Oil windfall,public spending and price stability: modelling inflation in Chad

This article examines the determinants of inflation in Chad using quarterly data from 1983:Q1 to 2009:Q3. The analysis is based on a single-equation model, completed by a Structural Vector Autoregression (SVAR) model to capture inflation persistence. The results show that the main determinants of inflation in Chad are rainfall, foreign prices, exchange rate movements and particularly public spending, which soared following the onset of oil production in 2003. The effects of rainfall shocks and changes in foreign prices on inflation persist during six quarters. Changes in public spending and the nominal exchange rate affect inflation during three and four quarters, respectively.     

Overcoming environmental scarcity,inequality and structural imbalance in the world economy

The world economy faces two major threats: increasing environmental degradation and a growing gap between rich and poor. The root cause is that natural resources—or natural capital—is underpriced, and hence overly exploited, whereas human capital—the skills embodied in the workforce—is insufficient to meet demand. This outcome has three important consequences. First, all sectors of an economy will use too much natural resources relative to skilled labor. Second, the skilled workers throughout the economy will have higher real incomes and thus will be better off. Third, wealth inequality will increase, as the income gap between skilled and unskilled workers widens. Addressing this structural imbalance requires correcting the two underlying distortions, which are the chronic under-pricing of natural capital and the under-investment in human capital. This must be accompanied by a new suite of policies to provide improved incentives for more balanced wealth creation.     

Gross Investment And Technological Change

The impact of technological change upon gross investment has been relatively ignored. Building upon the foundations of the analysis of technological diffusion, an empirical model of gross investment is constructed that takes due account of technological change. This model is then tested upon a panel data set covering 185 UK firms over the period from 1984 to 1992. The results support the hypothesis that there are significant relationships of the expected signs between firm level gross investment, indicators of technological opportunity; the price of the capital goods that embody new technology, and firm and industry characteristics. There is also evidence of lagged adjustment effects in the investment process.     

重庆市制造业的绿色经济增长核算：2001—2010

基于生产前沿理论的绿色经济增长核算模型,不仅将技术无效率和环境代价纳入了分析框架,而且还与“物质平衡思路”一致;该模型将绿色经济增长的源泉分解为环境约束下的技术进步、技术效率变化和资本深化3大部分.对重庆市27个制造行业的经验分析结论表明:经济增长中普遍存在着技术无效率现象,但50％以上行业的技术效率都得到了改善或维持不变;资本深化是经济增长的主要源泉,而技术进步主导的全要素生产率变动在其中的贡献相对较小;技术进步是引致全要素生产率增长的主要原因.为充分发挥重庆市制造业可持续发展潜力,后续发展中必须转变经济发展方式,在环境约束下走技术进步和技术效率改善的绿色全要素生产率增长之路.     

Paternalistic Capitalism

Brazil’s political-economic structure has rapidly evolved over the past decade, shedding its shallow policy alignment with neoliberalism of the 1990s. Brazil’s large, diversified industrial base was painfully constructed over the course of the twentieth century. A major and sustained political realignment, which began in 2003, has resulted in two essential thrusts in development policy: (i) a “growth with equity” strategy that has dramatically reduced poverty and inequality; and (ii) a state-led “industrial policy” designed to upgrade manufacturing and direct the accumulation process toward specific sectors, highlighting and consolidating the National Innovation System (NIS). Nonetheless, as a result of the commodity boom that swept through Latin America, Brazil’s natural resource sector achieved outsized growth from 2002 to 2012. One result has been a shift toward resource intensive activities and a broad opening to low-cost Chinese manufactures. Utilizing an institutionalist framework and method, this article analyzes the cohesion of the NIS and the emergence of the “deindustrialization” debate. Also, it assesses the instrumental nature of the “growth with equity” strategy. The article hypothesizes the viability of an endogenous “neo-developmentalist” strategy, while acknowledging the emergence of fundamental exogenous forces and structural ceremonial/institutional factors that have impeded the consolidation of a Brazilian social structure of accumulation.     

