城市垃圾堆肥技术评述

从堆肥的原理、工艺、影响堆肥的主要因素等方面,介绍了城市生活垃圾的堆肥技术,分析了国内外堆肥技术的现状,指出了该技术的发展前景.     

The spirit of capitalism, stock market bubbles and output fluctuations

This paper presents a representative agent model in which stock market bubbles cause output fluctuations. Assuming that utility depends directly on wealth, we show that stock market bubbles arise if the marginal utility of wealth does not decline to zero as wealth goes to infinity. Bubbles can affect output positively or negative depending on whether the production function exhibits increasing or decreasing returns to scale. In sunspot equilibria, the bursting of a bubble is followed by a sharp decline in output one period later. Various numerical examples are given to illustrate the behavior of stochastic bubbles and the relationship between bubbles and output.     

The effects of social security on population and output growth

"In this paper we have considered two unfunded social security programs. Under the conventional system, benefits are related to aggregate fertility; under the hypothetical fertility-related system, benefits are directly linked to individual fertility. The effects on fertility and per capita growth rates of the two social security systems are examined in the context of endogenous growth." The relative merits of the two systems for developing and developed countries are considered. The authors conclude that "the conventional social security system existing in many developed nations may be desirable to...developing countries in reducing population and promoting economic growth. On the other hand, the hypothetical fertility-related system may be useful to developed countries as far as increasing fertility is concerned."     

Multinational corporations and domestic market structure: The case of Greek manufacturing industries

Conclusions In this paper we examined the potential of MNCs to give rise or to promote concentrated markets in a host country. Foreign presence in the form of MNCs affectsdirectly the market structure of the economy by in-creasing both the relative inequalities in the size distributions of firms (entropy) and the level of absolute concentration (Herfindahl-CR4). MNCs tend to populate capital intensive sectors and may also account for a potentialindirect stimulation on the concentration process through their effects on domestic barriers to entry. Industries characterised by such horizontal FDI are likely to be able to earn and maintain supra-normal profits in the domestic market. However, the effective curb of competition caused by MNCs did not show uneven distribution of gains in profitability to be present in the market for a sample of 100 large MNCs and local firms. We should suggest that concentration and other market imperfections may be the basic factor determining profitability in Greece,not multinationality per se. Moreover, the potential indirect influence of MNCs on domestic barriers may act as an agent for promoting structural changes, especially in the capital intensive sector.     

Migration and the urban labour market: The case of San Salvador

This article analyzes the employment and incomes of migrants in the city of San Salvador. The study finds that, both rural-urban and urban-urban migrants experience income gains and are increasingly employed in the formal sector. However, the upward mobility of urban-urban migrants is much larger. Compared with urban natives, these migrants have higher income levels and employment rates after five years of urban residence, while rural-urban migrants earn much less and tend to remain in the informal sector more frequently. This evidence is contrary to findings obtained in other studies, for example Brazil, which showed that urban natives and migrants have comparable levels of income and employment. The authors suggest that the experience of rural-urban migrants is a result of the functioning of the urban labour market. Within this market a mechanism exists whereby access to the high-wage sector is limited by discriminating among workers. As a result, rural-urban migrants, often recognizable by their racial characteristics, are denied access to high-wage jobs.     

中国制造业竞争因素评价及其适应性调整

本文在分析比较了中国和主要发达国家制造业竞争因素差距的基础上，从制造业信息化、产业融合、融资战略、集中度与规模收益等方面探讨了我国制造业创新发展与适应性调整的若干思路。     

Local governance and urban prospects: The potential of city pride

The recent re-alignment of urban policy, involving the promotion of a diversity of public-private partnerships, a fostering of local business elites, and the increasing importance of city marketing and image reconstruction, all point in the direction of a “new localism” in urban regeneration. Focusing on the potential of the recent City Pride initiative in building up consensual and holistic “visions” of Britain's main cities, the following set of papers assess the role of the “urban prospectus” in fostering local coalitions and the benefits of mutuality in order to address issues of resource procurement and allocation. The potential of this new approach for targeting large-scale programme and project investment in the local economy, infra-structural priorities and aspects of social cohesion are all considered by the contributing authors, who look specifically at recent developments in London, Manchester and Birmingham.     

