International knowledge spillovers and wage inequality in developing countries

In this paper, international knowledge spillovers are incorporated in a horizontal innovation model, designed to explain the observed uncertain effects that openness of trade can have on wage inequality in small developing countries. Openness of trade can produce two different effects: an increase in the relative price of less-skilled labor-intensive products and a wider skill discrepancy due to knowledge spillovers from the more to less developed country. The former triggers a fall in the wage premium, while the latter widens the wage premium gap in a developing country. These two opposing forces explain the observed uncertain effects of openness to trade on wage inequality in developing countries.     

The impact of growth and inequality on rural poverty in China

This paper analyzes the evolution of poverty in China from the late 1980s to the late 1990s, employing a version of Shapley decomposition tailored to unit-record household survey data. The changes in poverty trends are attributed to two proximate causes—income growth and shifts in income distribution. Different data sets, poverty lines, poverty measures, and equivalence scales are used to examine the robustness of the results. Potential biases arising from ignoring differential regional prices and inflation are also investigated. Notwithstanding some ambiguities in the results, it is consistently found that rural poverty increased in the second half of the 1990s and adverse distributional changes are the main cause. Journal of Comparative Economics 34 (4) (2006) 694–712.     

发达国家和地区培育太阳能光伏市场的政策和启示

世界太阳能光伏产业在过去10年中年均增速超过40％,已成为当今世界增长最快的行业之一。本文对发达国家和地区太阳能光伏产业的发展现状和相关市场培育的政策进行了归纳总结,并从中得出对我国培育太阳能光伏市场的几点重要启示。     

Debt,seigniorage, and the Growth Laffer Curve in developing countries

The endogenous growth literature established the existence of an inverted-U curve between taxes and economic growth, namely a Growth Laffer Curve, but empirical evidence on this relationship in developing countries is rather limited. Given that seigniorage and public debt are also important means of financing public spending in these countries, we take into account in this paper their respective impacts on growth, as they might deform the existing relationship between taxes and growth. To this end, we develop a growth model with public investment as the engine of perpetual growth, and look for the effect of debt, tax and money financing on economic growth. We study in particular the way fiscal and monetary policies deform the Growth Laffer Curve in developing countries. An empirical section based on a panel of 100 developing countries over the period 1980–2010 provides both OLS-Fixed Effects and GMM-system estimations that support our theoretical conclusions, namely the existence of Growth Laffer Curves indexed by the levels of debt and of seigniorage.     

A scenario analysis of energy requirements and energy intensity for China's rapidly developing society in the year 2020

Both energy requirements and energy intensity are crucial to the development of a society. This article uses an input–output model to assess how social and economic changes will affect energy requirements and energy intensity for China's rapidly developing society. According to the proposed input–output model, six scenarios were sequentially developed by introducing major impact factors, such as technological advancement, population, income, and urbanization, in order to project China's energy requirements. Based on 1997 data, the impact of economic and social changes on China's energy requirements in 2010 and 2020 were quantitatively analyzed. The results show that technological advancement has the strongest impact on energy intensity. Based on these findings, some related conclusions and corresponding policy recommendations are proposed.     

Electricity sector reform in developing countries: an econometric assessment of the effects of privatization,competition and regulation

Electricity sectors in both developed and developing countries have been subject to restructuring to introduce private capital and increase competition. Although the effects of such reforms in a number of the developed economies are now well documented, the experience of developing countries is much less well researched. This paper provides an econometric assessment of the effects of privatization, competition and regulation on the performance of the electricity generation industry using panel data for 36 developing and transitional countries, over the period 1985–2003. The study identifies the impact of these reforms on generating capacity, electricity generated, labor productivity in the generating sector and capacity utilization. The main conclusions are that on their own privatization and regulation (PR) do not lead to obvious gains in economic performance, though there are some positive interaction effects. By contrast, introducing competition does seem to be effective in stimulating performance improvements.      

Beyond the average effects: The distributional impacts of export promotion programs in developing countries

Do all exporters benefit the same from export promotion programs? Surprisingly, no matter how obvious this question may a priori be when thinking of the effectiveness of these programs, there is virtually no empirical evidence on how they affect export performance in different parts of the distribution of export outcomes. This paper aims at filling this gap in the literature. We assess the distributional impacts of trade promotion activities performing efficient semiparametric quantile treatment effect estimation on assistance, total sales, and highly disaggregated export data for the whole population of Chilean exporters over the 2002-2006 period. We find that these activities have indeed heterogeneous effects over the distribution of export performance, along both the extensive and intensive margins. In particular, smaller firms as measured by their total exports seem to benefit more from export promotion actions.     

