Sources of Sectoral Growth in an Economy Wide Context: The Case of U.S. Agriculture

Growth in U.S. agriculture is linked to the non-farm economy through domestic terms of trade and factor market adjustments. With almost stable input growth, the relatively large contributions from growth in Total Factor Productivity (TFP) are passed on to intermediate and final consumers in the form of declining real prices for primary farm products. The resulting net growth in the real value of farm output (GDP) is relatively low (0.25% per annum). The decomposition of TFP suggests that public agricultural stock of knowledge and infrastructure are robustly associated with TFP growth, while spill-overs from private agricultural and economy wide research and development (R and D) are positive but, relatively small.     

Dating Business Cycles: A Methodological Contribution with an Application to the Euro Area

This paper proposes a dating algorithm based on an appropriately defined Markov chain that enforces alternation of peaks and troughs, and duration constraints concerning the phases and the full cycle. The algorithm, which implements Harding and Pagan's non‐parametric dating methodology, allows an assessment of the uncertainty of the estimated turning points caused by filtering and can be used to construct indices of business cycle diffusion, aiming at assessing how widespread are cyclical movements throughout the economy. Its adaptation to the notion of a deviation cycle and the imposition of depth constraints are also discussed. We illustrate the algorithm with reference to the issue of dating the euro‐area business cycle and analysing its characteristics, both from the classical and the growth cycle perspectives.     

Determinants of Entry in an Emerging Economy: A Multilevel Approach

The dynamics of the world economy and global competition patterns are encouraging multinational enterprises (MNEs) to expand into emerging economies. This study validates the proposition that entry mode selection in an emerging economy is influenced by situational contingencies at four levels: nation, industry, firm, and project. Analysis of data collected from China suggests that the joint venture is preferred when perceived governmental intervention or environmental uncertainty is high or host country experience is low. The wholly-owned entry mode is preferred when intellectual property rights are not well protected, the number of firms in the industry is growing fast, the need for global integration is high, or the project is located in an open economic region. The importance of these multilevel determinants requires simultaneous and inseparable considerations of the risk, return, control, and resource effects of the entry mode decision. This necessitates a theoretical integration of multiple perspectives such as transaction cost, the eclectic paradigm, bargaining power, and organizational capability.     

An Income Tax Increase to Fund Higher Education: A CGE Analysis for Chile

An increase in income taxes to fund education was one of the demands made by the social movements that emerged in Chile in 2011. Currently, the Chilean Congress is enacting a tax reform to raise money for higher education. This study aims to show the dynamic effects on the general equilibrium of the Chilean economy under two alternative approaches: a subsidy to lower the price of higher education (public and private), and greater spending on public higher education to reduce household payments for education. The social accounting matrix (SAM) used to calibrate the computable general equilibrium (CGE) model has 38 economic sectors, including the production structure of private education and public education. The study mainly concludes that a subsidy policy has significant advantages over increasing higher public education spending, regarding its effects on variables such as GDP, investment, and household incomes, while both policies have a similar effect on poverty and income distribution.     

人力资本对经济增长影响的结构分析

研究经济增长中人力资本作用机制仅考虑数量因素是不够的,结构因素不容忽视。本文尝试把结构因素引入人力资本分析框架,认为人力资本投资本质也是投资主体的需求决策过程,存在着类似于马斯洛式层次结构关系,提出了基于不同投资层次下的4种人力资本结构类型的理论假说。在此基础上运用1992～2003年省面板数据进行了实证检验,结果表明,人力资本的投入对我国经济增长虽具显著意义,但作用机制并不很强,人力资本存量不足和结构层次低下是其直接因素,而人力资本结构因素对沿海与内地发展差距更具深层解释力。     

Defining and Measuring Competences: An Application to Graduate Surveys

In this article, we review the competence concept and apply it to the measurement of competences in graduate surveys. The relevant literature reveals that three important perspectives on the meaning and operationalisation of competences may be distinguished: The educational perspective, the labour market perspective and the human resources perspective. The second part of the article is concerned with the measurement of competences in the context of labour market research using graduate surveys. Using the insights obtained from the literature, competences are defined and a measurement method is chosen. Empirical evidence suggests that this measurement method performs better than previously used measurement methodologies.     

