An economic assessment of the value of cattle to the rural communities in the former Venda region

This article assesses the economic value of livestock to rural communities in quantitative terms. A quantitative valuation of livestock is assessed in terms of milk production, manure use, draught power and offtake/sales criteria. The study is based on a cross-sectional survey of 125 small-scale cattle farmers interviewed in the Venda region of the Limpopo Province of South Africa. The results of the study estimated the average total value of an adult cow to be R1 152. This value should be viewed as an opportunity cost of the cattle. A quantitative valuation of livestock is important in indicating the degree of impact of cattle mortalities on the livelihood of rural households. In addition, it offers important guidelines for farmers' compensation by the government, should a disaster occur.     

Basic needs: The case of Sri Lanka

This article has two related objectives: to judge Sri Lanka's success in meeting its ‘basic needs’ and growth objectives, and to use Sri Lanka's experience to cast light on general hypotheses regarding basic needs. The analysis suggests that Sri Lanka's social expenditures had a substantial cost in growth and unemployment. However, largely because of these social programmes, it has the best social indicators, compared to its income, of any country for which data are available. Its growth has, surprisingly, been above average for low-income countries. Implications for basic-needs programmes include the need to ‘target’ social programmes, the high priority of primary education and the potential high impact, but also high costs, of assuring minimum caloric intakes.     

Basic education and income inequality in Brazil

This paper attempts to elucidate the long-term impact of basic education on income inequality in Brazil. It does so, first, by examining how investment in basic education affects incomes and, second, by assessing the extent to which government involvement in the financing of education services and the taxing of the returns of education investment contributes to the achievement of a more equitable distribution of income.On the basis of the empirical evidence available in Brazil, it is possible to suggest that: (i) education per se cannot significantly reduce inequality, (ii) government policies in terms of education subsidies and taxes on lifetime earnings do not show a clear redistribution pattern, and (iii) there exist effective policy tools in the area of employment, education wastage, cost recovery practices which could help bridge the gap between rates of return to education and reduce income inequality.     

An analytical defence of basic needs: The optimal-savings perspective

This paper seeks to provide an analytical defence of the basic needs approach to planning by invoking arguments derived from optimal-savings models. It shows that the ‘optimal’ provisions of basic needs, far from reducing growth, can have a salutory effect on it.     

新农村建设中的基础教育投融资问题

农村基础教育的发展对于建设社会主义新农村具有重要的意义。文章分析了农村基础教育的供给机制和投融资体制,探讨完善投融资体制的思路,指出可以从制度安排上保证农村基础教育投融资适应社会主义新农村建设的需要。     

乡村经济精英功能向度分析——陕西关中两村调查

本文通过对农户的问卷调查和访谈,了解到当前西部农村经济精英在乡村社会政治经济发展过程的功能表现,即经济精英在乡村社会究竟发挥怎样的作用。采用量化的分析可以使我们对经济精英的功能向度有更为直观的认识。     

The basic needs approach to development: The question of education for black people in Natal 1

Schooling is an important facet of the basic needs approach to development. Higher education has been shown to influence a decrease in both the infant mortality rate and the fertility rate, and furthermore appears to influence an individual's access to more remunerative employment. The provision of schools for black people in Natal by the Department of Education and Training (DET) is still far from adequate for all children of school‐going age. Moreover, in many areas, particularly rural areas and for levels above Junior primary, distances are too great for the children readily to be able to attend school. Particular problems which require confronting are farm schools (the location of which is not determined by DET and which are not always open to all neighbouring children): the inadequacy of secondary schooling in many census districts and in most rural areas; and the spatial fragmentation of Natal KwaZulu.     

Electrification and industrialisation: An assessment of the industrial breakthrough in Norway

Abstract

The article relates the ‘industrial breakthrough’ in Norway to the introduction of electricity in manufacturing production. Viewing electricity as a General Purpose Technology (GPT), the new device fostered advances across a broad spectrum of sectors. Several other key technologies (e.g., within chemical industries) also played their part. However, in Norway, electricity took an extraordinarily strong position. By presenting quantitative evidence of the electrification process, and relating it to annual estimates of employment, productivity and value added between 1896 and 1920, it is shown that the manufacturing sector was too small to form a ‘breakthrough’ before the turn of the century. It was not until the widespread introduction of electricity and electric motors gained some momentum in the first decades of the twentieth century that the economy become really industrialised.     

经济学的本质与特性：一个元经济学的问题

对于“经济学究竟是什么”这个元经济学的问题几个世纪以来一直困扰着经济学家与哲学家。这既是一个经济学问题,又是一个哲学问题。在梳理穆勒等经济学家对于经济学本质观点的基础上,以经济学的角度进一步分析经济学的科学性,特别是数学工具的运用对于经济学向自然科学方向迈进所做的贡献做出论述。经济学的人文性主要体现在其研究目的、研究过程受价值观与意识形态影响上。经济学具有科学性与人文性的特质,但是经济学的科学性似乎更加重要。     

大学生科技社团建设在创新教育中的作用

大学教育必须适应日新月异的科技发展形势,努力营造张扬个性、崇尚创新的育人环境.实践证明,加强大学生科技社团建设能够有效地提升大学校园文化品位,促进学风建设,培养科学精神,提高动手能力,打造成才通道.作为与课堂教育比翼齐飞的大学创新教育模式,在新时期加强大学生科技社团建设显得更为重要.     

