Science,practice and the System of Rice Intensification in Indian agriculture

The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is claimed to be a novel approach to rice cultivation that is both more productive and more sustainable than conventional methods. Such claims have been challenged or dismissed by many rice scientists, however. Despite the lack of clear and unequivocal endorsement by science, SRI seems to have spread widely and rather quickly to many rice-growing regions, including various areas of India. This paper discusses how and considers why SRI seems to have attracted the support of diverse stakeholders in Indian rice farming. As such, the SRI phenomenon should be taken seriously. Nevertheless, many scientific questions remain to be answered, concerning the biophysical mechanisms involved in SRI and their effects on plant performance and crop yields, the true spread of SRI practices among farmers and the system’s impacts on farm livelihoods, rice production and resource use. Indian enthusiasm for SRI implies a level of dissatisfaction with conventional approaches to rice intensification and a demand for new methods that can address the perceived problems and challenges of agriculture in the future.     

Profit rate dynamics, income distribution, structural and technical change in Denmark, Finland and Italy

Under less restrictive assumptions than in previous contributions, this paper highlights various patterns of profit rate dynamics that are common to the countries under scrutiny. Without a substantial re-distribution of income in favour of profits, the profit rate declines. When labour productivity is weak the profits/wages ratio declines leading to a decline in the profit rate, also due to capital deepening. Developments in the capital-labour ratio tend to increase the organic composition of capital while those in the ratio between the capital price deflator and the average wage tend to decrease it. Falls in the profit rate took place in countries with a weak technological change with episodes of Marxian bias. Employment shifted from low to high capital intensity sectors, from low to high organic composition industries and from low to high productivity sectors. Rising strength of labour and realization failures tend to have a greater role than rising organic composition in cyclical profit rate dynamics. Over the cycle, the first mechanism is also the first one to show up, while the others tend to follow it. Theoretical and policy implications are offered.     

LOGISTICS MANAGERS' LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS AND FIRM PERFORMANCE

Dynamic changes in the business environment are significantly impacting supply chain logistics, resulting in unprecedented personnel demands. Organizational theorists suggest that personnel management is associated with better performance. However, relatively little is known about effective human resource practices within the logistics industry. The learning organization concept offers logistics organizations a theoretical rationale for promoting learning environments to better leverage employees' knowledge, skills, and abilities and improve performance. This research examines logistics managers' perceptions of individual level learning behavior within their organizations and its relationship to firm performance.     

Growth, Technological Change, and ICT Diffusion: Recent Evidence from OECD Countries

In this paper we present an overview of GDP and productivitygrowth patterns in OECD countries over the past decade, on thebasis of harmonized data. Our evidence suggests that fast-growingcountries generally shared three characteristics: improvementsin labour utilization; a generalized enhancement in human capital;and rapid shifts in the composition of physical capital towardsinformation and communication technology (ICT) equipment. Particularly,we show that technological change embodied in new ICT capitalgoods has been a primary source of output and productivity growthin ICT-using sectors. The international comparison allows relatinggrowth patterns to institutional and policy indicators, therebyoffering some preliminary insights into the potential sourcesof growth disparities. Cross-country evidence yields some tentativesupport to the idea that institutional factors affecting competitionin the product market are likely to affect productivity patterns,especially in a period of rapid diffusion of a general-purposetechnology (such as ICT).