Productivity Measurement and the Relationship between Plant Performance and JIT Intensity*

The management accounting and operations management literatures argue that the adoption of advanced manufacturing practices, such as just‐in‐time (JIT), necessitates complementary changes in a firm's management accounting and control systems. This study uses a sample of JIT and non‐JIT plants operating in the Canadian automotive parts manufacturing industry to study the interaction among performance outcomes, intensity of JIT practices, and productivity measurement. This study provides evidence that productivity measurement mediates the relationship between performance outcomes and intensity of JIT practices. Specifically, both JIT and non‐JIT plants that use a broader range of productivity measures are more efficient and profitable than other plants. Also, plants that employ industry‐driven productivity measures are more profitable and efficient than plants that employ idiosyncratic productivity measures, especially if the former are more JIT‐intensive than the latter. Furthermore, plants that employ quality productivity measures are less efficient and less profitable than those that do not, especially if they use more intensive JIT practices. The latter result is consistent with JIT‐intensive plants overinvesting in quality. This study also finds that plants that invest more in buffer stock are less efficient and less profitable, especially if they use more intensive JIT practices. Despite the fact that plant profitability and efficiency are highly correlated, JIT‐intensive plants are more profitable but less efficient than plants that are not JIT‐intensive, after controlling for productivity measures, plant size, and buffer stock. This result suggests that despite wasting resources, JIT‐intensive plants are still able to generate relatively higher profits than plants that are not JIT‐intensive.     

Plant location and strategic environmental policy with inter-sectoral linkages

In recent debates on trade liberalisation the concern has often been expressed that with more competitive international trade governments will be worried that by setting tougher environmental policies than their trading rivals they will put domestic producers at a competitive disadvantage, and in the extreme case this could lead to firms relocating production in other countries. The response by governments to such concerns will be to weaken environmental policies (‘eco-dumping’). In competitive markets such concerns are ill founded, but there is a small amount of literature which has analysed whether governments will indeed have incentives for eco-dumping in the more relevant case of markets where there are significant scale economies; even here there is no presumption that the outcome will involve eco-dumping.In this paper we extend the analysis of strategic environmental policy and plant location decisions by analysing the location decision of firms in different sectors which are linked through an input-output structure of intermediate production. The reason why we introduce inter-sectoral linkages between firms is that they introduce an additional factor, relative to those already analysed in the literature, in the plant location decision, which is the incentive for firms in different sectors to agglomerate in a single location. This has a number of important effects. First, there is now the possibility of multiple equilibria in location decisions of firms. Following from this there is the possibility of catastrophic effects where a small increase in an environmental tax can trigger the collapse of an industrial base in a country; however there is also the possibility that a country which raises its environmental tax could attract more firms to locate in that country, because of the way the tax affects incentives for agglomeration. Finally, and again related to the previous effects, there is the possibility of a hysteresis effect where raising an environmental tax in one country can cause firms to relocate to another country, but subsequently lowering that tax will not induce firms to relocate back into the original country.We consider a simple model with two countries, two industries, an upstream and a downstream sector, and two firms per industry. The analysis proceeds through a three-stage game: in the first stage the governments of the two countries set their environmental policies; in the second stage the firms in both industries choose how many plants to locate and where; in the third stage firms choose their output levels, with the demand for the upstream firms being determined endogenously by the production decisions of the downstream firms. We assume that there are no limits to production capacity, so that firms do not build more than one plant in any country. However, firms may build plants in different countries because of positive transport costs. Although the model appears very simple, it cannot be solved analytically, so all the conclusions must be drawn from numerical simulations.     

