Blue Box Policy Reform in the Doha Round Negotiations： Effects and China＇s Position

This paper uses an agricultural trade policy simulation model to quantitatively evaluate the effects of Blue Box policy reform on agricultural production and trade, and further provides specific proposals regarding China ＇ s reform position. The results indicate that, if the reform could achieve a reduction in distorting supports in more developed countries, China＇ s total agricultural production would increase, accompanied by a decrease in agricultural imports and a slight increase in exports. In terms of social welfare, producers would gain significantly, consumers would lose and government would not suffer greatly, which is in accordance with current agricultural policies in China. As a core member of G20, China should approve a subsidy level as low as possible required by Blue Box to achieve ＂substantial reductions in trade-distorting domestic supports＂.     

A Single Welfare Benefit Level for Europe? Efficiency Implications of Policy Harmonization in a Federal System

Within the European Union, it has been suggested that greater economic integration will help European economies regardless of the kind of integration Europe chooses to pursue. In this paper, I examine economic integration in the context of redistributive policy and lind that the effects of such integration are crucially dependent upon the level of redistribution to be adopted as a common policy, with higher welfare benefit levels associated with lower levels of federation output. This suggests that the case for policy harmonization at a generous level must rest on equity rather than efficiency considerations.     

Trade policy and protection in the European Community

The European Community is the world's largest trading entity. As a result, trade policy in the EC has an important impact on the world economy. This paper evaluates the formulation of trade policy in the EC and assesses the key instruments, both by sector and by target. The relative importance of tariff and non-tariff barriers is emphasised as is the role of anti-dumping. Finally, the impact of the single market programme and the Uruguay Round are assessed. Both will have a crucial bearing on the evolution of policy.     

The French commitment to European monetary integration: A review of the two EMS crises (1981–83, 1992–93)

This paper focuses on the process of exchange rate management during the two European Monetary System(EMS) crises, in 1981–83 and 1992–93, and examines the factors which led the French governments to adhere to the EMS. France's strong franc (franc fort) policy is a useful test case for maintaining national commitment to European monetary integration. The origin of the franc fort policy can be traced back to the exchange rate crisis of 1981–83. By actively supporting European institutions and emphasizing the emergence of a strong and united European common currency, France discovered the way to bolster confidence in her economic policy. Beyond this focal point, political justification and economic rationality became mutually reinforcing, configuring French national preference in European monetary integration. The response of the French government to the EMS crisis of 1992–93 was more consistent compared to the response to the 1981–83 crisis, and reflected the accumulation of loyalty to European monetary integration. This loyalty, however, was made neither from purely economic calculation nor out of normative commitment French European monetary policy reflected the interaction between domestic politics and European monetary integration. The French commitment to the franc fort also was based on domestic political bases such as the existence of a core policy group, a centralized policy‐making structure, and an issue linkage between the franc fort and European integration.     

Cohesion Policy in the eu: Going Beyond Fiscal Transfers?

Should cohesion policy in the EU be reformed? This question becomes pressing in light of the coming enlargement of the EU. Indeed, without reform enlargement will involve an increase in the budget for cohesion policies, as well as a reallocation of funds across regions. Furthermore, it is an appropriate occasion to rethink the various rules and criteria associated with cohesion policies. Recently, the European Commission published its Second Report on Economic and Social Cohesion (henceforth SRESC, (2001)). The report praises the effectiveness of current cohesion policies and suggests a mere continuation of current practices in the future. This paper challenges this conclusion and discusses some options for reform. The paper starts with a brief introduction to the current cohesion policy and the changes that will occur in light of EU enlargement. Subsequently, we address two questions. Is there a need for cohesion policy reform? And if so, how should it be reformed?     

二十世纪三十年代广西的农村改革与建设

文章认为,二十世纪三十年代,广西省政府在民族地区大力推行农村改革与建设,推行＂三位一体＂制、倡导村民自治,举办农村合作事业、发展农村经济,推行义务教育和成人教育、以提高民众智识,倡导新的生活方式、改良陋俗,发展医疗卫生农林水利事业、改善生产生活条件,在某种程上促进了广西民族地区农村社会的发展,对今天的新农村建设具有一定的借鉴意义。     

The synchronization of business cycles across the European Community

The recent adoption of the Delors Report brings into question the extent of the EC integration and the costs to individual countries of continued integration. In this paper we address this question by comparing EC countries to non-EC countries, specifically comparing the extent to which domestic policies are coordinated. We find a strong coordination between EC countries as compared to non-EC countries. However, Italy shows up as a persistent outlier in the EC, requiring a reformulation of domestic policy goals if continued integration is desired.     

