Foreign Direct Investment and International Skill Inequality

This paper focuses on the effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) on skill inequality amongst countries. New growth models and international business studies predict that when countries liberalize their trade and investment regime in an environment of imperfect technology transfers, they will specialize in activities depending on the initial conditions such as skill endowments. Countries with few skills tend to specialize in low-skill intensive production, while countries with a high innovation rate and skill endowment tend to specialize in the production of high-skill intensive goods. The econometric evidence, based on an unbalanced panel for 111 countries over seven 5-year time periods from 1970 to 2000, confirms that FDI enhances skill development (particularly secondary and tertiary enrolment) in countries that are relatively well endowed with skills to start with. There are important policy conclusions for national governments when FDI tends to raise international skill inequalities. In particular, developing countries with low-skill endowments that attract investors would do well to co-ordinate actively their human resources policies with investor needs in order to bring the country to a higher skill path.     

Human Capital Development,War and Foreign Direct Investment in Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper traces the ethnographies of conflict and development in Sri Lanka on two levels of analysis. First, it examines two related discourses in the policy arena of Sri Lanka, one looking at the peace–development nexus, the other at the paradox of welfarism and clientelism in Sri Lanka's polity. Second, it analyses the political field of relief and development practice—its order and disjuncture—as it presented itself during times of ongoing warfare. The empirical studies build on ethnographies of a bilateral German–Sri Lankan development project operating in the war-affected areas of Sri Lanka. Four trajectories of politics and practices in aid and conflict are discussed to illustrate the ambiguities and complexities of multiple perceptions, rules and discourses, which influence the work of aid agencies operating in spaces of military contestation. The analyses suggest that clientelism as a deeply embedded system of ordering and meaning production can be found in both the peaceful areas and the war zones, though in different manifestations. Aid agencies operating in the context of clientelism and ethnicism may need to engage with combatant parties—to “dine with the devils” as it has been named—to build space for bringing aid to needy people in war-affected areas.     

外商直接投资与我国产业安全

我国在利用外资过程中必须要维护产业安全。国家和民族利益的现实差异性是维护产业安全的前提；维护产业安全是各国的普遍做法，是对国际经验教训的总结，是维护我国根本利益的客观要求。为了有效维护我国产业安全，我们必须客观评价外资的作用，平衡利用各种外资方式，建立健全产业安全管理体制，增强国内产业竞争力，清理完善政府利用FDI政策法规。     

国际直接投资与中国农业产业结构升级

本文分别从需求和供给两个方面对农业利用外商直接投资促进农业产业结构的演化进行了理论和实证分析。从供给角度的实证分析表明，农业外商直接投资与农、林、牧、渔产业结构的优化具有密切关系，同时，它与农作物种植结构的改善也有显著的相关性。但是，农业外商直接投资与经济作物在种植业中的比重提高之间的关系并不显著，说明外商直接投资在提高经济作物的发展上还有很大的作用空间。从需求角度的实证分析显示，农业外商直接投资对农产品贸易增长的推动效应十分显著，对农产品出口结构的改善效应也很明显。     

Foreign Direct Investment and the Performance of European Agribusiness Firms

This article analyses the relationship between foreign direct investment and the performance of European agribusiness firms. Motivated by the role of heterogeneous firms in new trade theory and using a firm‐level dataset, statistical analyses identify key differences between firms investing in foreign economies and those that do not. A binary choice model quantifies the relationship between firm characteristics and the decision to engage in foreign investment. Size and – less strongly – productivity are greater for multinationals relative to domestic firms. Furthermore, European multinationals are characterised by a larger debt to equity ratio and show lower labour and input costs.     

