International Transmission of Technology and Trade: The Role of Cross-country Heterogeneity

In the framework where the channel of international transmission of technology is trade in intermediate inputs, this paper investigates the role of heterogeneities across countries. In particular, this paper analyzes how cross-country differences in production structure, national innovative capacity, and absorptive capacity affect the scope and magnitude of international R&D spillovers on productivity. The study is based on the industry-level data set that covers eight OECD countries from 1970 to 1995. It finds that accounting for cross-country differences in each of production structure (using country-specific input–output relations) and national innovative capacity (using patents granted per R&D investment) yields significantly different spillover effects than previous studies. This suggests that the effect of international R&D spillovers depends on both production structure and the pattern of international trade. Further, it finds the absorptive capacity of a country is positively related to spillovers.     

Estimating input-mix efficiency in a parametric framework: application to state-level agricultural data for the United States

ABSTRACT

This paper contributes to the productivity literature by demonstrating novel econometric methods to estimate input-mix efficiency (IME) in a parametric framework. Input-mix efficiency is defined as the potential improvement in productivity with change in input mix. Any change in input-mix (e.g., land to labou r ratio) will result in change in productivity. The advantage of this approach is that it does not require data on input prices to estimate the mix efficiency levels. A nonlinear input-aggregator function (e.g., Constant Elasticity of Substitution) is used to derive an expression for input-mix efficiency. Bayesian stochastic frontier is estimated for obtaining mix efficiency using US state-level agricultural data for the period 1960–2004. Significant variation in input-mix efficiency is noted across the states and regions, attributable to diverse topographic and geographic conditions. Furthermore, comparisons of allocative and mix efficiencies provide insightful policy implications. The production incentives such as taxes and subsidies could help farmers in adjusting their input mix in response to changes in input prices, which can affect the US agricultural productivity significantly. The proposed methodology can be extended by i) using flexible functional forms; ii) introducing various time- and region-varying input aggregators; and iii) defining more sophisticated weights for input aggregators.     

农业生态效率评价及提升路径研究——基于山东省17个地级市的实证分析

将农业碳排放和农业面源污染作为非期望产出纳入评价体系,采用包含非期望产出的SBM模型测度2000—2017年山东省17个地级市的农业生态效率,利用ArcGIS技术和莫兰指数展现农业生态效率的空间分布特征,并运用冗余率剖析效率损失原因,提出针对性改进建议。研究发现:(1)山东省农业生态效率整体较高但地区差异明显,济南、烟台处于效率有效状态,其余各市处于非有效状态。从历年趋势看,农业生态效率均值在研究期内呈现缓慢下降态势,2013—2017年稳定在中等效率水平。(2)从空间特征来看,山东省农业生态效率呈现正的空间相关性,总体上“低—低”集聚型和“低—高”集聚型地区偏多,中部和东部沿海地区为两个高效率集团。(3)从生态效率损失原因来看,农药投入、劳动力投入和农业面源污染物排放是主要原因。此外,不同地区效率损失的具体原因也存在差异。因此,要想获得生态效率的提升,有必要从生产要素投入和污染物排放两方面进行管控和改善,探索建立跨区域的农业生态化发展合作机制。     

Pollution without subsidy? What is the environmental performance index overlooking?

Agriculture is heavily subsidized in most Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, and environmental externalities can occur due to pollution caused by protectionist policies. This study examines the structure of agricultural protection in OECD countries from a chronological and comparative perspective. In addition, the policy-environment interaction is scrutinized to better explain the environmental implications of agricultural policies in the era of globalization. This paper critically evaluates the environmental performance index and recommends that this index includes polluting inputs in future calculations.     

The OECD Better Life Initiative: How's Life? and the Measurement of Well‐Being

This paper presents the framework used by the OECD for defining and measuring well‐being, developed as part of the OECD Better Life Initiative launched in 2011. This framework measures well‐being by considering 11 dimensions covering both current material conditions and quality of life, while also recognizing the importance of taking account the sustainability of well‐being in the future. This framework has been populated with indicators for each dimension, whose selection has relied on international standards on measurement and was made in consultation with experts and National Statistical Offices of OECD countries. The paper also discusses the pros and cons of various approaches for presenting and disseminating information on multidimensional well‐being to different audiences—including the OECD Better Life Index, an interactive web tool. The paper concludes by illustrating the progress made in developing measures of well‐being and outlines the statistical agenda ahead to improve existing indicators and develop new ones.     

