Embodied and Disembodied Technical Change in Fisheries: An Analysis of the Sète Trawl Fishery, 1985–1999

Overfishing and excess capacity in mostfisheries around the world have generated considerableand increasing concern about their biological and economic performance ramifications. Theseproblems, in part, stem from substantialinvestment in technical improvements to boats andequipment in fishing fleets, which exacerbatesexcess fishing capacity and low returns tofishing effort and investment, given regulatoryand biological constraints. However, little attempt hasbeen made to quantify the extent or effects oftechnical change in fisheries. In this paper, we usedetailed data on innovation patterns for 19vessels in the Sète trawl fleet of southernFrance to evaluate the contributions oftechnical change to catch rates. We find thatembodied technical change enhanced productivity by approximately one percent per year between 1985 and 1999, but that external (disembodied) events counteractedthis trend, causing a net output decline ofabout three percent per year.     

The difference,system and ‘Double‐D’ GMM panel estimators in the presence of structural breaks

The effects of structural breaks in dynamic panels are more complicated than in time series models as the bias can be either negative or positive. This paper focuses on the effects of mean shifts in otherwise stationary processes within an instrumental variable panel estimation framework. We show the sources of the bias and a Monte Carlo analysis calibrated on United States bank lending data demonstrates the size of the bias for a range of auto‐regressive parameters. We also propose additional moment conditions that can be used to reduce the biases caused by shifts in the mean of the data.     

Optimal Investment in Urban Drainage: A Framework for Cost-Benefit Analysis

This article addresses some basic issues (including distributional weights, discount rates, and the value of life) in the cost-benefit analysis of urban drainage and provides a framework for the estimation of the optimal amount of investment for flood mitigation. This involves: (i) estimating the expected total damage from flooding in present-value terms before flood mitigation; (ii) deriving the reduction in expected total damage as the average recurrent interval of flooding increases; (iii) estimating how this interval increases with the amount of investment in flood mitigation; and (iv) choosing the optimal investment by equating marginal benefit and marginal cost. The framework is also applicable to other accident or damage mitigation investments and some issues discussed are relevant to all types of cost-benefit analysis.     

Boosting tourism's contribution to growth and development: Analysis of the evidence

The tourism sector's contribution to economic development depends upon complex and dynamic socioeconomic, environmental, and institutional factors. Policymakers require objective evidence to base decisions on which public policies or investments to pursue. In this paper we develop an economy‐wide approach to assessing public investments in tourism. The approach is powerful in that it considers all inter‐sectoral linkages that are critical for tourism‐sector analysis. This framework is linked to a microsimulation module that enables estimation of household‐level and destination‐specific impacts and the distribution of benefits. To illustrate the framework and the insights it can generate, we apply it to a public investment in Belize's Cayo District. Our findings show that the overall level of economic activity increases while an appreciation of the real regional exchange rate results in slower growth in traditional nontourism exports. Greater availability of capital and labor to meet increased demand would reduce this effect. The investment results in a reduction in the poverty headcount on the order of 0.7 percentage points, though there is a small increase in inequality that is a function of the skill requirements of the new positions created as a result of the investment.     

“Fishing Na Everybody Business”: Women's Work and Gender Relations in Sierra Leone's Fisheries

While small-scale fisheries in many developing countries is “everybody's business,” a gendered labor division concentrates production in the hands of fishermen while women dominate postharvest processing and retailing. The production bias of fisheries management programs has not only largely overlooked the role of fisherwomen, but also marginalized “fish mammies” in terms of resources and training. This study draws on three in-country fisheries surveys, as well as interviews and focus groups, and employs a gender-aware sustainable livelihood framework to make visible the economic space occupied by women in Sierra Leone's small-scale fisheries. The study highlights how women's variegated access to capital and resources interacts with social norms and reproductive work and argues for more social and economic investment in women's fish processing and reproductive work enabling them to reconcile both roles more effectively.     

