Flexible manufacturing and economic recovery—wood products in western new york

This paper examines the potential impact on a regional economy of introducing flexible manufacturing techniques into the wood products sector. The first sectin of the paper discusses the notion of flexible manufacturing networks (FMN) and more broadly defined flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) in this sector. The second section reviews the technological potential, and institutional constraints on the development of networks in the region. The third section explanis how input-output analysis may be used to assess the potential impact pf a manufacturing network and describes an extended social accounts framework for the forest products industry in Western New York. Following this, two possibilities, an 'FMS route' and an 'FMN route' are compared with a continuationof the present situation—and a potential strategy sketched.     

Knowledge, economic structure, and growth

This paper proposes a two-sector growth model to examine the dynamic interactional relationships between capital and knowledge. The economy consists of two production sectors—industry and service—and one knowledge production sector—research institutions and universities. The university is financially supported by the government by taxing the service and industrial sectors. We provide a compact framework for analyzing the interactions of the three sectors with a given population and a fixed preference structure of the population. The model also determines the dynamics of the price of the industrial good, the wage rate, and the interest rate. First, we guarantee the existence of equilibria and provide the stability conditions. Then, we examine the effects of changes in the government's research policy and some other parameters upon the system.     

Socioeconomic predictors of forest use values in the Peruvian Amazon: A potential tool for biodiversity conservation

Conservation is a crisis discipline requiring rapid action with limited funds. This study examines the potential of socioeconomic variables to predict forest use values. If natural resource use can be predicted from socioeconomic data, conservation planners could rapidly identify and focus conservation programs on the sectors of local populations that most intensively utilize local flora and fauna. Families in three communities in the northern Peruvian Amazon were surveyed over a 6-month period. Data were collected on use of flora and fauna from six locally determined use categories (food, medicine and poisons, wood, weavings, adornments, and “other”) in forest types of three age classes (fallow fields—very young forests, young secondary forests, and old secondary forests). Forest use values were the dependant variables calculated in $/ha/year. Socioeconomic variables included: age, education, family size, residence time, land worked, land owned, number of fishing nets, chickens, pigs, cows, and/or mules owned (all proxies for productive assets), and level of ecological knowledge (ability of informants to correctly identify forest species and answer basic questions about their biology). Ordinary least square multiple regressions were run independently for each forest type. Regressions were also run separately for the two most valuable use categories, food and wood. Low R² adjusted values (all < 0.3) reflect the difficulty in predicting human behavior due to confounding variables and complex interactions. Residence time and a household's community of residence were the most significant predictors of forest use values. Households in Vista Alegre, the community with the highest density of people and smallest landholdings per household, extracted the highest value of forest products per hectare. The longer a family stayed in any community the higher the value of forest goods they extracted. If families that lived in an area longest are the most intensive extractors of forest products, they should be a major focus for conservation programming. In addition, the higher value of products extracted from forests by some families may make them more open to strategies seeking to protect long-term viability of the resources they utilize. The importance of residence time also indicates that planners need to account for changes in the resource use patterns of stakeholders over time.     

Economic Assessment of Forest Ecosystem Services Losses: Cost of Policy Inaction

This paper presents a bottom-up methodological framework for estimating some of the key ecosystem services provided by forests biomes worldwide. We consider the provision of wood and non-wood forest products, recreation and passive use services, and carbon sequestration. The valuation framework derives per hectare estimates by applying meta-analysis, value-transfer and scaling-up procedures in order to control for the existing heterogeneities across world regions and forest biomes. The first part of the study estimates stock values per hectare for each forest ecosystem service in the baseline year 2000 and in the year 2050. Results differ per geographical region and biome. Carbon stocks represent, on average, the highest value per hectare, followed by provisioning services, passive use and recreational values respectively. The second part provides an estimation of the welfare loss (or gain) associated with policy inaction in the period 2000–2050 leading to a change in the forest area. Welfare results are mixed and require a careful interpretation, ranging from a worldwide annual benefit of + 0.03% of 2050 GDP to an annual loss of −0.13%. The highest damage is expected in Brazil due to the increasing deforestation taking place in tropical natural forests, which is causing a considerable loss of carbon stocks.     

Forest Conservation – Too Much or Too Little? A Political Economy Model

This paper studies the formation offorest policy when the government isinfluenced by an environmental lobbyand an industrial lobby representing anon-competitive wood processing industry.Government decides on forestconservation by way of restricting timberharvesting. Lobbying is modelledas a common agency game with differencesin the efficiency of lobbying. Acomparison of the political equilibriashows that an exporting forestindustry faces a stricter conservationrequirement than a forest industrywhose production is destined for domesticmarkets. If the industrial lobbyis more efficient than the environmentallobby, conservation is insufficientfrom the social point of view. However,conservation may be insufficienteven if the environmental lobby is moreefficient in lobbying than theindustrial lobby. This is because thelobbying effort of the environmentallobby also benefits consumers thatremain politically passive.     

