Incentivising teachers? Evaluating the incentive effect of China’s teacher performance‐based compensation reform in rural China

In this paper, we evaluate the incentive role of a teacher performance‐based compensation reform in rural China. Using the value‐added model widely adopted in the education literature, we first estimated the teacher effects on student academic scores with panel data of a large number of students and teachers from rural and urban schools in one county in a south‐western province of China. The estimated teachers’ value‐add was then allowed us to examine the effectiveness of the 2009 teachers’ compensation reform. We find that despite the strong intent of the performance‐based compensation reform to improve student’s academic performance, teachers’ compensations are not closely tied to teachers’ value‐add to student academic achievement. This suggests that the performance‐based compensation reform is not able to provide strong incentives for teachers to raise students’ test scores and points towards the possible problems with the design and/or implementation of the reform.     

对农村土地承包经营纠纷仲裁制度的反思

研究目的:分析中国农村承包土地经营纠纷仲裁制度存在的问题,提出完善中国农村土地承包经营纠纷仲裁制度的修法思路。研究方法:逻辑分析和规范分析。研究结果:中国现行农村土地承包经营纠纷仲裁制度有着浓厚的行政化、诉讼化的色彩,单方启动、强制管辖、一裁非终局等特点也有悖仲裁法的基本原则。农村土地承包经营纠纷仲裁的案件分流功能未能实现。研究结论:完善农村土地承包经营纠纷仲裁制度首先应当明确该制度的法律属性,在此基础上实现去行政化和去诉讼化的改造,实现与民事诉讼的合理对接。     

The rural non-farm sector: issues and evidence from developing countries

The rural non‐farm sector has traditionally been viewed as a low‐productivity sector which produces low quality goods. It is often expected to wither away as a country develops. Recent years have seen a shift away from this position towards recognition that the rural non‐farm sector can, and often does, contribute to economic growth, rural employment, poverty reduction, and a more spatially balanced population distribution. This paper reviews the literature on the conceptual and empirical underpinnings of this more recent perspective, focussing on the experience in developing countries. The paper documents the size and heterogeneity of the sector, pointing to evidence that in many countries the sector is expanding rather than declining. The issues associated with measuring the sector's economic contribution are discussed, followed by empirical assessments for several countries and regions. The distributional impact of non‐farm earnings is examined and it is found that a pro‐poor impact, while by no means inevitable, can be considerable. The sector's trajectory over time, in different settings, is reviewed and the scope for, and experience of, various policy interventions is discussed.     

The Political Economy of Contract Farming in China's Agrarian Transition

How does rural China's political economy determine the motivations and constraints that drive small farmers and agribusiness companies into contract farming and shape its practice and impact? This paper identifies three distinctive features of contract farming in China – varied impact on rural inequality, unstable contractual relations and lack of competitiveness with other alternatives – and proposes tentative explanations linked to three features in rural China's political economy: strong collective institutions, active state support for agriculture and strong domestic markets. The recent turn in China's agrarian transition towards vertical integration of agriculture with industries is, however, undermining these conditions and may move China towards more convergence with other countries. Studying contract farming in China's unique political economy context shows not only how variations in the political economy can alter its practice and impact, but also how it needs to be evaluated in comparison with competing alternatives.     

国有建设用地使用权出让合同的性质认定和规则重构

研究目的：对国有建设用地使用权出让合同的性质争议进行分析认定。研究方法：历史分析、社会实证和法律规范分析。研究结果：从统一行使自然资源所有者权益、建设城乡统一的建设用地市场、国有建设用地使用权出让的本质特征和发展方向、民事和行政法的基本法理4个方面分析,应当将国有建设用地使用权出让合同的性质认定为民事合同。研究结论：基于出让合同的民事合同属性,应当完善出让合同条款、相关法律规则和争议解决方式,达成土地善治,实现国有自然资源产权制度改革的目标。     

Market power and rents in global supply chains

Market power and competition policy in food supply chains has emerged as an important economic issue in economics, and a highly sensitive item on the policy agenda. Consolidation is taking place in the food industry, both in high‐income countries and in emerging economies, but the impact of concentration in global food chains on efficiency and rent distribution is more nuanced and complex than often claimed. We review the literature and extend it by developing a model which explicitly takes into account market imperfections and contract enforcement problems in supply chains. Increased competition benefits farms by improving contract conditions, but contract enforcement becomes more complicated.     

