The impact of farmland property rights security on the farmland investment in rural China

This paper aims to estimate the effect of the security of farmland property rights on land-attached and long-term investment. Based on the data from a nationally representative sample with 5887 plots of 1175 households among 5 provinces in rural China, we adopt Probit, Ordinary Least Squares / Tobit, and the household fixed effect methods to yield the consistent results. The results show that the security of farmland property rights have significant and positive effects on the possibility and amount of the overall farmland investment. However, it has different effects on the different types of investments. The share of farmland retained significantly affects the investments in soil quality improvement and changing use of the plots but does not affect the investment in water conservancy facilities. The types of farmland property rights affect investments in water conservancy facilities and changing use of plots, but do not affect investment in soil quality improvement. The findings imply that the Chinese government should be the principal investor in water conservancy facilities and enlarge the operational scale of farmland by facilitating farmland transfer to increase private investment.     

Finance,institutions, and innovation activities in China

Using novel firm-level micro-panel data in China from 2000 to 2009 and data on institutional factors, we study which funding sources effectively finance firm innovation activities in China and how the effectiveness of funding sources varies according to the quality of institutions. We show that institutional factors impact the effectiveness of each funding source in different ways. First, when property rights are better protected against the risk of expropriation by the government, internal financing from net profit—namely, the reinvestment of profit—is more important in financing firm innovation activities. Second, as contracts are enforced more reliably, trade credit finance and bank finance play larger roles in financing firm innovation activities.     

Research on a diagnostic system of rural vitalization based on development elements in China

In 2017, the Chinese government implemented a national strategy of "Rural Vitalization" that sought to realize full-scale rural vitalization. However, is it possible to achieve vitalization for all the villages in China? How should their development potential be determined? This paper identified and analyzed the "element-composite" messages of rural development based on 99 exemplary sites of “Beautiful Villages” in China. Combined with the projection pursuit classification method, a diagnostic system of rural vitalization was established; then, Dehua County was taken as a case study for an in-depth analysis. Based on national data analysis, the final results indicated that livelihood resources (LR), agglomeration effects (AE), location and transportation (LT), cultural/natural landscapes (CN), and economic circumstance (EC) are essential elements for successful rural development. Additionally, EC was the only exogenous element, while the remaining elements were endogenous. Furthermore, the villages with better EC presented urbanization rates of 38∼82 % and Engel coefficients of 29∼41 % in their counties; exemplary sites lacking LR, CN, LT, and AE account for 13.13 %, 19.19 %, 26.26 %, and 60.61 % respectively, so the indispensability of these elements decreases progressively in sequence. Only 2 % of villages rely on single element for success, therefore, the composite pattern of development element was also critical; 10 out of 16 types were found to successfully facilitate village development, among which, the type of R-a-L-C (32.32 %) and R-A-L-C (15.15 %) were considered as the greatest potential patterns for vitalization. Finally, by means of the diagnostic system, the ratio of representative villages for high-low potential in Dehua County is evenly split; then, development paths, and land use policies that match with paths were proposed, on the basis of development potential and “element-composite” condition of themselves.     

Labor migration and the decoupling of the crop-livestock system in a rural mountainous area: Evidence from Chongqing,China

Massive out-migration of rural labor force brings both challenges and opportunities to crop-livestock integrated production system (crop-livestock system) in smallholder economy. Compared with previous researches that have paid major attention to the effect of labor migration on either crop production or livestock husbandry, this study considers the mediating role of crop production in predicting the effect of labor migration on livestock raising. Our econometric estimation based on a 2012 survey of 974 rural households in Chongqing, a mountainous region of China, showed the following. (1) The massive migration of rural labor force had led to significant increase in farmland abandonment and considerable changes in the pattern of livestock raising. (2) The livestock raising number per household began to differentiate, with the livestock system separating from the traditional crop-livestock system and becoming a specialized business. (3) In terms of the pathways through which rural labor migration exerts impact on livestock raising number, though the increased opportunity costs of rural labor greatly reduced farmers’ willingness to raise livestock, the decoupling of the crop-livestock system partly alleviated the declining trend in the livestock raising number because of the availability of household labor force freed from cropping via farmland abandonment. These findings have important policy implications for rural development and agricultural restructuring in mountainous areas of China, and provide references for other developing countries.     