Forest eco-compensation mechanism： a survey

China is a country with a vast territory and a large population but limited forest resources, which is mainly distributed in the economically less developed regions. Therefore, it is particularly important to address the issue to establish forest eco-compensation mechanism to overcome the problems of inequity between the people and promote the public incentive for forest management and conservation. The definition of eco-compensation is deeply discussed based on the literature review of national and international initiatives. According to summary and analysis of the empirical work of forest eco-compensation at international level,some significant inspirations are duaw on this paper. Based on them, this paper focuses on the forest eco-compensation mechanism of china. Firstly, integrating with the actual situation of china, the paper puts forward the policy framework of eco-compensation .The institutional framework of eco-compensation should be established among the multi-departments with different temporal and spatial scales. Secondly, the types and ranges of forest eco-compensation are further studied, that is three levels of forest eco-compensation such as micro-level, macro-level as well as media-level, and then the standards of eco-com-pensation are primarily estimated which include the three factors, namely direct expense of plantation opporiunity cost for forests protection and benefits of forest ecosystem services.Finally the recommendation is created in terms of above research conclusions, which is provide the vital important references for government policy making in the forest eco-compensation domain.     

Wood and industrialization: Evidence and hypotheses from the case of Spain, 1860-1935

The aim of this paper is to study wood consumption during the industrial expansion which took place in the western world in the second half of the nineteenth and the first decades of the twentieth century, through the analysis of the case of Spain. For this purpose, we present the series of Spanish wood consumption both as a raw material (WRM) and as firewood (FW) between 1860 and 1935 and we carry out two exercises with these series. The first calculates the intensity of use (IOU), which relates wood consumption in physical terms with the evolution of the GDP. The second, more complex, exercise estimates a standard consumption function that allows us to know the elasticity of WRM with respect to the GDP, the Spanish price of wood and the Spanish price of a substitute material like iron. Based on our results, we discuss the lower dependence of the Spanish industrial economy on wood, the “liberation” of forest areas that may have occurred in Spain as a result of industrialization, and to what extent the trends observed for the Spanish case can be extrapolated internationally. The main conclusion is that industrialization transformed the uses of wood and, though the importance of this resource per unit of GDP decreased, its overall consumption increased, generating greater pressure on forests at an international level.     

Minimac : A small integrated model of the financial and real sectors of the Swedish economy

The model emphasizes the financial part of the economy and the channels through which the central bank and the government can affect it. The model combines a complete flow of fund matrix with an income–expenditure scheme in a common framework. The consistency of the flow of funds matrix is achieved through residual determination of one asset/liability from each financial balance identity. The model describes the Swedish credit market after the abolition of credit market regulation. Thus the policy instruments included comprise – among others – the interest rate scale, the cash reserve requirement, the exchange rate, government consumption and differential tax rates but no direct regulation of bank advances or investment in government securities. The model mechanisms are illustrated with policy simulations. Those display, in some instances, processes which after some periods tend to reverse the intended effects of the original policy measure. They therefore point to the need for a strategy which involves a sequential use of several policy instruments.     

林农行为视角下政策性森林保险的经济分析

林业是国民经济的重要产业,但同时又是一个充满风险的产业。因此,进一步完善森林保险制度、深入开展森林保险业务是促进我国林业发展的重要措施。实践证明,森林保险纯商业性路子走不通,应走政策支持型森林保险的发展道路。     

Monetary policy in Germany: A cointegration analysis on the relevance of interest rate rules

The paper attempts to identify an empirical relationship that characterizes the way the Bundesbank adjusted its short-term rate with respect to various objectives. By building on a careful exploration of the properties of the variables involved, it is established that interest rate rules —often remarkably similar to the Taylor rule— remain valid and relevant in a Vector Error Correction framework, and thereby proposing a distinctive interpretation of German monetary policy during the period 1975–1998.     

Natural resource accounting for Indian states — Illustrating the case of forest resources

Our main objective is to set out and apply a SEEA-based methodology to reflect the true value of forest resources in India's national and state accounts. We establish that a “top-down” approach using available national databases is both feasible and desirable from a policy perspective. In this paper, we address four components of value creation in forests: timber production, carbon storage, fuelwood usage, and the harvesting of non-timber forest products. The results of our analysis suggest that prevailing measures of national income in India underestimate the contribution of forests to income. The income accounts of the Northeastern states in particular are significantly understated by these traditional (GDP/GSDP) measures. We are also able to identify some states which performed poorly in the context of our sustainability framework, reflecting natural capital losses due to degradation and deforestation. Our results highlight the need to integrate natural resource accounting into the national accounting framework in order to generate appropriate signals for sustainable forest management and for the conservation of forest resources which are widely used by the poor in India, as well as being significant stores of national wealth.     

