Impacts of Australia’s free trade agreements on trade in agricultural products: an aggregative and disaggregative analysis

The importance of free trade agreements (FTAs) has been increasing as such agreements help reduce barriers to trade. This paper estimates the agricultural trade creation and export diversion effects of Australia’s free trade agreements (FTAs) at the aggregate and disaggregate levels, using the Poisson pseudo‐maximum‐likelihood (PPML) estimator. It includes 24 of Australia’s major trading partner countries comprising FTA and non‐FTA members and covers 22 years from 1996 to 2017. The heteroscedasticity robust regression error specification test (RESET) confirms the relevance of PPML over the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) estimator. Results showed that China–Australia, Korea–Australia, Australia–USA and Japan–Australia have larger trade creation effects in the agricultural sector. At the commodity level, variation in trade creation effects is estimated from the different trade agreements. Among the selected commodities, the larger effects were generated in trade in sugar and wine by the implementation of the majority of the trade agreements. Overall, the trade creation was greater than the export diversion of the FTAs. The findings of the study have implications for Australia’s future trade agreements.     

The restructuring of Italian agriculture and its impact upon capital–labour relations: Labour contracting and exploitation in the fresh fruit and vegetable supply chain of the Lazio Region,Central Italy

Labour contracting is anywhere on the rise globally, even in fully developed capitalist countries. Far from being an anomaly in the smooth everyday functioning of the economy, contractors are a crucial node in facilitating and ensuring global capital's control over local labour regimes. This article uses a global value chain perspective to investigate the re‐emergence of gangmasters and gang labour in the agricultural sector of Lazio, Central Italy. It analyses the fruit and vegetable supply chain formation and configuration in the Lazio Region with the aim of identifying the underlying processes leading to the creation of gangmasters by capital to have a cheap and disposable, especially migrant, labour force. It also intends to give a more nuanced understanding of labour contracting in this context.     

Shifting frontier dynamics in Latin America

The concepts of resource frontier and commodity frontier are often treated interchangeably. This article suggests the benefits of clarifying these concepts because frontiers remain important analytics for understanding drastic land‐use changes and other socio‐environmental transformations. Based on long‐term field research in different parts of South and Central America, we use frontier concepts as heuristic devices to analyze heterogeneous frontier situations and make broader generalizations. Our synchronic and diachronic analyses of frontier dynamics elucidate different frontier modalities and shifting frontier expansions. The concept of commoditizing resource frontier is introduced to explain recent frontier‐makings in Brazilian Amazonia and Cerrado and in the Nicaraguan Río San Juan. Although earlier frontier research took a short‐term time perspective and created conceptualizations based on a single modality of a particular period, our longitudinal analysis shows that drastic changes and complex overlappings are the hallmarks of frontier dynamics.     

When natural resources run out,market knowledge steps in: Lessons on natural resource deployment from a longitudinal study in a resource-scarce region of Ethiopia

With the increasing scarcity of natural resources, the ability to maintain quality standards during resource-scarce times becomes more critical for business performance. Theories on managing resource scarcity cannot be easily tested in contexts where resources are still abundant. This study therefore turns to an emerging market context in which natural resource availability naturally varies strongly between seasons, namely, that of Ethiopian pastoralists who for many generations learned to adapt to natural resource scarcity. Central to our theory is the natural resource deployment capability, which is the ability of a business to make efficient and effective use of available resources to maintain business performance during resource-scarce times. Using three-wave longitudinal data from 120 pastoral family-based livestock businesses, the study shows that when resources are scarce or extremely scarce, market knowledge helps to better deploy the scarce natural resources, leading to higher product quality. The findings imply that businesses with a better understanding of markets have stronger natural resource deployment capability. The lesson for businesses that are confronted with approaching resource scarcity is therefore to strengthen their ability to deploy resources efficiently and effectively by strengthening their market knowledge in which such capability is rooted.     

线性文化遗产的特征及其对旅游利用模式的影响——基于《世界遗产名录》的统计分析

线性文化遗产是一种特殊的遗产类型,随着人们对遗产完整性不断深入的理解以及遗产活化利用理念的发展,线性文化遗产旅游的重要性日益显现。因此,树立线性文化遗产意识,把握线性文化遗产特征,是推进线性文化遗产旅游利用和可持续发展的重要问题。本文以《世界遗产名录》中收录的线性文化遗产为基础数据,对线性文化遗产的类别与列入标准、资源组合模式和核心区与缓冲区等典型特征进行深入分析,并从旅游空间演化和旅游活化路径两方面总结其对旅游利用模式的影响,以期为线性文化遗产旅游的可持续发展提供科学参考。研究结果表明,线性文化遗产旅游空间结构发展过程遵循“增长极”演化规律,并在遗产文化分层上表现出不同的利用方式和活化路径。     