Participation in contract farming and farm performance: Insights from cashew farmers in Ghana

The global demand for cashew nuts continues to increase steadily. However, many African countries face difficulties in marketing and adding value to the product. Using recent survey data of 391 cashew farmers in Ghana, this paper contributes to the growing evidence on the significance of contract farming (CF) in improving the welfare of rural households in developing countries. Specifically, the paper analyzes the factors that influence cashew farmers’ decisions to participate in CF, and the impact of participation on farmers’ performance. We employ a recently developed switching regression model with endogenous explanatory variables and endogenous switching to control for selection bias caused by observable and unobservable factors. The empirical results show that participation in CF significantly increases labor productivity and price margins, as well as cashew yields, and net revenues. A disaggregated analysis of the sample into farm size categories reveals that small‐sized cashew farms tend to benefit more through CF, compared to medium‐ and large‐sized farms.     

研究型大学特色发展的若干问题

研究型大学的特色发展,需要认真分析并积极应对时代以及行业结构的变化,面对新的机遇和挑战,及时制定科学的发展规划,以促进教学质量的提高和学生结构的合理性。通过加强质量监督体制、培养教师队伍、促进学生就业等有力措施,突出特色学科,并与其他学科协调发展,进一步促进特色发展。     

Contracting Institutions,Agro‐food Trade and Product Quality

The agro‐food sector has experienced a profound transformation of contractual arrangements along the value chain, coinciding with important technological innovations and product quality upgrading. Our understanding of the impact that this transformation has had on trade flows in the agricultural sector is very limited. In particular, we have limited knowledge about the extent to which the patterns in agro‐food trade have been driven by the quality of contractual institutions. Using existing measures which capture the sensitivity of agro‐food products to contractual imperfections, we show that countries with better contract enforcement specialise in the production of food which requires higher level of relationship‐specific investments. We also find that countries with better contracting institutions and producing contract‐intensive goods specialise in exporting high quality foods. In addition, we show that the quality of contracting institutions might importantly affect the process of product quality upgrading.     

Rural banking in Nigeria: Empirical evidence of indicative policy variables from Anambra State

Ten years after the establishment of the Rural Banking Scheme (RBS) in Nigeria, there are clear indications that the problems and issues which led to the scheme are still prevalent. These include a low level of rural savings mobilization, inadequate use of banking services, and lack of credit for rural people. The central assumptions of the scheme were that increasing the physical proximity of banks to rural people enhances rural savings mobilization and, in turn, increases the flow of funds to the rural sector. Consequently, Nigeria established a quasi-commercial bank type of rural banking system, by means of legislation requiring commercial banks to open branches in rural areas. This study questions the validity of the underlying assumptions, and sets out to investigate the appropriate mix of policy variables necessary for establishing an effective rural banking system in Nigeria and other developing countries. Rural residents were surveyed to find out which variables are important in determining rural bank use. Discriminant analysis showed that four variables were significant in discriminating between rural bank users and non-users. These variables were household income, years of formal education, gender of respondent, and the awareness of the existence of the rural bank branch. The proximity of the bank to the respondent's residence was not a significant determining variable. These findings have important implications for rural bank designers and implementors in Nigeria and other developing countries. They suggest that the current emphasis on the physical distance, as a critical factor in rural bank development, should be replaced by a broader and a more comprehensive strategy which would incorporate and utilize an appropriate mix of policy variables to enhance the effectiveness of the rural banks in Nigeria.     