Flexible manufacturing and economic recovery—wood products in western new york

This paper examines the potential impact on a regional economy of introducing flexible manufacturing techniques into the wood products sector. The first sectin of the paper discusses the notion of flexible manufacturing networks (FMN) and more broadly defined flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) in this sector. The second section reviews the technological potential, and institutional constraints on the development of networks in the region. The third section explanis how input-output analysis may be used to assess the potential impact pf a manufacturing network and describes an extended social accounts framework for the forest products industry in Western New York. Following this, two possibilities, an ’FMS route‘ and an ’FMN route‘ are compared with a continuationof the present situation—and a potential strategy sketched.     

Environmental improvement with trade liberalization

Past studies predict that trade liberalization agreements (and NAFTA in particular) harm the environment. These studies have focused on adjustments in production and have assumed that environmental policy is exogenously given. We show why trade liberalization and improved environmental quality are mutually compatible — when environmental policy is recognized as politically endogenous. We also present empirical evidence to support the basic assumptions underlying the consistency of more liberal trade policy and an improved environment.     

An assessment of telecommunications reform in developing countries

This paper analyzes the impact of policy reform in basic telecommunications on sectoral performance using a new panel data set for 86 developing countries across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean over the period 1985 to 1999. We address three questions. First, what impact do specific policy changes—relating to ownership and competition—have on sectoral performance? Second, how is the impact of change in any one policy affected by the implementation of the other, and by the overall regulatory framework? Third, does the sequence in which reforms are implemented affect performance? We find that both privatization and competition lead to significant improvements in performance. But a comprehensive reform program, involving both policies and the support of an independent regulator, produced the largest gains: an 8 percent higher level of mainlines and a 21 percent higher level of labor productivity compared to years of partial and no reform. Interestingly, the sequence of reform matters: mainline penetration is lower if competition is introduced after privatization, rather than at the same time.     

Gender and forest conservation: The impact of women's participation in community forest governance

Would enhancing women's presence in community institutions of forest governance improve resource conservation and regeneration? This paper focuses on this little addressed question. Based on the author's primary data on communities managing their local forests in parts of India and Nepal, it statistically assesses whether the gender composition of a local forest management group affects forest conservation outcomes, after controlling for other characteristics of the management group, aspects of institutional functioning, forest and population characteristics, and related factors. It is found that groups with a high proportion of women in their executive committee (EC)—the principal decision-making body—show significantly greater improvements in forest condition in both regions. Moreover, groups with all-women ECs in the Nepal sample have better forest regeneration and canopy growth than other groups, despite receiving much smaller and more degraded forests. Older EC members, especially older women, also make a particular difference, as does employing a guard. The beneficial impact of women's presence on conservation outcomes is attributable especially to women's contributions to improved forest protection and rule compliance. More opportunity for women to use their knowledge of plant species and methods of product extraction, as well as greater cooperation among women, are also likely contributory factors.     

Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting: An Application to the Forest Resources in India

Forests contribute to the economy in several ways. While forests are a source of timber with market values, they also influence local and regional climate, preserve soil cover on site, and in the case of watersheds, protect soil downstream from floods –functions, which are not in the production boundary of SNA. Further, the net value added in forestry sector does not reflect sustainability of forest resources, because it ignores the consumption of natural capital (depletion) that occurs when forests are harvested or converted to other uses. The only costs of depletion considered in the national accounts are the extraction costs and records the potential loss in forest wealth as other changes in assets that have no effect on Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The study tries to incorporate forest resources into the national accounts and adjust the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the depletion of forest capital, using the Satellite System of Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting (SEEA). The value of net accumulation (positive or negative) of forests is calculated and the net Domestic Product is adjusted for the depletion of the forest resources to get Environment adjusted Domestic Product (EDP). The results show that the EDP equals 98.4% of the adjusted net domestic product in 1993–1994. A proper accounting framework would better reflect not only the long term value of the state's natural wealth but also its immediate contribution to the state economy in the current accounts.     

