Bioprospecting,Benefit Sharing,and Biotechnological Capacity Building

Substantial attention has been given to the obligations of developed countries to share benefits and transfer technology in exchange for access to biodiversity. There has been comparatively little discussion of measures that developing countries can take to attract and fully benefit from bioprospecting endeavors. Efforts in Costa Rica and South Africa to promote value-added bioprospecting and national programs in Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Cuba to develop biotechnological capabilities are analyzed for insights into the components of successful strategies for sustainable development of biochemical resources. Potential synergies between national programs to promote biotechnology and value-added bioprospecting are also discussed.     

低碳世博对我国企业战略转型的启示

低碳经济是一个新的理念,它深刻影响到科技、能源、经济、社会、国家战略和国际间合作等。举世瞩目的上海世博会传递着强烈的低碳经济的信息。与所有的发展中国家和发达国家一样,我国也面临着巨大的机会和挑战。本文认为在这一经济模式的转型过程中,企业应首先在战略上加以重视和调整,以抓住机遇实现企业的可持续发展。     

Primary Education Quality in Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa: Determinants of Learning Achievement and Efficiency Considerations

What are the most efficient means to ensure basic learning competencies for a high number of children? This question is analyzed on the basis of the exceptionally rich data set provided by the “Program on the Analysis of Education Systems” (PASEC), standardized and comparable for the five countries Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Madagascar and Senegal. A Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM) is used to assess the individual, school level, and national characteristics determining fifth-grade students' achievement in French and mathematics. Special consideration is given to institutional factors. A further question addressed is the possibility of a tradeoff between enrollment and education quality.     

An Assessment of the Singapore Skills Development System: Does it Constitute a Viable Model for Other Developing Countries?

In this paper, we briefly describe the institutional background of Singapore's successful national skills development model. We devise a tentative framework to evaluate national level skills development efforts, and we use it to assess the Singapore model. We argue that the model has the potential to move constantly toward higher skills equilibria. We question however, the long-term sustainability of the model, and whether it is transferable to other developing countries. We conclude with some principles that other countries might use in organizing their own skills development systems.     

Development Trajectories in the Biotechnology Industry： China versus Leading Countries

The present paper examines China's biotechnology industry from a global perspective and explores how its development trajectory differs from that of countries that are leaders in biotechnology. We draw on diverse data to demonstrate the unique development trajectory of the industry in China. China has benefited through targeted spin‐offs of R&D‐oriented foreign direct investment from developed countries driven by the effects of globalization, government‐encouraged collaboration between the domestic academia and industry, and the input of overseas returnees. Together with an increasing focus of the government and domestic enterprises on independent innovation, such developments have enabled China to catch up with the global biotechnology industry. However, its small scale and low capacity for commercializing innovations under China's current regulations and other barriers pose challenges for the development of the industry. Suggestions for the sustainable development of China's biotechnology industry are presented in this study.     

Transition on the spot: Historicity, social structure, and institutional change

Why do some countries in transition perform quite well while others still struggle with institutional reform, experiencing economic hardship and political disintegration? This paper suggests that this question can only be answered if the processes behind institutional change are well understood. Within the framework of a micro-macro model, it will be argued that historic experience shapes both mental models and the effectiveness of social learning. The historicity of economic development is behind differing development paths. Moreover, it will be shown that understanding the forces that bring about institutional change allows the political advisor to suggest strategies better adapted to the specific needs of different countries than the strategies currently employed. These findings will be applied to the problem of institutional change in rural Russia where the failure of existing reform strategies is eminent.     

Seamless sustainable transport connectivity in Asia and the Pacific: prospects and challenges

