Trade Policy,Equipment Investment and Growth in India

The relationship between trade policy and economic performance is one of the oldest controversies in economic development. In this paper, we examine an alternative mechanism through which trade reforms may impact on economic growth to those commonly discussed in the literature. This mechanism builds on the link between equipment investment and growth that has been observed in cross-country data. We argue that that in countries which have had highly restrictive trade policies with respect to capital goods, liberalization measures that specifically target capital goods imports may bring about a fall in the relative price of capital goods, leading to an increase in the rate of investment in equipment. Quantifying the link between trade policy, equipment investment and economic growth in the Indian case, we find strong support for this mechanism.     

The Impact of Technology Accumulation on Technical Efficiency: An Analysis of the Sri Lankan Clothing and Agricultural Machinery Industries

This paper examines the effects of technology accumulation on firm-level technical efficiency in the Sri Lankan clothing and agricultural machinery industries, using cross-section survey data. Econometric analysis of the economic effects of technology development in developing countries is limited and this paper seeks to address this gap in the literature. The analysis shows simple adaptive technical change to have a significant and positive effect on efficiency in both industries. In addition, variables relating to technological skills and training also emerge as significant determinants of firm-level efficiency.     

Transforming Economic Growth to Human Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Role of Elite Political Instability

In the light of the increasing attention on human development (HD) as well as the importance of political instability (PI) in economic performance, this paper examines the role of PI in the transformation of economic growth to HD. It finds that élite PI—the frequency of coups d'état in sub-Saharan Africa—adversely affected the transformation of economic growth to HD, measured as the change in an index of life expectancy and literacy, between 1970 and 1985. Coupled with an additional indirect negative effect on GDP growth, élite PI is found to have engendered a significant adverse impact on HD.     

Dynamic Clusters in Developing Countries: Collective Efficiency and Beyond

The alleged beneficial effects of regional industrial clusters for competitiveness and growth in developing countries have been subject to intensive study. A prominent place in the debate has been occupied by the collective efficiency approach. In this paper we extend that approach by incorporating insights from the literature on firm-level technological learning in development. The resulting framework is applied to the software cluster of Bangalore (India), to illustrate the ways in which spatial proximity of firms and other parties interacts with cluster knowledge creation in a dynamic environment. A number of new insights emerge, including the importance of "old economy" factors such as high demand for innovation, international technology transfer, low wages and strong technology and education institutions. To the extent that "new economy" regional factors also matter, spontaneous agglomeration advantages appear to be important alongside active collective efficiency.     

Firm Size,Technological Capabilities and Market-oriented Policies in Mauritius

Mauritius is an outlier in sub-Saharan Africa in terms of its impressive growth in garment exports since it adopted outward-oriented policies in the early 1980s. Little, however, is known about the role of technological factors in the behaviour of Mauritian garment exporters. Using recent methodological developments in the literature on technological capabilities, this paper explores this issue. It constructs a "technology index" and conducts econometric analysis on factors affecting enterprise-level technological development and export performance in a sample of enterprises. Firm size, technical manpower, training expenditures and external technical assistance are positively related to the technology index, suggesting that investments in human capital and information (both facilitated by size) improve technological performance. The technology index and foreign ownership have positive and significant effects on export performance. The technology index is a robust tool of empirical research and can be used to analyse the technological record of enterprises in adjusting countries.     

Mapping fragmentation: Electronics and automobiles in East Asia and Latin America

"Fragmentation", the relocation of processes or functions across countries in response to cost and other differences, has important implications for development. We discuss the drivers of fragmentation and map it for electronics and automotives in East Asia (EA) and Latin America. For technical reasons, electronics is fragmenting faster world-wide than the auto industry. Electronics networks are more advanced, widespread and integrated in EA than Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), and are largely responsible for EA's rapid export growth. The auto network is more advanced in LAC but is slower growing and is not integrated into a regional system. Apart from Mexico, LAC lacks an electronics network, partly accounting for the region's weak export performance. We offer insights into the following: Why do industries fragment differently? How can fragmentation be measured? Why does fragmentation in developing countries concentrate on EA and LAC? Why has fragmentation evolved differently in these two regions? Can other developing regions attract and benefit from fragmentation?     

