Improving the industrial anticipation of current scientific activity

There is now widespread realization that new scientific findings are the foundations of much of tomorrow's technical and economic growth. How might one shorten awareness of scientific progress and possible applications? Several concepts are suggested—a) speculations of scientists involved, b) analysis of current government funding of research projects (per Klingman), c) retrospective analysis of the evolution of a scientific field to identify precedent influential factors, d) normative forecasts of scientists reviewing their field (“what could be”), e) normative forecasts of scientists seeking support for new work (“what should be”), and f) analysis of current “artifacts” of science. It is argued that vigorous study along these lines could speed some industrial and governmental response to ongoing work on scientific frontiers.     

Constant per capita consumption paths with exhaustible resources and decaying produced capital

We introduce decay in produced capital and exogenous technical progress to the recent “Solow Model” of Asheim et al. with population growth and observe the possible collapse of the economy given too high a rate of decay. “Enough” technical progress can restore sustainable per capita consumption.     

干中学、低成本竞争和增长路径转变

中国经济增长模式转变已经成为了共识,但大多数分析限于宏观分析,缺少对微观行为的机理讨论。本文从分析“干中学”的演进机制入手,得出了赶超型的供给曲线,然后针对“干中学”引起的套利型一哄而起的低成本竞争模式加以探讨,从理论和典型事实上理解了中国经济增长的内生演进机制和技术要素组合方式,最后提出了通过供给政策和深化市场改革来推进经济增长方式转变的结论。     

Weak Moral Motivation Leads to the Decline of Voluntary Contributions

We develop a model that accounts for the decay of the average contribution observed in experiments on voluntary contributions to a public good. The novel idea is that people's moral motivation is “weak.” Their judgment about the right contribution depends on observed contributions by group members and on an intrinsic “moral ideal.” We show that the assumption of weakly morally motivated agents leads to the decline of the average contribution over time. The model is compatible with persistence of overcontributions, variability of contributions (across and within individuals), the “restart effect” and the observation that the decay in contributions is slower in longer games. Furthermore, it offers a rationale for conditional cooperation.     

From Judicial Sovereignty to Collective Democracy: The Development of J.R. Commons’ Perspective on Progressive Institutional Change

Abstract:

This article clarifies the significance of “collective democracy” in the works of John R. Commons by comparing it with “judicial sovereignty” in terms of its contribution to “progress.” We can thus answer two issues that Paul D. Bush does not clearly address: (i) what setup for policy formation contributes to progress and (ii) what is the role of economists within a collective democracy? Based on the comparison, the answer to the first question is collective democracy, and regarding the second question, the roles of economists as both economists and “institutional” economists are extrapolated.     

中国农业碳生产率变化的驱动因素与区域差异研究

利用产出距离函数将农业碳生产率变化分解为技术效率、技术进步和要素替代变化,并实证测算1995—2016年中国农业碳生产率的变化及其驱动因素,结果表明:(1)研究期中国农业碳生产率年均提高3.57%,单位GDP碳排放量年均下降3.31%,累计下降50.96%,主要归因于技术进步和要素替代效应。(2)中国农业资本深化对农业碳生产率提升有正向影响,劳动力价格上涨有负向影响。(3)中国农业碳生产率表现出“东高西低,阶梯分布”的空间特征,东南沿海省份和西北省份存在区域“农业碳生产率缺口”,且呈缺口扩大趋势。鉴于此,为提高农业碳生产率提出政策建议。     

“一带一路”沿线国家贸易网络结构特征及其对技术进步的影响——基于社会网络分析法的研究*

本文采用社会网络分析法探讨了2008—2018年“一带一路”沿线国家贸易网络结构特征,测算沿线国家贸易网络中心位置对技术进步的影响,并对不同收入国家进行异质性分析。研究发现：“一带一路”沿线国家整体贸易结构比较松散,意大利、土耳其、韩国、俄罗斯、中国和新加坡等国家（地区）位于网络核心,共有23个国家（地区）发挥“中介”或“桥梁”作用,影响着其余沿线国家之间的贸易联系;超过四成的沿线国家（地区）与非贸易伙伴国具有较强的间接贸易关系。贸易网络中心位置的提升能显著促进母国技术进步,间接贸易影响母国技术进步的边际效应大于直接贸易;中高等收入水平国家直接和间接贸易地位和贸易强度的提升均显著促进了技术进步,低等收入国家贸易强度的提升也能促进母国的技术进步。     

ChinHow R&D Investments Influence TFP Growth: Evidence from China’s Large and Medium- Sized Industrial Enterprises

This paper investigates the potential channels through which R&D may influence TFP growth using industry-level panel data of China’s large and medium-sized industrial enterprises over the period of 2000–2007. Comparing with existing literature, we provide a closer look of the relationship between R&D and TFP growth by decomposing TFP growth into efficiency change and technical change components using Malmquist productivity index and distinguishing between upstream R&D spillovers and downstream R&D spillovers. We find TFP grow slightly during 2000–2007, and R&D investment indeed serves as an engine of productivity growth just as endogenous growth theories argued, which is largely because R&D accelerates technical progress even it also results in enlarging technical inefficiency. However, we find a robust negative effect of downstream R&D spillovers on TFP growth, the effects of upstream is positive but not statistically significant. In addition, we do not find the positive effects of human capital on TFP as endogenous growth theories indicated, but find human capital severs as “assimilation device” for R&D spillovers both in promoting TFP growth and increasing technical efficiency even the effects on technical progress is adverse.     

