The role of off-farm employment in the rural energy consumption transition — A village-level analysis in Jiangxi Province, China

Energy consumption in rural areas in China is characterized by high consumption of fuelwood, straw and other biomass. Off-farm employment can play an important role in the transition towards more sustainable sources of energy by increasing rural household incomes and reducing the amount of labor available for biomass collection. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of off-farm employment on rural household energy consumption choices, and to disentangle the various causal relationships that play a role in this respect. To this end, a hybrid farm household/village computable general equilibrium (CGE) model is used that has been calibrated for a remote village in Northeast Jiangxi Province where fuelwood is the main source of energy. The model takes into account nonseparability of farm household production and consumption decisions as well as linkages within the village between households involved in off-farm employment and households with no members working off-farm. Contrary to previous research for a richer region in rural China, we find that fuelwood is not an inferior good. The positive impact of more food consumption on fuelwood collection more than compensates the higher leisure demand associated with higher incomes. Shifts in production activities and in prices on village factor markets caused by increased labour scarcity (the lost-labour effect of off-farm employment), on the other hand, cause a reduction in fuelwood collection and consumption. This lost-labour effect is much stronger for migration than for local off-farm employment, because the latter can more easily be combined with on-farm work and fuelwood collection. For local off-farm employment the income effect dominates the lost-labour effect, resulting in a positive overall impact of higher off-farm participation on fuelwood consumption. For migration, on the other hand, the income effect and the lost-labour effect are almost equal in size. Hence, the amount of fuelwood collected and consumed does not change much when households participate in migration. The final conclusion is therefore that increased off-farm employment opportunities do not promote the transition of rural energy use in the poorer regions of rural China.     

Land rental market, off-farm employment and agricultural production in Southeast China: A plot-level case study

This paper performs a plot-level analysis of the impact of land rental market participation and off-farm employment on land investment, input use, and rice yields for 215 plots cultivated by 52 households in three villages in Northeast Jiangxi Province. Our findings show that households that rent extra land are relatively more productive, but contradict results of earlier studies which found that tenure status of plots affects the level of land investments. We further find that off-farm employment does not significantly affect rice yields. This result contradicts those of earlier studies which found that the negative lost-labor effect of off-farm employment dominates the positive income effect. Another novel finding is that people working locally off-farm tend to switch from green manure planting towards the use of organic manure on their rice plots. We conclude that policies that will further stimulate the development of land rental markets, which is still in its infancy, can contribute significantly to higher rice production in Southeast China. Another implication of our results is that worries about the negative impact that the continuously growing off-farm employment may have on China's goal to remain self-sufficient in grain production are less relevant at the moment for the region examined in our study.     

破解中国就业歧视:基于美国的经验分析

依然处于经济转轨时期的中国,就业歧视业已成为我们不得不面对的一个普遍问题。就业歧视对我国正在构建的和谐社会是一种严重挑战。建立我国的反就业歧视体制,是目前我国亟待加以解决的一件任务。在与就业歧视斗争方面,美国长达45年的经验为我国提供了有益的启示。基于美国的经验与我国国情,我国需要:政府高层对就业歧视问题予以重视、加快反就业歧视立法、建立中央政府反就业歧视专门机构、对就业歧视现象予以严厉处罚,以及向社会广泛宣传有关反就业歧视法律法规。     

The Determinants of Labour-time Allocation between Farm and Off-farm Work in Rural China: the Case of Liaoning Province

This article examines the determinants of the allocation process of labour time between farm and off-farm activities (OFAs) in north-east rural China during the late 1990s. The question is addressed by means of a dedicated fieldwork survey of 450 rural households in a clustering of nine villages in Xinmin County located in Liaoning Province. The econometric methodology consists of deploying a multinomial logit model to track the distribution of OFA employment opportunities. Our results reveal that market forces, rather than overt political connections, are assuming increasing significance, especially for those operating own-account enterprises (OAEs); that birthplace and location remain potent determinants of work destination and earnings capacity; and that being male and single motivates rural inhabitants to seek OFAs to a much greater extent than other household members. These findings have implications for those responsible for framing policy. In particular, a further round of liberalization to favour OFAs is suggested.     

On the measurement of product quality in intra-industry trade: An empirical test for China

A relatively recent development in the intra-industry trade (IIT) literature is the measurement of the simultaneous import and export of quality-differentiated products, commonly known as vertical and horizontal IIT. A recent paper from Azhar and Elliott [Azhar, A. K. M. & Elliott, R. J. R. (2006), On the Measurement of Product Quality in Intra-Industry Trade, Review of World Economics, Vol 142 no 3, pp 476–495] analyses various approaches for disentangling vertical and horizontal IIT and suggests a complementary methodology. To investigate the robustness and sensitivity of the existing approaches we examine data on the nature of trade flows between China and its East Asian neighbours and show that in 2002 China tended to export low quality versions of its manufactured goods to Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.     

