Climate change and Australia's comparative advantage in broadacre agriculture1

Australia has long been a major exporter of the products of broadacre agriculture, a production system well suited to the economic and climatic conditions of the country. Presumably, it holds a comparative advantage in these products, among which grain crops and grazing livestock predominate. However, the future plausibility of this proposition is sensitive to the projected impacts of climate change. This article develops a framework to quantify the future patterns of comparative advantage in broadacre agriculture, given the projections of several global climate models. We find empirical support for the conventional wisdom, and note substantial resilience and robustness in Australia's comparative advantage under a number of scenarios.     

An international comparison of human resource management objectives and activities

The paper reports on mailed surveys of human resource professionals in Canada, South Africa and Zimbabwe who were asked for their views on the priorities they set in terms of human resource objectives and activities. Respondents were also asked to indicate the challenges facing the field and the resulting changes that may be required in each country. The results indicate considerable agreement between the three countries on the need for flexibility and cost effectiveness, but disagreement on priorities among some other activities. There are major differences between perceptions of immediate and long-term priorities to be set. There is a concern that short-term efficiency may be accorded a priority which prevents due consideration being given to future development and societal issues.     

Price-induced technical progress in 80 years of US agriculture

This paper presents a theory of technical progress that interprets the price-induced conjecture of Hicks. It provides also an exhaustive set of comparative statics conditions that constitute the scaffolding for an empirical test of the theory. A crucial assumption is that entrepreneurs make decisions about techniques on the basis of expected information about prices and quantities. Another assumption is that these decisions are made in order to fulfill a profitability objective. The novelty of our approach is that expected relative prices enter the production function as shifter of the technology frontier. The consequence of this assumption is an expansion of the traditional Shephard lemma that is useful for identifying the portion of input quantities that has been determined by the conjecture of price-induced technical progress (PITP). The theory is applied to a sample of 80 years of US agriculture. Three versions of the general model are presented. The first version deals only with expected relative prices. The empirical results do not reject the PITP hypothesis. The second and third versions introduce lagged expected relative prices, lagged R&D expenditures and lagged extension expenditures as explanatory variables of the portion of the input quantities that may be attributable to technical progress. I acknowledge invaluable discussions on this subject held over several years with Michael R. Caputo. I also acknowledge the use of the theory and its justifications that were presented in previous papers by Paris and Caputo (2001) and by Caputo and Paris (2005). All the errors are mine. I dedicate this paper to my wife, Carlene, who died of a rare cancer on May 5, 2001.     

浅析国际贸易中的国际劳工标准之争

20世纪90年代以来,国际劳工标准一直是国际贸易体系中的一个热点问题,本文在研究国际劳工标准内容和性质的基础上,分析了发达国家与发展中国家对劳工标准与国际贸易挂钩问题的不同立场,指出了国际劳工标准和国际贸易必将和谐统一。     

Comparative performance appraisal practices and management values among foreign and domestic firms in India

Countering culture-based analyses indicating homogeneity in Indian management practices, this empirical study compares performance appraisal practices and management values in India by firm ownership. Differences in Indian private investor corporations, public sector enterprises, foreign/joint ventures and private family businesses are examined to assist managers to adapt selectively to firms in the changing Indian economy. Theoretical and managerial implications, as well as future directions for research are discussed.     

国际分割生产条件下的我国制造业比较优势分析

本文在李嘉图模型的框架下,通过模型推导,对比分析了考虑国际分割生产和不考虑国际分割生产的条件下,一国出口比较优势变化的原理;并采用2001-2008年我国和世界制造业26个分行业的贸易数据,实证分析了不考虑和考虑国际分割生产的情况下,我国制造业比较优势的变化。结果表明:随着我国参与国际分割生产,我国制造业具有出口比较优势的行业增多了,特别是高技术含量行业的比较优势上升了而分离了国际分割生产导致的贸易后,我国制造业的出口比较优势明显下降。此外,本文提出了进一步发展我国制造业比较优势的对策。     

农民住房财产权抵押的实现路径及影响因素研究

研究目的:以全国33个宅基地制度改革试点地区为研究对象,探析农民住房财产权抵押贷款的实现路径和关键影响因素,为政策推广提供经验借鉴。研究方法:模糊集定性比较分析(fsQCA)。研究结果:农民住房财产权抵押的实现在不同地区均是多个不同条件共同作用引致的结果,具体可归纳为金融推动型、政府主导型、服务市场型3种路径;实际路径的形成和各地宅基地流转的市场基础及改革的历史探索紧密相关;其中,农村集体建设用地基准地价、流转范围是最具有普遍性的影响因素,抵押担保和“房地一体”登记之间则存在明显的替代关系。研究结论:农民住房财产权抵押的实现应从激活流转市场、因地制宜采取差异化措施、合理发挥政府和市场作用方面完善政策。     

Investigating the linkage between infrastructure and regional development in India: era of planning to globalisation

The paper tries to find out the role played by economic and social infrastructure facilities in economic development across Indian states over the last quarter century. Infrastructure services have been indexed with the help of principal component analysis. Both parametric and non-parametric estimates are done to assess per capita income disparity. A comparative static framework is developed for testing the nature of movement of the development trajectory in income infrastructure plane over different time spans. The findings are statistically very significant to warrant new regional policies under the overall framework of globalisation in order to remove rising regional disparities in both infrastructure and income. This has a strong bearing on the success of poverty removal policies under globalisation as the poor are regionally concentrated in such diverse and heterogeneous country.     

中国新疆喀什与周边主要国家相对比较优势分析

本文依据要素禀赋理论,采用劳动生产率、产业相似系数、专业化系数、区位商和商品出口竞争力指数等分析指标,对喀什地区与周边主要国家的劳动生产率、三次产业相似度和专业化程度及各国商品的出口竞争力进行了分析,综合反映了喀什地区相对于周边主要国家的相对比较优势,对喀什的外向型经济发展具有一定的指导意义。     

Thinking on Playing the Advantage of the Trust to Guide the Private Capital Investment

扩大和引导民间投资,完善和落实促进民间投资的相关政策,已成为国内经济改革的热点问题。对于可以横跨货币市场、资本市场和产业经济的信托行业,如何引导民间资本投入到国家鼓励发展的产业和实体经济中去？本文首先分析了民间投资尚未启动的深层次原因,结合信托的制度优势分析,就信托公司如何充分发挥投融资平台的功能优势,把民间资本引入国家鼓励行业或产业提出相关政策建议。