Re-forming urban regeneration? The practice and potential of English partnerships

English Partnerships has taken a central position in land regeneration and development. Ostensibly it has been allocated the resources, status and mechanisms to answer many of the criticisms that have been levelled at urban policy during the last decade. This paper looks at how the agency is pursuing its given role in the context of the changing features of urban regeneration, and what factors are determining its effectiveness.     

Assessing the output and productivity growth of Malaysia’s manufacturing sector

Given the importance of the manufacturing sector in the second-tier newly industrializing economy of Malaysia, this paper uses the stochastic frontier approach to assess the growth potential of this sector. This is performed by first estimating the production function by using panel data comprising 28 manufacturing industries over the period of 1981–1996. Unlike previous studies that used the growth accounting approach, here output growth is not just decomposed into input growth and total factor productivity growth but total factor productivity growth is further decomposed into technological progress and technical efficiency, thereby providing more direction for policy making.     

The effects of China's higher education expansion on urban and rural intergenerational mobility

This study examines the heterogeneous effect of higher education on intergenerational mobility of rural and urban residents before and after China's higher education expansion (CHEE). Drawing on data from seven waves of the China General Social Survey (CGSS), we find that, although the overall effect of higher education decreases on alleviating intergenerational persistence after CHEE, undergraduate or postgraduate education can still significantly promote rural intergenerational mobility in terms of occupational-socioeconomic status. However, higher education appears to have changed from assisting social mobility to advancing intergenerational persistence in urban areas after CHEE. The propensity score matching method was used to mitigate sample selection bias, and all the findings were validated by several robustness checks, including placebo and Oster's (2019) omitted-variable tests.     

The direct and indirect effects of infrastructure on firm productivity: Evidence from Chinese manufacturing

This paper attempts to distinguish and estimate the direct and indirect effects of infrastructure on firm productivity. The latter arises from the infrastructure-agglomeration link and has been largely overlooked in the literature on infrastructure. An analytical framework is then proposed to estimate both effects. Finally, empirical results are obtained using large-scale firm-level survey data from China. Major findings include: (1) all the three kinds of infrastructure–road, telecommunication servers and cable–are found to directly promote firm productivity; (2) they also exert a positive indirect effect on firm productivity through the agglomeration channel; and (3) the empirical results are robust to different agglomeration indicators and different subsamples.     

Patenting activity and elements of market structure in the Dutch manufacturing industry

Summary On the basis of econometric analysis this survey shows how patent intensity (number of patents in relation to sales) is positively influenced by technological opportunity and expected profit, and negatively by industry size and concentration. In addition, it is investigated whether patents can be used as a proxy for both inventive and innovative activity. To this question no definite answer could be given. A contradictory relationship was found between the R&D/sales ratio and the patents/sales ratio, which in this case merely shows how research based on firm data and industry data can come up with very different results. A general implication is that for studies on the Dutch manufacturing industry the aggregation from firm level to industry level should be treated with caution.The author works for Corporate Development & Economics Department of Unilever N.V. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily coincide with those of my employer.This article is based on the dissertation that I wrote for the MA in Economics programme at the University of East Anglia (UK). I would like to thank Dr S. Davies, Dr B. Lyons, and G. Hockley Morley for their useful comments, Vanda Morgan for her help with the language and Eline Rossen for her help in finalising this paper. Any errors are mine.     

Exchange rate effects on a firm's output composition

Summary Goods produced for competitive markets and goods produced for imperfectly competitive markets are likely to have interdependent production costs in the sense that an increase in the price or the quantity produced of one type of good raises the costs of producing the other. Such production costs inderdependencies are ignored in the existing literature on exchange rate effects on domestic and foreign output. This article does take these interdependencies into account and shows then that exchange rate effects may be dramatically different. In particular, it is explained why aggregate output measures may be insensitive to exchange rate changes.The idea for this paper was born during a research visit to Reading. The paper was further developed benefitting from comments by Mark Casson from the University of Reading, Henk Jager and Eelke de Jong from the University of Amsterdam, and two anonymous referees. I am most grateful for their suggestions. Any remaining errors are, of course, mine.     