外商直接投资影响中国人造板产业国际竞争力的分析

以"波特—邓宁的钻石模型"为分析框架,从生产要素、需求条件、相关及支持性产业和企业结构、战略与同业竞争4个方面分析外商直接投资对人造板产业国际竞争力的作用机制;然后,通过对外商直接投资对中国人造板产业国际竞争力影响的实证分析发现,外商投资企业对中国人造板出口具有重要贡献,外商直接投资提升了中国人造板产业的国际竞争力。     

外商直接投资对中国农产品加工业影响的实证研究——增长、国内投资和就业

本文采用1999～2003年间中国农产品加工业12个次级产业部门的面板数据，通过建立计量经济模型，对外商直接投资对中国农产品加工业增长、国内投资和就业的影响进行了实证研究。结果表明，外商直接投资总体上促进了中国农产品加工业的增长，但同时也对中国农产品加工业国内投资和就业产生了一定程度上的挤出效应。在此基础上，笔者给出了几点简要的结论和相应的政策涵义。     

Analyzing Foreign Direct Investment Decisions by Food and everage Firms: An Empirical Model of Transaction Theory

Global trends in agricultural marketing include increased trade in processed foods, less intra-industry trade, slower growth in trade of bulk commodities, and intensified adoption of processing and biological technologies. These trends temporally lead to increased investments by firms in intangible assets and tighter vertical controls. As a result of these trends, in the context of international trade governance, there is invigorated interest in the causal factors related to the boundaries of firms.
Using transaction economic theory and an empirical model, this research analyzes the determinants of international trade strategy in the food and beverage industry. The quantitative analysis involves a nested logit model of a sample of domestic and multinational firms in SIC 20. The nested logit employed is based on a two-level nest of sequential dichotomous choice decisions regarding exporting and foreign direct investment (FDI). The first sequential decision is the boundary choice between remaining domestic or engaging in international trade of some form. The second sequential decision involves exporting or FDI. Model regressors include the size of the firm, level of product differentiation, intangible assets, research and development expenditures, long-term debt, capital intensity, the country of origin and business structure.     

Foreign Aid: Good for Investment,Bad for Productivity

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of aid on sources of growth: capital accumulation and total factor productivity (TFP) growth; the latter captures the effect on growth after removing the contribution of factor accumulation. Given the role of TFP in explaining cross-country differences in income levels and growth rates, the productivity effect can play a significant role in explaining the impact of aid on growth. Contradictory effects of aid were found: aid boosts investment but adversely affects TFP, suggesting that efficiency losses may undermine the overall effects of aid on growth. It was also found that aid reduces the efficacy of financial institutions in supporting productivity growth, a surprising result that possibly illuminates the nature of aid distribution in receiving countries.     

Plant Variety Protection, Innovation, and Transferability: Some Empirical Evidence

Under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, all member-countries of the World Trade Organization are required to provide an " effective" system of plant variety protection within a specific time frame. In many developing countries, this has led to a divisive debate about the fundamental desirability of extending intellectual property rights to agriculture. Empirical studies on the economic impacts of plant variety protection, especially its ability to generate large private sector investments in plant breeding and to facilitate the transfer of technology, have been very limited. This paper examines two aspects of the international experience of plant variety protection: ( a ) the relationship between legislation, research, and development expenditures and plant variety protection grants, i.e., the innovation effect and ( b ) the role of plant variety protection in facilitating the flow of varieties across countries, i.e., the transferability effect.     

Tracing the Pathways from Research to Innovation: Evidence from Case Studies

The complex process through which agricultural research stimulates innovation and achieves policy goals has commonly been treated as a ‘black box’ in the scientific literature. Statistical correlations between measured expenditure and impacts, where satisfactorily established, have mostly led to details of the research and innovation system being ignored. However, identifying and exploring causal chains of impact propagation can strengthen agricultural innovation. IMPRESA investigated impact mechanisms for research‐based innovations in six case studies using a Participatory Impact Pathway Assessment approach. Several suggestions result for improving performance and public support for agricultural research. Planning for impact is needed at the design phase of research so that expected advances in technology and their consequences can be explored. At that stage and throughout the research process, soft social skills are required to promote uptake. Greater impact can be achieved through the close involvement of key public and private sector stakeholders, using stakeholder mapping as a supporting tool. There is a strong argument for the close involvement of relevant social scientists and professional facilitators from the design phase of research through to its ultimate impacts. Funding frameworks and the specification of calls for tenders would function more effectively by giving more flexibility for stakeholder engagement.     