Quotas on Clothing Imports: Impact and Determinants of EU Trade Policy

We assess the impact of the phasing‐out of quotas on European clothing imports within the framework of the phase‐out of the Multi‐Fiber Agreement and the accession of the CEEC. We use 1996 data on trade barriers for 20 categories of clothing products and 22 exporters. The estimation of a standard gravity equation concludes that tariffs have a large and negative impact as expected but seldom corroborated in the literature. The negative impact of non‐tariff barriers also appears clearly after controlling for an endogeneity bias by the instrumental variables method. The phasing‐out of quotas should increase EU imports by 20%.     

Educational choice, wage determination, and rates of return to education in Taiwan

This paper estimates educational choice, wage determination, and the rate of return to education in Taiwan using Taiwan's Manpower Utilization Survey data of 1996. As education investment is a self-selection process, this paper adopts a two-stage estimation method. First, a polychotomous ordered probit model is used to estimate the education decision. Second, the wage equations of different educational attainments are estimated by incorporating the possible selection bias obtained in the probit model. Finally, rates of return on each education level are calculated from the estimation results.     

Marginal q revisited

Two measures of firm investment behaviour used in the empirical research are Tobin´s q (average q) and marginal q. The marginal q is a more recently introduced measure than Tobin´s q and is not as well known. This article aims to demonstrate the advantages of using marginal q as a performance measure and is a response to an earlier critical article (Berglund, 2011) claiming an elusiveness bias. The pro arguments made in response are that the claimed elusiveness is not a problem. Furthermore, many of the evaluation problems inherent in the empirical use of Tobin´s q, like estimation of replacement cost of assets, can be avoided. From a pure theoretical standpoint, it has long been recognized that marginal q is superior to an average measure of investment behaviour such as Tobin´s q.     

Changes in social welfare and sustainability: Theoretical issues and empirical evidence

We analyze the time derivative of a Ramsey-Koopmans social welfare function (R-K SWF), as an indicator of genuine investment and current change in social welfare (CSW) conditions, when feedback or arbitrary rules are used for selecting policy variables in non-optimizing economies. When policy variables are selected arbitrarily, their accounting prices should determine current CSW in addition to the accounting prices of the economy's assets and genuine investment should be adjusted accordingly. We use our theoretical framework to characterize CSW conditions for non-optimizing economies, based on direct estimation of accounting prices. We use our theoretical model to provide empirical evidence regarding the CSW conditions for the Greek economy.     

The Feldstein–Horioka puzzle revisited: Is the home-bias much less?

The large correlation between domestic savings and investment is well documented and is known as the Feldstein–Horioka puzzle. We demonstrate that estimates of the FH coefficients using the standard framework are biased upward in the presence of highly positively correlated inward and outward capital flows. Using data for the 14 OECD countries, the analysis shows that the significant home bias documented by FH and others is also consistent with much higher levels of capital mobility when capital outflows and inflows are highly positively correlated. Taking account for these correlations reduces the estimated home bias somewhere between 45% and 90%.     

Currency-related risk and risk premium in the world's currency market

The foreign exchange market has become a major arena for investment activity for both corporate and individual investors. Intensive and widespread international investment activity makes the empirical estimation of exchange risk a very topical subject. In this connection, the classic controversy between Hicks and Telser assumes new relevance. In this paper, exchange risk is estimated in the context of the systematic-risk framework. The estimation is performed for three major floating currencies: the English pound, the Swiss franc, and the Deutsche mark, over a four-year period. The results suggest that although the total risk (measured by the variance) is high, the systematic risk is close to zero. This result provides an explanation for the apparent inconsistency between the Hicks-Keynes hypothesis which indicates the existence of a positive risk premium in the forward exchange market and the empirical evidence of a zero risk premium.     

