-group is perceived to be rich, it is also likely to be perceived as competent, but not warm. On the other hand, perceived competence of an out-group generally increases perceived warmth of that group but the strength of association depends on the race of the specific target group.
My talk will consist of 4 parts: 1) overview of social psychological explanations of stereotypes in general and racial stereotypes in specific; 2) the ambivalent stereotypes theory; 3) empirical findings from the LA survey data; 4) implications for U.S. race relations and applicability of group stereotypes theory to China.
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11/1/2002
Speaker: MA Junling (Attorney, WSGR)
Topic: Corporate Governance: Recent Crisis and Proposed Solutions
Abstract:
Enron and seemingly endless corporate scandals have left investors scared and disillusioned about corporate American, and the failure was widespread, extending to Wall Street, accountants/auditors, regulators and business leaders in general. Greed and excessive executive compensation, weak and often conflicted board of directors... if corporate governance is not completely broken, it is surely going through a serious crisis. What is wrong and what are being done to deal with the crisis? I will briefly discuss the structure of corporate governance in US, problems and current legislative and regulatory actions, including:
* modern corporation: separation of ownership and management -- agency cost
* structure of corporate governance --relationship between management, board and shareholders
* types of companies -- public or private -- and impact on corporate governance
* the role of board of directors -- are directors really "directing" the company?
* directors as fiduciary
* role of SEC, NYSE and Nasdaq in corporate governance
* newly enacted Sarbanes-Oxley Act: CEO/CFO certification
* conflict issues: emphasis on independent directors
* financial reporting and strengthen role of audit committee
* what can shareholders do -- role of institutional investors
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11/9/2002, Saturday, 1pm, Econ140
Speakers: Xiaodong Jiang, Amir Sharif, Anoop K. Sinha (UC Berkeley)
Topic: Global Entrepreneurship: East and West
Working language: English
Project homepage: http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~xdjiang/china/
About the Topic:
In May 2002, two Berkeley Mayfield Fellows Amir Sharif and Anoop Sinha initiated a trip to Shanghai, China, to study entrepreneurship and high-tech business in one of the fastest growing countries in the world. They met with a 9 companies: 4 start-ups, 2 VC firms, 1 major government incubator, and 2 multinationals, meeting over 26 Chinese entrepreneurs, investors, and businesspersons. Intrigued by many questions that arise from this trip, Amir and Anoop are joined by a current Berkeley Hitachi Fellow Xiaodong Jiang, to initiate the Berkeley China Project, an in-depth investigation to better understand success strategies for technology focused entrepreneurial firms in China.
The Berkeley China Project participants use a variety of methods in their research, from intensive interviews to field study. As a summary of Phase I of their research, in this talk Xiaodong, Amir and Anoop will provide an in-depth comparison between entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley and Shanghai through a series of case studies. Similar talks have recently been given at the VC arm kickoff meeting of Hua Yuan Association and the Berkeley China Forum.
About the speakers:
Xiaodong Jiang is a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at UC Berkeley, where he is currently a Hitachi Fellow. He is also the co-chair of VERTEX, the Berkeley Engineering Entrepreneurship Club. Xiaodong is an expert in the areas of pervasive computing, privacy, security, context-aware systems. Xiaodong received his B.S. with distinction from Nanjing University (China) in Computer Science where he was a Fujitsu Fellow and Lee-Shiu National Scholar. Before coming to Berkeley, he obtained his M.S. from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in Artificial Intelligence. Xiaodong has worked at HK Telecom on market development for the first interactive TV service in the world, and at IBM Research (New York) on developing novel multimodal computer interfaces.
Amir Sharif is an MBA student at the Haas Graduate School of Business at UC Berkeley, where is he focusing on Entrepreneurial Management, International Management, and Management of Technology. Amir is a Mayfield Fellow and a Hitachi Fellow and received a merit scholarship for his graduate studies. Amir's undergraduate education was in the University of Texas, where he graduated Cum Laude Magna et Ampla. Prior to attending the Haas Graduate School of Business, Amir was a Business Consultant with Sun Microsystems, working with systems and business process implementation in the Asia Pacific region.
Anoop Sinha is a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at UC Berkeley, where he is a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow, a Mayfield Fellow, and a Hitachi Fellow. He is an expert in the design of user interfaces and software systems. His Ph.D. project involves building design tools for novel multi-modal, multi-device computer interfaces. Anoop got his B.S. with distinction and honors from Stanford University in Computer Engineering where he was a Terman Scholar and a Microsoft Scholar. Before his Ph.D., he spent two years as a strategy and technology specialist for database and development tools in Microsoft's Northern California Sales.
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11/15/2002, Friday, 8pm, Building 120, Room 21/59
Speaker: GUANG Lei (Center for East Asian Studies)
Topic: Culture, Politics and Rural/Urban Divide in the Age of Migration
Abstract:
In July 1996, a popular Shanghai-based newspaper (qingnian bao) carried a short article by an editor on the bad fashion taste of migrant women in Shanghai. The article was picked up by a reader from Anhui and submitted to a local evening paper (Xin'an wanbao) there several days later. The article generated scores of "letters to the editor" and numerous commentaries from Anhui readers for the next few weeks. My talk will start with this minor episode of cultural clash between Shanghai and Anhui, and interweave discussions of state policies and popular culture in the representation of Chinese villagers, against the backdrop of increasing rural-to-urban migration in the 1980s and 1990s. My larger point is that culture/society and politics/state in contemporary China are inter-related realms of power that is not easily separated according to western social science categories. As a biographical note, I came from Anhui, and Shanghai is one of my favorite cities.
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11/23/2002, Saturday, 8pm, Rm140, Landau Economics Building
Speaker: QIAN YingYi (Prof. of Economics, UC Berkeley)
Topic: Market and the Rule of Law
Abstract:
Rule of law (Fa3 Zhi4) is the institutional foundation of the modern market economy. As rule of game defines play of game, in modern market economy, rule of law defines the running of the whole economy. Rule of law has significant effect on the efficiency of the economy in the short run, and on the development of the economy in the long run. Such research is very meaningful for the market reform in China: rule of law works in an economic system by constraining the behavior of both the government and economic players, and thus protecting property right and competition in the market. Prof. Qian will discuss a series of interesting topics such as limited government, two-level judiciary systems and many others in the context of China's reform.
For more on the topic, please see the article in Chinese:
http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~yqian/market%20and%20law.html
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12/13/2002, Friday, 8pm, Rm21/59, Building 120
Speaker: LI XiaoWei (Economics)
Topic: The EMU, Exchange Rate Volatility and International Equity Return Correlations
Abstract:
We observe that while the monetary conditions of the Euroland
converged, the equity returns of those countries diverged. We then ask why?
What fundamental determinants underlie the patterns of international equity
return correlations? Does the exchange rate volatility matter?
Theoretically, it is ambiguous whether and how exchange rate volatility
affects international return correlations. Empirically, few attempts have
been made to evaluate the effects.
This paper fills the gap using a panel data set covering the period
when the Euro countries experimented with a variety of exchange rate
regimes, including the monetary union. Moreover, a variable measuring
cross-country difference in industrial specialization is created and
included in the estimations to correct possible omitted variable bias. The
results show that exchange rate volatility matters and negatively affects
international equity return correlations. Moreover, industrial
specialization has a significantly negative impact on the international
equity return correlations.
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