The farmer and the money economy: The role of the private sector in the agricultural development of LDCs

The world's food/people balance is precarious now and will become more precarious in the future, in terms of both supply and price.The grain producing industrial countries have come close to reaching their production potential. The solution lies in exploiting the production capacity of the developing world.At present only half of the world's good arable land is being farmed. Most of the other half does not have the necessary infrastructure, and opening it up to cultivation will require major capital investment. This means that a serious political commitment is required, primarily by LDC governments. There are concomitants for aid policies as well.The key action-oriented question is where, and how, productivity increase can take place. The authors suggest that the most effective method requires involvement of the private sector, specifically the participation of small landholders, working 1–5 acres, grouped around a corporate core. The corporate core provides technical, educational, and financial inputs, processes, and/or markets the output. In a widening circle of socioeconomic benefits, as small holder productivity increases, work can be offered to landless peasants, and both the farmer and the peasant are brought into the money economy with the overall developmental dynamic this implies.Most effective is a holistic approach involving all segments of the rural community, particularly women.This paper will offer empirical data from case histories in developing countries and will derive from this data (and the extensive exposure of the coauthors to the problems and opportunities of agribusiness worldwide) policy implications for the public sector and strategy implications for the private sector.In planning the transition to sustainable societies, the concept of “triage” is ethically repugnant, politically explosive, and economically devastating. An effective approach to the problem of agriculture would eliminate the current de facto triage, where food/people imbalance leads to the death of hundreds of millions through starvation and malnutrition.     

Can Japan succeed in “Chigyo-ka” (intelprise-formation)?

There are two aspects in today's information revolution that started in the late 1970s. The first is an aspect referred to as “the third industrial revolution,” which triggers the transition to the “21st century system of Industrialization.” The information revolution in this sense brings the creation of new “breakthrough industries (new multimedia industries).” And the second aspect of the information revolution possesses the characteristics of both a technological revolution and a social revolution and brings about the arrival of the third phase of the historical evolutionary process of the modern civilization, which proceeds through three phases, namely “militarization, industrialization, and then informatization.”If the bearers of modern industrialization are a “group of enterprises” that have been engaged in the race in order to gain “wealth” (generalized means of exchange/exploitation power), and if these enterprises' activities have been exercised in the world market where their products have been sold, then it is appropriate to call the bearers of informatization a “group of intelprises.” They will be engaged in the race to gain “wisdom” (generalized means of persuasion/induction power), then stages of their activities can be called a “global intelplace” where “sharables,” that is, information and knowledge, will be disseminated. And now, toward the 21st century, the third phase of modernization, which can be called the “informatization/intelprise formation” or the “wisdom game” (intellectualism), is about to begin.Japan's “ie society (a society based on the ie principle—literally, it means “house” but here it is interpreted as cultural principle for organizing a society), which has been going through the process of evolution on the Japan Archipelago, has developed a network-based organization with little stratification within its infrastructure. In this sense, Japanese society can be characterized as a “network-oriented society” in which intelprises and an intelplace in the broad sense have functioned as the essential components of the society since Middle Ages. In general, an intelplace and intelprises that operate actively within this framework serve as the flexible bases for different types of social relations and institutions, such as states and markets and eventually integrate these into the society to a certain extent. In fact, it took place quite regularly during the modernization “in the narrow sense,” or Westernization of Japanese society after the Meiji Restoration. There exist some problems, however. Some of the characteristics found in Japanese society may become obstacles to activities aimed at the sharing and promotion of information and knowledge in the global intelplace and Japanese participation in the “wisdom game.” Badly needed are serious efforts for Japanese intelprise-formation to reduce these obstacles as much as possible.     

Sustainability of nations by indices: Comparative study between environmental sustainability index, ecological footprint and the emergy performance indices

The present work makes a comparison between the two most used environmental sustainability indices of nations: “ecological footprint” and “environmental sustainability index”, with two emergy ratios (renewability and emergy sustainability index). All of them are gaining space within the scientific community and government officials. Despite the efforts for obtaining an index that adequately represents the sustainability of a region, according to the result of this research, nowadays there is not yet a completely satisfactory index. We consider that all of them need to be improved, but the results point out the possibility of obtaining one better index of sustainability through the junction of ecological footprint with renewability emergy index.     