Can mining countries take advantage of their mining rents? A question of abundance,concentration and institutions

ABSTRACT

A common puzzle in economics is whether natural resources are a ‘curse’ or a ‘blessing’ for economic development. Previous studies have suggested that resource booms can promote growth, but private rent-seeking can turn these booms into a curse if institutions are weak. We argue that private incentives differ depending on whether rents are diversified across different commodities or concentrated in a few of them, because greater diversification implies higher appropriation costs. By using SITC-4 level of export disaggregation to measure within-sector concentration in 131 countries during 1991–2015, we show that the effect of mining rents on economic growth is conditional on the level of concentration within the mining sector. Mining rents enhance growth for economies with low concentration and strong institutions but reduce growth for economies with high-concentration and extremely weak institutions.     

Technology Support for Small-scale Industry in Developing Countries: A Review of Concepts and Project Practices

The paper is a review of approaches towards institutional technology support for small-scale manufacturing enterprises in developing countries since the early 1970s. Early programmes tended to suffer from a number of weaknesses, stemming from a limited conceptualization of technology and an inadequate understanding of the role of the small-scale sector in industrial development more broadly. There was also a lack of practical experience with project implementation. However, in recent years important advances have been made on all these fronts. Four features of recent technology assistance programmes that have tended to be associated with success are discussed, and illustrated with evidence from different projects. Broadly, successful projects: (a) embrace the notion that durable competitiveness of small producers in a competitive economic environment requires that they develop internal capabilities to effectively assimilate, use and adapt product and process technologies; (b) are demand-driven; (c) target the assistance to groups of producers with common interests and problems, and help them to organize themselves in collective bodies that can evolve into self-help institutions; and (d) include appropriate incentive structures based on market principles.     

The Virtual and the Imaginary: The Role of Diasphoric New Media in the Construction of a National Identity during the Break-up of Yugoslavia

In the conflicts of the last decade within ex-Yugoslavia, diasphoric communities have played a significant role, on the practical level of providing remittances, arms and often even fighters in the various conflicts, and on a cultural and ideological level in helping to (re)construct a national narrative amongst the various ethnic groups and in helping to spread the viewpoints of these groups into a wider international sphere. New media, particularly the Internet, video and satellite television have transformed the way diasphoric communities relate to their "homelands". These new media make possible a dramatic increase in information flows both to and from the homeland. This in turn helps to increase the fluidity of identity construction and conceptions of collective identity, among diasporas and to a lesser extent among those remaining in the homeland. This article examines the impact of these new information flows on constructions of "the other" within national narratives at a theoretical level and more generally the role of diasporas in participating in the national discourse, despite the distance between them and the homeland. At an empirical level, we focus on the use of videotape among the Croatian community in Australia and the use of the Internet by Croatian and Kosovar Albanian communities around the world.     

The Achievements and Failures of Argentina's Neo-liberal Economic Policies

The stability of an economic policy regime depends in large measure on either its successful authoritarian imposition or on the general acceptance by society of the distributional status quo of assets and/or income. Although Argentina's Convertibility Plan ("Currency Board" system) brought price stability and growth to the country, the inability or unwillingness of the government to attain a fiscal adjustment threatened its survival. The "fight for shares" in this "conflict society" was inherited from previous regimes. We show that this fight, previously left unresolved through inflationary finance, was subsequently left unresolved through the rapid growth of indebtedness under the Convertibility Plan. From 1999 onwards, the contradictions of the Plan became increasingly obvious and it was clear that the key to future stable economic growth was dependent on finding a way to turn the "conflict society" into a "consensus society". The construction of such a society is still a pending task for Argentina.     

The Basque Conflict Globally Speaking: Material Culture,Media and Basque Identity in the Wider World

This article explores the interplay between global and local determinants through the Basque conflict. It demonstrates that self-determination movements among the Palestinians and Irish Republicans are comparatively similar to the Basque cause in material expressions of political identity and by conveying their nationalist sentiments through the agencies of different mediums. In addition, the impact of 11 September on separatist struggles like the Basque one is discussed. Throughout it is argued that material culture as much as media are significant conduits to political relationships between objects and sentiment, as well as images and reality whereby these associations become modes of "political consumption" by political actors. As a result, political images and objects have "value potential" to transform society and are projected as material products in banners, posters, graffiti, jewellery and clothing or through varying mediums of communication such as the Internet, television broadcasts, video testimonies and other forms, in order to reinforce political ideology.     

