Unlocking the potential of unoccupied spectrum in developing countries: Southern African Development Community – case study

The lack of adequate telecommunications infrastructure in developing regions makes wireless systems the most feasible solution for providing Internet connectivity. With the global migration of television (TV) systems from analogue to digital, the TV spectrum is expected to be shared between broadcasting and broadband services. However, the absence of suitable regulatory policies for TV band sharing and low average revenue per user experienced by wireless network operators makes it difficult to deploy broadband networks in developing regions, especially in rural areas. This article presents a co-evolution analysis of three key domains of change (policy, technology and business) in providing broadband connectivity focusing on the Southern African Development Community region. Furthermore, the article proposes public–private partnership and public–private–people partnership models for deploying wireless broadband networks in developing regions. This article is useful to various stakeholders, including policy-makers, governments, the wireless communications industry and academia, by addressing the digital divide in developing regions.     

城市基础设施投融资研究综述及对农村的启示

城市基础设施投融资体制改革无论从理论上还是实践上都取得了一定的成功经验,这对农村基础设施投融资改革有重要的指导作用。农村应结合自身实际情况,通过制度创新、政策创新、投融资模式创新和政府管理创新推进自身基础设施投融资改革。     

Infrastructure policy in Asian developing countries

The urgent need for very large increases in investment in infrastructure in most developing countries in Asia is very clear. This paper surveys the challenges facing policymakers in the region. Nearly all of the main concerns for policymakers in Asia in addressing the global infrastructure imbalance are on the supply side. In particular, there are seven related supply-side issues that are of high priority for policymakers: selection and preparation of appropriate projects, finance, pricing, access, governance and management, policy and regulatory policies, and climate change. Governments and utilities need to improve their policies and performance to build confidence among stakeholders. Access to infrastructure services needs to be improved so that consumers will support realistic pricing policies, and investors will be encouraged to provide finance for infrastructure sectors.     

Government Failure,Social Capital and the Appropriateness of the New Zealand Model for Public Sector Reform in Developing Countries

The policy problems posed by a lack of state capacity in developing societies now attract the attention of a growing number of scholars. Both the government failure paradigm, with its “top-down” emphasis, and the social capital theory, with its stress on “bottom-up” approaches, provide analytical frameworks that can be used to comprehend the symptoms of state incapacity reported by the much broader literature on policy implementation. This paper seeks to determine the implications of the government failure and social capital models for policy implementation. More specifically, the paper considers the contractualist approach to public management reform in New Zealand as the epitome of a top-down solution to government failure. It will also evaluate this model from a social capital perspective and suggest ways in which a balanced approach to public sector reform can take into account elements of both paradigms.     

新基建发展对产业升级的影响机制研究

新基建作为现代化基础设施体系的重要组成部分，已经成为中国经济高质量发展的重要支撑。基于2015—2021年中国71个城市的面板数据，构建双向固定效应、中介效应和调节效应三种回归模型，实证检验新基建发展对城市产业结构水平的影响及内在机制。研究发现：新基建发展能促进产业高级化水平，改善不合理的产业结构状态，提升产业合理化水平；新基建通过发展物联网和激励城市研发创新两种间接路径对产业结构转型升级产生积极影响；新基建对产业结构水平的影响受到地方政府干预行为的调节作用，在地方政府合理的行政管理下，新基建对产业转型升级的积极作用更为明显；新基建发展对产业结构水平的提升作用具有区域异质性和城市规模异质性，在中西部地区和大城市地区的作用效果更为明显。     

北部湾城市基础设施建设融资现状探析

《广西北部湾经济区发展规划》上升为国家发展战略后,对北部湾经济区城市建设提出了新的要求,北部湾城市基础设施建设的资金需求越来越大,融资问题越发突出。本文以城市基础设施建设的相关内容以及城市基础设施的融资模式等为理论基础,指出北部湾城市基础设施建设融资现状存在的问题,并针对问题提出合理性建议,拓宽北部湾城市基础设施建设的融资渠道,保障北部湾城市基础设施建设的资金支持。     

西部主要城市综合竞争力及效率研究

城市竞争力是城市综合能力的核心,是城市发展的基本驱动力.本文从经济发展、资金实力、对外开放、人才及科技水平、政府管理水平、基础设施、环境建设等方面选取26项指标,运用基于熵权的灰色关联分析方法对西部主要城市的综合竞争力进行了评价.同时选取资本、劳动、技术三种投入量作为输入指标,地区生产总值和地方财政收入作为输出指标,对西部主要城市的效率进行了分析,最终将西部城市分为竞争力强、城市效率相对有效;竞争力中等、城市效率相对有效;竞争力强,城市效率相对无效;竞争力弱、城市效率相对无效四种类型.     

