Understanding the resource curse (or blessing) across national and regional scales: Theory,empirical challenges and an application

The relationship between resource extraction activity and economic growth has been widely studied in the literature, and the resource curse hypotheses emerged as a theory to explain the effects of resource windfalls on national economies. However, within countries, resource booms and busts can have distinctive effects across local economies, as extractive regions face particular economic consequences unlikely to be observed in nonresource regions. Empirically, most studies analysing the resource curse have relied on cross‐country models to estimate effects and inform policy; however, the use of regional – within‐country – analysis has gained attention from scholars lately, promoted by two advantages: it avoids unobserved country heterogeneities confounding economic outcomes caused by resources and exploits the subnational quasi‐natural experimental conditions generated by endowments. This paper contributes to the resource curse literature by discussing its theoretical causes across scale (regional vs. national effects) and highlighting the empirical challenges involved in the analysis of mining economic impacts across regions. We complement the discussions by econometrically modelling economic growth across nonmetropolitan substate regions of Australia during a period of resource windfalls, finding that in most cases, resources have been a blessing for local economies, although negative effects have also been experienced in parts of the country.     

山西省农业资源环境与经济协调发展评价与对策研究

区域协调发展是我国经济社会发展的重大战略任务之一,是实现全面建设小康社会、构建和谐社会的重要途径和手段;促进区域农业的协调发展,必须有一个科学的评价体系;从系统学原理出发,采用区域协调理论中资源环境与经济协调发展定量描述的方法,对山西省农业资源环境与经济协调发展的现状进行评价,并据此提出农业可持续发展对策。     

华北地区社会经济发展对地质调查的需求分析

文章综合分析了华北地区 (包括北京、天津二市 ,河北、河南、山东、山西四省和除东三盟和赤峰地区外的内蒙古自治区 )的国内生产总值、产业结构构成和资源分布特点 ,在此基础上 ,分析了未来华北地区社会经济发展对地质调查工作的五个方面的需求 ,即基础地质图件更新 ,水文地质环境地质评价 ,矿产资源潜力调查与评价 ,重大地质问题研究 ,中国北方生态环境管理配套工作等。     

Agricultural development with rainforest conservation: methods for seeking best bet alternatives to slash-and-burn,with applications to Brazil and Indonesia

Forests continue to fall for agricultural purposes throughout the humid tropics, with immediate and potentially large consequences for climate change and biodiversity loss-issues of key interest to the international community. Some of the actors directly responsible for forest conversion fell trees to meet food security needs and alleviate poverty-issues of urgent interest to them and also to national policymakers. This multiplicity of groups with differing (often conflicting) interests in the multifarious goods and services produced by tropical forests complicates the search for alternative agricultural activities for forest margins since these alternatives must satisfy such divergent objectives. This paper sets out a conceptual framework for comparing the impacts of different land use systems and agricultural practices at the margins of tropical rainforests in terms of the concerns and objectives of two key interest groups: small-scale farmers seeking livelihoods at the forest margins and the ‘international’ interests in the global public goods and services supplied by tropical rainforests. This framework should be useful to a third key group, the national and regional policymakers who must consider these and other policy objectives and then decide on courses of action. The paper identifies data needs and analytical methods capable of supplying an empirical base for this conceptual framework, based on quantifiable indicators. It then presents preliminary results of the application of this conceptual framework in Indonesia and Brazil in association with a global, collaborative, multidisciplinary research program. Even using preliminary order-of-magnitude estimates (to be replaced by more precise measurements as they become available), this conceptual framework presents results in ways that allow researchers and policymakers to select clear ‘best bets’ for development, when they exist, and to assess tradeoffs and options for complementary policy action and research efforts, when they do not.     

Site selection to test an integrated approach to agricultural research for development: combining expert knowledge and participatory Geographic Information System methods

The sub-Saharan Africa challenge programme is designed to address the problems of failures of agricultural markets, inappropriate policies and natural resource degradation, that contribute to the continuing deterioration of livelihoods and food security in the region. It is seeking to do this by redefining the roles of scientists and farmers through collaborative learning processes, addressing questions about the level, timing, type and formof participation, as well as themost effective approaches andmethods to foster them. The research domains of the programme deal with sustainable intensification of smallholder agriculture, the sustainable management of natural resources, the development of efficient markets, and the promotion of enabling policies. One question that was addressed in designing the initiative was deciding where to work so as to maximize the chances of successful testing of this new approach, so that it would lead to significant reductions of rural poverty. A participatory process was put in place to design a framework to accomplish this site selection, and then to apply it in west, east and southern Africa. A mixture of spatial data analysis and expert knowledge on spatial and non-spatial factors was used, and one primary site in each region was identified to form the basis for the next phase of the challenge programme. Several lessons were learnt from the process, including the importance of adapting themethods to actual conditions, the increased utility of targetting when the quantitative and the qualitative are freely combined, and the continued need for baseline spatial and non-spatial data to improve the targeting of research in the future that is designed to alleviate poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.     