基于AHP和Fuzzy法的核电站设备供应商评价与选择

核电站设备供应商的选择和评价是一个典型的多指标多层次的综合评价问题。本文构建了核电站设备供应商的评价指标体系,综合层次分析法(AHP)和模糊评价法(Fuzzy)建立了核电站设备供应商的选择模型,并结合实例说明该模型的可用性。核电站设备供应商选择模型克服了传统方法较主观、不易量化定性指标等缺点,为核电站设备供应商的选择提供了一种有效的定性定量综合分析方法,确保更加科学地选择到合适的核电站设备供应商,为核电站安全运行提供有力保证。     

厂网村结对共建 合力推“创先争优”

大唐岩滩水力发电有限责任公司在开展创先争优活动中,拓宽创新渠道,与下游的行业链电网公司和地方协和村三方结对共建,通过加强安全管控交流,和谐社会互建,筑造安全厂网;加强技术合作,组织建设互促,共造效益厂网;通过文化联谊、党员干部互动,营造人文厂网;通过教育培训、人才培养互补,打造智能厂网的两加强两通过四打造活动,力推创先争优活动向横向纵深发展。     

Measuring wage effects of plant size

There are large plant size–wage effects in the Nordic countries after taking into account individual and job characteristics as well as systematical sorting of the workers into various plant-sizes. The plant size–wage elasticities we obtain are, in contrast to other dimensions of the wage distribution, comparable to the plant-size effects in other countries such as the U.S. with completely different institutions of wage setting. We also investigate the consequence of measurement error associated with the common practice of using midpoints of plant-size classes to estimate the plant size–wage elasticity. Our results indicate that using size–class midpoints yields essentially the same results as using exact measures of plant size.     

Estimating the benefits of plant breeding research: methodological issues and practical challenges

Impact assessment studies consistently show that the benefits generated by plant breeding are large, positive and widely distributed. Numerous case studies have concluded that investment in plant breeding research generates attractive rates of return compared to alternative investment opportunities, that welfare gains resulting from the adoption of modern varieties (MVs) reach both favoured and marginal environments, and that benefits are broadly shared by producers and consumers. But just how reliable are the results of studies that estimate the benefits of plant breeding research? This article reviews methods used to estimate the benefits of plant breeding research and discusses theoretical and empirical issues that often receive inadequate attention in applied impact assessment work. Our objective is not to question the validity of the theoretical frameworks commonly used to estimate the benefits of plant breeding research, but rather to examine problems that can arise when the widely accepted theoretical frameworks are used for empirical analysis. Most of these problems can be grouped into three basic categories: (1) problems associated with measuring adoption and diffusion of MVs, (2) problems associated with estimating benefits attributable to adoption of MVs, and (3) problems associated with assigning credit among the various plant breeding programmes that participated in developing the MVs.     

中国植物遗传资源(PGRs)产权配置研究——以福建武夷山国家级自然保护区为例

明确中国植物遗传资源的产权归属是落实国际生物多样性公约,实现遗传资源保护与利用的惠益分享的前提与保证。文章以武夷山自然保护区为例,结合保护区的发展特征,利用产权理论,分析了保护区植物遗传资源的保护与利用的价值形成、利益相关者及其价值需求、各利益相关者在保护和利用植物遗传资源方面的贡献与作用等,得出保护区植物遗传资源的产权配置方式。     

Concentration in ownership of plant variety rights: some implications for developing countries

This paper explores concentration levels in the ownership of intellectual property rights over plant varieties worldwide. An analysis of data for 30 UPOV member-countries shows a high degree of concentration in the ownership of plant variety rights for six major crops at the national level in the developed world. Much of this concentration has arisen owing to the rapid consolidation of the seed industry through mergers and acquisitions, especially in the 1990s. A high degree of concentration in the ownership of plant variety rights, in combination with recent efforts to strengthen plant variety protection regimes, is likely to have significant effects on the prospects for future innovation in plant breeding and the distribution of market power between companies. For developing countries, concentration in intellectual property right ownership may have important implications for the structure of domestic seed industries and access to protected varieties and associated plant breeding technologies. These implications for developing countries are likely to become apparent in the context of the rapid spread of plant variety protection and access legislation, emerging changes in the international exchange regime for plant material and liberalised investment policies permitting foreign investment in the seeds sector.     

植物叶片特征数字化在植物识别上的应用

总结了基于叶片特征物种识别现阶段的应用,对已有的数字化叶片特征进行分析归类,并总结出新的拟可行的叶片特征指标。对基于叶片特征物种识别技术进行前景展望,其必将会成为以后物种识别的发展趋势。