New capital estimates for China

Data on physical capital are an indispensable part of economic growth and efficiency studies. In the case of China, economy-wide fixed asset series are usually derived by aggregating gross fixed capital formation (net of depreciation) over time, and sectoral/ownership-specific series by correcting the limited official fixed asset data available. These procedures, to varying degrees, ignore that (i) gross fixed capital formation does not equal investment, (ii) investment does not equal the value of fixed assets newly created through investment, (iii) depreciation is an accounting measure that bears no necessary relation to changes in the production capacity of fixed assets, (iv) official fixed asset data, where available, incorporate significant revaluations in the 1990s, and (v) “net fixed assets” do not measure the contribution of fixed assets to production.This paper derives economy-wide fixed asset values for 1953–2003, correcting for these shortcomings. It uses both the traditional, cumulative approach and a new, so far unexplored method of combining economy-wide depreciation values and an economy-wide depreciation rate to directly yield economy-wide fixed assets. The derived fixed asset time series are evaluated in a comparison with each other as well as with series in the literature, leading to the recommendation of a specific choice of fixed asset time series.     

Capital Account Liberalisation by China and the Effects on Global FDI and Trade

We model the partial liberalisation of the capital account by China using a dynamic computable general equilibrium model of the world economy. Our results indicate that a reduced capital controls on foreign direct investment (FDI) would lead to a significant increase in FDI capital in China and a significant reduction in the cost of capital in China relative to the rest of the world. Furthermore, we observe an increase in capital stocks in most regions, which benefits most regions in terms of GDP and GNP. The Chinese economy grows by 3.3% driven by a significant fall in the rental price of capital that, in turn, lowers domestic costs, causes a real depreciation of the exchange rate and thus increased exports relative to other regions. We also observe an across-the-board increase in the saving rate driven by the rise in the price of consumption relative to investment (saving) in all regions.     

Estimating the Euler Equation for Aggregate Investment with Endogenous Capital Depreciation

This article looks at the empirical consequences of introducing endogenous capital depreciation in the standard neoclassical model with quadratic adjustment costs. To this end, we formulate an empirical specification that accommodates capital maintenance and utilization in the Euler equations for aggregate investment. The empirical estimates with data from the Canadian Survey on Capital and Repair Expenditures show that, in contrast to the existing literature, the performance of the Euler equations is improved when we account for the impact of variable capital depreciation.     

THE IMPACT OF EXCHANGE RATE MOVEMENTS ON FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT: MARKET‐ORIENTED VERSUS COST‐ORIENTED

This paper examines the impact of exchange rate movements on foreign direct investment (FDI). We first employ a real options model to show that while the depreciation of a host country's currency tends to stimulate FDI activity of cost‐oriented firms, the depreciation tends to deter FDI activity for market‐oriented firms. With industry panel data on Taiwan's outward FDI into China over the period 1991–2002, our empirical findings indicate that the exchange rate level and its volatility in addition to the relative wage rate have had a significant impact on Taiwanese firms’ outward FDI into China. In general, the empirical results are consistent with the prediction of the theory. Our results reveal that the relationship between exchange rates and FDI is crucially dependent on the motives of the investing firms. Without considering this fact in an empirical model, the testing results might suffer from aggregations bias.     

上海市物质资本存量估算:1978～2007

本文考察了当前较多采用的几种代表性的物质资本存量估算方法,讨论了基年资本存量、固定资产投资价格指数、当年投资以及折旧等物质资本存量估算四个基本变量的指标选取和计算.根据目前国内已有统计数据,采用不同方法具体估算和比较了上海改革开放开放30年间的总体物质资本存量及分三大产业的资本存量,发现上海总体资本存量、三大产业资本积累及资本-产出比的变动趋势,说明上海经济增长方式和产业结构的调整符合经济发展的一般规律.     

When should firms invest in old capital?

The present paper analyzes optimal investment policies when the production function depends on capital of various vintages. In such an environment it is natural to ask whether the firm will invest in old-vintage capital at all. Other studies do not tell us when investment in old capital will take place. In the present paper I derive such a condition. Predictably, investment in old capital takes place if the elasticity of substitution between old and new capital is low, and when the depreciation of capital is high. However, other parameters such as the rates of technological progress and depreciation matter as well.     

Does Life Expectancy Affect Private Educational Investment in China？

In this paper, we emphasize the interactive effect between life expectancy and human capital accumulation, and test the positive feedback of longevity to educational investment in China. This is very important for understanding the pressure from the aging population and the increase in private educational investment in China. We first show in an extended human capital investment model that life expectancy growth acts as a driving force for educational investment. We then build a difference‐in‐difference‐in‐differences empirical framework and use cross‐province data to examine the effect in China. We use the maternal mortality rate (MMR) to identify the difference in life expectancy between genders, and the illiteracy rate or average years of education by gender for educational investment. The empirical results comply with the theory, in that increases in life expectancy significantly lower illiteracy rates and improve the average schooling years in China. This content of the present paper is closely related to crucial issues like population aging, human capital accumulation and gender discrimination. Policy implications are discussed based on the empirical results.     