Ecosystem services, agriculture, and rural poverty in the Eastern Brazilian Amazon: Interrelationships and policy prescriptions

Policymakers seeking to modify financial incentives to increase the flows of ecosystem services in and around tropical moist forests must consider where to focus their attention and what collection of incentives can effectively achieve policy objectives. In most cases, policymakers focus on extensively forested areas where the flows of ecosystem services between agriculture and the environment is generally characterized by massive flows of carbon and soil nutrients from forests to agriculture. In these forest margin areas the stock of primary forest is eventually exhausted and the cheap ingredients provided by nature to agriculture become increasingly scarce. At this point, policy interest generally wanes, and agriculture and the environment begin slow declines in ecosystem service exchange, often with negative consequences for rural poverty. How does one promote increased flows of ecosystem services from agricultural lands without increasing poverty when forests and soils have been depleted? Can the standard instruments, e.g., payments for ecosystem services, be effective in such situations, and if so, do the costs to society of securing these services increase? Here we focus on the flows of ecosystem services at the end of the cycle of converting primary forest to agriculture. Primary data from the Bragantina area in the southeastern Brazilian Amazon, an area cleared of primary forest decades ago, are used to characterize smallholder production systems, to describe the flows of ecosystem services into and from these systems, and to develop a bioeconomic model of smallholder agriculture capable of predicting the effects of several types of policy action on ecosystem services provided by and to agriculture, and on-farm household incomes and food self-reliance. Of particular interest is the Proambiente Pilot Program in Brazil, which uses smallholder payment schemes to induce farmers to manage land and forest resources in ways that generate more ecosystem services. Baseline results suggest that smallholder agriculture leads to a gradual loss of ecosystem services (mainly above-ground and root carbon) provided by secondary forest fallows, and that reduction in fallow age leads to reductions in plant diversity. Intensifying agricultural activities accelerates this process, but considerably increases smallholder incomes. Paying farmers for ecosystem services linked to the retention of secondary forests and the Proambiente program both increase area in forest fallow, but the latter substantially reduces farm income because of input use restrictions. In general, programs aiming to promote the production of ecosystem services should not limit farmers' choices of ways to provide them. Employment and food self-reliance issues associated with policy options for increasing on-farm stocks of carbon and plant biodiversity are also explored.     

National and international policies for tropical rain forest conservation—A quantitative analysis for Cameroon

This paper provides a numerical general equilibrium assessment of policies to reduce tropical deforestation in Cameroon. Market failure—mainly in the form of national and international externalities—and policy failures—such as highly distorted product markets—are identified as major sources of overexploitation. The ecological effects of deforestation control are shown to depend crucially upon its impact on land use patterns whereas its efficiency effects hinge on the manner in which a specified set-aside target is achieved. If the international community wants to ensure a higher level of protection of these forests, and to do so within a market-based system, the provision of conditional financial resources is neceassary.     

Local financial benefits of rain forests: comparative evidence from Amerindian societies in Bolivia and Honduras

Researchers generally express the local value of tropical rain forests in dollars/ha/year. The approach is problematic because it produces low values to local users, underestimating the importance of the forest expressed as a share of household consumption or earnings. Here we contribute to valuation studies of rain forests by estimating the financial importance of the forest measured in three ways: (1) the contribution of forests to annual household consumption and (2) earnings; and (3) the value of a hectare of rain forest to villagers measured through the biological goods consumed and sold. We collected panel data on consumption and earnings from 81 households in four villages of two Amerindian societies in two nations (Tsimane’, Bolivia; Tawahka, Honduras). Analyses suggest: (1) forests account for a large share of household consumption (median 38.5%; range 14.65–53.11%); (2) forests contribute more to household consumption than to household earnings (median 22.69%; range 16.56–44.81%); (3) the relative contribution of forests to household consumption and earnings falls among villages closer to towns; and (4) the range of values/year of rain forest/ha is US$7.10–9.70 using 1999 dollars or US$18.46–46.56 using purchasing power parity indexes, below previous estimates. Results show much variation in forest values; valuation methods and stakeholder perspectives affect the variation. Given the variation, a useful strategy to promote forest conservation would transfer income to villagers to compensate them for non-local forest values.     

安徽农产品国际竞争力的影响因素分析

选取消费水平、农业劳动力占比、货运总量和农户总数四个指标,分别表示钻石模型中的需求、生产、支持相关产业的表现和企业的战略结构四大要素,并对这四个指标进行多元回归分析。分析回归结果,认为四个指标中的农业劳动力占比、消费水平和农户总数都是影响安徽省农产品国际竞争力的关键因素,结合安徽省在这三个关键因素方面的现状,提出提高农业科技水平、扩大居民需求水平、调整企业战略水平和找准品牌定位、扩大品牌宣传四个方面的政策建议,以增强安徽省农产品的国际竞争力。