Sources of growth in Indonesian agriculture

Indonesia sustained an average increase in agricultural output of 3.6% per year between 1961 and 2006, resulting in a more than fivefold increase in real output. This paper constructs Tornqvist-Thiel indices of agricultural outputs, inputs and total factor productivity (TFP) to examine the sources of growth in Indonesian agriculture over this period. The paper extends previous work on measuring productivity change in Indonesian agriculture by assembling more complete data on cropland and expanding the commodity coverage to include cultured fisheries in addition to crops and livestock. It also accounts for the contribution of the spread of rural education and literacy to agricultural growth. Results show that Indonesia pursued both agricultural intensification to raise yield, especially for food crops, and extensification to expand crop area and absorb more labor. Productivity growth accelerated in the 1970s and 1980s but stagnated in the 1990s once “Green Revolution” food crop varieties had become widely adopted. TFP growth resumed in the early 2000s led by diversification into non-staple commodities such as tropical perennials, horticulture, livestock and aquaculture. Agricultural extensification continued to be an important source of growth in many of parts of the archipelago where previously forested areas were converted to cropland. Human capital deepening, in the form of the spread of literacy and education in the farm labor force, made a modest but sustained contribution to agricultural productivity growth.     

Price effects of steel commodities on worldwide stock market returns

We analyze the price effects of steel commodities on stock market returns in emerging and developed economies. These commodities have recently attained increased media exposure due to the rise in the U.S. steel import tariffs, which pose the threat of reducing global demand for steel products and, consequently, lowering prices abroad. However, little has been investigated on the impact of steel commodity prices on worldwide stock market returns. By performing structural VAR and GARCH techniques on a weekly-frequency time series from 2002 to 2015, we find positive and statistically significant effects of linear and non-linear steel commodity price shocks on real stock returns in the commodity markets. In the highly diversified financial markets such as U.S. and Germany, real stock returns do not significantly respond to steel commodity price shocks, although we find highly significant positive responses from developed economies such as Australia, Japan and South Korea. Results are robust to different model specifications. Our evidence suggests that higher tariffs on steel imports represent a larger disadvantage to commodity markets which are more largely impacted by steel commodity prices. We provide economic policy implications based on recent literature.     

Secondary products and the measurement of productivity growth

The paper considers alternative treatments of secondary products in input-output systems and analyzes their implications for the measurement of productivity growth at both the sectoral and overall level. Two standard models of secondary products are used: (1) the commodity technology model and (2) the industry technology model. It is argued that the first model correctly relates sectoral and overall levels of productivity growth; the second model, though more conventional, aggregates sectoral levels to a biased estimate of overall productivity growth. Estimates of the two measures are provided using U.S. 85-sector input-output data for 1967, 1972, and 1977. The empirical results indicate that the alternative assumptions do not lead to significantly different estimates of commodity-level and industry-level productivity growth over this period for the full economy but do for several sectors. Moreover, changes in secondary production did not contribute significantly to the decline in productivity growth over this period but secondary production was found to have a much lower rate of productivity growth than primary production.     

Presenteeism and burnout among teachers in public and private Portuguese elementary schools

This research aims to study the possible relation between presenteeism and burnout in the public and private education sector. Presenteeism – a groundbreaking concept in organizational behaviour literature – refers to productivity losses that occur when employees come to work but under-perform due to physical and psychological causes. Next, we further clarified the burnout criterion with three groups of predictors: personal, contextual and presenteeism. Results from a sample of 281 elementary school teachers from private and public institutions revealed that personal and contextual characteristics as well as presenteeism were predictive of teacher burnout. We also found that public school teachers exhibited higher levels of both presenteeism and burnout. Finally, the implications of these results are discussed and directions for future research in the field are provided.     

The contribution of research and innovation to productivity

This paper examines the impact of investment in research and innovation on Australian market sector productivity. While previous studies have largely focused on a narrow class of private sector intangible assets as a source of productivity gains, this paper shows that there is a broad range of other business sector intangible assets that can significantly affect productivity. Moreover, the paper pays special attention to the role played by public funding for research and innovation. The empirical results suggest that there are significant spillovers to productivity from public sector R&D spending on research agencies and higher education. No evidence is found for productivity spillovers from indirect public funding for the business enterprise sector, civil sector or defence R&D. These findings have implications for government innovation policy as they provide insights into possible productivity gains from government funding reallocations.     

Measuring the impact of R&;D on Productivity from a Econometric Time Series Perspective

In this paper we argue that the standard sequential reduction approach to modelling dynamic relationships may be sub-optimal when long lag lengths are required and especially when the intermediate lags may be less important. A flexible model search approach is adopted using the insights of Bayesian Model probabilities, and new information criteria based on forecasting performance. This approach is facilitated by exploiting Genetic Algorithms. Using data on U.K. and U.S. agriculture the bivariate time series relationship between R&D expenditure and productivity is analysed. Long lags are found in the relationship between R&D expenditures and productivity in the U.K. and in the U.S. which remain undiscovered when using the orthodox approach. This finding is of particular importance in the debate on the optimal level of public R&D funding.JEL Classification: C22, C51, Q16     

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.     