Measuring efficiency in Australian Schools: A preliminary analysis

In this paper, we apply a public sector Data Envelopment Analysis model to estimate the efficiency of Australian primary and secondary schools. Standard microeconomic production theory showing the transformation of inputs into outputs is extended to allow nondiscretionary environmental variables characteristic of educational production. Failure to properly control for the socioeconomic environment leads to inappropriate comparisons and biased efficiency estimates. We employ a conditional estimator that does not allow a school with a better environment to serve as a benchmark for a school with a worse environment. The results suggest that Australian schools are moderately inefficient and that efficiency increases for the quintile of schools with the most favorable environment. Further, efficiency gains are realized with increasing enrollment.     

A Political Economy Approach to the Neoclassical Model of Transition

The neoclassical model of transition from a centrally-administered socialist economic system to a market-based economic system was implemented in Russia and Eastern Europe. The neoclassical process took the form of either shock therapy or gradualism. However, each approach actually involved a combination of shock therapy and gradualist policies, making the distinction between the two approaches unfounded. In addition, both approaches suffered by the innate inadequacies of neoclassical economic analysis as being politically/institutionally naked. Both shock therapy supporters and gradualist neoclassical economists did not provide a specific process of institutional development, favouring a gradual market-driven institutional outcome. With regard to the political structure, democracy was inconsistent with shock therapy, while active state intervention during transition was inconsistent with the ultimate goal of the gradualist neoclassical economists of competitive capitalism.     

An Application of an Integrated Transport Network– Multiregional CGE Model: a Framework for the Economic Analysis of Highway Projects

This paper develops a framework for the economic analysis of highway projects that is then used to estimate the dynamic economic effects of a highway project on the economic growth and the regional disparity in Korea. The framework is composed of a transport model and a multiregional Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model. The transport model measures a change in interregional shortest distances and the accessibility due to the highway project. The CGE model estimates the spatial economic effects of the project on GDP, the price, exports, and the regional distribution of wages and population. The simulation allows policy makers to determine which highway development deserves the priority for investment, based on consideration of economic growth and regional economic equity in the long run. The simulation found that all the highway projects have positive effects on GDP and export growth as well as regional equity in terms of wage and population.     

进出口对经济增长贡献度的测算理论分析

利用GDP支出法测算进出口对经济增长贡献的方法存在局限性。本文从供给和需求角度出发,分析了进口、出口对经济增长产生影响的机理,进而提出了测算进口、出口对经济增长贡献度的基本方法。本文认为,进口、出口影响经济增长的作用机制不同,因而不能在同一计算公式中分解出既包含进口又包含出口对经济增长贡献的部分;测算进口、出口对经济增长的贡献,需要分别采用体现不同作用机理的计算公式。     

A Political Economy Approach to the Neoclassical Gradualist Model of Transition

Abstract.  A political economy approach to the neoclassical gradualist model of transition requires the exposition of what I define the primary elements of the model, which are economic analysis, definition of a good society, speed, political structure, ideological structure and whether the initial conditions were incorporated in the model. After the identification of the primary elements of the neoclassical gradualist model the next step is to identify secondary elements, the desired changes with respect to price liberalization-stabilization, privatization, institutional structure, monetary policy and the financial system, fiscal policy, international trade and foreign aid and social policy. The analytical framework developed makes possible to understand the neoclassical gradualist model from a new and more enlightening perspective. We are better able to comprehend the complexities involved and the disagreements about the reform process. The adoption of a gradual process of transition did not only involve specifying the required policies of a successful transition but also entailed a process, a sequence by which the reforms should be introduced. As such, a process of transition consistent with the policies recommended by the neoclassical gradualists economists is developed. The conclusion reveals the inconsistencies in the model.     

A General Equilibrium Analysis of the Australian Information Economy

The more robust computable general equilibrium (CGE) modelling has been applied to examine the macro-economic implications of promoting the nascent Australian information economy. The Australian information economy has been trichotomized into marketed or primary information, secondary or non-marketed information and non-information economic sectors using a special algorithm. The trichotomized data base has been used in a CGE framework to examine the macro-economic policy implications of information sector development. In particular, the nurturing, under protection, of the primary information sector as a strategic trade sector provided unanticipated lack-lustre results. Overall, it is the contention of this paper that the CGE analysis of the Australian information economy provides richer policy insights than straightforward input–output analytics.     