Determinants of the real exchange rate in the long-run for developing and emerging countries: a theoretical and empirical approach

This paper presents a new framework for the determinants of real exchange in the long-run in developing and emerging countries (DECs). We assume that currencies should be regarded as an asset. In consequence, dealers in the foreign exchange market play a crucial role on its dynamics. To set our model, we connect the model developed by Kaltenbrunner, which is grounded on chapter 17 of the General Theory, with productivity’s differential effect. By doing so, it states that even short-run factors and monetary variables affect the long-run real exchange rate. Moreover, it points out that the hierarchical nature of the international monetary system is crucial to understand exchange rate movements in DECs. Besides presenting such theoretical approach, our contribution is to test it empirically for 45 DECs from 1990 to 2008 by applying econometric techniques appropriate for panel data. We use a new data-set, which comprises, among other variables, foreign portfolio flow, interest rate differential, external vulnerability measures, and international liquidity, on annual basis. The empirical results endorse this framework. Overall, it shows the primacy of financial factors as determinants of the long-run real exchange rate and points to the endogenous and self-perpetuating nature of international monetary system hierarchy.     

No escape from the dominant theories: The analysis of intellectual pillars of technology management in developing countries

This paper aims to identify the intellectual bases of the technology management (TM) literature generated in developing countries using citation and co-citation analyses and answer the question of whether the intellectual bases of the TM literature created by authors in developing countries diverge from those of the global TM literature. Based on a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of ten technology-innovation management (TIM) specialty journals through the period of 1998-2007, this study produces three important findings. First, the TM literature generated in developing countries is dominated by the knowledge and theories created in developed countries. Second, among these knowledge sources some authors from developing countries and focusing on the specialties of developing countries, such as Kim and Lall, come into prominence; however these authors are not even mentioned in the previous bibliometric studies covering overall TM research. Finally the researchers in developing countries tackle with the issues or topics specific to their own context through combining three major bulks of literature. These are (i) resource-based view (RBV)/core competencies and organizational learning related research; (ii) literature dealing with the evolutionary theorizing on economic change and growth and (iii) literature related to technological capabilities, technology transfer and industrialization in developing countries.     

Geographies of injustice: the socio-spatial determinants of energy poverty in Poland,the Czech Republic and Hungary

Falling real incomes, rising utility prices and the historically poor thermal quality of the housing stock are some of the main factors that have driven the rise of systemic injustices surrounding energy poverty in the post-communist states of Eastern and Central Europe (ECE). We undertake a socio-spatial and temporal assessment of energy poverty in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland, using Household Budget Survey micro-data and the consolidated national results of the EU Survey of Income and Living Conditions. Our results indicate that increases in domestic energy prices and expenditures during the last decade have not been offset by purchasing power gains or energy efficiency improvements, resulting in sustained and growing levels of energy poverty. Capital city regions have fared better than rural areas even if traditional macroeconomic performance indicators do not easily match domestic energy deprivation metrics. We thus question policy approaches that favour income-based solutions and fail to recognise housing- and demography-related vulnerabilities.     

云南城乡收入差距及制度原因分析

云南省社会经济发展自改革开放后非常迅速,但是由于云南边疆多民族地区的现实情况,两级发展矛盾突出,城市和农村之间的差距也在日益拉大。城乡二元结构十分突出,城乡之间二元分割严重,城乡差别持续扩大,已经造成云南城乡关系的紧张和失衡。就此,通过对云南城乡收入差距的分析,从制度层面剖析云南城乡收入失衡的原因。     

Travel patterns and environmental effects now and in the future:: implications of differences in energy consumption among socio-economic groups

Travel patterns among different socio-economic groups in Sweden are investigated. It is shown that elderly persons, persons with low incomes and women in general do not travel extensively. Middle-aged persons, persons with high incomes and men travel much farther. Cars are the dominant transportation mode for all population groups. Aeroplanes are used mostly by high-income earners and men, while public transportation is mostly used by young people and women. Energy consumption for the different travel patterns differs substantially. Men with high incomes consume the most energy, with 94 000 MJ during one year, while elderly women consume 12 000 MJ. When compared to a calculated sustainable level of energy consumption for travel, most population groups are in excess. The level for sustainable energy consumption is calculated based on an assumed global potential for renewable energy of 360 EJ per year, divided equally among the global population. A certain share of this energy potential is supposed to be used for travelling. A scenario for 2020 is presented in which vehicle energy efficiency has increased and travel patterns have changed from what they are today. Sustainability can only be reached when both travel patterns and vehicle technology have changed radically. Differences in energy consumption for travel due to age and gender are likely to remain in the future. Scientific knowledge from the social domains seems to be important for devising efficient strategies for a sustainable society. Current focus on policy measures has been mainly on technical issues.     