中国城市可持续发展态势分类评价

当前，中国城镇化正高速推进，城市已成为推动可持续发展的关键领域。以城市三支柱协调发展为理论基础，分别采用城市5年人口年均动态增长率、空气PM2.5浓度年达标水平、5年地区GDP年均动态增长率3项指标，作为城市社会进步、环境保护、经济增长3大维度表征，构建“8类4级”城市分类评价方案，其中4级是指城市发展呈现强、中、弱、欠可持续发展的不同特征。对中国2013年所有数据可得的地级及以上城市开展实证研究，获取基于发展态势的城市分类结果。结果显示，90%以上城市处于弱可持续发展态势，环境污染是中国城市发展面临的关键性难题。我国东北地区城市人口流失和财富增长后劲不足，可持续发展挑战巨大。     

What determines the productivity growth? Evidence from Chinese renewable energy firms by using Bayesian stochastic frontier approach

This paper examines the determinants of the total factor productivity (TFP) growth of Chinese renewable energy firms from 2011 to 2016, using a Bayesian stochastic frontier approach. Employing the “Bauer–Kumbhakar” decomposition method, the TFP growth is decomposed into the technology part and the market part. The empirical results reveal that the TFP improvement of Chinese renewable energy firms is mainly due to technical progress, followed by technical efficiency change. With regard to the market part, the misallocation of production factors has hindered the TFP growth. Our findings also indicate that only for large firms, the TFP growth can benefit from the scale economy effect. Compared with non‐state‐owned firms, state‐owned firms suffer much lower allocative efficiency.     

Endogenous human capital formation,distance to frontier and growth

We examine human capital's contribution to economy-wide technological progress through two channels – imitation and innovation – innovation being more skill-intensive than imitation. We develop a growth model based on the endogenous ability-driven skill acquisition decision of an individual. It is shown that skilled human capital is growth enhancing in the “imitation-innovation” regime and in the “innovation-only” regime whereas unskilled human capital is growth enhancing in the “imitation-only” regime. Steady state exists and, in the long run, the economy converges to the world technology frontier. In the diversified regime, technological progress raises the return to ability and generates an increase in wage inequality between and within groups – consistent with the pattern observed across countries.     

Productivity growth and biased technical change in French higher education

This paper analyses the nature of technical change in the French labour market. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is adopted to investigate productivity change in a sample of higher education leavers over the period 1999 and 2004. In a first step, the Luenberger Productivity Indicator (LPI) is used to estimate and to decompose productivity change. Following LPI, a better productivity is found for the workers in Paris and the well-qualified occupations in France. In analysing the nature of the technical change by the concept of parallel neutrality, technical progress seems to have influenced all professions. In particular, biased inputs of human capital component benefit more for the well qualified professions with an upper increase of the efficiency scores for executives and teachers. Furthermore, some evidences show the key role of “learning by doing” in the worker's adaptation to technical change. Policy implications are then derived from our results.     

Influence of Technology Change on High-Quality Economic Development in China

Since the implementation of the reform and opening up policy, rapid growth has been witnessed in the Chinese economy, thanks to the introduced technological progress as well as the institutional advantages of the country. However, while this exogenous technological progress promotes economic growth quantitatively, it is, unfortunately, not conducive to the improvement of the quality of the economy. Structural imbalances have thus been produced, which hinder the high-quality development of the economy of the country. Besides, by way of the “supply and demand rebalance mechanism,” “resource optimized allocation mechanism,” and “new and old kinetic energy conversion mechanism,” original technological progress can effectively push forward the quality change, efficiency change and dynamic change in the economy, thereby promoting the innovation, coordination, greenness and openness as well as the shared development of the economy. Therefore, the current technological transformation in China needs to change from the second stage—the stage of transition from the introduced technological progress mode to the original technological progress mode then to the third stage—the stage mainly based on the original technological progress, which is the key to the successful transformation of the Chinese economy from the high-speed growth phase to the high-quality development phase.     

