China's Fiscal Decentralization and Regional Economic Growth

The present paper applies Lucas's theory of endogenous growth and Stiglitz's theory of local public goods to build an econometric model consisting of five simultaneous equations to study China's fiscal decentralization effects on regional economic growth. The model is estimated by two‐stage least squares using a set of panel data on 31 Chinese provinces during 1996–2005. The estimated results show that China's fiscal decentralization increased the local governments' expenditure on physical infrastructure and education, which led to the rising local physical capital stock and human capital levels, respectively, and then resulted in the growth of regional economies.     

区域经济增长区际差异、制度绩效及其测定

制度转型时期区域经济增长中的制度内生性及制度资源在地域分布上的非均衡性对区域经济增长差异产生影响.本文定性分析经济增长中的区际差异与制度绩效,围绕如何从区域经济增长的区际差异中甑别制度差异,提出了评价相应绩效的方法,并以一个县域经济为实例进行了实例分析.     

Labor Force Participation and Educational Attainment in the United States

The objectives of this paper are twofold. Aggregate labor force participation rates in the United States are described focusing on educational attainment. A model is developed for decomposing aggregate labor force participation rates for men and women from 1994 to 2014 from a unique perspective by focusing on changes in educational attainment and on changes in the labor force behavior. The findings presented here indicate that men’s aggregate labor force participation rates declined during the 20-year period at all levels of educational attainment, due primarily to changes in population shares. A different picture emerges regarding women. For women with high school or some college or associate degree, it was changes in labor force behavior that dominated changing aggregate labor force participation rates. For women with the lowest and highest levels of educational attainment, less than high school or at least a baccalaureate degree, it was changes in their population shares that drove changes in aggregate labor force participation rates.     

Spatial dynamics and convergence: The spatial AK model

We study the optimal dynamics of an AK economy where population is uniformly distributed along the unit circle. Locations only differ in initial capital endowments. Spatio-temporal capital dynamics are described by a parabolic partial differential equation. The application of the maximum principle leads to necessary but non-sufficient first-order conditions. Thanks to the linearity of the production technology and the special spatial setting considered, the value function of the problem is found explicitly, and the (unique) optimal control is identified in feedback form. Despite constant returns to capital, we prove that the spatio-temporal dynamics, induced by the willingness of the planner to give the same (detrended) consumption over space and time, lead to convergence in the level of capital across locations in the long-run.     

Viewpoint: From cities to productivity and growth in developing countries

Abstract.  This paper reviews the evidence about the effects of urbanization and cities on productivity and economic growth in developing countries using a consistent theoretical framework. As in developed economies, there is strong evidence that cities in developing countries bolster productive efficiency. Regarding whether cities promote self-sustained growth, the evidence is suggestive but ultimately inconclusive. These findings imply that the traditional agenda of aiming to raise within-city efficiency should be continued. Furthermore, reducing the obstacles to the reallocation of factors across cities is also desirable.     

International Inequality and Convergence in Educational Attainment, 1960–1990

The paper examines the international inequality and convergence of educational attainment from 1960 to 1990. Despite the increasing trend in educational attainment, the gap in educational attainment between the developing countries and developed countries and that between males and females increased in the period. However, the relative dispersion of educational attainment—as measured by the coefficient of variation, the Gini coefficient, or the standard deviation of log average years of schooling—declined consistently during the period by either development or gender status. Decompositions of the Gini coefficient indicate that the development gap and the gender gap were the main components for world inequality in educational attainment in both 1960 and 1990. Educational attainment exhibited b - and s -convergence over the period.     

Technology adoption, convergence, and divergence

A new mechanism to explain simultaneous convergence among industrialized countries and divergence between these countries and the rest of the world is presented. Specifically, the adoption of technologies, as embodied in machines, is examined in the context of a world in which capital goods are produced in a few centers and then exported. Since the local cost of introducing machines varies from region to region, technology is not adopted everywhere, and when it is adopted, its intensity varies from place to place. Technological progress diminishes the differences within the group of countries that adopt technologies but increases the gap between those countries and the rest of the world. The model is applied to cases of investment costs generated by deficient institutions and to transport costs. Its predictions are supported by recent research.     

The extent of the market and stages of agricultural specialization

Abstract This paper provides empirical evidence of an U‐shaped causal relationship between the extent of the market (size of the relevant urban market) and the pattern of crop specialization in a village economy. We use the recent two‐stage estimator developed by Lewbel (2012) and exploit heteroscedasticity for identification. The results suggest that the portfolio of crops in a village economy becomes more diversified initially as the extent of the market increases. However, after the market size reaches a threshold, the production structure starts to specialize again. This evidence on the stages of agricultural diversification is consistent with the stages of diversification identified in the recent literature for the economy as a whole and also for the manufacturing sector.     

Gender Empowerment and Educational Attainment of US Immigrants and Their Home-Country Counterparts

This paper examines the educational self-selection of immigrants to the United States across forty-two countries of origin and analyzes determinants of selectivity, including home-country gender status (as measured by the United Nations’ Gender Empowerment Measure [GEM]). Measuring educational self-selection, the study uses data from the 2006 American Community Survey and the 2000 and 2014 Barro–Lee Educational Attainment Measure to construct the Net Difference Index between immigrants and nonmigrants. It compares the educational attainment difference between immigrants and nonmigrants who remain in the home country and demonstrates that immigrants to the US are more educated than their home-country counterparts across all immigrant groups (positive selection). Regression results further indicate that higher gender inequality in the home country influences more highly educated women to migrate. The paper also confirms that higher migration costs and lower income inequality in the home country influence more highly educated individuals to migrate.     