Is the environmental performance of industrialized countries converging? A ‘SURE’ approach to testing for convergence

In this paper, we test for convergence in the environmental performance of a sample of OECD countries, with data ranging from 1971 to 2002. First, we use Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to compute two environmental performance indicators (EPIs) in the production theory framework. Second, we propose the use of a sequential multivariate approach to test for convergence in environmental performance. These tests allow us to reconcile the time series literature with the cross-sectional dimension, which is basic when testing for convergence in regional blocs. The SURE technique is used, which allows for the existence of correlations across the series without imposing a common speed of mean reversion. The empirical results show that the group of countries as a whole, as well as the majority of countries considered on an individual basis (results for some countries vary between EPIs), are catching-up with Switzerland (the benchmark country).     

基于NPP生态足迹模型的贵州农业可持续发展

利用生态足迹模型对贵州1978～2008年的农业生态足迹和生态承载力进行分析研究。结果表明,改革开放30年来贵州农业平均生态足迹为0.4693hm2。改革开放以来,贵州的农业生产及人民的生活水平有了较大的改善,贵州农业生态供给严重依赖于耕地、林地;30年来,贵州林地在均为生态盈余,这说明贵州实施林业生态工程建设秀美山川取得了初步成效;贵州农业生态效率一直处于增长状态,贵州的农业资源利用效率在逐年提高。最后基于研究结果分析了影响贵州农业可持续发展能力的资源及生态因素,并提出了相应的对策建议。     

Measuring Productive Efficiency in Input–Output Models by Means of Data Envelopment Analysis

The goal of the present research is to evaluate productive efficiency in an input–output framework by means of data envelopment analysis (DEA). This mathematical programming technique allows researchers to assess potential efficiency improvements in the form of input requirements reduction. By constructing envelopment unitary isoquants corresponding to comparable sectors across different local, regional or national economies, e.g. agriculture and manufacturing, DEA identifies as productive benchmarks those economies that exhibit the lowest technical coefficients, i.e. lowest input amount to produce one unit of output. Once these reference frontiers have been defined, it is possible to assess what would be the potential efficiency improvements available to the inefficient economies if they were to produce according to the best practice technologies of their benchmark peers. From an equivalent perspective, these simulations identify the necessary changes that each productive sector needs to undertake in order to reach the efficiency levels of the most successful economies. Finally, within Leontief’s analytical construction, these calculations allow us to assess what would have been the economy‐wid,e benefits for the inefficient economies—in terms of intermediate consumption reductions and final demand increases—of producing with best practice technologies. The model is empirically illustrated using the input–output tables for a set of OECD countries.     

Agricultural support in selected Eastern European and Eurasian countries

The goal of this article is to assess the agricultural policies of eight countries from the former Soviet Union. They hold great potential for agricultural production, and some are relatively unanalysed from the point of view of agricultural policy. The analysis was conducted using qualitative and quantitative evidence. The key challenges facing the region are food security and competitiveness. Policy approaches range from strong interventionism to almost complete liberalisation. Budgetary support is relatively low compared to EU and OECD averages. Transfers to producers dominate (especially input subsidies and on-farm investment support) in all countries, and support to rural development and general services is weak. While prices for crops are near world prices, prices for animal products are fairly high in some countries, indicating high developmental needs. It is possible to discern four broad clusters of countries.     

Intertemporal Output and Employment Effects of Public Infrastructure Capital: Evidence from 12 OECD Economies

This paper utilises an intertemporal optimisation framework to study the effects of public infrastructure capital on output supply and input demands in 12 OECD countries. We find that in all 12 countries: (i) public capital has positive long-run effects on both output supply and input demands (ii) its mean short-run rates of return are fairly low, while the corresponding long-run rates are much higher but declining over time. These findings underscore important under-investment gaps in infrastructure during the 1970s and 1980s; these gaps however narrowed down significantly (in a few cases completely) by the early 1990s.     

Subsidies under uncertainty: Modeling of input- and output-oriented policies

Agricultural subsidies play an essential role in agricultural and rural development in many developed economies. Countries have implemented agricultural subsidy policies with a focus on food security and environmental protection. Agricultural production is risky and uncertain, influencing the efficiency of agricultural subsidies. This study develops a theoretical framework to analyze the effects of production uncertainties on the efficiency of agricultural subsidy policies under the double constraints of food security and environmental protection. The basic model is investigated under six different conditions, and expanded research also is presented. Our models show that uncertainty, including output, cost, and price uncertainties, and technology conversion efficiency significantly affects the efficiency of agricultural subsidies. Under high technology conversion efficiency, output-oriented subsidies are appropriate for food security and environmental protection goals. Policymakers should take both uncertainty and production efficiency into consideration when choosing between input-oriented and output-oriented subsidy policies.     