Effect of promotion pressure and financial burden on investment in public–private partnership infrastructure projects in China

By identifying the political motives of officials and local governments, this study aims to provide a new political economic analysis framework for understanding China's incentives for investing in public–private partnership (PPP) infrastructure projects. Chinese urban panel data for the period 2013–17 were used to examine the mechanisms of promotion pressure and financial burden in relation to investments in PPP infrastructure projects. Based on our findings, the following policy recommendations are proposed: standardise the behaviour of local government officials in promoting PPP projects, establish a lifelong accountability mechanism for PPP project performance, establish a mechanism for local government debt risk assessment and prevention, and avoid the risk of local debt arising from over‐investment in PPP infrastructure projects. Moreover, a match should be formed between local economic infrastructure planning and investment plans to avoid over‐ or under‐investment.     

The impact of basic and social infrastructure investment on South African economic growth and development

Basic and social infrastructure investment can assist in addressing widespread inequality and divided societies by promoting economic growth and social development. The aim of this study is to determine whether basic and social infrastructure investment differently affect economic growth and social development indicators of urban and rural municipalities. We used a balanced panel dataset containing infrastructure, economic, demographic and social indicators for rural and urban municipalities for the period from 1996 to 2012. Principal component analysis was used to construct synthetic indices of basic and social infrastructure. Restricted within least squares dummy variable estimation techniques are used to evaluate the differences between urban and rural municipalities. The elasticities of basic and social infrastructure investment generally are more pronounced for economic growth and social development indicators in rural municipalities. These findings could potentially influence policy decisions in terms of infrastructure investment in favour of rural municipalities to increase economic growth and social development.     

Urbanization issues in the Asian-Pacific region

Various aspects of urbanization – including the rapid growth of urban, especially metropolitan populations, increasing levels of urban primacy, rural-urban migration and the infrastructure needs generated by these trends – have exercised the minds of Asian-Pacific planners for decades. The policy responses have varied, but, apart from a lack of unanimity on appropriate policy goals, there has been a general failure to recognize that broad macro-economic or sectoral policies may have greater spatial impact than measures, often rather feeble, adopted for their direct spatial effects.
The paper reviews urbanization trends in the Asian-Pacific region, and discusses the causes of urbanization. It then briefly reviews the public policy responses recommended in the literature or actually practised in the region. A series of issues in urban policy and planning are then discussed.     

乡村振兴战略背景下贵州省新型城镇化发展路径

贵州省新型城镇化的发展能够推动地区经济,也是实现乡村振兴战略的重要路径。贵州省城镇化建设过程中存在着城乡之间差距大、城乡公共基础设施配置不均等问题。通过研究贵州省城镇化发展现状,指出贵州省新型城镇化发展过程存在的问题,从完善城乡空间布局、挖掘乡村资源、加强生态环境保护、完善政策制度体系、探索创新模式5个方面,提出贵州省新型城镇化发展路径。     

数字经济对城市群区域创新的影响——基于10个国家级城市群的实证分析

数字经济为城市群协调发展提供了新的机遇。基于10个国家级城市群2011—2019年的面板数据,考察数字经济对城市群区域创新能力的影响作用与机制。研究发现,数字经济能够显著促进城市群区域创新能力的提升,并且存在地区异质性,其中对中部地区的促进作用最为显著。机制检验表明,数字经济的发展能够通过提升城市群吸收及转化应用知识技术的能力进而促进区域创新。进一步研究发现,数字经济各维度指标对东、中、西部地区城市群创新能力的作用效应不同。数字基础设施建设对西部地区区域创新能力的促进作用最大,对东部地区则存在一定的抑制作用;数字素质对西部地区区域创新的推动作用最强,而对中部地区存在一定的抑制作用;资本投入对东部地区城市群区域创新的促进作用远大于其他地区。     

新农村建设中加大农村公共品供给的思考

为适应新时期的需要,党中央提出了建设社会主义新农村的宏伟蓝图,以期通过新农村建设来实现统筹城乡发展的目标,这为新农村建设创造了有利的宏观政策环境。本文通过分析城乡公共品供给严重失衡的现状及发展瓶颈,提出了建设社会主义新农村的突破口是切实加大农村公共品的供给力度。     

When ‘community’ is not enough: Managing common property natural resources in rural South Africa

Common property natural resource management (NRM) informer ‘bantustan’ rural areas can provide important pointers for current and future land reform and local government policy. Using Tyefu Location in the Eastern Cape as a case study, this article outlines three of the constraints that currently fashionable ‘community‐based’ NRM models are likely to face in coordinating the use of common property resources in these areas. These three constraints are first, the entrenched socio‐economic differentiation that results in local people having varied, but generally weak incentives for contributing to collective action resource management. Second, are the high levels of institutional contestation that exist in these areas and third, the fact that the ‘fuzziness’ of existing NRM regimes allows for maximum flexibility in resource use, with the result that most rural (and urban‐based) people are unlikely to support the introduction of more formalised NRM regimes.     