Agricultural Leadership Education: Past History,Present Reality,and Future Directions

The article explores the past, present, and projected future of agricultural leadership education. Beginning with roots in youth leadership development and grounded in land‐grant universities, agricultural leadership education has undergone a shift from working primarily with rural youth to a new focus on also educating undergraduate and graduate students to empower community members and create change. The renewed focus has encouraged recent growth and in the last 10 years, the profession has added three leadership majors, six leadership minors, seven leadership focus areas, seven undergraduate leadership programs, and four graduate leadership programs. Research exploring the student impact of agricultural leadership education revealed that nationwide a total of 7,904 students are exposed to 208 agricultural leadership education courses. As the discipline continues to mature, recommendations are made for continued program development. Discussion highlights prior research examining potential courses to include types of experiences, program objectives, and career connectedness relating to agricultural leadership education. Programs have ample opportunity for future growth and recommendations are made to continue the development of innovative leadership opportunities and consistent pedagogical practices across institutions.     

U.S. productivity in agriculture and R&D

This paper examines the impact of R&D on multifactor productivity in the U.S. agricultural sector over the 1910–1990 period. We use the Bennet–Bowley indicator to measure agricultural productivity based on a multiple output-multiple input technology. We demonstrate the relationship between the price dependent Bennet–Bowley indicator and the Luenberger productivity indicator which is constructed from directional distance functions without requiring price information. These performance measures are dual to the profit function which arguably makes them especially useful in the agricultural setting. We employ time-series techniques to investigate the effect of R&D on the pattern of productivity growth. We find that we cannot reject the presence of a cointegrating relationship between the two series and that productivity growth in the U.S. agriculture responds positively to R&D expenditure with a lag of between four and ten periods.

Technology capital: the price of admission to the growth club

We assess long-run patterns of global agricultural productivity growth between 1970 and 2005 and examine the relationship between investments in technology capital and productivity. To measure agricultural total factor productivity (TFP) we employ a Solow-type growth accounting method to decompose output growth into input and TFP growth. For technology capital we construct two indexes reflecting national capacities in agricultural research and education-extension for 87 developing countries. We then correlate technology capital levels with long-term growth rates in agricultural TFP. Our findings show that global agricultural TFP growth as a whole accelerated since 1980, although performance was very uneven across developing countries. TFP growth rates were significantly influenced by technology capital. Marginal improvements to research capacity, given a minimal level of extension and schooling existed, were associated with faster TFP growth. However, marginal increases in extension-schooling without commensurate improvements in research capacity did not improve productivity performance.     

中国会计学博士点培养方案调查与评价

中国会计学博士教育日益面临来自就业市场和国际竞争的压力。文章通过考察国内会计学博士培养方案的状况,运用期刊论文发表数量对会计学博士点进行排名,旨在探索能够培养出更具研究能力的博士生培养方案。研究结果发现,培养出最多具有研究能力博士生的前三名博士点分别来自上海财经大学、中国人民大学和北京大学,从培养方案来看,排名靠前的博士点在公共课部分几乎都开设了计量经济学和微观经济学。结论认为,学习美国的研究范式和哲学思想可能并不完全适合中国,在培养方案的设计上还要更多考虑中国本土的问题。     

美国高校物流教育目录

与发达国家相比,我国的物流教育及物流人才培养还处于起步阶段。根据关国公开出版的物流教育目录和各高校的宣传资料,逐州列出美国主要高校的物流教育目录,其中许多大学和学院都提供运输、物流和供应链管理方面的学位课程及进修课程,为我国物流界准备出国留学和进修的学生和学者提供一些参考。     

Impact of exchange rate volatility on commodity trade between U.S. and China: is there a third country effect

Impact of exchange rate uncertainty on trade flows still continues to dominate the literature. Most previous research has used aggregate trade data between one country and the rest of the world or between two countries at a bilateral level. A recent study, however, considered the trade between the U.S. and China at the commodity level, but excluded the ??third-country?? effect in its analysis. In this paper, we consider the commodity trade between the U.S. and China one more time and investigate whether volatility of the real U.S. dollar-Canadian dollar has any implication on the trade flows between the U.S. and China. The answer happens to be in the affirmative, though a more significant third-country effect is found in the short run as compared to the long run.     

International Leadership in Productivity at the Aggregate and Industry Level

Since many policies affect specific parts of economies differently, it is useful to decompose GDP per capita differences across countries into differences across smaller and smaller parts of economies. In this paper, we summarize recent contributions in this area and fit them together into a decomposition procedure for GDP per capita differences. The overall finding is that the U.S. is the productivity leader for the most of the economy. Moreover, international productivity differences at the aggregate level of the economies are in most cases translated into differences in the productivity of industries, at least compared to the productivity leader U.S. The variability of productivity differences at the industry level is, however, substantially higher than any differences at the aggregate or sector level. For the manufacturing sector alone the U.S. and Japan share the leadership on the industry level. In contrast, France, U.K., and Germany exhibit almost no leadership in productivity at the industry level. Hence, nation-specific factors appear to be dominant in the comparison of European countries with the U.S. Finally, mix differences do not play a very large role for big countries. For Germany, however, the mix effect can help to reconcile relative high productivity for the market economy and lower productivity at disaggregated levels.     