The Technological Structure and Performance of Developing Country Manufactured Exports, 1985‐98

This paper maps out the recent manufactured export patterns of developing countries, using a new and detailed classification by technological levels. It argues that export structures, being path-dependent and difficult to change, have important implications for growth and development. Low-technology products (which have the least beneficial learning and spillover effects) tend to grow the slowest, and technology-intensive products (which have the most beneficial effects) the fastest in world trade. East Asia dominates the developing country scene, with 70% of total manufactured exports, and its role rises over time. There is also high and rising concentration at the national level. The technological specialization of different regions and the leading exporters differ greatly, as do the strategies used to achieve competitiveness. Received trade theory cannot explain these patterns without considering learning processes and the policies used to promote them.     

互联网嵌入对农户化学农药减量使用的影响——基于PSM模型的计量分析

[目的]在数字农业和绿色农业的双重背景下,探讨互联网嵌入对农户化学农药减量使用的影响,有助于实现农业数字化和绿色化发展。[方法]文章基于四川省712份微观农户调研数据,采用倾向得分匹配法实证检验了互联网嵌入是否会减少农户化学农药使用,并分析了其影响效应在不同农户群体中的异质性。[结果]互联网嵌入对农户减少化学农药使用具有显著的正向影响,其平均处理效应为0.114;互联网嵌入能有效促进小农户、专业种植大户和家庭农场减少化学农药使用,平均处理效应分别介于0.104～0.113、0.078～0.103和0.116～0.128;互联网嵌入对家庭农场减少化学农药使用的促进作用略大于小农户和专业种植大户,而相比于专业种植大户,互联网嵌入对小农户化学农药减量使用的促进作用更强。[结论]应推进农村新基建发展,提升农村互联网普及率,采取差异化的措施,鼓励家庭农场发展,引导家庭农场将互联网技术应用于农业生产,并加强互联网技术宣传与培训,提升小农户和专业种植大户嵌入互联网的能力,以促进农户减少化学农药使用。     

The impact of new information technology on urban and regional structure in Europe∗

Summary

This paper discusses the revolutionary nature of information technology which affects the what, where and how of the production and delivery of goods and services. It suggests that it is virtually impossible to come to any quantitative assessment of the nature and timing of the impact of these technological changes on individual cities. What is more important is to assess the capacity of cities to respond to the challenge of new information technology. The extent to which they are able to adapt to this challenge will be deeply conditioned by their infrastructure, industrial, commercial and institutional capacity. Areas which lack the necessary telecommunications networks, innovative enterprises and public and private agencies well attuned to the new technology will lag behind in the race to take advantages of the opportunities.

Drawing on a major research project undertaken for the European Commission the paper assesses the major components of the environment necessary to participate in the information technology revolution. It reviews developments in telecommunications networks, switching and services and uptake of services within the regions of Europe. The analysis suggests that not withstanding the distance shrinking potential of telecommunications, the incremental process of network modernization coupled with the high levels of demand in major centres is likely to result in a continuing reinforcement of existing locations rather than any significant dispersal of economic activity. The paper goes on to review the impact of information technology within manufacturing and service companies; this suggests that there are few indications that new technologies will reverse present location tendencies. The paper concludes, nevertheless, that there is an urgent need to promote the widespread geographical diffusion of new information technology and in this respect urban and regional policies have an important role to play.     

Impact and implications of price policy and land degradation on agricultural growth in developing countries

In many developing countries, a high proportion of the population resides and works in rural areas. Agriculture is the dominant sector in rural areas and has the greatest concentration of poverty: landless workers, small tenant farmers, and small farm owners. Thus, any development strategy that is directed towards increasing employment and alleviating a country's hunger must concentrate on sustainable agricultural growth. Historically, economic development in most countries has been based on exploitation of natural resources, particularly land resources. Soil erosion and land degradation have been serious worldwide. Due to reasons such as high population pressure on land and limited fossil energy supplies, land degradation is generally more serious in the developing world. Empirical studies show that soil erosion and degradation of agricultural land not only decrease the land productivity but they can also result in major downstream or off-site damage which may be several times that of on-site damage. In promoting industrialization, governments of many developing countries adopt a package of price and other policies that reduce agricultural production incentives and encourage a flow of resources out of agriculture. Increasing evidence shows that these policies cause a substantial efficiency or social welfare loss, and a great loss in foreign exchange earnings. In addition, a World Bank study on the effect of price distortions on economic growth rates concluded that neither rich resource endowments, nor a high stage of economic development, nor privatization are able to make up the adverse effects caused by high price distortions. This analysis is primarily concerned with identifying the factors that determine the agricultural production growth rate and in testing the effects these factors have on agricultural growth in developing countries. Specifically, this study involves statistical estimation of an aggregate agricultural growth function based on cross-country data for 28 developing countries. Special attention is devoted to land degradation and agricultural pricing policy, and to the policy implications resulting from the effects these variables have on agricultural and food production growth. The overall results of this study show that price distortions in the economy and land degradation had statistically significant negative impacts while the change in arable and permanent land was positively related to the growth of agricultural production and food production in 28 developing countries from 1971 to 1980. These results emphasize the importance of ‘getting prices right’ and implementation of sustainable land and water management practices if future growth in food and agricultural output is to be realized and sustained in developing countries.     

