Towards an information economy : The case of Singapore

Recent empirical studies have documented the emergence of information-based economies in developed countries within Europe, the U.S.A., Japan, and Australia. Casual observations suggest that the newly industrializing country of Singapore is proceeding towards a similar trend. The primary purpose of this paper is to account for the share of Singapore's national product which originates from informational activities. In particular, we define and estimate the size of Singapore's information sector within an input-output framework. Our results indicated that a sizable portion of Singapore's economy is information-based. In view of the significant penetration of informational activities in economic production, advances in communication technology and concomitant improvements in information-handling capabilities are bound to affect factor productivities and incomes with consequences for a country's pattern of employment and production structure. It is anticipated that an economics of communication becomes necessary for an awareness of communication technology as a choice variable in economic planning. We conclude our discussion with an assessment of the admissability of an information sector concept in economic analysis and the usefulness of empirical studies based on such a concept.     

Planning for the Australian information economy

This study spotlights the inadequacy of the sectoral modeling used hitherto to analyse structural change in Australia. Although the multiplier and key-sector results demonstrate that contemporary Australia is predominantly an industrial economy, in the next decade the growth of the information intensiveness of economic activity or informatization will accelerate. A sectoral model clearly identifying the information sector is proposed to study the implications of the growing information intensiveness of the Australian economy. A methodology to identify the primary information economy or information commodities traded in the market is explained. The macroeconomic scenarios—income and price implications—of programming for various targets of information sector activities are analysed. Three plausible informatization targets are hypothesised: Luddite or zero growth; laissez-faire or continuing the status quo and sunrise or accelerated performance. The significance of Leontief accounting prices based on competitive equilibria and the shadow prices connoting opportunity costs of the linear programming dual are examined. Fiscal policies to subsidise positive externalities generated by informatization, in the fase of intractability of the Pigouvian ideal taxes are briefly reviewed. Finally, the need for anticipatory policy decisions in Australia to harness the full benefits of informatization is emphasised.     

我国通信部门对经济增长的外溢效应——基于面板数据和动态Feder模型

首先梳理了通信部门对经济增长的外溢性影响的特点,然后选取动态Feder模型,运用1995—2008年我国省级面板数据,对我国通信部门与经济增长之间的关系进行定量分析。结果表明:整体而言,我国通信部门对经济增长具有显著的促进作用,表现为通信部门自身促进经济增长的直接效应,以及通信部门通过技术、信息等多渠道产生的较强的外溢效应;从区域层面看,东、中部地区通信部门的外溢效应显著大于西部地区。     

The Japanese information economy: Its quantification and analysis in a macroeconomic framework (with comparisons to the U.S.)

Japan is one of the leading information societies and there is official policy promotion of its information economy image. In this study the information sector of Japan is measured and analysed within a macroeconomic framework, using input-output techniques. Important benchmark statistics on both the primary and secondary information sectors are derived and compared to those obtained in an earlier study of the U.S. The analysis reveals the high growth potential of both information sectors in the two economies. However, important inter-country differences also emerge, in particular in regard to the amount of resources devoted to the information task at the disaggregated sector level. This leads to a discussion of the relationship between investment in the information sector, organisational design, informational efficiency and productivity growth, which is seen to be of crucial importance for the future success or failure of the two economies. Limitations of the approach adopted in this study and areas for further research are indicated.     

Information resources and economic productivity

This paper analyzes the role of information resources in the development of the United States economy and especially in the determination of productivity levels. The analysis is based on a formal economic model of the interrelationship between two sectors: an information sector, comprising all labor and capital used to process and handle information, and a production sector, which processes and handles material goods. The purposes of the model are to explain the past growth of the information sector workforce, to identify productivity trends in the sector, and to determine the implications of those trends for future economic performance. The analysis shows that, historically, the rate of efficiency improvement in information handling (essentially white-collar) work has been much slower than in production work. However this pattern is changing rapidly, chiefly as a result of the introduction of new data processing, communication and storage technologies. Our model shows that the expected future level of investment in these information technologies will be sufficient to reverse, by the mid 1980s, the slowdown of economic growth which is currently afflicting industrialized countries.     

