SUBSISTENCE ACTIVITIES IN THE NATIONAL ACCOUNTS OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO LATIN AMERICA*

This paper presents some preliminary findings from a research study by the OECD Development Centre into the treatment of subsistence activities in national accounts. It summarizes the results of a questionnaire on country practices, and reports on the findings with respect to shares of non-monetary production in GDP, methods of estimation, and usefulness of the resulting estimates. Among the 48 developing countries covered, the share of non-monetary value added in total GDP ranges from over 40 percent for the poorer countries of Africa to 5 percent or less for the more advanced countries of Latin America and Southern Europe. In countries where rural living standards are much below those in urban areas, non-monetary activities may be very important to the well-being of a large number of people, even though they form only a small part of GDP, and it is still important to make realistic estimates for subsistence output. Agriculture is obviously the main item in non-monetary production, accounting often for over 80 percent of the total. Most countries use some kind of “producers' prices” for valuing agricultural output. Few countries now publish separate figures for non—monetary activities. For many countries, doing so would involve a considerable amount of extra work, but for a number of planning purposes it does seem important to distinguish subsistence activities separately.     

GOVERNMENT SERVICES IN RELATION TO TOTAL CONSUMPTION OF THE POPULATION IN ASIAN AND PACIFIC COUNTRIES,WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO INDIA*

The paper focuses on hitherto neglected fields of trends in the total consumption of the population in the Asian and Pacific countries and pays special attention to situations in India. In doing so it presents a comparative picture on the basis of four variants of the concepts as delineated in the Technical Report prepared by the United Nations Statistical Office. The proportion of government services in the total consumption of the population in the countries depended on socio-political arrangements and policy considerations. Over the years these proportions either increased or remained constant or declined as the situation developed. In the Indian context the paper deals in detail with the magnitude and proportions of each type of government service over the period 1960-79. Recognizing that it is the access to and not provision of the services which should rightly be considered, the Indian National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) during July 1980—June 1981 collected country-wide data from households on the benefit they received from public services in the field of education, health and public distribution of essential commodities. The data from the survey in conjunction with further work proposed by the NSSO should help in the preparation of quantitative estimates of benefit received from these services by various socio-economic groups in rural and urban areas. The paper touches upon the factors affecting personal consumption expenditure. It provides broad direction for future work on the subject.     

EFFECT OF PUBLIC EXPENDITURES ON INCOME DISTRIBUTION WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO VENEZUELA

Taxes as well as government expenditures tend to transform income distribution; the higher they are in relation to GDP, the higher their potential influence appears. It is easier to trace the incidence of taxes than that of expenditures and studies of effects of expenditures on income distribution are not frequent. Changes of fiscal legislation and deficiencies in reporting systems and statistics frequently found in developing countries complicate the task still further.
An investigation of this type in a developing country has to face a poorly developed data base and take advantage of different and dispersed sources of information.
This paper presents the methodology used for estimating the influence of government expenditures a n income distribution in the case of Venezuela. Although the incidence of fiscal activities on income distribution in Venezuela might not necessarily be the same as in other countries, Venezuelan sources of information are not very different from those existing in other countries of similar level of economic and statistical development and procedures used could appropriately be adapted to other countries.     

全球鞋业转移背景下我国制鞋业的地方集群升级--以温州鞋业集群为例

首先分析了制鞋业的国际竞争态势,回顾了鞋业制造业的国际空间转移现象,由此引发出关于鞋业集群升级问题的探讨。指出在集群升级问题上,本地企业的互动及外部联系是共存的。由于全球性的零售商、品牌公司在全球生产和分销中的地位日益突出,本地公司与跨国公司的外部联系十分重要,但是,进入全球价值链并不是说可以忽略本地企业之间的互动。本地企业之间、当地政府及机构与本地企业之间的互动对本地产业集群的升级也是必不可少的。最后围绕鞋业集群的升级问题,分析了温州鞋业集群的竞争优势、空间分布以及面临的困境,并提出了相应的政策建议。     

喀斯特峡谷区民族心理意识的模糊综合评价--以贵州花江峡谷地区为例

采用实地抽样调查数据,从地理学、心理学、行为科学的角度,运用模糊数学上的综合评价方法,将喀斯特环境与贵州西南花江喀斯特峡谷地区当地居民的心理意识及行为作为一个相互作用的系统来认识人地相互关系,将喀斯特石山区生态环境、社会经济条件的特殊性与心理意识相结合并进行数理分析、相关对比和模糊综合评价的整体性进行综合定性与定量研究,从人的数量,更重要的是从人的质量(素质)和行为效应与预测的角度,揭示了喀斯特地区民族心理意识与人地关系的基本特征。