我国经济林发展现状、存在问题及对策分析

经济林作为我国五大林中的一林,是集合生态和社会效益,经济效益为一身的最佳林种。通过对相关文献的分析和研究,对目前我国经济林发展的现状存在的问题进行分析,提出了建立健全经济林发展政策,以引入投资方加入,促进经济林产业开发等对策。     

自然资源消耗对中国经济增长的贡献——以森林资源为例

近年来,有学者通过对多个国家样本数据的回归分析,得出森林资源的消耗一定程度上促进了各国的经济繁荣的结论,为柯布-道格拉斯模型添加了自然资本N这一变量。以中国为研究对象,沿用这一思路,在增长理论模型中添加自然资本变量,对1980—2005年的数据进行了回归分析,得出结论:中国森林资源消耗的增长率对经济增长率有很大贡献,并对此结论进行了简短讨论。     

Household size and residential water demand: an empirical approach*

The effectiveness of pricing policies depends on the price elasticity of consumption. It is well documented that residential demand for water is influenced by heterogeneity associated with differences in the size of the household and socioeconomic characteristics. In this paper, we focus on household size. Our initial hypothesis is that users’ sensitivity to changes in price is different depending on the number of household members. To this end, we carry out an empirical estimation of urban water demand in Zaragoza (Spain) distinguishing between households with different sizes using data at the individual level. As far as we are aware, this approach to urban residential water demand is new in the literature. The analysis suggests that all households are sensitive to prices regardless of size. A more relevant finding is that small households are more sensitive to price changes.     

Precaution: principles and practice in Australian environmental and natural resource management*

Since the late 1980s, the concept of precaution has been incorporated into numerous international agreements and laws, as well as in domestic statutes and policies in many countries. This paper examines the international emergence of the concept and its application in Australia. Despite rapid growth in adoption of the so‐called ‘precautionary principle’, the concept remains highly controversial, and its success in terms of improving environmental and natural resource management has been questioned. A common misconception is that the principle prescribes action. In fact, internationally accepted definitions are about decision‐making processes. This paper argues that implementation guidelines are essential to ensure that precautionary decision‐making is consistent with good decision‐making principles, and to avoid unnecessary costs and perverse outcomes.     

江苏省水资源环境与经济发展耦合协调度测评

在构建江苏省水资源环境与经济发展评价指标体系的基础上,采用改进的TOPSIS法、秩和比法(RSR)分别对江苏省2002—2017年的水资源环境与经济发展水平进行综合评价与分档,并运用耦合协调度模型测算两者的耦合协调发展程度。研究发现,在该时间段内:江苏省水资源环境水平波动上升,而经济发展水平始终保持稳步上升的态势;江苏省水资源环境与经济发展的耦合协调度逐年增长,耦合协调度由极度失调逐步转型升级为优质协调。     

“双循环”视角下水资源利用效率与经济发展的协调关系研究

基于“双循环”视角并结合污水资源化利用,回溯分析了2010—2019年我国29个省(区、市)的水资源利用效率与经济发展两个系统的耦合协调度,并研究了其时空演化趋势。结果表明:2010—2019年水资源利用效率与经济发展水平及耦合协调度随时间整体呈上升趋势,但仅部分省(区、市)逐步向良性协调转变,同时也出现了东部地区的协同水平明显优于其他地区的空间不平衡现象。对此,应提升污水收集处理能力,强化资源共享,加快构建完整内需体系,深化开放格局,推动实现水资源利用与“双循环”新发展格局的优质协同局面。     

榆林市相对资源承载力与可持续发展研究

以全国和陕西省为参照区域,计算了1997-2004年榆林市相对自然资源承载力（包括相对土地资源承载力和相对水资源承载力）和相对经济资源承载力,分析结果表明,无论是相对于全国还是陕西省,榆林市相对自然资源承载力都处于略微富余的状态,自然资源在综合承载力的构成中占有非常大的比重;榆林市相对经济资源承载力都处于严重超载状态,且对综合承载力的贡献严重不足;榆林市综合承载力都处于超载状态,说明榆林市社会经济发展处于不可持续状态;对榆林市可持续发展问题进行了原因分析并提出了几点建议。     