Directions of increasing the role of depreciation as a source of reproducing fixed capital in agriculture

The article presents the results of studies of the structure of sources of reproducing fixed capital in agriculture of the country and the region (Orel oblast) and assesses the place and role of depreciation in investment resources. The results of the study have allowed us to propose a series of recommendations to enhance the role of amortization as a source of renewal and modernization of fixed capital in agriculture of the region. The practical application of recommendations would contribute to solving the problem of the target use of funds of depreciation and economic growth in the agricultural sector, as well as raise incomes of the regional budget of the subject of the Russian Federation.     

New Belgian Stock Market Returns: 1832–1914

The limited availability of high quality and computer readable data seriously impedes research in history and finance. We introduce a new monthly return series for Belgian owned equity based on Brussels Stock Market data for the period 1832–1914 as an improvement to the popular Drappier index. Over this period, our dataset includes 446,374 prices, 23,976 dividends, 371 stock and reverse splits (or other capital operations) on 2037 stocks of 1387 (foreign and Belgian) companies. Our dataset includes all shares and bonds but also high-quality information on prices, dividends, shares outstanding and market capitalization. In addition, company, country and sector information is available. We construct value weighted, price weighted and equally weighted indices as well as dividend yields. We find three important results. First, total nominal returns hover between 3.29% and 5.35% per annum, depending on how individual stocks are aggregated into the index. Second, dividend income constitutes the major part of total return and dividend distributions have a clear seasonal pattern. Third, the results highlight several drawbacks of the Drappier indices, especially an upward bias in expected equity performance.     

The Impact of Computers on Productivity in the Trade Sector: Explorations with Dutch Microdata

The impact of computers on productivity in the Dutch trade sector during the period 1988-1994 is examined. The analysis is based on a panel data set derived from the Production Survey of Statistics Netherlands, which includes data on output, employment, wages, and various types of investment. A new method is developed to estimate IT- and non-IT capital stocks for each firm based on investment flows and booked depreciation figures by firm. A Cobb-Douglas production function setting is used to study the effect of computer capital stock on productivity. We find that computers contributed positively to productivity, even when firm-specific effects such as labour quality are accounted for. In retail trade computers yielded returns above their relatively high rental price. For wholesaling, no evidence for excessive returns is found. The rates of return were not subject to a decline in the period studied, in contrast to findings for the US. This suggests that the Netherlands has been lagging in the application of IT compared to the US and that further productivity boosting effects can be expected.     

资本账户开放的门槛效应及路径研究

文章基于70个国家面板数据,实证检验了开放资本账户的增长效应。研究结果表明,资本账户开放具有国别差异,高收入国家开放资本账户的增长效应显著大于中低收入国家。在引入制度质量、货币政策、财政政策、对外开放度和金融发展5个初始条件指标建立动态门槛模型,研究发现,资本账户开放对经济增长的影响是非线性的,初始条件较低时资本账户开放不利于经济增长,当初始条件越过门槛值后,资本账户开放表现出积极的增长效应。结合跨境资本异质性和门槛效应,进一步发现开放直接投资的门槛最低,经济效应最大;开放债务投资的门槛最高,经济效应最小;开放股权投资的门槛效应介于前二者之间。经验分析为中国资本账户开放条件以及路径提供了参考。     

我国农业经济发展水平及其影响因素实证研究

农业经济发展与农业生产自然制约条件、农业人力资本投入、农业生产资本投入、农业生产技术、农业经济的市场作用、农业生产条件制约因素等密切相关.本文选取反映农业经济增长的13个指标,对其1980-2012年的时间序列运用主成分回归分析与其误差修正模型,研究我国农业经济发展全要素生产率及影响我国农业长期经济发展与短期经济发展的因素.结果表明,影响我国农业长期与短期经济发展的主要因素按影响力大小依次为农业生产条件、市场作用、自然制约条件、农业生产资本、农业生产技术、人力资源.     

Maintenance expenditures and indeterminacy under increasing returns to scale

This paper develops a one-sector real business cycle model in which competitive firms allocate resources for the production of goods, investment in new capital and maintenance of existing capital. Firms also choose the utilization rate of existing capital. A higher utilization rate leads to faster capital depreciation, and an increase in maintenance activity has the opposite effect. We show that as the equilibrium ratio of maintenance expenditures to GDP rises, the required degree of increasing returns for local indeterminacy declines over a wide range of parameter combinations. When the model is calibrated to match empirical evidence on the relative size of maintenance and repair activity, we find that local indeterminacy (and belief-driven fluctuations) can occur with a mild and empirically-plausible degree of increasing returns: approximately 1.08.     