Bio-economic modelling of soil erosion externalities and policy options: a Tunisian case study

Soil erosion is one of the most important of today’s environmental externalities and a major threat to sustainability of agricultural system. It constitutes the most widespread forms of land degradation throughout the world. The aim of this paper is to estimate the amount of soil erosion generated by the current cropping systems in Tunisia and to assess the economic and ecological impacts of policy instruments designed to handle this problem. The analysed policy options are based on soil conservation practices and direct incentive farming anti-erosive measures. The selected measures are the reduction of tillage, the avoidance of bare fallow and the use of legume-based crop rotation. A bio-economic modelling framework coupling the biophysical model EPIC to a non-linear dynamic programming farm model was used for this impact analysis. It was performed in a set of representative farms belonging to a region in North-Eastern Tunisia (Zaghouan) strongly affected by this phenomenon. The main finding of this research is the non-convexity of the crop yield—soil erosion space. That is, the use of more intensive techniques to increase productivity (i.e. crop yield) may be accompanied by rough changes in soil erosion (damage) curves, manifested either by non-monotony or non-convexity. In term of policy options and because of giving up convexity assumptions, incentive anti-erosive measures appear more efficient than conventional environmental policies such as Pigouvian taxes or quota systems. The implementation of soil conservation practices would leads to a net decrease in soil erosion and an increase in farm income. However, with the current interest rate of 7% the possible rise in income is not enough to stimulate farmers to invest on these practices. A maximum rate of 4% would be necessary to make this policy option more effective.     

A coevolutionary model for promoting agricultural sustainability

This article presents a coevolutionary model of agricultural development that is based on observations from the environmental history of agriculture and the need for addressing development processes toward sustainability. It asserts that the challenge of agricultural sustainability can be fruitfully addressed within an analytical framework that consciously and explicitly considers agricultural development as consisting of processes of coevolution involving agriculture and the surrounding ecological and socioeconomic systems. Widening the processes to include strong interconnectedness with national and global systems with respect to off-farm resources and farm outputs has led to various agro-ecological problems. Strengthening local interaction and interconnectedness in a rural-urban context is found to be essential for developing a system of sustainable agriculture. Such development requires influencing many subsystems and implementing changes in production methods and land use as short-term responses to the problem, and technological development, resource allocation and changes in values as long-term responses. It also requires some sustainability principles and indicators in order to direct actions and to facilitate communications, which can be derived from the model. Applying the model on Swedish agricultural sustainability during the twentieth century reveals some, probably, important findings for “building” sustainable agriculture and lends support to the usefulness of the model.     

Modeling governance and water pollution using the institutional ecological economic framework

This paper investigates the effect of governance on levels of water pollution for all industrial activities as well as by some specific industry category in a sample of OECD economies. Using an institutional ecological economic conceptual framework, the effects of several measures of governance are empirically examined. Our findings reveal that the rule of law, regulatory quality, control of corruption, government effectiveness and voice and accountability are negatively and statistically significantly correlated with water pollution across all industrial activities as well as specific industry groups. We conclude that governance matters for mitigating industrial water pollution. This novel paper adds to the existing literature on industrial water pollution by developing a modeling approach that empirically examines questions that have so far not been explored in institutional ecological economics and demonstrates the importance of the framework for addressing real life ecological problems that are common across the world. Policy implications are drawn.     

伊犁地区农业生态经济系统的时空分异规律与可持续发展

通过能值和GIS方法的耦合分析,以伊犁地区为例,探讨了温带干旱区绿洲农业生态经济系统可持续性的时空演化特征与总体趋势,提出了相应的调控措施。研究结论如下：①1989—2008年,伊犁地区农业生态经济系统的能值总投入和总产出均呈持续增长趋势。②目前伊犁地区农业生态经济系统仍处于可持续发展的状态,但亦呈现出恶化的趋势。③研究区在农业系统发展水平方面,大致呈现出＂东北—西南＂梯度格局;在系统可持续发展方面,大致呈现出＂南高北低＂的空间格局。④在今后的农业发展进程中,伊犁地区应通过农业内部结构的优化、农业传统生产方式的变革等手段,促进农业系统的结构功能优化和可持续发展,防止生态环境的恶化。     

Exploring the existence of Kuznets curve in countries' environmental efficiency using DEA window analysis

This paper, using data envelopment (DEA) window analysis and generalized method of moments (GMM) estimators, examines the existence of a Kuznets type relationship between countries' environmental efficiency and national income. Specifically, it measures the environmental efficiency of 17 OECD countries by constructing environmental efficiency ratios for the time period 1980-2002. The analysis with the application of dynamic panel data reveals that there isn't a Kuznets type relationship between environmental efficiency and income. Allowing for dynamic effects we find that the adjustment to the target ratio is instantaneous. We also find that increased economic activity does not always ensure environmental protection and thus the path of growth is important in addition to the growth itself.     