Growth and the current account: Malaysia and Singapore

A foreign trade model is estimated for two South East Asian countries, selected because they represent two extremes as far as the current account balance is concerned—Malaysia, deficit, Singapore, surplus. The specification highlights, (a) the simultaneous interdependence of exports and import flows—a result of what Krugman [1995] denotes as the slicing up of the production process—and, (b) the impact of investment on imports as a result of productivity shocks on the current account. The estimation results point to the instability of the market for foreign exchange. Using an intertemporal framework, a methodology to derive the external long run equilibrium is applied to the estimated model. The implied constraint on domestic growth turns out to be mild. This research has been financed by the Dgicyt under grant PB94-1502, and the Junta de C. y L. under grant SA 35/97. The comments and suggestions of the editor of the journal and an anonymous referee are gratefully acknowledged. The paper has also benefited from the comments of the participants at the Fifty-First International Atlantic Economic Conference, March 13–20, 2001, Athens, Greece, and at the AEA conference on New Financial Instruments and Emerging Markets, Paris, 1998. Any possible remaining errors are the authors.     

A new approach to estimation of the R&D–innovation–productivity relationship

ABSTRACT

We apply a generalized structural equation model approach to the estimation of the relationship between R&D, innovation and productivity that focuses on the potentially crucial heterogeneity across sectors. The model accounts for selectivity and handles the endogeneity of this relationship in a recursive framework which allows for feedback effects from productivity to future R&D investment. Our approach enables the estimation of the different equations as one system, allowing the coefficients to differ across sectors, and also permits us to take cross-equation correlation of the errors into account. Employing a panel of Swedish manufacturing and service firms observed in three consecutive Community Innovation Surveys in the period 2008–2012, our full-information maximum likelihood estimates show that many key channels of influence among the model's components vary meaningfully in their statistical significance and magnitude across six different sectors based on the OECD classification on technological and knowledge intensity. These results cast doubt on earlier research which does not allow for sectoral heterogeneity.     

FDI,Foreign Aid,Remittance and Economic Growth in Developing Countries

Using a dynamic spatial framework, this paper investigates how foreign direct investment (FDI), foreign aid and remittances impact the economic growth of 53 African and 34 Latin American and Caribbean countries. Previous growth studies examine how one factor or two of these factors impacts economic growth, which results in biased estimation because of the omitted variable(s). Separate estimation shows foreign aid and FDI affects economic growth in Africa, but when we control for all three factors, only FDI affects African economic growth. For Latin America and the Caribbean, foreign aid and remittances affect growth when estimated separately, while remittances affect growth when they are estimated simultaneously. Finally, both regions' results confirm spatial interdependence is important in explaining economic growth, as growth in one country depends on the growth of its neighboring countries.     

Heterogeneous Response to Marine Reserve Formation: A Sorting Model approach

The bioeconomic impacts of spatial fisheries management hinge on how fishing vessels reallocate their effort over space. However, empirical studies face two challenges: heterogeneous behavioral responses and unobservable resource abundance. This paper addresses these two problems simultaneously by using an unusual data set and an estimation technique developed in the industrial organization literature. We apply the methods to location and species choices in the Gulf of Mexico reef-fish fishery. The models are used to explore spatial effort substitution in response to two marine reserves. Individual attributes from a survey of vessel captains are linked to each fisherman’s observed daily trip information to control for observable heterogeneity. Some unobservable abundance information is captured by location- and species-specific constants and estimated by contraction mapping. The empirical results confirm that there is significant heterogeneity in fishermen’s response to the formation of marine reserves. They also show that ignoring unobservable abundance information will lead to significant bias in predicting spatial fishing effort.     

Impact of FDI and trade on environmental quality in the CAFTA-DR region

This study investigates the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI), trade and industrial emissions in member countries of the Central American Free Trade Agreement–Dominican Republic (CAFTA-DR) between 1979 and 2010. Our model is based on extant literature about the Environmental Kuznets’ Curve framework. In this study, we consider sulphur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen oxides (NO_x) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) as our dependent variables. Our key independent variables are FDI and trade. Our study finds evidence that foreign investment and trade have had a negative impact on our selected emissions. However, our models also estimate turning points which are below the current GDP per capita values for all CAFTA-DR member countries. This is an encouraging trend in terms of the potential reduction in emissions in the region.     