OPPORTUNITY OR CHALLENGE? AUSTRALIA AND EUROPEAN INTEGRATION, 1950–57

This paper examines Australia's approach to Western European integration in the 1950s. While superficially supportive of steps towards greater Western European cooperation, the Menzies government had an ambivalent attitude towards the integration process. Ministers and officials in Canberra recognised the importance of a strong and prosperous Western Europe, but the formation of a tightly knit Continental grouping also posed a number of major challenges to the makers of post‐war Australian foreign policy. The Menzies government soon began to wonder whether attempts to create supranational bodies in Continental Europe accorded with Australian political, economic, and security interests.     

Modelling the impact of the ‘fast track’ land reform policy on Zimbabwe's maize sector

Zimbabwe has recently gone through a widely criticised land reform process that is argued to be the cause of subdued agricultural production. This paper attempts to present a counterfactual picture of the maize market in Zimbabwe had land reform been managed appropriately. The counterfactual is developed through a partial equilibrium framework in order to quantify the impact of the land reform programme. This, to our knowledge, is the first attempt at applying a partial equilibrium framework to an analysis of the impact of land reform. The results of the post-2000 land reform policy simulation showed that actual total maize output was lower than what could have been produced if it was under a pre-2000 land reform system. The study validates the assertion that land reforms contributed to the contraction of output. These results suggest the need for a well planned and executed land reform process, which can still play an important role in output growth and food security.     

新农村建设、农业转型与工业化城市化——一个新农村建设作用机制的经济学分析

本文探讨了新农村建设作用于我国经济发展的农业生产效率提升机制和农产品交易效率提升机制以及相应的具体途径。结果表明,在这两个经济机制发挥作用的条件下,经济结构和人口结构向现代化转型,但如果不彻底解决城乡二元结构、农民迁移和就业方面的歧视,城乡收入差距并不一定会随之缩小。改革开放以来的经验从另一面表明,在二元结构、工业和城市偏向政策下,农业生产效率提升机制作用难以充分发挥,而间接促使农业生产效率提升的财政和金融支持也难以有效地推动农业生产效率提升。这意味着,彻底破解城乡二元结构、破除阻碍农业生产效率提升的各种制度和障碍确应成为新农村建设中的重中之重。

Abstract：

How many policy combinations are involved in China’s New Rural Reconstruction？ Are they consistently interweaved to form a force leading to the increase of industriali-zation and urbanization,the increase of peasant’s income,and the decrease of urban-rural income disparity？This paper aims to analyze the two economic mechanisms,four policy channels and their effects on Chinese agricultural transition,industrialization and urbanization process,and urban-rural disparity. Our results show that these two mecha-nisms and four policy channels will exert a positive effect on the decreasing of agricultural employment and value share,the increasing of urbanization and industrialization,agricultural income,but they will demonstrate both positive and negative effect on the urban-rural income disparity if the removal of the old urban-rural dual structure,the promotion of peasant’s non-agricultural employment,and more integration of rural sector and industrial sector,weren’t placed more emphasis. This means these institutional reforms should be given more priority in the so-called New Rural Reconstruction Program.     

Trade effects of European Community preferences to Mediterranean countries: The case of textile and clothing imports

The European Community (EC)'s preferential trade agreements with Mediterranean countries have been subject to little ex post assessment. This paper analyses the preferences' impact on EC textile and clothing imports from Mediterranean countries. The preferred imports grew faster than world trade or OECD imports from developing countries, and as a proportion of EC imports and Mediterranean exports; EC preferences thus appear to have had a significant effect on Mediterranean countries' textile and clothing exports, although some recipients have taken greater advantage than others. Post-1977 EC protectionism in these products further benefited the preference-recipients, who were largely unimpeded by quatitative restrictions.     

Agricultural trade policy reform in South Asia: the role of the Uruguay round and policy options for the future WTO agenda

This paper examines the role of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (URAA) in agricultural trade policy reform in South Asia and policy options for the future reform agenda of the World Trade Organization (WTO). A key policy inference is that, to be effective, planning for freeing agriculture should involve simultaneous reforms of import and export regimes, and domestic production support mechanisms. Policy related lending, in particular provision of financial support for social safety programs, can play an important role in making such comprehensive reforms politically palatable and feasible. While overloading the WTO with matters that fall beyond its purview may be counterproductive, there is certainly a case for a coordinated effort involving the WTO and international development finance institutions.     

Neutrality and free trade: Sweden and trade liberalisation, 1948–1958

Abstract

This article discusses the Swedish attitude to European economic cooperation, an attitude that has been described as reluctant. The traditional explanation for this has been Sweden's neutrality. This explanation has been challenged by researchers, who have claimed that a nationally self-sufficient social democracy was responsible for the reluctance towards Europe. In this article, neutrality is still seen as the main explanatory factor. Swedish strategies for dealing with European integration linked the concepts of neutrality and global free trade. Nordic cooperation was also seen as a strategy to meet demands for European integration. Swedish activities within the European organisations were limited by neutrality concerns. Within these limits Sweden worked for economic policy solutions, which might be called social democratic.     