International trade and factor intensity uniformity: An empirical assessment

Zusammenfassung Internationaler Handel und die Einheitlichkeit der Faktorintensit?ten. Eine empirische überprüfung. - Die Vorstellung, da? in allen L?ndern die Technologien identisch sind, ist ein Pfeiler der neoklassischen Theorie des internationalen Handels. Empirische Arbeiten verwenden h?ufig die Produktionsstruktur eines Landes als N?herungswert für die Technologie in allen anderen L?ndern. Dagegen behaupten die Autoren, da? die Annahme einheitlicher Faktorintensit?ten aus empirischen Gründen nicht gerechtfertigt sei und als Grundlage für theoretische Modelle aufgegeben werden sollte. Sie testen, ob die Faktorintensit?ten einheitlich gleich sind, indem sie Input-Output-Daten für die OECD-L?nder verwenden. Dann entwickeln sie- als eine Alternative zu den Modellen, die auf einheitlicher Faktorintensit?t beruhenein dynamisches disaggregiertes ricardianisches Modell, das dazu bestimmt ist, die Beziehung zwischen dem technischen Fortschritt und den Ver?nderungen in der Zusammensetzung des internationalen Handels zu erfassen.

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Résumé Le commerce international et l’uniformité de l’intensité de facteur-Une évaluation empirique. - L’idée de technologies identiques à travers les pays est un élément considérable de la théorie néoclassique du commerce international. Les analyses empiriques souvent assument la structure de production d’un seul pays comme approximation de la technologie dans tous les autres pays. Dans cette étude, les auteurs trouvent que la supposition d’une intensité de facteur uniforme n’est pas justifiée pour des raisons empiriques et devrait être abandonnée comme une base d'un modèle théorique. En utilisant des données input-output des pays de l’OCED, les auteurs font des tests simples de l’uniformité d’intensité de facteur. Comme alternative aux modèles basés sur l’uniformité de l’intensité de facteur, les auteurs développent un modèle Ricardian dynamique et disaggrégé pour saisir la relation entre le progrès technologique et les changements dans la composition du commerce international.

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Resumen Comercio international y uniformidad de la intensidad de factores. Un estudio empirico. - La noción de la existencia de igual tecnología en todos los países es uno de los pilares de la teoría neoclásica del comercio international. En trabajos empíricos a menudo se adopta la estructura de productión de un país para aproximar la tecnología en todos los demás países. En este trabajo se argumenta que el supuesto de la uniformidad de la intensidad de factores (UIF) no se justifica desde el punto de vista empírico y que debería ser abandonado como fundamento de los modelos teóricos. Se llevan a cabo tests simples de la UIF utilizando datos de insumo producto de los países de la OECD. Se desarrolla un modelo ricardiano dinámico y desagregado, dise?ado para capturar la relación entre el cambio tecnológico y los cambios en la compositión del comercio, como una alternativa a los modelos basados en la UIF.

     

我国软件业发展的现状、机会与挑战

本文运用大量统计数据分析了安徽省属高等院校发展的现状 ,提出安徽省属高校为迎接市场经济和知识经济挑战的若干策略和建议。     

SMME development in Johannesburg's Southern Metropolitan Local Council: An assessment

This article addresses the development, management and needs of small, micro‐ and medium enterprises (SMMEs) in Johannesburg's Southern Metropolitan Local Council (SMLC), with particular focus on business development by previously disadvantaged South Africans. The article comprises an introductory section on the small‐business sector in South Africa and internationally, as well as the results of a field survey of a sample of 841 SMMEs in the SMLC. Many of the respondents were located in areas like Soweto, Orange Farm, Eldorado Park and Lenasia. Given the areas’ poverty and a history of neglect, the bulk of respondents were small, micro‐ or survivalist enterprises. In part, the survey confirmed some generally held notions about small businesses. Among these were funding difficulties, a strong desire for business‐related training and serious informational problems. The study revealed a shortage of management skills and poor record‐keeping. At the same time, some evidence emerged of business potential, including high survival rates and a determination to succeed. Key recommendations include training programmes in such areas as record‐keeping, marketing, customer relations, inventory control and tendering procedures. Mechanisms are also suggested for facilitating access to finance.     

Civil rights legislation and the housing status of black americans: An overview

This article explores the relationship between civil rights legislation and the housing status of black Americans. An economic and judicial history of the pursuit of fair housing (or equal opportunity in access to housing) is provided for two major periods-from the late 1800s to the 1950s, and from the years of the civil rights movement to the present. An exploration of the housing status of black Americans throughout these periods follows, in which measures such as crowdedness and tenure-attributable partly to inequality in access to housing—are examined, and comparisons of black and whites are made.     

An assessment of agricultural development policies in Iran

Agricultural development policies in Iran for the past two decades have been based on important misconceptions derived from a dualistic analysis of the economy. The government concentrated on the development of the ‘dynamic’ oil and industrial sector at the expense of the ‘static’ rural sector. As a result Iranian self-sufficiency in food and agricultural produce has been seriously eroded and the country has become increasingly dependent on the international market both in terms of importing foodstuffs and in gaining its main income through the export of a single item: oil. The present government's attempts at alleviating this problem should extend beyond revolutionary rhetoric and blanket policies and return the means of production to the cultivator and encourage the emergence of a peasant-based and independent agricultural sector.