Intra-Country Health Inequalities and Air Pollution in Developing Countries

In the health economics literature, many studies have assessed the association between environmental degradation and health outcomes. This paper extends this literature by investigating how the presence of air pollution might explain health inequalities both between and within developing countries. We argue that differential exposure to air pollution between asset classes, differential ability to prevent the negative health effects of environment degradation, differential capacity to respond to disease caused by pollutants, and particular susceptibility of some groups to the effects of air pollution are all sufficient reasons for explaining a positive link between air pollution and asset-related health inequality. Using data from developing countries, our econometric results show that sulphur dioxide emissions (SO₂) and particulate matter (PM₁₀) partly explain the large disparities in infant and child mortalities between and within developing countries. In addition, we found that the institutions that are based on democratic principles, and which have low levels of corruption and high quality bureaucracy, are the most effective. That is, they are more responsive to the needs of the poor, they promote access to justice and public administration, and they deliver basic services to those most in need. As a result, they are able to more effectively mitigate the mortality effect of pollution for the poorest asset classes compared with that of the richest ones and thus reduce the health inequality it provokes.     

Contract Farming in Sub‐Saharan Africa: A Survey of Approaches,Debates and Issues

The paper provides a selective survey of the most significant literature on the rise of contract farming in developing countries, with a focus on sub‐Saharan Africa. The review of the literature illustrates ideological debates around the meaning and significance of contract farming and whether it is good or bad for small‐scale farmers. The paper then divides the review of the literature into three key themes. First, it addresses the quantitative significance of contract farming in Africa, which may not be as important as it is often portrayed. Second, the paper highlights the substantial diversity of contract farming in Africa and problems with excessive generalizations. Third, it discusses the various drivers fuelling the spread of contract farming, which reflect new production conditions and existing constraints, tendencies and counter‐tendencies, and both economic and political responses to changes in production and market conditions in the era of liberalization and globalization. The variety of drivers is substantial and defies generalizations about the emergence of contract farming. Finally, it briefly suggests research questions that tend to be absent in most of the literature on contract farming, and which are important in order to understand the current dynamics of agrarian change and transitions to capitalism in African countries.     

Rural electrification in Cambodia: does it improve the welfare of households?

This study uses subsamples of socio-economic surveys from 2004 and 2011 to construct village panel data and apply the difference-in-differences (DID) method to examine the impact of rural electrification on household consumption and children’s education in Cambodia at the village level. Conditional on the DID assumption and observed village and household characteristics, rural electrification increased household consumption by approximately 16.6%. This study also finds that higher-quintile households benefited more. Additionally, rural electrification increased boys’ years of schooling completed by 0.85 and girls’ years of schooling completed by 0.62. It also increased the probability of having ever been enrolled in primary school for boys by approximately 9.7% but did not increase the probability of having ever been enrolled for girls.     

城乡一体化发展进程中农村成人教育发展探析

发展农村成人教育是推动城乡一体化发展、提高城镇化质量的内在要求和有效途径。然而,我国农村成人教育面临着供求不足、质量不高、结构不良的现实困境。因此,在城乡一体化发展进程中,应优化农村成人教育发展的长效机制,加大财政、金融支持力度,创新教育模式,整合城乡师资力量,加强创业教育,促进农村成人教育全面发展。     

我国水产学科改革面临的新形势与急需解决的问题

我国水产学科改革正面临着新的形势:经济全球化和渔业国际化步伐加快,水产科研和教育的国际化发展,水产组织机构的多元化和水产市场的复杂化,“科教兴国”、“人才强国”和“科教兴渔”战略的实施以及“质量、效益型”渔业对水产人才提出了更高的要求。针对这些新形势,我国水产学科建设急需解决下列问题:在水产科研体制改革方面,水产业与人及自然和谐方面的总体能力羸弱;水产业吸纳现代化科技成果滞后,且普及应用能力弱;基础性研究严重滞后使得其不能满足行业发展中解决新问题的需要;水产行业软科学研究的薄弱已经严重制约了管理决策的科学性。在水产高等教育教学改革方面,也存在一些突出问题。     

Determinants of Schooling in Egypt: The Role of Gender and Rural/Urban Residence

In this paper, we examine if there are gender differences in schooling attainment and the extent to which these differences are exacerbated for rural children in Egypt. Using a nationally representative cross-sectional survey, our estimation results find strong support for the hypothesis that being male and living in urban areas significantly improves child schooling. We show that relative to a female child who is “never enrolled” in school, a male child is over twice as likely to be currently attending school, and over two-and-a-half times more likely to have some schooling. These positive effects are particularly strong for rural male children. There are also regional variations, with a child (male or female) living in Upper Rural Egypt having a significantly lower likelihood of being currently enrolled. Finally, our estimation results point to large positive effects of father's education on the probability of current enrolment for all children. Mother's education, however, improves only the likelihood of current enrolment for female children, with no significant effect on male children.     

