Technological progress and Chinese agricultural growth in the 1990s

The paper examines the factors contributing to the sharp recovery of China's agricultural production in the 1990s in contrast to the stagnation in the late 1980s, and analyzes the policy effects during this period paying special attention to the role of technological progress. Using data from 28 provinces covering the years 1991–1999, a conventional production model and an extended production model with time-effects are estimated using random-effects estimation and a growth accounting for land productivity is evaluated. The results show that technological progress plays the dominant role in the recovery, accounting for 58% of total productivity growth during the sample period, while an increase in fertilizer use is second, with about 19%. Extension of the land tenure to 30 years for farm households could be a policy encouraging adoption of new technologies and more investment. The contribution of this policy change accounts for 21% in the productivity growth in the period. Increase in mechanized farming, plastic film input and education are all factors contributing to China's agricultural growth in the 1990s.     

Labor productivity and migration in Chinese agriculture A stochastic frontier approach

The authors use a stochastic frontier approach with an endogenous error specification to measure China's agricultural labor requirement. They measure a significant apparent labor surplus, but find that it is correlated with factors that affect the incentives of farmers to leave the land. Thus their findings support the hypothesis that declines in the agricultural labor force are not adequately measured, whereas their surplus estimates are generally consistent with other studies using other approaches. The measured surplus ranges from 35% to 40% of the labor force, with significant differences by region. By 1995, there were perhaps 120 million farmers who were either in fact or potentially better employed elsewhere.     

Economic growth and induced technical progress

Summary In this article some consequences of induced technical progress for economic growth are discussed. Technical progress is assumed to be purely labour augmenting. First the rate of technical progress is explained along lines as set out by Nordhaus. Secondly we introduce a more routine-like behaviour pattern of inventors showing a relation between expenditures for R&D on the one hand and the rate of wage increase and the growth of output on the other.The emphasis of this study lies on the exploration of the macro-economic consequences of induced technical progress. To this end a vintage model with induced technical progress is constructed, on the basis of which some steady growth variants are studied. Finally simulation, experiments are carried out to investigate the dynamic properties of the model.They are indebted to Dr. S. K. Kuipers for valuable comments.     

Productivity growth, technological progress, and efficiency change in chinese agriculture after rural economic reforms: A DEA approach

This study applies a data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach to analyze total factor productivity, technology, and efficiency changes in Chinese agricultural production from 1984 to 1993. Twenty-nine provinces in China were classified into advanced-technology and low-technology categories. The Malmquist (1953) productivity measures were decomposed into two components: technical change index and efficiency change index. The results show that total factor productivity has risen in most provinces for both technology categories during the 1984–1993 period. Technical progress was mostly attributed to Chinese agricultural productivity growth after the rural economic reforms. The deterioration in technical efficiency in many provinces indicates China has great potential to increase productivity through improved technical efficiency. Enhancing rural education and research and development (R&D) in agriculture may also help farmers to improve technical efficiency and productivity in agricultural production.     

产学研一体化 打造行业技术创新平台

中国建筑材料科学研究总院（以下简称“中国建材总院”）前身为中国建筑材料科学研究院（以下简称“中国建材院”），创建于上世纪50年代，1999年7月1日，转制为中央直属大型科技企业。     

Gender earnings differentials in Taiwan: A stochastic frontier approach

We examine Taiwan's male–female earnings gaps over the past three decades in order to assess the progress in assimilating women into the labor market. Two alternative methods of evaluating earnings gaps are employed in this paper: the traditional Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition method and the less well-known method of evaluating labor market efficiency. Men and women's earnings are converging during this period (1978–2003) while at the same time there is little change in the level of gender discrimination measured by the standard Oaxaca–Blinder method. Using the labor market efficiency (stochastic frontier) model we find increases in labor market efficiency over time for both males and females; however, females enjoy a much faster rate of increase in efficiency. We conclude that the relative increase in female efficiency represents a decline in discrimination against females.     

Thai manufacturing small and medium sized enterprise technical efficiency: Evidence from firm-level industrial census data

Thai manufacturing small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) face intense competition in domestic and foreign markets. Given their importance to the economic development of the country it is important to have a clear understanding of their readiness to face the rigors of international competition, including the barriers and specific problems that they face. This study uses a stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) and technical inefficiency effects model to analyze the technical efficiency of Thai manufacturing SMEs and key factors impacting upon it. Analysis of cross-sectional data from a 2007 census of Thai manufacturing SMEs indicates that their weighted average technical efficiency is approximately 50 percent, signifying a high level of technical inefficiency which is reducing potential output. The inefficiency effects model reveals that firm size, firm age, skilled labor, ownership characteristics and location are firm-specific factors that significantly affect the technical inefficiency of production. Key measures to improve the technical efficiency of Thai manufacturing SMEs are an adequate supply of inputs, access to credit facilities, extensive infrastructural development and training programs for employees.     

The relationship between technical efficiency and industrial concentration: Evidence from the Indonesian food and beverages industry

This paper investigates the relationship between technical efficiency and industrial concentration in the Indonesian food and beverages sector. Firm-level data obtained from the Indonesian Bureau of Central Statistics (BPS) are used to estimate technical efficiency scores and calculate measures of industrial concentration. The results show that the food and beverages industry is characterized by high industrial concentration and firms in the industry are inefficient. The Granger-causality test suggests a one-way direction of causality, with industrial concentration having a negative impact on technical efficiency, at the sector level. This suggests that the quiet-life hypothesis, rather than the efficient-structure hypothesis, applies to the Indonesian food and beverages industry.     