Agricultural Productivity Growth and Escape from the Malthusian Trap

Industrialization allowed the industrialized world of today to escape from the Malthusian regime characterized by low economic and population growth and to enter the post-Malthusian regime of high economic and population growth. To explain the transition between these regimes, we construct a growth model with two consumption goods (an agricultural and a manufacturing good), endogenous fertility, and endogenous technological progress in the manufacturing sector. We show that with an exogenous increase in the growth of agricultural productivity our model is able to replicate stylized facts of the British industrial revolution. The paper concludes by illustrating that our proposed model framework can be extended to include the demographic transition, i.e., a regime in which economic growth is associated with falling fertility.     

收入增长、饮食结构转变与食物系统碳排放——来自中国6省住户调查数据的证据

目的 食物系统碳排放在全球碳排放中的比重已达到30%。聚焦居民收入增长对食物消费结构变化的影响及其带来的碳排放效应,从饮食结构视角考察居民收入增长导致的食物系统碳排放变动。方法 文章从微观视角运用EASI需求系统模型分析不同收入增长模式下食物系统碳排放的可能增长路径。结果 （1）收入增长会使碳排放密集型的牛羊肉等动物类食物的消费量快速增长;（2）在不考虑收入分布变化的收入增长10%～50%的情景下,人均食物系统碳排放的变动在-5.23%～13.99%,收入差距缩小和中等收入群体壮大的收入增长模式则会使排放进一步增加;（3）在收入增长幅度低于30%时,农业减排技术进步可以有效中和食物系统碳排放增长,反映出农业减排技术进步对于减缓食物系统碳排放的重要性和有限性。结论 有必要制定依靠农业减排技术创新为核心的综合减排策略,进一步促进饮食的健康和环境协同增效,引导居民的饮食结构向果蔬等植物类食物及“低畜肉,高禽、蛋、奶、水产品”的动物类饮食结构转变。     

A longitudinal study of supply organizational change

This research examines the high level of change in supply organizations of large North American companies using data collected from 51 large North American supply organizations in 1987, 1995 and 2003. Analysis is supplemented by an additional 55 companies for which data were collected in 1995 and 2003. The availability of longitudinal data from individual companies over a 16-year period provided a unique opportunity to trace changes made to each company's supply organizational structure and their roles and responsibilities. Findings suggest that the respondents made major changes in supply organizational structure, supply chain responsibilities, use of purchasing teams, supply involvement in major corporate activities (MCA) and CPO reporting line, title and background.     

产险业资本结构与承保风险对获利能力的影响——基于结构方程模型的实证分析

文章以资本结构理论为基础,利用国内产险公司2001～2004年的财务数据,运用结构方程模型探讨产险公司资本结构与承保风险对获利能力的影响。实证结果发现,资本结构的变化对我国产险公司的获利能力有正负两方面的影响,而资本结构与风险之间是相互影响的。当不考虑风险的影响时,资产负债率的提高会增强公司的获利能力,而随着资产负债率的提高,公司承保风险加大,对公司的获利能力有显著的负向影响。因此,产险公司不应一味地通过提高资产负债率来取得短期获利,还应注意控制风险,增强长期获利能力。     

Valuing climate protection through willingness to pay for biomass ethanol

This study uses a multi-part, split-sample contingent valuation method (CVM) and fair share (FS) survey to better understand the public's valuation of mitigating global climate change through its willingness to pay for biomass or “cellulosic” ethanol. In addition to a basic CVM question, a related scenario was developed that asked half of the survey respondents to state their fair share cost to lessen a potential food shortage in the next decade, also through the expanded use of cellulosic ethanol. Three alternative biomass feedstocks were assessed: farming residues, forestry residues and paper mill wastes, and municipal solid wastes. Overall a slightly larger proportion of respondents were WTP extra for cellulosic ethanol in the basic CVM scenario than in the FS scenario, though no significant differences were found in the WTP for the different feedstocks. Bid curve lognormal regression results for the two models were similar, supporting the idea that asking a FS rather than a conventional WTP question may be justifiable in some circumstances, such as in cases of a national emergency.