产业集聚与人力资本投资效益——来自中国工业企业的微观证据

长期以来,关于我国本土企业是否存在内生经济增长特有的人力资本溢出效应,一直缺乏直接的微观经验证据。本文首次利用中国工业企业数据库的大样本数据,通过考察产业集聚与企业人力资本投资-绩效敏感性之间的关系,发现我国存在产业集聚带来的溢出效应,但这种效应只是显著存在于中小企业集群中：在中小企业集群地区,产业集聚程度上升将会提高企业人力资本投资的边际收益;而在非集群地区,产业集聚对企业人力资本投资的边际收益没有产生影响。进一步的实证检验表明,地区人力资本投资水平的提高会改善该地区没有人力资本投入的企业绩效;对于中小企业集群地区没有人力资本投入的企业,地区人力资本投资水平给其带来的边际绩效显著高于非集群地区的企业。     

Role of Endogenous Vintage Specific Depreciation in the Optimal Behavior of Firms

This paper studies the firms' capital accumulation process in a vintage capital model with embodied technological change. We take into account that depreciation is endogenous and in particular associated with vintage specific maintenance expenditure. We prove that maintenance is a local substitute for investment as soon as the marginal cost of maintenance is strictly increasing. We show that maintenance and investment in new capital goods appear as complements with respect to the changes in productivity, cost of maintenance, fixed cost of operation, efficiency of maintenance services and appear as substitutes with respect to the price of new machines. Allowing for investment in old vintages, we determine that investment in old machines appears as a substitute of both investments in new machines and maintenance services. We end up by analyzing the effects of technological progress on optimal plans and prove that a negative anticipation effect can occur even without any market imperfections.     

The determinants of foreign direct investment in transforming economies: Empirical evidence from Hungary and China

The Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in Transforming Economies: Empirical Evidence from Hungary and China. — This paper analyzes what factors best explain foreign capital inflows into Hungary and China during the period 1978–92. The size of the host-country markets is found to play a positive role, while the cost-of-capital variables and political instability are negatively correlated with investment inflows. It supports the hypothesis that low-cost labour and currency depreciation is an important factor in explaining how much foreign capital flows into a particular country. There is little evidence to support classical hypotheses concerning tariff barriers and import variables. The OECD growth rates show significant positive correlation with FDI in Hungary.     

中国服务业开放对区域创新的影响

通过使用中介效应检验法,系统考察了中国服务业开放对区域创新的影响,发现中国服务业开放有助于促进区域创新。中国服务业开放的研发资本投入效应、服务业开放的研发劳动投入效应、服务业开放对制造业进出口贸易的推动效应在服务业开放对中国区域创新的影响中存在中介效应,而服务业开放对人均GDP的拉动效应在服务业开放对中国区域创新的影响中不存在中介效应。东部地区通过服务贸易进口获得的国外研发资本存量能显著促进区域创新,而中部、西部和东北地区通过服务贸易进口获得的国外研发资本存量不能显著促进区域创新。     

The effect of corporate real estate ownership on R&D innovation: credit relief vs. resource replacement in China

Against the background of supply-side structural reform and the real estate financialisation in China, this study investigates the impact of real estate holdings on R&D investment using data of enterprises listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges. Our empirical results yield five main findings. First, enterprises holding more real estate assets face more serious financial constraints, thus restraining corporate innovation efficiency. Second, when the profit margin gap between entity enterprises and the real estate industry is larger, enterprises are more inclined to transfer industrial capital into the real estate industry, thus reducing R&D investment. Third, when the degree of marketisation is high, intensified market competition, the optimal allocation of factor and product markets, and stronger patent protection will weaken the restraining effect of corporate real estate holdings on R&D investment. Fourth, monopoly enterprises obtain potential profits more than undertaking risks from the real estate industry, they are more willing to hold real estate, thus strengthening the restraining effect of real estate holdings on innovation. Finally, investors' regional preference intensifies the restraining effect of corporate real estate holdings on R&D investment. Our empirical evidence can guide entity enterprises on how to effectively balance short-term (non-productive) and long-term (productive) capital investment.     

Saving,investment and international capital mobility in East Asia

This paper estimates the degree of international capital mobility in East Asia using the saving–investment correlation originated in Feldstein and Horioka [Feldstein, M., Horioka, C., 1980. Domestic saving and international capital flows. Economic Journal 90, 314–329]. We apply the empirical method used in Kim [Kim, S.H., 2001. The saving–investment correlation puzzle is still a puzzle. Journal of International Money and Finance 20, 1017–1034] to control for cyclical effects in estimating a time-series saving–investment correlation of 10 Asian countries from 1980 to 2002. Our conclusion is that the saving–investment correlation in East Asia steadily decreases over time but is still higher than that of the OECD countries over all studied periods. These results are consistent with the fact that capital mobility in East Asia is lower than that in the OECD countries. In addition, regional saving and investment data demonstrate that investment in East Asia is largely financed by regional savings.