In view of the ongoing financial and economic crisis originated during 2008?C09 and the possibility of a double dip recession in advanced economies, export-dependent economies of Asia and the Pacific need to rebalance its growth toward domestic and regional demand for sustainable growth of Asia and the world. Despite remarkable growth during the last decade, the region still faces extensive basic infrastructure needs such as transport, energy, telecommunications and water. Asia, therefore, needs to enhance its connectivity through developing transport infrastructure at the national and regional level to rebalance its growth through enhancing intraregional trade, to enhance economic integration and to meet basic infrastructure needs. Transport plays a significant role in enhancing connectivity within and across Asian economies. However, building massive transport infrastructure will have profound implications on environment and climate change at the national, regional and global levels. In this evolving scenario, Asia needs to build efficient, safe, affordable, timely, world-class, socially and environmentally sustainable and seamless transport connections within the region, and with the rest of the world, in order to be competitive and prosperous. This paper analyzes the major challenges in developing sustainable transport connectivity, by fostering regional cooperation toward a seamless Asia. The paper examines the needs and benefits of transport connectivity and financing requirement for 2010?C2020. It examines the impact of transport connectivity on environment and the prospects and challenges for developing seamless sustainable transport connectivity. Finally, the paper provides policy recommendations on what the region can do to meet these challenges.     

INSTITUTIONS,BANKING DEVELOPMENT,AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

Does the institutional environment affect the causal relationship between banking development and economic growth? In the theoretical section of this paper, we develop an endogenous growth model where the institutional environment is captured through two indicators: judicial system efficiency and easiness of informal trade. We show that an improvement in the institutional environment has two effects. First, it intensifies the causality direction from banking to economic growth through a reduction in defaulting loans. Second, it reduces the interest rate spread. In the empirical section of the paper, we find bidirectional causality when analyzing 22 Middle Eastern and North African countries over the period 1984–2004. The first causality, which runs from banking development to economic growth, is more intense in countries with more developed institutional environment. The second causality runs from economic growth to banking and indicates that a more developed economy has a more developed banking system.     

Does the Private Sector Help or Hurt the Environment? Evidence from Carbon Dioxide Pollution in Developing Countries

How does the nature of enterprise ownership affect the environment in an economy? Conventional wisdom and theoretical conjectures are split on this important question. In this paper we estimate a reduced-form, random-effects model using data from 44 developing countries over nine years (1987–95) to study for any systematic empirical relationship between the relative level of private sector involvement in an economy and the environmental performance of the economy in terms of its emission of industrial carbon dioxide. We control for both observed and unobserved crosscountry heterogeneity along various institutional and structural dimensions such as the scope of financial market, industrial sector composition and level of foreign direct investment. The regression results indicate that the higher the degree of private sector involvement in a developing economy, the lower is its environmental degradation. In addition, its environmental degradation is likely to be further reduced in presence of a well-functioning domestic capital market and through increased participation by developed economies in its private sector development.     

Towards collective business action and cross-sector collaboration in responsible competitiveness clusters in southern Africa

Responsible competitiveness clusters are cross-sector collaboration initiatives focused on identifying and acting upon synergies between sustainable development and economic competitiveness objectives. By means of three case studies in southern Africa this paper investigates the incentives, opportunities and challenges encountered in the emergence of such clusters. The first case study focuses on a regional response to the development challenges encountered in a South African mining area, the second describes efforts to make the Malawian agriculture sector more inclusive and competitive and the third discusses options for enhancing the competitiveness of the Lesotho textile sector. The paper concludes with a discussion of the role of international trade networks, the institutional framework, public sector support and internal governance processes as key factors influencing the initial level of success of these initiatives.     

Determinants of pollution abatement in developing countries: Evidence from South and Southeast Asia

Developing countries, pa?ticularly those in Asia, are fast adopting industrial pollution control standards similar to those in developed countries. Formal regulation has been greatly hampered, however, by the absence of clear and legally binding regulations; limited institutional capacity; lack of appropriate equipment and trained personnel; and inadequate information on emissions. One would predict highly pollution-intensive production under such conditions. Our research, however, has uncovered strongly contradictory evidence. Despite weak or nonexistent formal regulation, there are many clean plants in the developing countries of South and Southeast Asia. Of course, there are also many plants which are among the world's most serious polluters. What explains such extreme interplant variation? This paper reviews evidence drawn from three empirical studies of plant-level abatement practices conducted 1992–1994.The analyses test the importance of plant characteristics, economic considerations and external pressure in determining environmental performance. The results consistently show that pollution intensity is negatively associated with scale, productive efficiency, and the use of new process technology. It is strongly and positively associated with public ownership, but foreign ownership has no significant effect once other plant characteristics are taken into account. Among external sources of pressure, community action, or informal regulation, emerges as a clear source of interplant differences in all three studies. The results suggest that local income and education are powerful predictors of the effectiveness of informal regulation. They also show that existing formal regulation has measurably beneficial effects, even when it is quite weakly developed.     