International Tax Co-operation and Capital Mobility

The international mobility of capital and the geographical dispersion of firms have clear advantages for the growth and modernization of developing countries. They also create fundamental challenges for national tax authorities. Modern principles of capital taxation for the open developing economy indicate the need to find the correct balance between the encouragement of private investment and the finance of social infrastructure, both of which are necessary for sustainable growth. This balance can be sub-optimal where countries compete for inward investment by granting tax incentives or exercise conflicting principles in determining the tax base. The current practice of international taxation indicates that fiscal authorities in Latin America and the Caribbean could attain a more equitable share of capital tax revenue without depressing investment and growth. This might be achieved through more effective regional tax rules, double taxation treaties, information sharing and treatment of offshore financial centres along the lines already promoted for OECD members. These findings have wider implications for developing countries as a whole.     

Economic Liberalization and Productivity Growth: Further Evidence From Bangladesh

The impact of economic liberalization reforms on the productive performances of manufacturing firms remains a contentious issue in the literature. This paper attempts to contribute to the debate by empirically estimating productivity growth of Bangladesh food manufacturing using firm level data before and after reform. Empirical results show that the share of output growth was accounted for by input growth in most sectors of this industry. In some sectors, the estimated rate of total factor productivity (TFP) growth is negligible or even negative. Decomposition of the TFP growth shows that technological progress plays a significant role in TFP growth across firms within the sub-sectors of this industry. Empirical results also show that the relative contribution of capacity realization to TFP growth is not substantial in inhibiting the industry's high and sustained growth. These dismal performances indicate that the industries responded a little to the implementation of economic reforms.     

Economic development and the role of agricultural technology

In earlier debates on economic development, the agricultural sector's role was somewhat controversial. While dualistic models highlighted the importance of agriculture, the mainstream literature placed a greater emphasis on the creation of a modern industrial sector. Soon agriculture disappeared from the mainstream development literature to re‐emerge recently with a variety of multiple‐sector growth models emphasizing the key role of agriculture and specifically technology in agriculture. This article is an empirical cross‐country analysis of agricultural technology's role in economic development. Specifically, the hypothesis being tested is whether improvements in agricultural technology have a significant impact on long‐run economic growth. The results indicate that agricultural modernization has a positive effect on both measures of economic growth and human development.     

Adapting the optimal selective-logging of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) stands in NE Spain to increasing CO2 concentrations

Predicted increases in CO₂ concentrations will affect forest ecosystems. In particular, they will impact tree growth, which in turn affects reproduction and mortality and consequently, forest planning. This study integrates different climate change scenarios of future biogeochemical processes and an economic model into a forest management model to determine the optimal selective-logging regime of Scots pine stands. It analyzes the economic implications of the management changes in comparison with the business as usual strategy. Adaption to new climatic conditions shows that it is optimal to increase the number of standing trees and to reduce the age of the logged trees. The results suggest that the failure to adapt the management regime has clear implications on the profitability of forests. Moreover, they show that higher mortality is likely to have a significant impact on the optimal forest management regime.     

Catching up in new wave technologies

In the last quarter of the 20th Century, new technologies and competitive practices challenged earlier opportunities for entry from a low skill base and the pursuit of an incremental process of catching up. In traditional manufacturing industries, these changes pose few problems at the entry level, though they render catch-up processes more difficult to sustain. In "new wave technologies", such as those growing out of biotechnology, the science base, patent intensity and systems' embeddedness have raised the barriers to entry and narrowed opportunities for incremental catching up from a low skill base. This paper explores these changes and their implications for traditional entry and catch-up strategies in developing countries.