领导干部自然资源资产离任审计与企业绿色并购——来自中国重污染型上市公司的经验证据

基于2011~2017年我国A股重污染型上市公司经验数据，实证检验了领导干部自然资源资产离任审计对企业绿色并购行为的影响，研究发现：领导干部自然资源资产离任审计可显著促进辖区内企业实施绿色并购；而当地区市场竞争程度越高时，越会抑制企业在领导干部自然资源资产离任审计试点实施背景下的绿色并购扩张行为；进一步地，企业绿色并购会显著提高企业价值，且这一影响对并购后当年的企业价值影响最为显著；基于异质性分析方面，领导干部自然资源资产离任审计会约束不同产权性质企业的环境治理行为，促进其采取绿色并购，实施绿色发展；同时领导干部自然资源资产离任审计会更有利于东部地区企业实施绿色并购，而对中西部地区的企业影响不明显。     

基于DEA的传统农耕地区农业生产效率测度*——以皖北为例

［目的］农业生产效率是衡量农业生产的重要标准，其生产效率测度结果对研究区域农业经济发展具有重要意义。［方法］文章以皖北农耕地区为研究对象，通过采集2017年统计年鉴的相关数据，构建农业生产绩效评价指标体系，并引入虚拟决策单元，运用数据包络分析（DEA）方法，从自评和他评的角度对2017年皖北各县级单元的农业经济生产效率进行测度，并基于结果的迥异进行效率、冗余及空间分异的分析。［结果］皖北地区农业生产整体效率较低，呈现出粗放式的农业生产模式； 各种投入要素配置不尽合理，皆存在不同程度上的冗余，整体上看塑料薄膜冗余最高、化肥施用的冗余最低； 空间分异显著，南北表现为由北向南逐渐降低的“S”型趋势、东西呈现出两端高中间低的扁平状“v”型空间分异特征。［结论］粗放式的农业生产导致了皖北农业生产效率整体较低，应完善生产要素配置，大力推进农业现代化建设，促进皖北地区农业整体性协调发展，提升地区农业生产效率。     

农牧户生计资本对农畜产品销售渠道选择影响研究

[目的]优化农畜产品销售渠道,提高农牧民收入,是乡村振兴战略不可或缺的实施路径。文章通过对内蒙古农牧户生计资本进行测算与分析,探究不同生计类型农牧户生计资本与其农畜产品销售渠道选择间的互馈关系,精准识别不同类型农牧户选择销售渠道的影响因素,旨在优化民族地区乡村农畜产品流通渠道,助力民族地区乡村振兴。[方法]文章基于可持续生计理论(DFID),以微观农牧户视角,从自然资本、人力资本、物质资本、金融资本、社会资本5个维度,运用农牧户生计量化法和模糊层次分析法(FAHP)、Multivariate Logistic模型、多元线性回归实证研究。[结果](1)不同类型农牧户生计资本存量具有显著差异,生计资本由高到低排序为:半农半牧户纯农户纯牧户;(2)农牧户对农畜产品销售渠道选择比例由高到低排序为:中间商、批发市场、零售市场、合作社、订单销售、超市直供,传统卖给中间商依然是内蒙古地区农畜产品流通渠道的主要模式,且不同销售渠道之间存在互补与竞争关系;(3)农牧户生计资本对其选择销售渠道具有显著影响,影响力由高到低排序为:人力资本自然资本金融资本社会资本物质资本;(4)不同维度生计资本对不同类型农牧户的农畜产品销售渠道的选择影响程度具有显著差异,影响农牧户选择销售渠道的首要因子是人力资本,影响牧户选择的首要因子是金融资本,影响半农半牧户选择的首要因子是社会资本与人力资本。[结论]该文提出基于农牧户生计资本视角的民族地区乡村农畜产品销售渠道优化对策与建议,一定程度上破解了不同类型农牧户在农畜产品销售渠道选择时遇到的困境。     

自然资源资产全民所有权的实现逻辑及机制完善

研究目的：围绕新时代人民日益增长的美好生活需要，揭示自然资源资产全民所有权的实现逻辑，提出完善全民 所有权实现机制的建议。研究方法：归纳法，演绎法。研究结果：自然资源资产生态属性决定生态产品是自然资源资 产所有权实现的重要内容；全民所有权行使主体直接行使所有权意义上的资源资产管理权利，实现自然资源资产保值 增值；通过自然资源保护和市场交易实现生态产品供给及经济收益最大化，通过公益支出实现公共服务均等化，从而满 足人民日益增长的美好生活需要，构成自然资源资产全民所有权实现的基本逻辑。研究结论：自然资源资产全民所有 权实现，需在改善自然资源资产本底基础上，通过权利赋予、市场流转、收益分配和配套制度建设，为全体公众谋利益。     

Socio-institutional determinants of educational resource efficiency according to the capability approach: An endogenous stochastic frontier analysis

We investigate the role of private and public resources in educational attainments and the socio-institutional determinants of educational resource efficiency in Italy. Following the Sen's capability approach, we consider social capital and the quality of government part of the social conversion factors through which resources can be converted into human capabilities, such as education. We analyze the case of Italy by constructing a new longitudinal dataset from 1993 to 2012, using repeated cross sections from the main social survey of the Italian Statistical Institute and a panel stochastic frontier model that takes into account endogeneity. The results show the relative importance of private resources (measured by an ad hoc constructed wealth index), the complementarity between private wealth and public expenditures on education, and the positive impact of social capital and the quality of government on educational resource efficiency.