Economic growth,convergence, and agricultural economics

After nearly two centuries of lagging behind the industrial countries, growth in many developing countries has surged since the early 1990s. This outperformance has major implications for almost all areas of agricultural economics and, if continued, will likely do so into the future. This article aims to identify the key ways in which the changes in rich and poor country growth rates matter for agricultural economists, as a basis for formulating better research agendas. A key impact arises through sharp increases in demand for agricultural resources as demand for livestock products increases. This changing structure of food demand has important implications for nutrition studies and policies, with the emergence of a double burden of malnutrition. On the supply side, growth in developing countries tends to increase domestic food supply, which is also boosted by increases in research and development spending. Growth in developing countries both stimulates and benefits from increases in infrastructure investment, evaluation of which requires new analytical tools. Negative impacts include the contribution of increased demand for livestock products to global greenhouse gas emissions. In terms of trade policy, growth in developing country is tending to lead to convergence of agricultural policies with the pattern of assistance seen in today's developed countries, raising concerns about the future need to deal with collective action problems, particularly those that increase the volatility of world prices.     

Population growth,agricultural intensification,induced innovation and natural resource sustainability: An application of neoclassical growth theory

Using a simple neoclassical type growth model including both man-made and natural capital as inputs to production, the theoretical basis for a U-shaped relationship between agricultural intensification and farm household investment in renewable resource capital is established. As development of technology, infrastructure, or markets increase the relative return to investment in man-made capital over natural capital, resource depletion occurs as man-made capital is substituted for lower return natural capital. Once returns are equalized, both man-made and natural capital are accumulated. If labor and these forms of capital are complementary, the output effects outweigh the substitution effects in the long run, leading to net accumulation of natural as well as man-made capital as a result of such technological or market development. Population growth also induces investment in both man-made and natural resource capital in the long run by increasing their marginal products. However, population growth causes declining per capita levels of both natural and man-made capital and production per capita in the long run, if technology is fixed and decreasing returns to scale. The model thus supports the Boserupian argument of induced intensification and resource improvement, as well as the Malthusian argument of the impoverishing effects of population growth. However, population growth may also induce development of infrastructure, markets, and technological or institutional innovation by reducing the fixed costs per capita of these changes, though these developments may not occur automatically. Government policies can play a large role in affecting whether these potential benefits of population growth are realized. In addition, credit policies may reduce resource degradation caused by substitution of man-made for natural capital, by allowing farmers to accumulate man-made capital (such as fertilizers) without depleting their natural capital. Policies to internalize the external environmental costs of using man-made capital will reduce both types of capital and production, indicating a clear trade-off between addressing environmental concerns on the one hand and reducing poverty and promoting resource conservation investments on the other. By contrast, internalizing the external benefits of investments in resources increases wealth and production per capita in the long run. The ‘intertemporal externality’ due to a higher private than social rate of time preference does not justify interventions to promote investments in resource capital; rather it argues for the promotion of savings and investment in general.     

紫鹊界梯田景观资源与旅游开发

具有2000多年历史的湖南省新化县紫鹊界梯田,气势恢宏,景观奇特,文化内涵丰厚,有观赏、体验和教育等多方面的旅游价值;通过分析其旅游开发中不协调的因素,对紫鹊界梯田景观的旅游开发,提出了积极融入大桂林旅游经济圈、开发文化特色的旅游产业和原生态特色的旅游产品等对策措施。     

A new market for an old food: the U.S. demand for olive oil

While U.S. consumption of olive oil has tripled over the past two decades, nearly all olive oil continues to be imported. Estimation of a demand system using monthly import data reveals that the income elasticity for virgin oils sourced from EU is above one, but demand for nonvirgin oils is income‐inelastic. The demand for olive oil as a single product is price‐inelastic. Differentiated by product characteristic and origin, olive oils are highly substitutable with each other but not with other vegetable oils. News about the health and culinary benefits of olive oil and the spread of Mediterranean diet contribute significantly to the rising demand.     

山西省农业自然资源评估及可持续发展

收集了山西省农业土地资源、农业水资源和农业气候资源的相关原始数据,应用系统学原理,采用灰色综合评估的方法,对辖区内11个地市的农业自然资源进行综合评价,并据此提出山西省农业发展的对策。