Foreign direct investment,information technology and economic growth dynamics in Sub-Saharan Africa

The research assesses how information and communication technology (ICT) modulates the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic growth dynamics in 25 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa for the period 1980–2014. The employed economic growth dynamics are Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, real GDP and GDP per capita while ICT is measured by mobile phone penetration and internet penetration. The empirical evidence is based on the Generalised Method of Moments. The study finds that both internet penetration and mobile phone penetration overwhelmingly modulate FDI to induce overall positive net effects on all three economic growth dynamics. Moreover, the positive net effects are consistently more apparent in internet-centric regressions compared to “mobile phone”-oriented specifications. In the light of negative interactive effects, net effects are decomposed to provide thresholds at which ICT policy variables should be complemented with other policy initiatives in order to engender favourable outcomes on economic growth dynamics. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.     

The effect of ownership on telephone penetration

It is well known that telephone penetration (the number of telephones per 100 population) is strongly related to national income. This report examines whether telephone penetration is significantly influenced by type of ownership (ie whether the telephone system is owned and operated by a private company or a government organization) and by postal responsibility (ie whether the telephone system is run by the same organization which runs the postal system). Economic theory and evidence from other industries suggest that private ownership increases output, and one might guess that postal responsibility would tend to restrict telephone penetration - but are these hypotheses correct and are the effects significant? The author concludes that telephone penetration is significantly more responsive to per capita GDP and to population density in private systems than in government-owned systems. Joint responsibility for postal systems has no significant effect on telephone penetration.     

基于城镇化背景的地方政府融资平台产生原因实证分析——来自1978～2011年的时间序列数据

通过单位根检验、协整检验、建立误差修正模型、格兰杰因果关系检验,我国城镇化率增长是人均国内生产总值增长的格兰杰原因,从长期来看,我国城镇化率增长对人均国内生产总值增长有显著促进作用.地方政府的政绩考核制度促使政府官员追求GDP并进行城市基础设施建设,但分税制造成地方政府财政的收支矛盾,地方政府融资平台产生.     

Access to and penetration of ICT in rural Thailand

This paper presents an econometric study of information and communication technology (ICT) in all 70,000 rural villages in Thailand, where the ICT considered consists of fixed-line telephone service, mobile telephone service, public telephones, computers, and Internet service. The results may provide information that helps policymakers decide where to put limited resources to promote ICT, and helps profit-seeking ICT companies target regions that maximize revenues. The study found that education is far more important than income in predicting the percentage of households who adopt ICT services, and that some unexpected variables such as the penetration of pickup trucks are useful predictors as well. Even in areas where fixed-line phone service is available, 70% of households with computers choose not to become Internet subscribers, although many presumably have enough money and technical knowledge. By separating availability from penetration of ICT, the study found that they can have different predictors, which means that researchers who do not separate them may get misleading results. There is no evidence showing mobile telephone service as a substitute for fixed-line telephone service. Also, public telephone service had little or no impact as a substitute for fixed-line or mobile telephone service, so phone companies need not fear that deployment of more public telephones will decrease their subscribership. Finally, there appears to be significant unmet demand for telephone service in rural Thailand where the infrastructure does not yet exist.     

Information communications technology and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: A panel data approach

This research empirically analyzed the impact of mobile phone and the Internet on per capita income of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) for the period of 2006–2015 using a panel data of 40 countries. We have employed the robust two-step system GMM. Results showed that growth in mobile phone penetration has contributed significantly to the GDP per capita of the region after controlling for a number of other variables. A 10% increase in mobile phone penetration results in a 1.2% change in GDP per capita. Therefore, improving access to mobile phones will play a critical role in reducing the poverty level of the region through raising the per capita income of the population.However, the Internet has not contributed to the per capita GDP during the study period. The insignificant impact of the Internet could be due to low penetration of the technology, low ICT skill of Internet users, lack of or insufficient local content on the global network, and the relatively immature state of the technology in the region. Therefore, governments and other stakeholders should design policies that encourage expansion of the Internet. In addition to improving Internet access, policies which focus on ICT skill development and local content creation should also be designed and implemented.     