Technological specialization in industrial countries: Patterns and dynamics

Technological Specialization in Industrial Countries: Patterns and Dynamics. — This paper employs distribution dynamics and patent data to study the empirical dynamics of technological specialization in industrial countries. Large countries spread innovation activities across a wider range of technologies, and their specialization level in a field displays lower probability to move around its initial level (country size effects). Mobility is high and asymmetric: it is difficult to improve specialization in very disadvantaged technologies, while high comparative advantages revert towards lower specialization levels. These findings undermine the theory of technological accumulation and path dependence, its implication of persistence in trade specialization patterns and the effectiveness of targeted industrial and technology policies.     

Approaches to evaluating the efficiency of innovations and technical progress in the domestic chemical complex

The unilateral aspect of studies dedicated to the development problems of the chemical complex is grounded. The relationship between the cost of technological innovations and the component of the rate of change in output due to technological changes is studied. An approach to the estimation of the economic efficiency of innovations in the complex is proposed. The role of trade and transport margins in the formation of the efficiency level of innovations is studied.     

The effects of governance changes on bank efficiency in China: A stochastic distance function approach

China has accelerated banking reform since joining the Word Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2001. Employing a stochastic distance function approach, this paper examines bank technical efficiency and differentiates the static, selection and dynamic governance effects on bank efficiency for the 11-year period 1995–2005. The results show that bank efficiency has improved. Joint-stock ownership is associated with better performance in terms of profitability than state ownership (static effect). Strong selection effects are found for both foreign acquisition and going public reform strategies. Foreign acquisition may benefit domestic banks by efficiency gains in the long run, but privatization via initial public offerings (IPOs) appears to have only some short-term effects.     

Inefficiencies in the Japanese National Health Insurance system: A stochastic frontier approach

In this study, I examine the cost inefficiency and production inefficiency of municipal insurers operating under the Japanese National Health Insurance system. I employ insurer-level panel data for 2005 and 2010 and adopt stochastic frontier cost and production models to overcome analytical problems encountered in previous studies. The cost frontier estimates indicate that adverse effects on efficiency are associated with aging of the insured population, soft budget constraints due to government subsidies, insurer contributions to the elder care systems, and an increase in care provider densities. A positive effect on efficiency is associated with an expansion in insurer scale. The production frontier estimates suggest that cost inefficiencies decreased by roughly 15 percent between 2005 and 2010. The correlation between cost inefficiency and technical inefficiency is not particularly strong, whereas the correlation between cost inefficiency and allocative inefficiency is strong and positive.     

对CD生产函数测算农业技术进步贡献率方法的探讨

本文通过对CD生产函数测算农业技术进步贡献率的基本模型及生产函数的假设与应用条件的阐述,提出了使用CD函数测算农业技术进步贡献率中存在的几个问题,并对改进技术进步测定方法进行了有益的探讨。     

Impact of Agricultural Research and Extension on crop productivity in Pakistan: A production function approach

This study analyzes the contribution that agricultural research and extension made to crop productivity in Pakistan from 1955 to 1981. Using a production function approach, it estimates the (marginal) internal rate of return to these activities. The estimated rate of around 36% is in the range reported for other countries. Considering this high rate of return and the low public spending on agricultural research and extension in Pakistan, the obvious policy recommendation is to allocate more and higher quality resources to these activities to facilitate a rapid increase in agricultural productivity.     

A production function approach for analyzing the finance-growth nexus: The evidence from taiwan

This paper proposes a framework for analyzing the nexus between financial development and economic growth in terms of spillover effects. It is based on the production function theory and consists of two versions of the two-sector model. The framework is applied as a prototype to the case of Taiwan’s use of deflated annual data for 1961–1995. The empirical results show that the spillover effects of the financial-leading version dominate those of the real-fostering version in the case studied. Although these spillover series are significantly influenced by the financial development variables, they hardly reveal the structural changes caused by the events of financial deregulation.     

Trade and growth: A gravity approach

The impact of international trade, or “openness,” on economic growth is difficult to quantify because of reverse causality. In this article, I use recent advances in gravity equation estimation to generate a geography‐based instrument for openness à la Frankel and Romer (1999). In contrast with the benchmark, the new instrument is constructed using consistent and unbiased estimates of the impact of geography on bilateral trade. As a result, the instrument provides stronger identification of the impact of trade on income and increases the efficiency of the two‐stage least square estimation. An important advantage of the corrected procedure over the benchmark is that the estimated effect of trade on income remains large, positive, and statistically significant even after controlling for regional indicators and endogenous institutional quality.     

Technological catching-up between two ASEAN members and China: A metafrontier approach

This paper examines the dynamics of the productivity gaps across Indonesia, Vietnam, and China. Based on establishment-level panel datasets in the textile and electronics industries for the period 2000–2007, empirical results obtained from the meta-frontier approach show that there is a technological falling-behind rather than catching-up between Indonesia and China, as well as between Vietnam and China. This widening gap is witnessed in both the labor-intensive textile industry and the capital-intensive electronics industry, because China has experienced faster productivity growth and has upgraded its technological frontier after joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. A comparison of the two latecomers finds that Indonesia firms exhibit better productivity performance than do Vietnamese firms.