Electric utilities : Key to capitalizing the energy transition

The United States is moving with unexpected speed toward a sustainable energy system based on highly efficient energy use and appropriate renewable sources. The free market, though imperfect, is accomplishing the remarkably well. However, institutional barriers are causing underinvestment in money-saving energy options. This retards the energy transition far below an economically efficient rate, prolonging dependence on dwindling fuels.Each year, electric utilities spend about the same amount of money that efficiency and renewables are lacking—some $25 billion—to build giant power stations which cannot compete in the energy service market. This federally supported misallocation of capital is bankrupting the utilities and threatening the stability of the whole financial system. As long as half of America's energy investment goes into uneconomic power plants, their cheaper rivals will be smothered.If, however, utilities were to invest only in the best energy buys (as several states already mandate), power plants would no longer be built. This “least-cost test” should be coupled with a program of utility loans, properly structured on proven principles. Such loans would enable utility customers to buy any energy option that costs less than new power plants; give all energy users fair and equal access to capital; offer an escape from high energy bills; and rescue utilities from insolvency. Indeed, such a program would automatically transform the utilities from an obstacle into a vehicle for financing the transition to sustainability. The benefits of a secure, affordable, equitable, and environmentally benign energy system could then be achieved before the fossil-fuel bridge to it has been burned. Electric utilities' adaptation could also help guide other beleaguered institutions toward sustainability.     

The usury debate,the sustainability debate,and the call for a moral economy

This article attempts to contribute ethical to perspectives on sustainability initiatives by comparing the relationship between economy and society in the usury debate in early modern England and the sustainability debate in the late 20th century. This comparison highlights is the changing relationship between economy and society has been a self-conscious and hotly debated struggle among various groups at various times in history. The article concludes that if sustainability is going to be a viable ethical project, it may have to reclaim access to social and political relations which have been increasingly privatized in market economy throughout the modern period.     

Inequality persistence through vertical vs. horizontal coalitions

This paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of the observed high persistence of cross-country differences in inequality. It focuses on the interactions between inequality and the predominance of either horizontal coalitions (among individuals of similar economic status) or vertical ones (among individuals with different economic status). A model is proposed showing that the interactions between inequality and the type of coalition formed in a society can give rise to self-sustained social contracts where inequality persists. Key mechanisms of the model are illustrated using the transformation in inequality, redistribution and social relations in Modern England, as well as the “paternalist” system of the US South at the beginning of the XXth century.     

Toward a sustainable society : The private sector in six guises

The meaning of a sustainable society is discussed to provide a framework for considering the role of the private sector. Duration and extent are polarized as long versus short and global versus local. Fundamental forces of geo-politics, social organization and technology argue for a focus on short duration and local extent.Population pressures and standard of living are of central concern in attaining a sustainable society. The target must be a stable population with a rising standard of living. Because resources are limited, the private sector's major role must be in the efficient use of resources to create wealth.To this end, it is well adapted. It consists, generally, of privately owned firms, employing shareholders' capital, to make a profit in a market economy. These characteristics, however, place major constraints on its ability to adopt noneconomic objectives of a social nature or in pursuit of a sustainable society. A number of responses to this dilemma are beginning to emerge, both in theory and practice. To help understand the complexity that constitutes modern economic life and its socio-political environment, the private sector is viewed in six guises: wealth creator, corporate citizen, benevolent despot, reluctant social partner, cooperative social partner, and private patron. Discussion concentrates on the significance of each of these for the sustainable society.Finally, some thought is given to the significance of the private sector as a model for institutional flexibility in a sustainable society.     

A note on the sustainability of primary budget deficits

This note studies the sustainability of primary budget deficits in a situation where the public sector has also incurred debt to the private sector. It shows that if the rate of pure time preference is small relative to the population growth rate, if public consumption constitutes a modest fraction of output, and if the primary budget deficit is sufficiently small, then it is also sustainable, and the associated steady state is locally stable.     

Government funding strategy in technology programs

Industrial R&D in a market economy is mainly implemented in the private sector, therefore public funding is a very important tool of government to guide private R&D activities. This paper investigates the experience of funding national programs in a number of industrialized countries, and reaches some preliminary conclusions: (a) To reduce opportunistic behavior and ingrain intrinsic incentive in firms, both competition and cost-sharing principles should be used concurrently in underwriting firms' R&D projects. (b) Competition principles can be applied across many candidate projects around the same time or a series of one-of-a-kind projects over a longer time horizon. (c) The major threat to application of competition principles is that there is no “real competition” due to few qualified candidates in specific technological fields or in some, especially small, countries. (d) In practice, the appropriate cost-sharing level is difficult to determine. Fifty-fifty is used as a rule of thumb in many countries to simplify the decision making and circumvent “bounded rationality.” (e) Full cost endorsement may be another “quantum” alternative for projects urged by government but not felt to be very relevant by firms.     