OFDI and stock returns: Evidence from manufacturing firms listed on the Chinese A-shares market

Using data for manufacturing firms listed on the Chinese A-shares market over the 2000−16 period, this paper studies the impact of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) on stock returns using the propensity score matching. It shows that when firms carry out OFDI for the first time, they have to deal with the risks of the overseas market; therefore, the OFDI firms show significantly higher returns. Furthermore, OFDI affects stock returns through the risk channel rather than the diversification channel; the risks OFDI firms are exposed to are mainly demand and political risks. OFDI firms face different risks than non-OFDI firms, thus investors can obtain diversification benefits by purchasing stocks of OFDI firms. In addition, investors can make diversified investments based on the seven dimensions of the nature of firms and OFDI to increase the opportunity to obtain stock returns. For firms, they can conduct on-site inspections before conducting OFDI, becoming familiar with the host country market, laws and regulations. Firms should try to choose politically and economically stable countries to invest in.     

多边框架下的中国制造业本土市场效应测算

基于双边贸易模型对本土市场效应的测算,忽略了“第三国效应”,导致实证结果难以精确的反映国际贸易的实际状况.本文在Behrens多国模型的基础上,加入了时间变量,构建了动态多边模型.利用1980-2003年CEPII-BACI数据库中ISIC-3数据和世界银行的“Trade and Production database”,采用广义最小二乘法(FGLS)和广义矩估计法(GMM),对中国制造业的行业需求份额和出口份额之间的关系进行了检验,测算了制造业整体及分行业的本土市场效应.研究结果表明:在多边框架中内需的作用被削弱,整体制造业出口存在弱本土市场效应;但是劳动密集型行业的本土市场效应得到强化.     

The effects of state-led relocation on labor market participation: Evidence from China

The urbanization of China has been accompanied by large-scale state-led relocation (SLR) programs. This paper studies the effects of urban SLR on labor market participation. With three waves of China Household Finance Survey (CHFS), we find that urban SLR reduces labor market participation, on both the extensive margin and the intensive margin. The reduction is stronger for females, and there is some substitute effect between husbands and wives. The reduction is also stronger for individuals who are elder and less educated, and who choose lump sums of monetary compensation. Finally, we find no evidence that urban SLR experience stimulates business creation.     

Business reforms and total factor productivity in Vietnamese manufacturing

Vietnam implemented reforms in the 2000s to ease start-up of new businesses with dramatic effect on firm entry and market competition. This study examines firm level data for the period 2000–2010 to analyze total factor productivity (TFP) in connection with the reforms, adopting a semi-parametric technique developed by Wooldridge (2009) and Petrin and Levinsohn (2012) to measure TFP. Intensified competition is hypothesized to have driven convergence of TFP within industrial sectors as technologies best suited to Vietnamese market conditions became more widely implemented. The evidence strongly supports this hypothesis with convergence found for 16 of the 17 sectors analyzed. Further, comparison of TFP growth rates between the first and second half of the decade shows mixed results by sector and region. More often than not, TFP growth is seen to have slowed over time. This suggests that competition acted not only to push low TFP firms to exit the market or raise productivity, it also discouraged use of technologies that may have been overly advanced and not cost efficient for Vietnam.     

The long-term and intergenerational effects of early-life hunger experience on human capital and labor market outcomes

Using individual-level retrospective data on early-life hunger experience from China, we investigate the long-term effects of early nutritional deprivation on one's own and adult children's human capital and labor market outcomes. With an instrumental variable approach, we find that hunger experience lowers educational attainment and job quality of the first generation. But this negative impact on human capital does not transmit to the second generation, possibly due to parents' compensatory behavior of human capital investment and extra attention given to children. Our findings imply that the negative impact of non-extreme nutritional adversities on human capital and labor market outcomes are likely to decrease over generations.