二代涉入、制度情境与中国家族企业创新投入——基于社会情感财富理论的研究

基于社会情感财富理论,本文以2012-2016年中国A股上市家族企业为样本,采用倾向得分匹配法,对一定制度情境下二代涉入对家族企业创新投入的影响进行实证研究。研究结果表明:二代涉入会抑制家族企业的创新投入,发生二代涉入的家族企业会更重视约束型社会情感财富,而该类社会情感财富会导致家族企业对创新投入持保守态度;制度环境对二代涉入与家族企业创新投入之间的关系具有正向调节效应,从而会缓和二代涉入对家族企业创新投入的抑制作用;政治关联对二代涉入与家族企业创新投入之间的关系具有负向调节效应,从而会加剧二代涉入对家族企业创新投入的抑制作用。据此,本文建议:发生二代涉入的家族企业不能为了加强对企业的控制而排斥引入外部优良人才或外部投资者,创始人应该注重二代成员对家族企业归属感等的培养,提升二代成员对延伸型社会情感财富的保护意愿;政府和家族企业必须共同努力推进市场化改革,藉此完善家族企业赖以生存的制度环境;家族企业应当尽量避免政治寻租等行为对创新的抑制作用。     

How much should we trust regression-kink-design estimates?

In a regression kink (RK) design with a finite sample, a confounding smooth nonlinear relationship between an assignment variable and an outcome variable around a threshold can be spuriously picked up as a kink and results in a biased estimate. In order to investigate how well RK designs handle such confounding nonlinearity, I firstly implement Monte Carlo (MC) simulations and then study the effect of fiscal equalization grants on local expenditure in Japan using an RK design. Results in both the MC simulations and the empirical application suggest that RK estimation without covariates can be easily biased, and this problem can be mitigated by adding observed covariates to the regressors. On the other hand, a smaller bandwidth or a higher-order polynomial, even a quadratic polynomial, tends to result in imprecise estimates although they may be able to reduce estimation bias. In sum, RK estimation with confounding nonlinearity often suffers from bias or imprecision, and estimates are credible only when relevant covariates are controlled for. I also examine how placebo RK estimation can effectively address these issues.     

从城市偏向到城乡统筹发展——城市偏向政策影响城乡差距的Panel Data证据

发展中国家实现工业化的进程中容易出现城市偏向问题,本文基于城市偏向与城乡差距的理论模型,利用省级面板数据对我国城市偏向政策影响城乡差距的效应进行回归估计和检验。结果发现,城市偏向是城乡差距不断扩大的一个重要原因,固定资产投资及财政支出的城市偏向越明显,城乡差距越大。现阶段我国经济及工业化水平提高对城乡差距产生正效应,城市化及开放程度提高则具有负效应。受之启示,消除二元结构、扭转城市偏向及推进城市化对于缩小我国城乡差距、统筹城乡发展具有重要的现实意义     

The Measurement of Capital: Retrieving Initial Values from Panel Data

A common problem with micro‐level analysis is that capital stock data is missing. Typically, a feasible measure of capital is calculated by accumulating investment flows from an initial value of the capital stock. As the time dimension of most disaggregated data is rather short, the choice of this initial value can have significant effects on the resulting capital estimates. Most empirical studies impute the initial value using a single arbitrary proxy. In this paper, we propose a panel data framework that assigns weighting coefficients to multiple proxy variables. We conduct a series of Monte Carlo experiments to test the performance of the proposed method and apply the method to a U.S. manufacturing dataset. The results suggest that our method improves the approximation of the capital stock and thus in turn reduces the bias in the production function estimation.