On the dynamic effects of using hired labor in the Kibbutz—theory and case studies

This study analyzes the effect of employing hired labor in the Kibbutz. The main motivations are the premises contained in the newly emerging “The Change” or “The New Kibbutz” approach. Using the traditional LMF model with heterogeneous labor, we show that, although using hired labor will improve the economic situation of the Kibbutz in the short-run, in the long-run Kibbutz membership will consist of only those types of labor to which the “Self Labor” principle applies.     

“Constitutionalizing” the corporation

To become effective instruments in the attainment of a sustainable society, corporations should have their constitutional status settled. Thus far, mainly by Supreme Court decisions, corporations have an uncertain status. They are “persons” under the Constitution and have certain rights; but unlike natural persons, they do not have concomitant constitutional duties. Corporations should be viewed as “private” governments exercising substantial power in society. They are, however, considered to be associations of individuals rather than divisions of society. The need is to legitimate their governing power by “constitutionalizing” them. That can be done by corporations accepting, or having imposed upon them, two principal constitutional duties. First, means should be developed whereby corporate officers routinely take the general good into account. That duty could be implemented by making “social impact statements,” analogous to but broader than the familiar environmental impact statements, before making important corporate decisions. Secondly, as “sociological communities,” corporate officers wield considerable power over members of those communities. A bill of rights similar to the Constitution's Bill of Rights is recommended so as to make corporate power that is necessary for achievement of societal goals as tolerable and decent as possible. Acceptance of those duties would make corporations parts of, not separate from, the greater corporation called society. They would be private, profit-making entities with a definite public function. Preferably, the duties should be voluntarily accepted. Congress, however, has undoubted constitutional power to impose both, should it so desire.     

Credit risk and sustainable debt: a model and estimations of why the Euro is stable in the long-run

Sustainable debt has become the key issue in rating of private as well as sovereign debtors. The problem of how to estimate sustainable debt has also been at the center of the debate over the Asian 1997–1998 financial crisis. If the external value of the currency depends on the external debt of a country, it is necessary to estimate the creditworthiness of the country. This paper studies credit risk and sustainable debt in the context of a dynamic model. For a dynamic growth model with an additional equation for the evolution of debt, we demonstrate of how to compute sustainable debt and creditworthiness. The model is estimated by employing time series data for the core countries of the Euro-area. The computations show that the Euro-area has large external assets. Using time series methods, the sustainability of external debt (assets) is estimated for those core countries of the Euro-area. Those estimations show that the Euro will be a stable currency in the long-run.     

Sustainable mobility transitions and the challenge of countervailing trends: the case of personal aeromobility

Research on sustainable mobility transitions has focused on battery-electric vehicles, urban ‘smart’ cars, fuel-cell powered transport modes and power-assisted bicycles. While these studies have usefully exposed some of the dynamics governing sociotechnical change, developments outside the purview of sustainability have been largely ignored. A critical area of neglect concerns the growing popularity of personal aeromobility. Passenger dissatisfaction with commercial airlines, public concerns about terrorism, increasing affluence and creative marketing have expanded interest in private aviation. In parts of the USA, customised air travel is becoming a straightforward and affordable transport alternative. This article describes the mounting popularity of four segments of this trend: business/personal airplane acquisition, fractional aircraft ownership, flight-time cards and air taxis. It also highlights the role that the federal government is currently playing to overcome the technological obstacles to more pervasive personal aeromobility. A concluding section considers the ramifications of these activities on contemporary efforts to foster sustainable mobility and to conceptualise viable transition pathways.     

Unemployment and the dynamics of political support for economic reforms

I analyze the dynamics of political support for economic reforms using a version of Rodrik's (1995) two-sector model of the transition economy. The key role is played by the pattern of flows between the state and private sectors and unemployment. It is shown that while the workers in the private sector always support rapid reforms, the workers in the state sector and the unemployed will support rapid reforms only at the outset of the transition. Later, state-sector workers and unemployed vote for a reduction in the speed of reforms.     