Current global imbalances and the Keynes Plan: A Keynesian approach for reforming the international monetary system

This paper proposes a “logical experiment”, illustrating how alternative international monetary systems may produce opposite results in the global economy. In the current organisation, “key currencies” work as international money. Keynes, by contrast, proposed that this role should be assigned to a supranational, “credit” money. While the world currently lives in an asymmetric regime, which lead to what has been defined as a “balance of financial terror”, Keynes tried to achieve a more peaceful type of “international balance”. I argue that the structural reform and the technical provisions proposed by the “Keynes Plan” may still – at least in principle – provide useful remedies for international disequilibria, by remedying the asymmetries of the current international payments architecture and helping to curb both inflationary and deflationary pressures on the world economy.     

Population,land, and growth

This paper suggests a new explanation for changes in economic and population growth with a long run perspective, emphasizing the role of land in the development process. Starting from a pre-industrialization state called the “Malthusian regime”, land and labor are the main production factors. The size of population is limited by the quantity of land available for households and by incomes. Technical progress driven by a “Boserupian effect” may push the economy towards a take-off regime. In this regime, capital accumulation begins and a “learning-by-doing” effect in production takes over from the “Boserupian effect”. If this effect is strong enough, the economy can reach an “ultimate growth regime”. In the different phases, land plays a crucial role.     

India’s Green Revolution: Economic Gains and Political Costs

Research and development (R&;D) promotion policies are critical for economic development in the sense that they contribute to technical progress. Although it is true that policy space is restricted under the World Trade Organization (WTO) system, there are still some R&;D promotion policy measures made available to developing countries. It is thus necessary for developing countries to utilize such available measures. In addition to explaining the R&;D promotion measures available under the current WTO regulations, I provide suggestions for modifying the Uruguay Round Subsidies Code with respect to the R&;D promotion policies of developing countries from the viewpoint of “distributional fairness” in international trade relations.     

An Alternative Approach to the Institutional Economics of the Eurozone Crisis

I argue that the Eurozone crisis is neither a crisis of European sovereigns in the sense of governmental over-borrowing, nor a crisis of sovereign debt market over-lending. Rather, it is a function of the “sovereign debt market” institution itself. Crisis, I argue, is not an occurrence, but an element fulfilling a precise technical function within this institution. It ensures the possibility of designating — in the market’s day-to-day mechanisms rather than analytical hindsight — normal (tranquil, undisturbed) market functioning. To show this, I propose an alternative view on the institutional economics of sovereign debt markets. First, I engage literature on the emergent qualities of the institutions “market” and “firm” in product markets, concluding that the point of coalescence for markets is the approximation of an optimal observation of consumer tastes. I then examine the specific institution “financial markets,” where the optimal observation of economic fundamentals is decisive. For the specific sub-institution “sovereign debt market,” I conclude that the fundamentals in question — country fundamentals — oscillate between a status of observable fundamentals outside of markets and operationalized fundamentals influenced by market movements. This, in turn, allows me to argue that the specific case of the Eurozone crisis is due to neither of the two causes mentioned above. Rather, the notion of “crisis” takes on a technical sense within the market structure, guaranteeing the separation of herd behavior and isomorphic behavior on European sovereign debt markets. By the same token, the so-called Eurozone crisis ceases to be a crisis in the conventional sense.     

中国经济增长模型的设定:1952—1998

现代经济增长理论能够刻画我国的经济增长吗 ?如果能 ,那么哪类经济增长理论能比较好地刻画我国的经济增长呢 ?围绕这些问题 ,本文从实证和理论两个方面展开讨论。在实证上 ,本文采用Jones( 1 995)实证检验新增长理论的方法 ,针对各类经济增长理论的核心特征 ,实证分析了 1 952— 1 998年间我国经济增长的典型事实 ,结果发现这些典型事实明显地拒绝了新古典增长理论和R&D类型增长理论 ,相对而言 ,比较支持AK类型增长理论。另外 ,我们还发现以综合要素生产率测量的技术进步 ,不是我国1 952—1 998年间经济增长的引擎。在理论上 ,本文从“边干边学”的角度 ,把“探索适合我国国情的经济建设道路”纳入经济增长模型 ,证明了其本身可以作为我国经济增长的引擎 ;同时回答了为什么AK类型增长理论能够刻画我国的经济增长。     

Path-dependent economic progress and regress: The negative role of subsidies in economic growth

This paper develops a two-stage economic growth model with real options and examines the effects of various subsidy policies. The economic stages are the deterministic and stochastic AK stages, and the economy may shift between the two, depending upon state variables and technological shocks. This model allows for path-dependent economic growth that accounts for both club convergence and divergence across countries. Moreover, it is shown that under certain conditions, a decrease in the subsidy rate facilitates the shift from the deterministic to stochastic AK stages, which is defined as “economic progress”, even in the face of an economic crisis, while more subsidies delay economic progress and promote the shift from the stochastic to deterministic AK stages, which is defined as “economic regress”.