Monetary policy in the BOF3 quarterly model of the Finnish economy

This paper describes the modelling of monetary policy in BOF3, a quarterly econometric model of Finland built at the Research Department of the Bank of Finland. BOF3 is a 198-equation, ‘amended Keynesian’ model which is used regularly in policy analysis and forecasting at the Bank. The modelling of the Finnish monetary sector has been complicated by the fact that most interest rates applied by the banks have so far been institutionally regulated. In spite of this, model builders have attempted to follow the conventional IS-LM approach as closely as possible, assuming that interest rates equilibrate financial markets outside the banking sector. The reported simulation experiments describe the effects of a change in nomical interest rates, of a change in the domestic money supply, and of a fiscal stimulus with and without monetary accomodation.     

Informal economy, wage goods and accumulation under structural adjustment theoretical reflections based on the Tanzanian experience

Economic development in sub-Saharan Africa under structuraladjustment witnessed the upsurge of informal sector development—thedevelopment of unregulated labour-intensive activities, in partexport-oriented. This paper argues that two factors played animportant role in shaping the dynamics of informal sector development:(1) the process of the relative cheapening of wage goods asa result of their importation, partly financed through foreignaid, thereby lowering unit-labour costs in labour-intensiveproduction, and (2) the processes at work of subsidising realwages by other forms of economic security as a result of multiple,diversified and spatially extended livelihood strategies. Whilethese factors undoubtedly brought a new vitality to economicdevelopment, this paper questions the long-run sustainabilityof this new trend for two reasons. One is its dependence onforeign aid to finance imports. The other is that it does notappear to propel endogenous increases in productivity by achievinggreater synergy in intersectoral linkages between agricultureand industry.     

信息产业与世界城市体系

本文以当今席卷全球的信息革命、经济全球化和新国际分工为背景，总结了技术进步与 区域和城市空间转换这间的关系，分析了由于信息产业的发展所来的产业空间变化， 探讨了新产业空间和信息网络对世界城市体系形成的影响，并对现我国城市体系转换提出了建设性意见。     

Agglomeration, innovation and international research mobility

This paper discusses a model of the New Economic Geography, in which the seminal core-periphery model of Krugman [Krugman, P., 1991, Increasing returns and economic geography, Journal of Political Economy 99, 483–499.] is extended by endogenous research activities. Beyond the common ‘anonymous’ consideration of R&D expenditures within fixed costs, this model introduces in an analytically tractable approach vertical product differentiation in combination with a de-integrated R&D sector. In the context of international factor mobility, the destabilizing effects of a mobile scientific workforce are analyzed. Based upon a simple welfare analysis, a consideration of R&D promoting policy instruments and their spatial implications, this paper makes a contribution to the brain-drain debate.     

Estimating technology in the postal sector: a Bayesian approach

The aim of this article is to study the technology of the sector represented by the Spanish national post-office and telegraph service, Sociedad Estatal Correos y Telégrafos, S.A. trading as Correos, and denominated as such hereafter. Concretely, we analyse economic efficiency (technical and allocative) and scale economies of the production units (cost centres) of Correos. To do this, we employ a methodology based on an input distance function which is the dual of the cost function. Moreover, and applying duality theory, we develop an economic model to assess the effect of postal infrastructures on the operators’ costs. In order to carry out the empirical model, Bayesian econometrics is applied to estimate the parameters in the input distance function and the technical and allocative efficiency terms.     

Innovation and economic performance in services: a firm-level analysis

This paper explores the two-way relationship between innovationand economic performance in services using a longitudinal firm-leveldataset which matches data from the second Community InnovationSurvey, CIS II (1993–95), against a set of economic variablesprovided by the System of Enterprise Accounts (1993–98).The results presented show that innovation is positively affectedby past economic performance and that innovation activities(especially investments in ICTs) have a positive impact on bothgrowth and productivity. Furthermore, productivity and innovationact as a self-reinforcing mechanism, which further boosts economicperformance. These findings provide empirical support for theendogenous nature of innovation in services and the presencein this sector of competition models and selection mechanismsbased on innovation.     