安徽省乡村旅游体验特征与精准营销路径研究

[目的]全面探究乡村旅游体验,厘清其重点改进与优势巩固之处是提升乡村旅游的重要抓手。[方法]在对安徽乡村旅游体验调查的基础上,运用IPA分析方法识别乡村旅游体验的优势巩固与重点改进项目,并借助最优尺度分析方法探究优势巩固项目与重点改进项目的市场特征。[结果](1)自然风光与社会治安属于优势巩固项目,而卫生条件、基础设施、交通便捷程度以及服务人员态度属于重点改进项目;(2)优势巩固与重点改进项目具有明显的市场特征。对优势巩固项目表示非常满意的人群主要年龄为18~35岁,以学生、教师、退休人员为主,文化水平在本科及以上,收入主要在1999元及以下和5000元以上,其居住地为城区,出游时间为春季且乡村旅游的停留时间为2~3d。对重点改进项目表示非常不满意的人群主要年龄为18~35岁,职业主要为学生、教师、退休人员,文化水平较高为本科及本科以上,其居住地主要为城区,出游季节主要为春季及秋季,停留时间较短为1d。[结论]乡村旅游体验的优势巩固项目与重点改进项目具有明显的市场特征,可从保持乡村特色、加强基础设施建设和提高服务质量等方面进行针对性营销推广。     

Contract farming and smallholder incentives to produce high quality: experimental evidence from the Vietnamese dairy sector

In emerging markets for high‐value food products in developing countries, processing companies search for efficient ways to source raw material of high quality. One widely embraced approach is contract farming. But relatively little is known about the appropriate design of financial incentives in a small farm context. We use the example of the Vietnamese dairy sector to analyze the effectiveness of existing contracts between a processor and smallholder farmers in terms of incentivizing the production of high quality milk. A framed field experiment is conducted to evaluate the impact of two incentive instruments, a price penalty for low quality and a bonus for consistent high quality milk, on farmers’ investment in quality‐improving inputs. Statistical analysis suggests that the penalty drives farmers into higher input use, resulting in better output quality. The bonus payment generates even higher quality milk. We also find that input choice levels depend on farmers’ socio‐economic characteristics such as wealth, while individual risk preferences seem to be less important. Implications for the design of contracts with smallholders are discussed.     

The Effects of Educational Externalities on Maize Production in Rural Malawi

The paper looks at the existence, nature and form of intra- and inter-household externalities of education on productivity, efficiency and uncertainty of maize production in rural Malawi. Data from the Third Integrated Household Survey are used. I find statistically and economically significant positive intra- and inter-household externalities from education on all three elements, and that intra-household externality effects are larger than inter-household externality ones. Community-level schooling is found to substitute for household-level schooling in the sense that farmers who reside in households where members are not educated nevertheless have relatively higher production and lower production uncertainty, on account of living in communities where some inhabitants are educated. The paper also finds that the intra- and inter-household externality effects are more pronounced for the least efficient farmers, that they are monotonic and that they are largest when average household schooling is relatively low.     

林业高校绿色素质教育机制构建的探讨

从林业可持续发展的角度,阐述了林业人才绿色素质的概念及内容,剖析了当前林业高校存在对绿色素质教育的思想认识尚不统一、大学生的可持续发展教育课程缺乏、学生的绿色素质评价未受足够重视、绿色素质教育实践体系有待进一步完善等绿色素质教育的有关问题;探讨了以建立信息反馈机制、绿色教学机制、绿色文化熏陶机制、绿色教育实践机制和绿色素质评价机制为内容的构建林业高校绿色素质教育机制的基本思路。