基于CGE模型的碳税政策对碳排放及居民福利的影响分析

本文通过构建可计算一般均衡模型,分析了征收10元/吨、20元/吨、30元/吨和40元/吨碳税对宏观经济的影响,其次,利用经济产出效应和能源强度效应来衡量碳税的减排效果,最后,模拟保持居民福利水平不变的情况,分析碳税的“双重红利”。研究结论表明：碳税是一种可行的政策选择,能够明显降低二氧化碳排放;除政府收入和消费增加,对其他宏观经济变量如实际GDP、名义GDP和居民福利均产生负效应;居民的收入和消费降低,但农村居民和城镇居民受影响的程度存在差异;碳税的实施充分发挥了能源强度效应的抑制作用并减弱了经济产出效应的促进作用;在征收碳税的同时降低个人所得税率,保持居民福利不变,可以实现碳税的“双重红利效应”。     

Do ICTs drive wealth inequality? Evidence from a dynamic panel analysis

Surprisingly, little is known about the cross-country effect of information and communication technology (ICT) on wealth inequality. At the same time, there is some tentative evidence suggesting that information and communication technology is positively correlated with income inequality. However, whether and how ICT affects wealth inequality is less explored, particularly because of the lack of reliable data on wealth inequality. This paper, therefore, fills this gap and contributes to this new literature by investigating the effect of ICT on wealth inequality in a sample of 45 developed and developing countries over the period 2000–2017. ICT is measured with six different indicators (including internet penetration, mobile penetration, ICT service exports, the ICT index, ICT quality, and ICT quantity), while wealth inequality is measured with three different indicators (comprising billionaire wealth to GDP, the Top 1% wealth share, and the Top 10% wealth share). The empirical analysis is based on the Generalised Method of Moments, and the results show that ICT increases wealth inequality. Furthermore, we show that democracy mitigates the increasing effect of ICT on wealth inequality. This result suggests that improving democracy in both developed and developing countries is an effective mechanism for mitigating the effects of ICT on wealth inequality. Therefore, we encourage efforts to implement democratic institutions that ensure respect for citizens' freedoms, greater democratic accountability, and executive constraints that allow for a more egalitarian distribution of wealth.     

俄罗斯原油项目税率计算公式调整规律分析

俄罗斯原油项目税收以矿税和关税为主,通常情况下这两项税收额占项目税收总额的80%~90%。梳理2002年以来俄罗斯这两类税收计算公式的调整情况,结合2004年8月以来乌拉尔油价、卢布汇率以及俄罗斯消费价格指数(CPI)变化,通过统计分析发现:尽管国际油价大幅波动,通过俄罗斯政府对原油项目财税税率计算公式的调整,以卢布计价的俄罗斯原油项目在征收矿税和关税后单桶收益增长与俄罗斯消费价格指数指标增长同步,并没有随国际油价大幅震荡,证明俄罗斯石油项目上游投资具有财税风险较低、投资收益稳定的特征。中国公司在对俄进行石油上游业务投资时,既要认清其石油税收方面的潜力,还要防范汇率波动的风险。     

Profiling the non-user: Rethinking policy initiatives stimulating ICT acceptance

Business strategies and policies that were successful in increasing internet penetration in the early days may no longer be appropriate. This is most probably so in countries where a bigger proportion of the population is already connected to the internet. As more people are online, it becomes more likely that the remaining fraction of non-users is either hard to convince, under-skilled or simply lacking the financial resources to afford a connection. In view of this, a new policy approach is proposed to increase ICT acceptance. The approach is based on strategies of segmentation and differentiation. This entails that policy initiatives are specifically targeted towards different groups in the population. This article demonstrates that being a non-user can be explained by a combination of access problems, lack of ICT skills or rather negative attitudes towards ICT or by the outweighing effect of one of them. It also provides a framework for setting up new policy measures.     