Do U.S. macroeconomic surprises influence equity returns? An exploratory analysis of developed economies

Given the dominant role the U.S. economy plays in global trade, we explore how U.S. macroeconomic surprises affect stock markets in ten major developed economies as well as in China and India. We do not find strong enough evidence to conclude that U.S. macro shocks materially and consistently influence equity returns and volatilities in the economies studied. Consistent with previous research, it appears that only in few markets are return levels materially influenced by macro surprises generated in the U.S. Also, only a small number of macro shocks seem to be of any consistent significance. For returns levels, inflation, productivity, consumer confidence, and retail sales seem to matter. At the same time, conditional volatilities appear to be influenced by inflation, retail sales, durable goods, industrial production, consumer confidence, gross domestic product, and trade balance surprises. Finally, our exploratory analysis indicates that the degree of bilateral trade connectedness may partially explain the extent to which macroeconomic surprises are transmitted across countries.     

All for one and one for all: A mechanism through which broad‐based employee stock ownership and employee‐perceived involvement practice create a productive workforce

Drawing on social identity theory, this research frames a multimediational model that delineates how broad‐based employee stock ownership (BESO) and employee‐perceived involvement practice in tandem yield a productive workforce at the organization level. In our theoretical model, we propose that social cohesion and voluntary turnover are collective attitudinal and behavioral outcomes resulting from the shared perception of we‐ness that employees experience through both participatory practices. Our path analysis of a multisource, time‐lagged dataset from 176 large U.S. companies revealed the sequential mediating roles of social cohesion and voluntary turnover between these organizational practices and labor productivity. Our theoretical claims and empirical evidence will contribute to a systematic understanding of how and why BESO and employee involvement leverage greater organizational productivity from employees.     

Heterogeneity and long-run changes in aggregate hours and the labor wedge

From 1961 to 2007, U.S. aggregate hours worked increased and the labor wedge—measured as the discrepancy between a representative household׳s marginal rate of substitution and the marginal product of labor—declined substantially. The labor wedge is negatively related to hours and is often attributed to labor income taxes. However, U.S. labor income taxes increased since 1961. We examine a model with gender and marital status heterogeneity which accounts for the trends in the U.S. hours and the labor wedge. Apart from taxes, the model׳s labor wedge reflects non-distortionary cross-sectional differences in households׳ hours worked and productivity. We provide evidence that household heterogeneity is important for long-run changes in labor wedges and hours in other OECD economies.     

Oil,Gas, or Financial Conditions-Which One Has a Stronger Link with Growth?

Using the models of Diebold-Yilmaz (2012) and Barunik and Krehlik (2018) and monthly U.S. data from January 1992 to May 2019 (329 observations), this study estimates the return and volatility connectedness transmitted from commodity markets (natural gas and crude oil) and the Kansas City financial stress index to macroeconomic indicators (GDP and CPI). As a research target, crude oil has received significant attention. Although natural gas plays an important role in the energy markets as an environment-friendly alternative, it has not been studied extensively. We find the different spread speed of shocks to return and volatility variables through the total spillover index. We focus on both crude oil and natural gas and find that after the bankruptcy of the Lehman Brothers on September 19, 2008, there was a significant jump in the total return spillover from 35.09% to 46.91%, peaking in October 2008. Furthermore, in the frequency domain, we find that the total long-term return spillover index had the highest proportion during the global financial crisis. When the total spillover is concentrated on the high frequencies, it means the system will have an impact mostly in the short term. When it is concentrated on the lower frequencies, it shows that shocks are persistent and works in the long term among the system. It could give some information to the policymakers.     

A comparison of multifactor productivity calculations of the U.S. agricultural sector

Since the late 1970s, there have been fourteen studies that have estimated multifactor productivity (MFP) growth rates for the U.S. agricultural sector. The estimates of average annual MFP growth rates have ranged from 1.15 to 1.94 percent per year for studies using the gross productivity approach. The purpose of this paper is to identify the reasons for these different estimates. We consider theoretical and empirical factors and do not find any single reason that satisfactory explains the variation. The alternative estimates appear to be most sensitive to the coverage of years.     

河南省城乡公共服务均等化现状分析

公共服务均等化是城乡居民起点平等、机会平等的先决条件。由于我国长期处于二元结构下,在加上国家政策支持一部分地区、一部分人先富起来,而且河南省又是农业大省,农村人口所占比重较大,继而导致了城市和农村的收入差距及机会不均等。本文从河南省公共服务财政投入、教育、社会保障、卫生等方面分析现状及问题,并尝试提出解决这一问题的应对措施,对中原经济区建设的发展具有重要的理论和现实意义。