The impact of financial development on the effectiveness of inflation targeting in developing economies

An ever-increasing number of developing economies with varied levels of financial development have adopted Inflation Targeting (IT) frameworks to guide monetary policy. Using a panel dataset of 54 developing economies over the period 1980 to 2015 (30 of which have IT frameworks), we re-visit the rather controversial issue of whether adoption of an IT framework leads to superior outcomes in terms of reducing inflation and its variability. After controlling for potential endogeneity and self-selection concerns of policy adoption, our main empirical finding is that IT frameworks appear to reduce inflation rates in developing economies regardless of the level of financial development, while it reduces variability of inflation rates only when we control for levels of financial market development. We further find that the effectiveness of IT framework on inflation is highly dependent on financial inclusion and bank characteristics, while the effect on inflation variability is more associated with components of capital market development.     

Milk in the city: profiles and development paths for urban dairy holders in Ethiopia

ABSTRACT

Demand for dairy products is growing fast in urban areas. Due to poorly developed rural infrastructure, urban dairy farms are pivotal in making milk available and affordable in towns and cities. Yet current supply fails to meet the increasing demand. In order to formulate fit interventions that can expand urban dairy production, a detailed understanding of urban dairy systems is needed. Using a cluster analysis approach, we profile 304 urban dairy farms in Mekelle, Northern Ethiopia, along three dimensions: input efficiency, market integration, and resilience towards demand seasonality. Our results suggest five distinctive farm types: surviving farms, processing female farms, young male entrepreneurs, established output-efficient farms, and established output-input-efficient farms. We observe large discrepancies in terms of dairy enterprise’s productivity, profitability, and suitability in future urban policy planning. For each of the identified dairy systems, we sketch potential intervention approaches that can feed into more tailored dairy development programmes.     

腐败控制、私人部门参与基础设施提供与反贫困效应——来自发展中国家的经验证据(1996-2014)

惩治腐败和消除贫困始终是广大发展中国家面临的重要任务。文章基于1996年到2014年138个发展中国家的数据，探索了腐败控制降低一国贫困率的新机制，即促进私人部门参与基础设施提供。我们发现：第一，腐败控制显著促进了私人部门参与基础设施提供；第二，私人部门参与基础设施提供显著降低了发展中国家的贫困率；第三，"中介效应"分析显示，腐败控制是通过促进私人部门参与基础设施提供进而降低一国贫困率的。文章的发现是对发展中国家腐败与贫困关系研究的一个有益补充，不但有助于理解私人部门参与基础设施提供的制度基础，也有助于发展中国家设计反贫困的公共政策。     

Enterprising Refugees: Contributions and Challenges in Deprived Urban Areas

The role of enterprise in addressing the problems of deprived urban areas has been an area of emphasis within recent British urban policy. Yet the potential for such policies among increasingly diverse and often highly deprived populations remains poorly understood. This issue is particularly pertinent with respect to refugees where self-employment and enterprise creation is a route pursued by some, yet there remains limited understanding of the role and impact of enterprise within refugee communities and the constraints they face. Drawing upon original primary data, this paper presents findings related to the local impacts of refugee enterprises, the constraints refugees face in starting and running enterprises, and the adequacy of existing business support infrastructure to their needs. The paper concludes with a consideration of the challenges for the future development of business support policy and services for refugees.     

基于因子分析的新基建综合竞争力实证研究

为研究新基建发展水平，在对相关文献进行梳理的基础上，剖析新基建的内涵、特点和发展现状。通过构建新基建综合竞争力指标体系，基于因子分析法，采用省级面板数据对2021年我国的新基建综合竞争力进行分析与评价。结果表明：新基建存在“东强西弱”的区域异质性，东部地区新基建发展水平整体强于中西部地区；在各区域内部新基建发展水平也呈现出一定的不均衡性。最后针对新基建发展态势提出相关政策建议。     

长株潭交通运输业发展循环经济的策略研究

长株潭交通运输业发展循环经济对于促进长株潭两型社会发展具有重要的意义。结合长株潭地区的特点从政策措施、技术措施和管理措施对铁路、道路、水路和航空分别提出了适合长株潭地区发展循环经济可利用的方法和技术。并就换乘和与邻接行业之间的循环利用两个方面分别提出长株潭城市群交通运输行业发展循环经济可利用的方法。