The demand for M3 and inflation forecasts: An empirical analysis for Switzerland

The Demand for M3 and Inflation Forecasts: An Empirical Analysis for Switzerland. — This paper argues that money should continue to play an important role in monetary policy even if a central bank pursues a strategy based on inflation forecasts. Within the context of an error correction model, the paper delivers empirical evidence that both the growth rate of the monetary aggregate M3 and the size of excess M3 incorporate useful information with regard to future inflation in Switzerland. This evidence strongly suggests that money should remain an important indicator for monetary policy.     

Economic openness and trade linkages of China: An empirical study of the determinants of chinese trade intensities from 1993 to 1999

In the 1980s, the Chinese regime took a number of piecemeal steps toward economic liberalization. This process accelerated impressively in the 1990s. This paper reports an empirical study into the determinants of the emerging pattern of Chinese trade (export and import) intensities in the liberalization decade by exploring international trade statistics for 1993 and 1999. Four models are estimated that explain the shifts in the export and import intensities of the trade with different trade partners in the 1993–1999 period. The estimation results reveal differences for export vis-à-vis import trade intentities, as well as for 1993 compared to 1999. For example, the political determinants of trade intensities that were still very important in 1993 have been moved to the background by economic explanations in 1999. JEL no. F14     

城乡预防保健服务需求差异及其影响因素:基于中国跨省数据的实证分析

本文采用中国健康与营养调查(CHNS)数据分析2004-2006年间城乡预防保健服务需求状况及其影响因素,以此提出缩小城乡之间与城乡内部预防保健服务差异的政策建议。考虑样本选择性与医疗保险内生性问题,运用probit估计方法,发现城乡居民的预防保健服务需求存在显著差异,但两者差距呈缩小态势;同时,相较于农村内部,城市内部差异更趋于扩大。影响居民的预防保健服务的需求因素中,除预防保健服务费用是否由医疗保险支付这一因素外,在农村主要是供给方因素,如农村的医疗资源供给水平,在城市主要是需求方因素,如个人收入。     

Eastern Germany and the conflict between wage adjustment,investment, and employment: A numerical analysis

Eastern Germany and the Conflict between Wage Adjustment, Investment, and Employment: A Numerical Analysis. — In this paper, some light is shed on the dynamics of the adjustment process in eastern Germany by studying the linkages between the dynamics of wage adjustment, investment, and employment. An extended dynamic investment model, which includes adjustment costs for capital and revision costs for investment, is presented. This model is specified according to the east German economy and analyzed numerically by an optimization method based on direct collocation. Results are obtained for the time horizon of adjustment and for the implications of different wage strategies on the path of investment and employment.     

中澳两国促进中小企业发展与创新的产业政策比较研究

在阐述中澳两国SMEs发展的一般政策背景,并从融资、技术、市场、集群及管理服务五个方面考察中澳两国促进SMEs发展与创新的产业政策的基础上,比较了这些政策,发现澳大利亚在这五个方面基本上有值得中国学习与借鉴的政策经验。     

Multinational enterprises, regional economic integration, and export-platform production in the host countries: An empirical analysis for the US and Japanese corporations

Multinational Enterprises, Regional Economic Integration and Export-Platform Production in the Host Countries: An Empirical Analysis for the US and Japanese Corporations. — This paper analyzes determinants of export orientation of overseas affiliates of US and Japanese MNEs for the 1982–1994 period. The author contends that production geared to MNEs’ home market and that production oriented to third-country markets are determined by different factors. The empirical analysis finds the home-market-oriented production concentrated in countries that offer low-cost workforce, enjoy geographical proximity or preferential access to the home market. The location of third-country-market-oriented exports is influenced more by strategic factors such as participation in regional trading blocs and preferential access to major markets than factor costs considerations.     

Investigation of the “China effect” on crowding out of Japanese FDI: An industry-level analysis (1990–2004)

This paper applies a dynamic panel model to investigate whether China is crowding out Japanese foreign direct investment (FDI) from other economies of Asia. We examined this with industry-level data on Japanese FDI flows into Asian economies. In order to deal with possible problems of serial correlation and endogeneity, we estimated coefficients using a difference and system generalized method of moments to examine the “China effect” on industries. We found a significantly high degree of crowding out effect by China on its Asian counterparts. Among twelve industries, a crowding out effect was found in nine industries, including electrical &; electronics—the biggest industry for Japanese FDI. However, a complementary effect was found in two industries, one of them being transport, which is the second biggest industry for Japanese FDI. We conclude that while China's rise is a prominent threat for the region, it could be transformed into an opportunity in vertically fragmented industries.