土地财政、产业结构演变与税收超常规增长——中国“税收增长之谜”的一个分析视角

本文考察了最近10多年来我国税收增长速度一直显著高于GDP增长速度的现象。特别从地方政府土地财政激励与产业结构演变的角度考察了当前中国特定体制下地方政府做大财政资源产业的经济与政治激励。基于1998-2003年中国地级城市面板数据．我们实证考察了地方政府协议土地出让对财政占GDP比例的当期和滞后影响。最后．本文从土地财政角度对税收增长可持续性进行了初步评估。     

ICT as a source of economic growth in the information age: Empirical evidence from the 1996-2005 period

This paper examines the hypothesis that ICT penetration has positive effects on economic growth. On theoretical grounds, this paper discusses three channels through which ICT penetration can affect growth: (i) fostering technology diffusion and innovation; (ii) enhancing the quality of decision-making by firms and households; and (iii) increasing demand and reducing production costs, which together raises the output level. This paper conducts three empirical exercises to provide a comprehensive documentation of the role of ICT as a source of growth in the 1996-2005 period. The first exercise shows that growth in 1996-2005 improved relative to the previous two decades and experienced a very significant structural change. The second exercise uses the traditional cross-country regression method to identify a strong association between ICT penetration and growth during 1996-2005, controlling for other potential growth drivers and country-fixed effects. The third exercise uses the system Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) for dynamic panel data analysis to tease out the causal link between ICT penetration and growth. This analysis also shows that, for the average country, the marginal effect of the penetration of internet users was larger than that of mobile phones, which in turn is larger than that of personal computers. The marginal effect of ICT penetration, however, lessens as the penetration increases. This paper points out several policy implications drawn from its analyses and findings.     

A Property Tax Base Model

This model analyzes fiscal year changes and shifts in local government's real property tax base. The three variables quantified by this analysis are net new development, change in assessment-market price ratio and appreciation. The model's results provide useful analytical data to taxpayers and policy makers. These data can be used to help determine policy actions relative to (1) the amount and type of development and its impact on the future fiscal position of the respective jurisdiction; (2) the equity of the various property classes' assessment-sales price ratios; and (3) possibly altering the rate of appreciation among the various classes. The model might also be used on a sub-area basis to help determine prospering and declining areas, and to help forecast the property tax base and revenue.     

Land constraints and agricultural intensification in Ethiopia: A village-level analysis of high-potential areas

Highland Ethiopia is one of the most densely populated regions of Africa and has long been associated with both Malthusian disasters and Boserupian agricultural intensification. This paper explores the race between these two countervailing forces, with the goal of inform two important policy questions. First, how do rural Ethiopians adapt to land constraints? And second, do land constraints significantly influence welfare outcomes in rural Ethiopia? To answer these questions we use a recent household survey of high-potential areas. We first show that farm sizes are generally very small in the Ethiopian highlands and declining over time, with young rural households facing particularly severe land constraints. We then ask whether smaller and declining farm sizes are inducing agricultural intensification, and if so, how. We find strong evidence in favor of the Boserupian hypothesis that land-constrained villages typically use significantly more purchased input costs per hectare and more family labor, and achieve higher maize and teff yields and higher gross income per hectare. However, although these higher inputs raise gross revenue, we find no substantial impact of greater land constraints on net farm income per hectare once family labor costs are accounted for. Moreover, farm sizes are strongly positively correlated with net farm income, suggesting that land constraints are an important cause of rural poverty. We conclude with some broad policy implications of our results.     