外商在华投资新特征与山东省渔业利用外资的现状及建议

本文概述了目前外资投入在规模、方向、项目、经营方式诸方面的新特点,回顾了山东省渔业利用外资的三个阶段及其不同阶段的特点与成就,并在此基础上提出了更好地引进与利用外资的相关建议.     

Can Direct Payments Facilitate Agricultural Commercialisation: Evidence from a Transition Country

We investigate the impact of direct payments on agricultural commercialisation in Kosovo. Kosovo is one of the poorest countries in Europe but, with European assistance, provides substantial funds to support agriculture, made up of many small and often semi‐subsistence farms. Thus, the effect of this support is a central policy issue. Identifying the effect of direct payments on market participation faces endogeneity issues arising from the possible simultaneous determination of participation in support programmes and market participation. In order to achieve proper identification of the endogenous direct payments, we use a strategy of targeted identification search that employs several different methodological approaches. We find that direct payments for fruit and vegetables, and those for cereals and oilseeds have a positive effect on market participation. However, we cannot identify any definite effect of livestock payments.     

土地财政、扭曲效应与区域创新效率

研究目的:剖析中国区域创新效率的演化特征,并实证检验土地财政对区域创新效率的影响机制。研究方法:超越对数随机前沿分析法、空间面板滞后模型。研究结果:中国创新效率整体呈现逐年上升态势,但地域分异明显;区域创新效率具有典型的空间集聚特征;地方政府对土地财政的依赖阻碍了区域创新效率的提升,且该效应在东西中部三个区域依次减弱;机制检验结果显示,土地财政对区域创新效率的抑制作用是通过挤占企业创新资金投入、扭曲企业家创业精神以及引发权利寻租等路径实现的。研究结论:缓解地方政府对土地财政的依赖及提升区域创新效率,必须深化财税体制改革,改变现有政绩考核机制;同时应完善土地管理体制,营造良好的创新环境。     

我国粮食直接补贴的地区差异及其存在的合理性

我国现行的粮食直接补贴政策在补贴品种、补贴规模、补贴条件、补贴方式以及补贴标准等多个方面存在明显的地区差异 ,这可以由各地的资源禀赋、经济发展水平以及政策改革的渐进性战略来解释。针对现行粮食直接补贴政策已经出现的一些值得关注的问题 ,在政策设计上应当防止地区差异过大和地方保护主义抬头 ,不断改进各种粮食直接补贴方式 ,警惕粮食直接补贴政策的目标冲突。     

Ownership,autonomy, incentives and efficiency: Evidence from the forest product processing industry in China

Using enterprise-level data from China's Northeast-Inner Mongolia state-owned forest area for the year 2004, this paper investigates the technical efficiency of forest product processing mills and the relationship between institutional and managerial practices and efficiency. A two-stage procedure proposed by Simar and Wilson (2007) is adopted. In the first stage, a bootstrapped data envelopment analysis (DEA) model is used to compute the efficiency scores. In the second stage, the bootstrapped DEA scores are estimated over a set of mills’ institutional and managerial systems and other characteristics with a bootstrapped truncated regression. The results show that there is a wide dispersion in the technical efficiency among mills. Private ownership, autonomy and mill size have statistically significant positive impacts on efficiency. These results provide support for the ongoing reform and implications for future development of this area.     

Land rental markets and labor productivity: Evidence from rural China

This study investigates the impact of the land rental market on labor productivity in rural China. Particular attention is given to farm and nonfarm labor productivity. Using 2012 household‐level data and a multinomial endogenous switching treatment regression technique, we find that rural households renting in farmland increased labor productivity in the farm sector by about 55%, whereas labor productivity in the nonfarm sector decreased by about 6%. We also find that rural households renting out farmland had lower labor productivity in both the farm and nonfarm sectors by 13% and 9%, respectively. More family labor transferred from the farm to the nonfarm sector after renting out land.