Research Evaluation Down Under: An Outsider's View from the Inside of the Australian Approach

Australia is currently undertaking its first national evaluation of university research, which is being performed by the Australian Research Council (ARC) at the request of the Australian government. The Australian approach to evaluation has some unique characteristics, especially a focus on evaluating research quantity and quality by the field of the research activity rather than by individual academic or administrative unit. This raises issues of the classification of areas of research, which has already caused controversy for Australian heterodox economists. There is also controversy about the quality rankings of economics journals. This article provides a critical review of the Australian approach to research evaluation and discusses the implications for heterodox economists.     

循环经济:西方国家的经验做法及对中国的启示(上)

资源是社会发展的基础条件.资源供给不足将成为今后社会发展的长期约束条件.随着可持续发展战略的普遍采纳,发达国家正在把发展循环经济、建立循环型社会,作为实现环境与经济协调发展的重要途径.而我国面临的资源约束矛盾日益凸显,大力发展循环经济尤显重要.应借鉴发达国家经验做法,推进我国循环经济发展,从而全面建设和谐社会.     

Hungary on the Road to a Mixed Economy: A Kaleckian Computable General Equilibrium Approach

The change from a centrally planned economy into a market economy is likely to have created a unique situation in economic history. Consequently, no existing economy theory is able to depict the process of transformation. It is argued in this paper that a Kaleckian theoretical approach may provide a starting point for the analysis of the formerly centrally planned economies of Central and Eastern Europe. This approach is applied to Hungary, within the framework of a computable general equilibrium model. A number of policy measures, such as wage constraint, devaluation and mark-up reduction, are considered and their effects on production, inflation and income distribution assessed.     

循环经济:西方国家的经验做法及对中国的启示(二)

三、西方国家的主要经验及其做法　发展循环经济,国情不同,各国的切入点也各异.日本、德国主要是适应本国固体废弃物管理战略转变的需要,因此,日本从资源减量化入手,以建设循环型社会为主旨,德国则从环境保护入手,主要通过建立废弃物资源化的双元系统来发展循环经济.西方国家主要经验做法是：     

A Switching Regime Approach to Measuring the Effects of Technological Change in Ocean Shipping

this study examines the dramatic change in production technology of the U.S. ocean liner shipping industry over the period 1971 through 1982 using panel data on 15 subsidized U.S.-flag liner firms. To estimate the changes in the production function due to the new technology, the switching regime method of Goldfeld and Quandt is applied to a translog variable profit function. Three regimes based on the proportion of the new technology reflected in a firm's fleet are identified. The constant returns to scale fleet size more than doubles across the three regimes.     

Extending the Resource‐Based Approach to Livelihoods: An Urban Application to Turkish Gecekondu Households

This article critically examines the existing conceptualizations of and explanations for the socioeconomic behaviour of poor households in order to lay the foundations of a new model designed to extend the existing resource‐based approach to livelihoods. The proposed model groups ‘household responses to poverty’ into four key types: income generation, income allocation, consumption and investment. In explaining household responses and their poverty outcomes, it focuses on the role of different resources beyond income (e.g. social capital), along with the wider structural forces and household characteristics that influence the availability and benefit delivery capacity of these resources. The new model is shown to provide a theoretically more sophisticated framework with greater explanatory power and empirical applicability.     

Signifying Williamson's Contribution to the Transaction Cost Approach: An Agent‐Based Simulation of Coasean Transaction Costs and Specialization

This article simulates Ronald Coase's transaction cost approach to firm organizing using agent‐based modelling, and contextualizes and contrasts it with a division‐of‐labour/specialization view of the firm that Coase challenged and sought to replace. The simulation tests the firm formation process based on the different implications of transaction costs and specialization as drivers of integration, focusing especially on Coase's rejection of specialization as an explanation for integration in the firm. The results show little support for, and suggest an important shortcoming to, Coase's transaction cost theory. My findings thereby indicate a potential relationship between the specialization theory and Williamson's Transaction Cost Economics, especially the latter's emphasis on co‐specialization through relationship‐specific investments, which helps shed light on TCE's significant influence in the theory of the firm literature.