Urban bias and the political economy of agricultural reform

This paper is an exercise in the incorporation of “political economy” constraints into the analysis of policy reform. It is an illustrative exercise, focusing on the potential distributional consequences of agricultural price reform. In the stylized model discussed in the paper, “urban bias” is reflected in the ability of the urban sector to maintain its standard of living in the face of price reform, through the channel of increased government expenditure on the output of the sector. It is shown that in such a setting price reform may have completely unintended effects.The paper appears in a somewhat unusual format. The first half of the paper presents the arguments in an entirely non-technical, verbal, manner. The second half of the paper presents a formal, mathematical development which makes precise the heuristic and intuitive discussions of the first half.     

“三化”协调发展背景下的“城中村”改造探讨

中国城市化的高速发展使得许多城乡结合部的村庄被并入城市形成"城中村",而"城中村"普遍面临拆迁改造问题。在城乡"三化"协调发展政策背景下,"城中村"改造机制需要规范和完善。本文阐述了"三化"协调发展背景下进行"城中村"改造的重要意义,分析了当前进行"城中村"改造遇到的矛盾与问题,提出了"三化"协调发展背景下"城中村"改造的对策思路。     

Conditions of Successful Land Reform: A Study of Micronesia

During the twentieth century Japan and the United States attempted land reform in Micronesia. Japan was more successful because a growing population had led to an increasing demand for agricultural products, which could only be met by expanding agriculture across its empire. This required investment in land reform to transfer ownership from common to private rights. Conversely, the Americans faced no such domestic pressures, valuing Micronesia only for its strategic location and military testing. We formulate a model to examine the outcomes of Micronesian land reform under the long‐sighted policy of the Japanese compared with short‐sighted approach of the Americans.     

我国自贸试验区贸易便利化改革的实践经验与借鉴--以上海、广东、天津、福建自贸试验区为例

自由贸易试验区是中国改革开放的重要试验田和进一步对外开放的压力测试区,自2013年上海自由贸易试验区设立以来,5年来自由贸易试验区在贸易便利化领域的改革实现较大突破和取得一定成效。本文主要介绍自贸试验区贸易便利化改革的相关措施以及实施成效,包括上海、福建自贸试验区国际贸易单一窗口的实施成效,上海、广东、天津、福建自贸试验区贸易监管模式的创新,广东、福建自贸试验区在港澳台通关一体化合作的进展以期对自贸试验区相关政策经验的复制推广有所启示。     

Currency unions and trade: The special case of EMU

In this paper, the impact of the adoption of the euro on the commercial transactions of EMU countries is investigated. It seeks to disentangle the effects of eliminating exchange rate volatility — and those of other policy factors that promote integration — from the influence of the emergence of the European currency union. Since EMU is a relatively new phenomenon, a panel estimation of the gravity equation in a dynamic framework is used in order to capture effects like trade persistence. The main finding is that the adoption of the euro has had a positive but not an exorbitant impact on bilateral trade between European countries (ranging between 9 and 10 per cent). The impact is much lower than that shown in the recent literature on a larger and heterogeneous set of countries. One reason for this divergence seems to be that the euro was adopted after decades of integration policies had already worked through in Europe. JEL no. F4, F15, C230     

The weak link in Zimbabwe's agricultural miracle 1980‐1990: A case study of Masvingo Province resettlement projects

Since independence in 1980, Zimbabwe has been able to sustain and increase agricultural output in all the major crops, namely maize, wheat, tobacco and cotton. This achievement has been regarded as a major ‘miracle’ abroad. This paper argues that the colonial agricultural policy laid down the framework and a system of incentives which encouraged the growth of a prosperous and productive commercial farming class. While the European element predominated, a black master farmer class was encouraged and nurtured. It is the deliberate exclusion of this master farmer class, and government's failure to expand it that may prove to be the major weakness of post‐independence resettlement policy.     

Effects of inclusive public agricultural extension service: Results from a policy reform experiment in western China

The top–down public agricultural extension system in China and its early commercialization reforms during the 1990s have left millions of farmers without access to extension services. A pilot inclusive agricultural extension system was introduced in 2005 to better meet the diverse needs of small-scale farmers. Three key features of the experiment are (1) inclusion of all farmers as target beneficiaries, (2) effective identification of farmers' extension service needs, and (3) an accountability system to provide better agricultural extension services to farmers. This paper describes design of the reform initiative and examines its effect on farmers' access to extension services. Based on farmer supplied data from six counties for the years 2005 to 2007, this paper shows that inclusive reform initiatives significantly improve farmers' access to and actually received of agricultural extension services as well as their adoption of new technologies. Implications for further reforms to the agricultural extension system are also discussed.