“一带一路”沿线国家投资便利化:水平、挑战与对策--基于熵值法的测度分析

"一带一路"沿线国家市场需求和发展潜力巨大,提升其投资便利化水平对于我国扩大对沿线国家直接投资规模和提升投资质量意义重大。本文基于沿线国家的特点,选取基础设施、制度环境、金融市场、劳动力市场4项一级指标和20项二级指标系统地构建投资便利化水平测度体系,并运用熵值法测度"一带一路"沿线国家2014年-2018年的投资便利化水平,发现沿线国家投资便利化水平呈逐年上升态势,但差异大,区域不平衡性显著,且投资便利化水平与经济发达程度呈正相关关系。在此基础上,结合当前中国对沿线国家开展直接投资所面临的挑战,提出中国与沿线各国应加强合作,共同推进基础设施建设,维护透明高效的制度环境,深化双边金融合作,积极发展本国劳动力市场等对策建议。     

旅游产业技术效率:总体测量与国别比较

近年来我国旅游业的快速发展取得了举世瞩目的成就,旅游业在国民经济中的战略地位得以确立,国际影响地位不断攀升。这一背景下,构建以产业技术效率为核心的国际竞争力成为建设旅游强国面临的重要议题。本文在回顾国内外相关文献的基础上,采用数据包络分析法(DEA)对30个旅游目的地大国旅游产业的技术效率进行了测量和比较研究,并对标杆国家进行了竞争优势分析,研究表明30个世界旅游大国中我国的技术效率水平相对落后,在纯技术效率和规模效率两方面都有较大改善空间。当前我国旅游业的竞争优势地位主要来自于资源禀赋优势和相对价格优势,而基于制度和技术创新的产业技术效率改善才是未来实现旅游经济可持续增长,构建国际旅游目的地核心竞争力的关键所在。     

对外直接投资、母国营商环境与母国技术进步——基于门槛模型的检验

近年来,日趋复杂的国际环境影响企业的投资信心与决策。在学界,对外直接投资(OFDI)与技术进步的关联逐渐成为热点话题,随着各国不断优化营商环境,母国营商环境对二者的关联产生什么样的影响呢？鉴于鲜有文献探讨这一具有重要意义的话题,文章尝试将营商环境纳入基于企业利润最大化的理论模型,从母国营商环境视角阐释OFDI与母国技术进步的非线性关系;在此基础上,以2004—2020年115个经济体的面板数据为样本,运用Hansen门槛模型进行实证检验。研究表明:第一,在母国营商环境的影响下,OFDI与母国技术进步存在"V型"关系,即随着营商环境的改善,OFDI对技术进步具有"先抑制后促进"的影响。第二,OFDI对母国技术进步的非线性影响具有国家异质性。当营商环境超过一定临界值后,发达国家与新兴国家OFDI对技术进步均具有显著的正向影响,但发达国家的营商环境临界值更大,新兴国家的正向影响效应更强。第三,在解决内生性问题、替换指标和估计方法之后,实证结果依然稳健。最后进一步指出,在新发展格局下,我国在进行深层次改革、优化营商环境的同时,必须坚持扩大开放、提高对外直接投资质量,增强OFDI对我国技术进步的促进作用。     

Firm Productivity,Innovation, and Financial Development

How do firm‐specific actions—in particular, innovation—affect firm productivity? What is the role of the financial sector in facilitating higher productivity? Using a rich firm‐level data set, we find that innovation is crucial for firm performance as it directly and measurably increases productivity. The impact of innovation on productivity is larger in less‐developed countries. Evidence of financial sector development influencing the innovation‐productivity link is weak, but the effect is difficult to identify due to correlation between indicators of a country's financial and nonfinancial development. Furthermore, we find evidence that the innovation effect on productivity is more significant for high‐tech firms than for low‐tech firms.     