Environmental Tax Reform in the European Union: Impact on CO2 Emissions and the Economy

Economic instruments in environmental policy try to correct prices in order to internalise externalities. The environmental tax reform is a specific policy approach, which raises taxation of ‘bads’ such as resource use or emissions and reduces other taxes on ‘goods’ such as labour that are felt as a burden so that the total tax revenue remains constant. On a small scale some European countries introduced this instrument, and the results have been evaluated broadly positive by the literature. The paper at hand gives answers to the question, what might happen to CO₂ emissions and the economy, if this instrument would be used in all European countries in a scale that allows reaching the European CO₂ emission targets. The instrument of the analysis is the global economy-energy-environment model GINFORS. The simulation results show that the targets can be met with only small losses in GDP and gains in employment.     

从中国GNP与GDP差额看经济开放结构

198 1— 2 0 0 2年 ,中国GNP(国民生产总值 )累计比GDP(国内生产总值 )少10 2 13 .5亿元 ,平均每年少 464 .3亿元。两者差额在波动中逐步扩大。造成这一差额的主要因素是来自国外的初次分配收入净额为负值 ,特别是来自国外的投资收益大大低于支付给国外的投资收益。它反映了中国经济开放结构中的两个问题 :一是中国对外投资大大少于引进外资 ,因而中国国民从国外获得收入的途径、来源和外国国民从中国获得收入的途径、来源极不对称 ;二是在中国的外商投资企业的分配结构过于向外方倾斜 ,外商投资企业对中国GNP的贡献大大低于对GDP的贡献。     

调节收入分配：个税真的无效吗？

基于一个包含财富异质性家户的动态新凯恩斯主义模型, 考察了个税及其累进性的变动对于中国收入差距的影响。 与已有的采用单方程计量的研究类似, 文章全样本仿真的结果表明, 个税并未扭转我国收入差距不断扩大的趋势。 由于单方程计量方法与全样本仿真无法考察政策机制的改变所引起的预期等因素的变化对于主要经济变量的影响, 采用子样本反事实分析法考察了 1997 至 2005 年、 2006 至 2010 年以及 2011 年之后等三个不同子样本期个税累进性的提高对于中国收入差距的影响, 研究发现尽管个税无法扭转收入差距扩大的趋势, 但是个税累进性的提高缓和了中国收入差距扩大的程度。 进而尝试提出了相应的改善收入分配的政策建议。     

Moving targets: Introducing mobility into universal service obligations

Structural changes in the economies of developing countries are leading to increased mobility of work and family life, and so an accommodating set of universal service obligations (USOs) implies new goals that extend beyond wireline telephone penetration and access. Wireless telephony penetration frequently exceeds wireline penetration in developing countries, and digital wireless platforms can incorporate Internet technology. This paper evaluates the history of telecom development in Mexico that has led to wireless telephony becoming the new consumption norm. The study takes the eMexico project as a case study of diversified USOs beyond wireline telephony. It considers potential obstacles to incorporating mobile phone and Internet (“Wireless Web”) services into Mexico's diversified universal service policy, including economic barriers to political mobilization over issues of telecom policy.     

ICT investment and GDP growth: Causality analysis for the case of Korea

This study investigated how investment in the industry of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) has been interlocked with the GDP growth of South Korea. Based on seasonally-adjusted quarterly time-series data for the period between 1999 and 2016 available from the Korea Statistical Information Service, a Vector Error Correction model was applied for the analysis. The results revealed that ICT investment and GDP growth affected bi-directionally except for the short-run case in which only ICT investment affected GDP growth. The results explain that ICT investment plays an important role in the economic growth of South Korea in the long term; at the same time, investment size in the ICT industry increases as the economy grows. Without controlling any other factors, we found GDP increases by 0.4% when ICT investment increases by 1%. However, in the short term, only ICT leads to GDP growth. Therefore, the recent stagnation in ICT investment experienced in South Korea could negatively affect the economic growth of Korea in the short run, and hence, in the long-run, if it should become prolonged. The ICT investment strategy revealed from this study is especially useful to policy-makers who plan the economic growth in South Korea and other ICT-advanced countries because promoting ICT utilization across all sectors requires putting legal and policy mechanisms in place.