Electrification and energy productivity

Energy productivity is crucial for sustainable development. We use cointegration analyses to investigate the effect of electricity on energy productivity in Swedish industry from 1930 to 1990. Electricity augmented energy productivity in those industrial branches that used electricity for multiple purposes. This productivity effect goes beyond “book-keeping effects,” i. e. it is not only the result of electricity being produced in one sector (taking the energy transformation losses) and consumed in another (receiving the benefits).     

新西兰农牧业发展模式及其启示

新西兰农牧业经营机制与模式创新点是:完备的农牧业科研机构和科技创新体系,便捷的农牧业成果推广与服务合作机制,高效的农牧业管理与技术调控模式。进入转型时期的中国农牧业应借鉴新西兰的经验,着力打造加入WTO后中国畜牧业参与国际竞争的产品优势和区域优势,努力提高中国特色农牧业综合生产水平和可持续发展能力。     

Imitation processes with small mutations

This note characterizes the impact of adding rare stochastic mutations to an “imitation dynamic,” meaning a process with the properties that absent strategies remain absent, and non-homogeneous states are transient. The resulting system will spend almost all of its time at the absorbing states of the no-mutation process. The work of Freidlin and Wentzell [Random Perturbations of Dynamical Systems, Springer, New York, 1984] and its extensions provide a general algorithm for calculating the limit distribution, but this algorithm can be complicated to apply. This note provides a simpler and more intuitive algorithm. Loosely speaking, in a process with K strategies, it is sufficient to find the invariant distribution of a K×K Markov matrix on the K homogeneous states, where the probability of a transit from “all play i” to “all play j” is the probability of a transition from the state “all agents but 1 play i, 1 plays j” to the state “all play j”.     

Using the concept of yield to assess the sustainability of different tourist types

Sustainability assessments have become important tools for decision makers. This research assesses the sustainability of different types of tourists in New Zealand by using the concept of yield and by developing yield indicators in the areas of financial, public sector and sustainable yield. The concept and indicators have been developed in cooperation with the New Zealand tourism sector and therefore provide a sector-driven approach to implement a sustainability assessment. The analysis shows that there are numerous ‘trade-offs’ between indicators when attempting to define the ‘ideal visitor type’. Coach tourists, for example, are the largest spenders and generate the greatest Value Added in tourism on a per-day basis, but they contribute less to the financial sustainability of tourism when the costs of capital are accounted for. Coach tourists are highly concentrated in a few key destinations and at the same time produce substantial amounts of CO₂ emissions due to their air travel component. In contrast, backpacker and camping tourists provide greater financial yield and are more dispersed, but they are also the greatest user of publicly provided tourist attractions and therefore come at a higher cost to government than other tourist types. Camping tourists are also contributing considerably to CO₂ emissions. The yield analysis proposed in this paper could be a valuable tool for complex policy decision making and identifying strategies that lead to high-yield tourism.     

Rural education and technique transformation in the People's Republic of China

Technique transformation refers to an approach which focuses on scaling up existing techniques gradually and with high levels of participation as opposed to the transfer of techniques from one sector to another. In China, this transformation process is carried out through the rural education system utilizing both formal and nonformal means. In this study Chinese efforts to introduce a learning network in the rural sector to assist in the transformation of agricultural and industrial technology will be explored. Specific reference will be made to China's marginal regions highlighting the variety of educational networks aimed at transforming the techniques deemed essential for promoting agricultural and small-scale industry. Four such networks will be examined: research and development; formal education; extension and dissemination; and nonschool information dissemination. The study will focus on the linkages between the networks and the implications inherent in such a system for the introduction of appropriate technology, planning strategies, training of change agents, and development strategy in general for marginal regions.     

The task and challenge for Japan in the 21st century: An introduction

Since the collapse of an asset-inflated economic bubble in Japan started in the second half of the 1980s, it has brought about an entirely different assessment of this country. For all admiration claimed for it, the Japanese economy proved to be subject to Newton's law of gravitation. Opinions were beginning to divide over Japanese technology, too, after it was once believed to be leading the world. In fact, Japan has a big task to solve in the years before the 21st century. How will the Japanese face up to upheavals in the world, or how will they respond to their domestic problems such as demographic and rigid structures?Few messages from Japan have so far been available with regard to these questions. The world is left in a puzzle over the questions. Our task in this issue is to make clear what the Japanese are thinking and preparing to do in the years before the 21st century, and “what it is that they have to produce an influence on the world.”Specifically, discussions center on moves toward a knowledge-based society, research and development projects, manufacturing technologies, business strategies, industrial ecology, and the possibilities of a trilemma. In this article, I make some observations as a background to those subjects.