Does computer penetration increase farmers’ income? An empirical study from China

The diffusion and adoption of modern information technology provide new chance for China to close urban-rural income gap. This paper uses China's provincial panel data from 2002 to 2013 to investigate the effect of computer penetration on rural residents' income. A public program aiming to connect every village with broadband Internet and other rural facilities provides plausibly exogenous variation in rural residents' availability and adoption of the broadband Internet, which is used to explore the instrument variable for rural computer penetration. The results show that rural computer penetration tends to increase rural residents' income over time, but the average effect remains limited. The dynamic panel threshold effects model, which allows for both the threshold variable and other covariates to be endogenous, is further used to explore the constraints of the income-increase effect of rural computer penetration. It shows that the effect is at least doubled over the average effect estimated from instrument variables method, once the digital divide causes are removed. Our findings have important implications for the government to increase rural residents' income and reduce urban-rural income gap by encouraging rural computer usage and removing the digital divide.     

Relationship between city size and firm productivity – A new interpretation using the Chinese experience

This paper contributes to the literature on the relationship between city size and firm productivity by focusing on agglomeration, selection (market competition), and sorting (presence of firms with diverse productivity) effects using Chinese firm-level data for 1998–2013. Contrary to the existing literature, our parametric regression estimates from nearly two million firms show that when the selection effect is controlled, productivity advantage in big cities is reversed. This outcome is explained through a quantile regression showing the existence of left-sided sorting (inefficient firms sort themselves to larger cities) in big cities which is not captured in existing empirical literature. We further find that (1) left-sided sorting is stronger in exporters than non-exporters; (2) is also generated mainly in enterprises with high asset-liability ratios; and (3) selection has a positive effect on firm productivity, suggesting that market competition is key in an explanation of the rapid growth of big cities in China.     

乡村集体经济发展的全面振兴价值与实践途径——以福建省南安市蓉中村为例

乡村振兴是时代的使命,乡村振兴的基础是经济的振兴,关键是新时代理念下的集体经济发展。只有集体经济发展了,才能充分体现社会主义农村经济制度的优越性,适应乡村全面振兴的要求,为乡村基层组织提高引领力、组织力和战斗力奠定基础;为乡村经济、政治、文化与环境全面协调发展提供支撑,为乡村居民实现美好生活建立基本保障。而乡村集体经济发展的重要途径在于始终坚持习近平总书记提出的具有普遍指导意义的"晋江经验";在于坚持因地制宜地选择产业、依托龙头企业,在城乡统筹中走抱团发展之路;在于坚持辩证统一观念下的"口袋"与"脑袋"、经济与社会、内涵发展与外在协作的协调与推动。     

A study on the deployment of high-speed broadband networks in NUTS3 regions within the framework of digital agenda for Europe

This paper investigates the high-speed broadband situation in the EU and its prospects. It uses a deployment model to estimate the investment required to meet the Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE) broadband targets set by the European Commission in its Europe 2020 strategy at different stages: as of 2016, after expected operators’ deployment, after public subsidies and leveraged investment, and as expected in 2020. The model uses data at the NUTS3 level, which is the most granular level that has data available on the status of broadband deployment, to arrive at a coherent and comparable framework. From the different perspectives on the investment to meet DAE targets, the paper concludes on the need for an appropriate combination of incumbent and alternative operators investments, public subsidies and leveraged investments, and new investments, both public and private and non-existing as of 2016, examining their feasibility and the impact of different regulatory, technical, and policy strategies.     

Transformations of the Romanian agricultural paradigm under domestic economic policy reforms: An analysis during 1960–2011

The main aim of this paper is to investigate the transformations of the Romanian agricultural paradigm under the domestic economic policy reforms. An econometric approach is adopted by analyzing the evolution of Romanian agriculture between 1960 and 2011 from the perspective of its implications on residential land economy. This methodological choice relies on its high degree of applicability and its ability to reveal the massive transformation of the Romanian agricultural paradigm during the period under focus. Two regression models have been developed in the attempt to analyze the evolution of total value added and labor productivity in agriculture. The results obtained during the research confirm that Romanian agriculture exhibits determinant and significant elements able to trigger a massive change of paradigm.     

石油金融：融合态势与中国发展战略

随着现代经济的发展,石油与金融的结合越来越紧,石油金融化趋势日益凸显。因此,为应对国际石油价格的未来走势,保障中国金融体系和中国经济的安全和长期稳定发展,中国迫切需要制定石油金融体系。新形势下中国石油金融体系构建的战略取向为：多层次构建石油交易市场体系;多渠道营造石油银行系统;多途径形成石油基金组合;多方位灵活运用石油外汇等。