要素市场扭曲对工业绿色创新的直接影响及空间溢出效应

要素市场改革和技术创新是促进经济高质量发展的重要举措,两者间的关系是学术界关注的重点。研究表明,市场化进程和工业绿色创新在省域间都具有空间关联性而并非随机分布。利用动态空间杜宾模型并结合偏微分方程的实证研究表明,各区域工业绿色技术创新具有内在的惯性及自我扬弃特征,前期创新积累对当期的创新进程具有动态影响。从全国范围考察,要素市场扭曲对各区域本地工业绿色创新存在明显抑制效应,且长期效应超过短期效应。相对发达与欠发达地区各自在要素市场扭曲互动策略上的差异性致使本地要素市场扭曲对外地工业绿色创新反而存在正向间接影响即外溢效应。从分区域层面考察,东部沿海各省区其要素市场扭曲程度要明显弱于中西部地区,其对域内工业绿色创新的抑制效应相比中西部地区要小。     

空间关联视域下政府支持对区域创新质量的影响

采用2009—2020年中国30个省区市的面板数据,从地理距离和经济距离两方面构建基于双权重矩阵的空间面板杜宾模型,实证考察政府支持对区域创新质量的影响。研究表明：区域创新质量存在显著的正向空间相关性;在地理距离和经济距离双重空间因素作用下,政府支持对本地创新质量和其他区域创新质量均具有显著正向影响,且又以经济距离的作用更强;金融发展水平显著提升了本地创新质量,对外开放水平显著提高了其他区域创新质量。     

制度创新对区域经济发展的影响

制度创新一直以来对于中国经济的蓬勃发展都起着重要的作用.从财政政策、产业政策、教育水平以及对外开放程度4个维度量化制度创新,运用2006—2019年省级面板数据进行回归计量,考察制度创新与区域经济的相关性.考虑到空间相关性,在通过莫兰检验后,引入空间杜宾模型进行计量,得到的研究结果表明,现行财政政策与教育水平尚不能促进经济发展,产业政策与对外开放程度显著促进地区经济发展,然而教育以及对外政策对于邻近地区的经济却产生显著的负向效应.将样本分为东、中、西三大区域计量,得到的结果则显示制度创新各要素对于三大区域经济的影响呈现显著的异质性.     

Rural to urban land conversion in China — How large is the over-conversion and what are its welfare implications?

The current system of converting farmland to urban land use in China can be characterized as a hybrid system that combines government controls with market-based transfers. In this paper we argue that this hybrid governance structure causes an over-conversion of farmland from the rural to the urban sector, as compared to a competitive market situation, and a welfare reallocation that discriminates against farmland owners. We develop a partial equilibrium model that can be used to examine the impact of the current hybrid governance structure on the over-conversion of farmland and to analyze the welfare changes for different groups of actors and the resulting net social welfare loss. Using a dataset with detailed information on farmland acquisitions and urban land transactions in Yingtan City in Jiangxi Province, we illustrate how this framework can be applied. Our results indicate an over-conversion of 33.5% of the total converted farmland in this city between 1999 and 2003. The welfare of farmland owners affected by the conversion decreased by 1.38 billion RMB, while the net social welfare loss equaled more than 270 million RMB during the same period. The local government obtained 380 million RMB of revenues by re-selling farmland as urban land through competitive conveyance mechanisms between 2002 and 2005, while the manufacturing sector gained an estimated 280 million RMB from buying land use rights at relatively low prices. We conclude that the current policy of increasing urban land conveyance through competitive mechanisms does not address two major underlying causes of over-conversion, and that protection of farmland would be better served by replacing the current hybrid rural to urban land market structure by a competitive land market.     

What Determines China's Grain Imports and Self‐sufficiency? The Role of Rising Domestic Costs and Varying World Market Prices

China's grain sectors have faced unprecedented challenges in recent years as the ever‐increasing and historically high level of grain output has failed to reduce grain imports. On the contrary, high grain imports and high domestic stock have accompanied historically high domestic output, a situation dubbed the “triple high” phenomenon in current policy discussion. This paper explores the role of widening domestic–world market price gaps in determining the triple high phenomenon. Unlike earlier studies that relied on production capacities, this paper argues that domestic production and demand (hence imports) are functions of domestic and world market prices and proposes an analytical framework to explicitly capture such price gaps under restricted trade linkages in general equilibrium. Following this approach, a set of price scenarios for the 2011–2020 period are constructed and simulated in a computable general equilibrium model. Results from the core scenarios, in which recent domestic and world market price trends are assumed to continue, suggest that further widening price gaps would substantially increase grain imports and reduce domestic output (by 60 million tons) and self‐sufficiency ratios from base levels. In the alternative scenarios with larger (smaller) price gaps, we find higher (lower) imports and larger (smaller) decreases in domestic output and self‐sufficiency ratios. Such results provide important policy implications as China's agricultural policy undergoes significant adjustment.     