A note on the energy consumption of urban slums and rural areas in Brazil

Direct energy consumption in São Paulo, Brazil, for slums and rural areas were compared, with the conclusion that they are very similar for the same expenditure regardless of the geographical area in which they occur. Slums are shown to be more energy efficient. The relevance of these results to account for changes in energy consumption due to social changes is emphasized.     

中国农村公共投资的减贫效果分析

利用1978~2006年的省级面板数据,采用联立方程模型估计方法,分析了我国农村公共投资的减贫效果。研究表明,政府在农村教育、研发和道路、电力等基础设施方面的投入都可以显著地减少贫困,但其边际减贫效果是不同的。研究结论有助于政府合理地安排对于农村公共投资的优先顺序。     

我国农村可持续能源发展对策研究

能源是发展国民经济和提高人民生活水平的重要物质基础。目前我国农村可持续能源发展正处于初级阶段,农村居民生活用能正朝着优质化、清洁化、高效化的新能源结构方向发展。中国幅员辽阔,各地区经济发展水平不平衡,农村可再生能源资源差异很大。在此背景下,中国农村可持续能源被赋予了为我国减缓和适应气候变化做贡献的重任,我国急需研究制定与经济社会发展相适应的中国农村可持续能源发展策略。     

中国应对发展中国家贸易摩擦的策略

自改革开放以来,中国经济持续快速增长,对外贸易迅猛发展,尤其是在2001年中国加入世界贸易组织之后,势头更为强劲,平均年增长速度接近30%.这样的高速增长也带来了一些问题,尤其是出口增长带来的贸易顺差引发了越来越多的贸易摩擦,招来很多国家的反倾销.中国以"非市场经济"身份加入世贸组织后,情况更为严重.     

Coverage area expansion, customer switching, and household profiles in the Japanese broadband access market

This paper examines the diffusion process of Internet broadband access in Japan by modeling the household choice of access modes. Estimates reveal that the characteristics of users, rather than those of the access modes, play a significant role in demand substitution across the modes. Simulation exercises indicate that had optic fibers (fiber-to-the-home; FTTH) been made available to the whole country in 2005, only 10% of households would have switched to that mode. This result implies that once chosen, the household choice of access mode persists, and that indirect network effects are an important element in decisions to adopt the new technology of broadband. Finally, policy implications are discussed.     

The impacts of energy insecurity on household welfare in Cambodia: Empirical evidence and policy implications

This study investigates the impacts of energy insecurity on household welfare in Cambodia. The notion of energy insecurity is not well understood in the literature as well as in local contexts. This study defines household energy insecurity as the status quo derived from the interplay of inadequate and insufficient energy consumption that prevents households from meeting basic energy needs. The notion of energy insecurity can only be well understood by investigation in the local context as it varies from place to place. Households facing insufficient energy consumption may forgo many other opportunities. Once energy security has been defined in the Cambodian context, the study employs multiple regression models using the Cambodia Socio-Economic Survey Data (2015) to investigate the impacts of household energy insecurity. The study confirmed that energy insecurity has enormous negative impact on welfare of the households, with a further negative impact on the human capital formation of the children. The findings will lead to policy implications to improve household energy security, and thus impact economic, social, and environmental development.     

Wake up and smell the ginseng: International trade and the rise of incremental innovation in low-wage countries

Increasingly, a small number of low-wage countries such as China and India are involved in incremental innovation. That is, they are responsible for resolving production-line bugs and suggesting product improvements. We provide evidence of this new phenomenon and develop a model in which there is a transition from old-style product-cycle trade to trade involving incremental innovation in low-wage countries. The model explains why levels of involvement in incremental innovation vary across low-wage countries and across firms within each low-wage country. We draw out implications for sectoral earnings, living standards, the capital account and, foremost, international trade in goods.     

统筹城乡发展,农村要进行第二次改革

我国农村已经进入建国以来第三个黄金发展期,农村农业形势很好,但是从社会主义现代化建设的全局来看,三农问题的深层次问题并没有得到解决,仍然是建设中国特色社会主义现代化事业的头号问题。从经济社会结构层面来认识,三农问题说到底是结构问题、体制问题,必须从改革“城乡分治、一国两策”的城乡体制层面才能得到解决。城乡体制的差距是根本的,是目前最大的差距,许多城乡差距之间的问题也由此产生。要解决三农问题,统筹城乡经济社会发展,必须进行农村第二次改革,把农民从计划经济体制的桎梏中进一步解放出来。