ANTI-DUMPING AND MARKET ACCESS: A NOTE

For the duration of the currently stalled round of trade negotiations (the Doha Development Round) attention focused on the plight of developing countries under the current trade rules. One of the aspects under discussion is market access, and in particular the (ab)use of anti‐dumping measures to limit market access so that the progress made towards trade liberalisation is eroded. A popular assertion is that developed countries use anti‐dumping measures to protect their own industries against competition from developing countries. Part I of this short research note briefly takes stock of developments in this regard since the inception of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 1995. How has the use of anti‐dumping (AD) measures evolved? Who are the most active initiators of AD investigations and who are the victims? What is the spread between initiations of AD investigations and the actual imposition of AD measures? In Part II we consider selected AD issues, such as the determination of dumping margins and injury, administrative discretion, and the longevity of AD decrees.     

Lead markets, innovation differentials and growth

This article suggests that the specialization of countries in international trade is determined by the lead-lag market pattern of national markets. Many internationally successful innovations have been adopted first in one country while other countries initially either preferred other designs or an established product. A model for the international diffusion of innovations is presented in which nationally preferred innovation designs compete to become a globally dominant design. In this model, there are country-specific market attributes that increase the likelihood that the choice a country makes among alternative technologies is followed around the world. It is argued that technological knowledge gaps are not the origin of an international competitive advantage. Instead, a country gains a competitive advantage because a specific innovation design was adopted earlier than in any other country. This gives local firms a head start in producing, gathering marketing intelligence and securing the property rights of a globally successful innovation. In countries with lag market characteristics, domestic innovations are less likely to get adopted worldwide. Lag markets often switch from a domestic innovation design to a foreign innovation design, which increases imports. The lead-lag market explanation of trade specialization has implications for national policies. In this model domestic innovations do not always foster exports; idiosyncratic innovations induced by lag market contexts can hamper the export chances of local firms and in the end lead to an increase in imports. It is suggested that in order to increase exports, national policies have to distinguish between a domestic lead and lag market context in each industry. While in a lead market context, traditional policy instruments that enhance the rate of innovations are effective, in a lag market situation national follower strategies are more appropriate.     

中国新型城镇化质量评价指标体系构建及评价方法——基于2003-2014年31个省市的空间差异研究

文章从城镇自身发展质量、城镇化推进效率和城镇化协调程度三个方面,构建了包含34项指标的新型城镇化质量评价指标体系,运用熵值法与层次分析法相结合的方法,对中国31个省市2003-2014年的城镇化质量与效率水平进行了综合评价。研究发现我国新型城镇化质量整体不高,省域之间城镇化质量差距明显,省域内部城镇化质量各要素发展不均衡;城镇化质量空间差异明显,呈现从东部沿海向中、西部依次递减的特征;城镇化率不能反映城镇化发展质量。根据测算结果,我国各省域整体城镇化率和新型城镇化质量指数呈现“高—高”、“低—高”、“低—低”和“高—低”四种类型,其自身城镇化率和城镇化质量指数之间的协调程度分为质量滞后、协调和质量超前3种类型,这与区域间人口迁移流动规律密切相关。根据城镇化质量不均衡状况,文章提出“高—高”型区域关注城镇化可持续发展、“低—高”型区域重点在体制机制创新、“低—低”型区域加快新型工业化步伐、“高—低”型区域关注城镇化的社会、生态效应以实现量变到质变的对策建议。     

河南省农业可持续发展战略研究

农业的可持续发展已经成为当今世界农业发展的一种新战略,无论是发达国家,还是发展中国家都在积极研究符合自己国情的农业可持续发展模式。文章从河南省农业可持续发展的紧迫性与必要性研究出发,探讨了河南省农业可持续发展的战略指导思想及其战略目标,并提出了河南省农业可持续发展的对策与措施,以期为区域农业可持续发展研究提供参考。     

Private capital flows,stock market and economic growth in developed and developing countries: A comparative analysis

Empirically we investigate how three types of private capital flows could promote economic growth in recipient developed and developing countries. Our focus is on the role of stock markets as a channel through which foreign capital flows could promote growth. The findings reveal that FDI exhibits a positive impact on growth, while both foreign debt and portfolio investment have a negative impact on growth in all sample countries. However, our results indicate that stock markets might be a significant channel or leading institutional factor through which capital flows affect economic growth. The findings provide clear implications that the negative impact of private capital flows can be transformed into a positive one if the stock market development has attained a certain threshold level, regardless of whether it is in developed or developing countries.