What drives the choice of the type of partner in R&D cooperation? Evidence for Spanish manufactures and services

We analyse the heterogeneity in firms’ decisions to engage in R&D cooperation, taking into account the type of partner (competitors, suppliers or customers, and research institutions) and the sector to which the firm belongs (manufactures or services). We use information from the Technological Innovation Panel (PITEC) for Spanish firms and estimate multivariate probit models corrected for endogeneity which explicitly consider the interrelations between the different R&D cooperation strategies. We find that placing a higher importance to publicly available information (incoming spillovers), receiving public funding and firm size increase the probability of cooperation with all kind of partners but the role is much stronger in the case of cooperative agreements with research institutions and universities. Our results also suggest that R&D intensity and the importance attributed to the lack of qualified personnel as a factor hampering innovation are key factors influencing positively R&D cooperation activities in the service sector but not in manufactures.     

Biodiversity value and the optimal location of forest conservation sites in Southern Finland

Safeguarding biodiversity has been one of the most important issues in environmental and forest policies since the 1990s. In Southern Finland, decisions concerning further actions for the preservation of forest biodiversity will be made in the coming years. To support policy making, we present a multi-regional model that is applicable in determining the economically optimal regional allocation of conservation sites. Three habitat quality models are evaluated to calculate habitat quality indices used as a surrogate for a biodiversity value in a forest sector model. The scenarios presented provide information about the economic impacts of conservation choices on the forest sector. The overall economic impacts of conservation depend on its scale and regional allocation. Conserving land with high biodiversity value can have less adverse impact on the forest sector than conservation of typical commercial forest sites. When optimizing conservation set-asides, we found that set-asides targeted to certain regions possessing higher/lower than average relative share of ecologically valuable land, caused lower/higher adverse economic impacts on the forest sector. Because it is expensive to search land suitable for conservation, these regions could be respectively favoured/avoided when asking forest owners to offer their land for the new conservation program in Southern Finland, which will be based on voluntariness.     

The political economics of complexity : From the information economy to the ‘complexity’ economy

The economics of information allows one to distinguish within the national product the real production from the costs of organization. It reveals a continuous inflation of these costs which, per employee and since 1900, has been twice as fast as the increase of productivity. From this, one can conclude that the growth of productivity comes up against a real ‘wall’ when the costs of organization approach 50% of the national product. This is the essential cause of the present crisis. The author subsequently designs an economy of organization structures applicable to complex systems, such as physical, biological or social systems. He shows how the 50% wall is characteristic for centralized structures. Most economic structures are those where social forces and solidarities are distributed justly among all levels of organization, from local to global ones. They tend to establish themselves by self-organization, but a new political economy applying these principles would, aided by information and communication technologies, accelerate this process.     

ON CONSUMERS' VALUATION OF NUTRITION INFORMATION

The European Union (EU) is contemplating regulations requiring mandatory provision of nutritional information on food products. This study analyses consumers' valuation of nutritional information using data collected from a field survey. The results generally suggest that consumers value and are willing to pay about 5.9 percent of the original price for nutritional information on the food product we studied. Individuals who are non-price-sensitive, nutritionally knowledgeable and with longer time horizon are willing to pay more for nutritional information than others. Considering consumers' willingness to pay for nutritional information on food products and an EU impact assessment study, the costs of provision of this information are not prohibitive to firms. We estimate that the least conservative cost of labelling to the firm for a specific food product can be as much as €29,431, whereas the average economic value of nutrition information is estimated at €17,064. The firm can therefore recoup the associated costs in less than two months.     

Banking sector depth and economic growth nexus: a comparative study between the natural resource-based and the rest of the world’s economies

This paper investigates the relationship between banking sector depth and long-term economic growth in the natural resource-based economies vis-à-vis economies that are not dependent on natural resources. For the empirical investigation, a Generalised Method of Moments estimator for dynamic panel data models is adopted for 194 countries spanning the period 1964–2013. Using different measures of banking sector depth and economic growth, the investigation yields three key findings. First, the banking–growth relationship is non-linear and positive within certain levels of banking sector depth in both country groups. Second, the time lag between the change in the level of banking sector depth and the effect on economic growth is shorter in the natural resource-based countries than in the other countries. Finally, the total effect of banking sector deepening on long-term economic growth is weaker in economies with abundant natural resources than in the rest of the world.     