Technology clubs, R&D and growth patterns: Evidence from EU manufacturing

This paper investigates the forces driving output change in a panel of EU manufacturing industries. A flexible modeling strategy is adopted that accounts for: (i) inefficient use of resources and (ii) differences in the production technology across industries. With our model we are able to identify technical, efficiency, and input growth for endogenously determined technology clubs. Technology club membership is modeled as a function of R&D intensity. This framework allows us to explore the components of output growth in each club, technology spillovers and catch-up issues across industries and countries.     

Environmental rationalities and the development state in East Asia: Prospects for a sustainability transition

This paper reviews what is known about recent trends in environmental governance among the newly industrializing countries of East Asia and the implications of these developments for a sustainability transition within the region. The conceptual starting point for the review is research that examines sustainability transitions within the framework of a multi-level perspective on system innovation. One of the challenges presented by this framework is that of understanding how existing political economies and governance structures promote stability or change in socio-technical regimes. By socio-technical regimes we mean the predominant organizational, social and technological configurations through which societal needs are constituted and met. In the case of the rapidly industrializing and urbanizing economies of East Asia, the trajectory of socio-technical regimes will have profound consequences for local, regional and global environments. Our review of trends in environmental governance as they relate to socio-technical regimes within the region traces a pattern of initial efforts to strengthen environmental regulatory regimes very much along the lines of the policy models of OECD economies. The degree to which these initial efforts have taken root varies from country to country in the region. What is beginning to emerge in several countries within the region, however, are a variety of policy and institutional innovations that hold promise for opening up spaces for change in socio-technical regimes, and for creating opportunities for new pathways of industrialization and urbanization to take hold that are less pollution, materials and energy-intensive.     

Environmental efficiency and regulatory standards: the case of CO2 emissions from OECD industries

It is generally accepted that production processes should take into account environmental sustainability principles. Hence, any attempt to measure the performance of these processes should highlight, as a reference standard, those processes that combine greater amounts of desirable production with lower levels of undesirable outputs, e.g. waste generation or emissions of greenhouse gases. Using this concept of environmental performance, it is possible to establish efficiency scores within a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) framework, and to calculate desirable output losses when specific environmental standards on undesirable production are set by the authority, i.e. legislative opportunity costs. This can be achieved by solving programming models that call for a reduction of undesirable outputs and that stress the weak disposability of such outputs. Once a standard is set, it congests or binds the technology if the reductions in undesirable production required to meet it imply lower desirable output levels, i.e. the regulation is costly. DEA enables us to simulate, for each producer, the effect of any regulatory standard on production, and the limits beyond which production is impossible — lower limits, or superfluous — upper limits, because the chosen standard does not bind production. The empirical implications of the DEA process are analyzed considering different regulatory scenarios on CO₂ emissions for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)'s manufacturing industries.     

Income and consumption smoothing and welfare gains across Pacific Island Countries: The role of remittances and foreign aid

We examine the potential welfare gains and channels of income smoothing for Pacific Island Countries (PICs) and find that, under full risk sharing overall welfare gains across all PICs (particularly, Kiribati, Palau, and Papua New Guinea) are at desirable levels. However, for Australia, the potential welfare gain from risk sharing is almost similar to the gain it obtains if Australia attains full risk sharing with the rest of the OECD countries or with New Zealand alone. We also break down output using the framework of Sørensen and Yosha (1998) to quantify the extent and channels of risk sharing across PICs. For PICs, income-smoothing channels (net factor income and current transfers) play a significant role in buffering the output shock compared to the performance of those channels on smoothing the output shock for OECD countries. Domestic savings also smooth a fair portion of shocks to output, but the extent is much lower compared to that of OECD countries. Further, we analyze the effect of remittances and foreign aid on income smoothing for the PICs excluding Australia and New Zealand. Income smoothing via remittances is highly volatile and significant in recent years, while foreign aid seems to be a stronger and more stable channel for smoothing domestic output shocks for PICs.