Urban growth and uninsured rural risk: Booming towns in bust times

Rapid urbanization also happens when economic growth and urban job creation are absent, such as in Africa and Latin America during the eighties. Why do some countries urbanize faster while having worse economic growth? This paper finds that higher aggregate agricultural risk induces rural-urban migration, providing an additional channel to explain the urbanization trend. Uninsurable expected risk will lead to rural-urban migration as a form of ex-ante insurance if households are liquidity constrained and cannot overcome adverse shocks. The effect is robust to controlling for the traditional view of urbanization driven by industrialization, and to several alternative explanations such as government spending.     

Regional technical efficiency and technology gaps in rural China: evidence from CHIP surveys

This paper uses household-level datasets called Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP) surveys to investigate the regional technical efficiency, technology gap, and their determinants in rural China. A metafrontier production function approach is employed to fit the values of the technical efficiency and the technology gap ratio of rural households in six regions of China. The findings indicate that the technical efficiency improved remarkably from 1988 to 2002, but the technology gap ratio among regions changed slightly in the same period. The findings also show a negative relationship between the technology gap ratio and the regional technical efficiency for all regions except the northwest that has the lowest value of both the technical efficiency and the technology gap ratio. Next, the Tobit model is employed to discern the sources of efficiency and technology gaps. The results show that quality of agricultural labor, agricultural infrastructure, natural conditions, and farmer's political status have significant effects on farms' technical efficiency and technology gap ratio.     

区域优性文化与区域经济发展

本文深入分析了区域优性文化的内涵及其对区域经济发展的作用机理，揭示了区域优性文化的资源优化整合效应，并以硅谷模式和温州模式为例，阐明了区域优性文化对区域企业成长的作用力。为了促进区域经济发展，建设有利于区域企业“快生”、“长大”、“做强”的优性文化环境，关键在于实现五个方面的文化观念转变。     

教育均衡与中国区域间收入分配

本文利用受教育年限、人力资本及个人收入之间的关系,对省区间教育均衡性进行研究,分析教育均衡对个人收入影响的相关关系,结论表明:我国各省区间教育差距与人力资本存量呈负相关关系,但受教育总体水平有向均衡发展的趋势。以此,政府应加大对落后地区的投入,提高这类地区的人力资本存量,以促进各地区教育的均衡发展、缩小区域间的收入差距。     

R&D投入、技术创新能力与企业经济绩效间关系的实证分析

以浙江省312家制造企业为研究对象,采用回归分析方法,对企业R&D投入、技术创新能力与经济绩效之间的关系进行了研究。结果表明:R&D投入与企业经济绩效显著正相关;新产品产出能力和发明专利申请量在R&D投入与企业经济绩效之间起部分中介作用,其中新产品产出能力的中介效应明显高于发明专利;尽管R&D投入对实用新型专利和外观设计专利的申请量有显著的促进作用,但这两类专利申请量并不是R&D投入与企业经济绩效间关系的中介变量。     

Explaining the variation in household recycling rates across the UK

Household waste recycling rates vary significantly both across and within regions of the UK. This paper attempts to explain the variation by using a new data set of waste recycling rates and policy determinants for all of the UK's 434 local authorities over the period 2006Q2 to 2008Q4. Our results suggest that the method of recycling collection chosen by policy makers is an important factor influencing the recycling rate. We also find an inverse relationship between the frequency of the residual waste collection and the recycling rate.     

关于地域文化与区域经济发展问题的几点思考

区域经济是地域文化发展的基础,而地域文化叉影响和制约着区域经济的发展。促进区域经济文化的良性互动和协调发展,发挥文化对经济发展的内在驱动力,对振兴地方经济、繁荣文化无疑颇具现实意义。     

生产性服务业集聚与城市经济绩效——基于行业和地区异质性视角的分析

文章从行业和地区异质性视角入手,基于2003-2012年城市面板数据,运用门槛面板模型检验生产性服务业集聚与城市经济效率的关系.结果表明:高端生产性服务业集聚对城市经济效率具有显著的促进作用,且这种作用取决于城市规模;经济总量跨越了门槛的城市可以从高端生产性服务业与大城市的知识溢出效应及更好的上下游关联产业匹配中提高效率,城市经济总量越大,集聚效益越显著;而低端生产性服务业集聚对城市经济效率的影响在总体上并不显著,随经济体量的扩大呈现倒U形变化.此结果意味着不同等级的城市适合发展不同层次的生产性服务业,经济较发达的大城市需要鼓励高端生产性服务业集聚发展,而经济规模较小的城市应避免盲目追求产业结构的高级化.     

The unbalanced growth hypothesis and the role of the state: The case of China's state-owned enterprises

Albert Hirschman's unbalanced growth hypothesis suggests that a developing economy can promote economic growth by initially investing in industries with high backward and forward linkages. In the case of Chinese economic policy today, one application would be the continued presence of the state in high-linkage sectors and the strategic withdrawal of the state from low-linkage sectors. The evidence shows that while the degree of linkage plays an important role in generating economic growth in China, province-specific withdrawal strategies for the state sector have no effect on economic growth.