MFA model to assess economic and environmental consequences of food production and consumption

Agri-food sector is a crucially important part of the society, because it is a major factor affecting public health and welfare and it also contributes – directly and indirectly – both to the environment and to the national gross product and employment. Improving sustainability of the agri-food sector implies production of nutritionally better food by using fewer inputs and by reducing environmental burden.In reducing environmental burden, it is essential to restrict the material throughput, to identify the hot spots and direct the measures to them. Improving performance of the food sector requires that the benefits and inputs be quantified in an unambiguous way and that the inputs are estimated for the whole production chain. A comprehensive view of the whole system is necessary.Here, the material flow approach (MFA) has been used to describe the Finnish food flux. The quantitative numerical data have been derived from the farm models' data base, and the data have been adjusted so as to comply with the production and consumption statistics of Finland. Using the compiled data an extended input–output model has been constructed. The model allows for the evaluation of some of the economic and environmental consequences, when the structure of food production and the patterns of food consumption are changed. The consequences can be traced within agriculture, within the food sector as a whole, or at the level of the nation-wide economy. In combination with other information the model, thus, serves as a practical tool for planning.The paper at hand gives an overview of the data base and the basic calculation principles of the model. The usability of the model is demonstrated with results from modelling examples, in which the share of organic production or the share of vegetarian food in the average Finnish diet has been increased. The possibilities and restrictions of the approach as well as some of the needs for further development are discussed.The study is the first step in developing MFA methods to analyse and to monitor the material flows of the Finnish food flux. The results have been used also in compiling the Finnish physical input–output tables. The study, thus, contributes to the overall development of the materials flow accounting.     

中国近年来经济增长与 就业增长间数量关系解释

本文尝试解释为何中国就业变化和经济增长间数量关系并不稳定,两个问题将被处理：（1）就业数据是否有偏误;（2）一些中国特有的影响因素在就业和增长关系间是否有调节作用。本文的研究发现：（1）统计局公布的城镇增加就业数据大致可靠;（2）经济增长对就业有显著拉动作用,也就是说使用另一种表达的奥肯定律得到论证;（3）国有经济部门在就业和增长间起到了调节作用,并且对经济周期不同阶段影响有对称性。     

Climate change and its marginalizing effect on agriculture

The agriculture of some areas considered marginal in the EU agricultural context is being questioned due to its low productivity and growing dependence on economic aid programs Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). This study shows that climate change increases these areas marginalisation of since worsens crop growth conditions. The influence of climate change on the agricultural sector is analyzed using the Multicriteria Decision Paradigm with information provided by the Erosion-Productivity Impact Calculator (EPIC) and a General Circulation Model (GCM) as inputs for multicriteria mathematical programming models. The results obtained show climate change effects on the crop portfolio. Further results suggest that climate change effects are not only economics and environmental, reducing the suitable area for crops, but also social as it causes loss of jobs in the agricultural sector.     

Analysis of information flow in Japan

This paper analyzes the volume of information flow in Japan which is carried by the various media. New statistics were compiled in order to understand the volume of information flow. A new integrated indicator which enables us to compare each of the media with other is composed. This is represented by the unit of ‘word’. The volume of supply of information and the volume of consumption were distinguished. The change of relationship between the supply and the consumption of information was examined by means of time series analysis of the volume of information flow in correlation to the economic and societal indicators. The costs of information flow were estimated. By estimating the distribution cost of the information, it was possible not only to understand the total cost to society for the circulation of information, but also to compare the efficiency of the media by comparing the unit cost of each medium, that is to say, the total cost divided by the total volume of information flow. Analysis of the actual state of information flow and positioning of the media were made in relation to the supply and consumption volume as well as cost of information flow.