Pure Altruism,Consumer Behavior and Choice Modeling*

An important assumption underlying non‐market valuation is that it is not the environment but the human preference that is valued. This paper attempts to test whether individual consumer behavior is influenced by a purely altruistic motive, examining the attitude of hikers towards the hypothetical removal of the Muju ski resort from the Mount Togyu National Park in South Korea. Data were collected from samples of hikers and skiers who visited the national park. The respondents were forced to consider trade‐offs between the recovery of the lost environmental assets in the Muju ski resort area, skiers’ additional travel time, and willingness‐to‐pay amounts for the hypothetical environmental improvement. It was found that hikers did not take into account skiers’ disutility represented by additional travel time.     

WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT IN ZIMBABWE: EVIDENCE FROM A CONTINGENT VALUATION STUDY

If communities living adjacent to the elephant see it as a burden, then they cannot be its stewards. To assess their valuation of it, a contingent valuation method study was conducted for one CAMPFIRE district in Zimbabwe. Respondents were classified according to their preferences over the elephant. The median willingness to pay for the preservation of 200 elephants is ZW$260 (US$4.73) for respondents who considered the elephant a public good and ZW$137 (US$2.49) for those favouring its translocation. The preservation of 200 elephants yields an annual net worth of ZW$10,828 (US$196) to CAMPFIRE households. However, the majority of households (62%) do not support elephant preservation. This is one argument against devolution of elephant conservation. External transfers constitute one way of providing additional economic incentives to local communities.     

Impact of Beijing Olympic-related Investments on Regional Economic Growth of China: Interregional Input–Output Approach*

Using the interregional input–output model, the present paper analyzes the impact of Olympic-related investments on the economic development of Beijing and its surrounding areas, as well as the rest of China. The interregional input–output model provides a satisfactory simulation and analysis of Olympic-related investments that are implemented in Beijing and other areas and their spillover effects on other regions. We estimate that from 2002 to 2007, Olympic-related investments will add 2.02, 0.23 and 0.09 percent annually to gross regional products of Beijing, its surrounding areas and the rest of China, respectively.     

Regional Trade Agreements in East Asia: Will They Be Sustainable?*

By assessing the sustainability of regional trade agreements (RTAs) for East Asia, we quantitatively evaluate the likely impact of proposed East Asian RTA strategies on the East Asian economies and the world economy with respect to consumption, production, volume of trade and terms of trade effects by applying a multi‐country and multi‐sector computable general equilibrium model. These strategies include: (i) the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA: a being‐left‐alone strategy); (ii) an ASEAN Hub RTA (a hub‐and‐spoke type of overlapping RTA strategy); (iii) the AFTA versus a China–Japan–Korea RTA (a duplicating or competing RTA strategy); and (iv) an ASEAN+3 RTA (an expansionary RTA strategy). We find that an expansionary ASEAN+3 RTA could be a sustainable policy option because the members’ gains would be significantly positive, with more equitably distributed gains between members than when using other strategies. The effect on world welfare would also be positive and the negative effect on nonmembers would not be very strong. More interestingly, if the East Asian countries cooperate with Pacific Basin countries to form an APEC‐level RTA, such as a free trade area of the Asia‐Pacific, the extension of the regional trade bloc might be considered a more desirable policy option than the proposed East Asian RTAs for East Asian economies, even though countries excluded from the free trade area of the Asia Pacific are worse off.     

INTRODUCTION TO A STUDY OF INTRAHOUSEHOLD RESOURCE ALLOCATION AND GENDER DISCRIMINATION IN RURAL ANDHRA PRADESH,INDIA

In this special issue, we use unique household data which was collected exclusively for our study in Andhra Pradesh, India, with the help of an NGO. We estimate and test the intrahousehold resource allocation rules, incidence of child labor, and the effects of credit constraints on time allocation among household members. Three empirical papers of this issue indicate the overall support for the collective model against the unitary model of households, clarified the role of household structure, and show the nature of mother‐child labor substitution under a binding credit constraint. In addition, a survey paper discussing the recent trends on educational attainment and the empirical strategies in identifyng the policy effects are included.