Domestic technology,consumption economies of scale and poverty: evidence from Sri Lanka

While it is well known that new technologies enhance consumer welfare, the manner in which these technologies impact the ability to realize economies of scale in consumption is not well understood. We use Sri Lankan household data to examine how the adoption of new technologies by households positively impacts their ability to achieve household economies of scale. This suggests that new technologies not only deliver a greater variety of consumption goods to consumers, but they may also play an important role in enabling large households to escape poverty by lowering the per-capita costs of maintaining a given standard of living. Given the importance of consumption economies of scale in the measurement of poverty, this study provides some insights on the extent to which the number of poor households changes when food consumption scale economies due to technology adoption in the domestic sphere are incorporated.     

Domestic R&D and offshoring: does offshoring reduce knowledge production?

An important question in industrialized countries is whether offshoring activities reduce the probability of performing own research and development (R&D) or whether the R&D intensity falls in firms that already have R&D activities. This question is addressed using a unique data set that combines survey and register data. No evidence is found for a lower probability of own R&D after offshoring takes place compared to before. Moreover, offshoring does not lead to lower R&D intensity in general. However, firms that offshore R&D activity have larger R&D intensity after offshoring has taken place, which suggests that R&D performed at home is complementary to foreign R&D.     

China’s Agricultural Policy Transition: Impacts of Recent Reforms and Future Scenarios

This article reviews recent developments in China’s agricultural domestic support policy, especially the transition from taxing farmers and agriculture to providing direct subsidies to grain production and purchased inputs. A model‐based quantitative analysis on the effects of these policy changes is presented. Simulation results suggest that recent policy changes have achieved the declared policy goals of increasing grain production and boosting farm income. Much of the increase in grain production and farm income can be attributed to higher per unit return to arable land, land reallocation to grain production and extra agricultural employment triggered by the policy changes. Based on the assumption that China’s public assistance to agriculture and farmers will continue and rise, two hypothetical future scenarios are simulated. Using all the support permitted under WTO de minimis limits with existing instruments, China’s policy will increase grain production, change trade patterns seemingly contrary to China’s comparative advantage, increase rural employment and significantly increase farm income (by more than 12%). If, however, decoupled instruments are applied to raise China’s agricultural domestic support to the same level, China’s agricultural production and trade will remain unchanged, rural employment remain stable, but farm income will be increased by nearly 15%.     

Comparative Advantage Indices of Selected Livestock Production Sectors in Brunei Darussalam

Abstract

This study calculates the protection rates and comparative advantage indices of livestock industry in Brunei from an import substitution perspective. Four livestock sub-sectors were being evaluated: broiler, layer, goat and beef cattle. Two measures of government intervention indices were calculated, namely nominal protection rate (NPR) and effective protection rate (EPR). Domestic resource cost (DRC) and resource cost ratio (RCR) indices were computed to determine the comparative advantages of the livestock industry. In general, the results indicate that the livestock industry in Brunei was heavily protected. The study revealed the existence of comparative advantage only for very large farms producing poultry meat and eggs. Similarly in the ruminant sector, goat production appears to have comparative advantage over beef cattle. Small and medium poultry farms and large non-ruminant farms and cattle beef production possess comparative disadvantage despite being highly protected industries.     

“双循环”背景下旅游业高质量发展的实现路径

自改革开放以来,我国旅游经济总量不断增长,旅游产业地位逐步提升,旅游产业已逐渐成为推动经济发展的重要驱动力。近两年,受新冠肺炎疫情的影响,我国旅游市场受到巨大冲击。由此,以高质量发展为目标,推动“双循环”新发展格局下的旅游产业复苏成为当下旅游产业发展最重要的现实需求。面对新的发展环境,我国旅游产业在发展规模、发展结构、发展动力、发展机制等方面存在深层次结构性矛盾,国内旅游消费需求不足、自主创新能力薄弱、体制机制不健全等问题逐渐凸显。基于此,我们可以通过优化旅游供给、促进文旅融合、现代科技赋能、深入开发入境旅游市场以及扩大开放等路径,加快培育完整的旅游内需体系,推动旅游业高质量发展。     

基于国内支持框架下的农业风险管理体系研究

农业风险管理体系与国内支持政策的基本目标存在共性,两者具有较强的关联性和互补性,将农业风险管理体系融入到国内支持框架中是可行的,而且在诸多方面具有独特优势。     

Natural resource accounting for Indian states — Illustrating the case of forest resources

Our main objective is to set out and apply a SEEA-based methodology to reflect the true value of forest resources in India's national and state accounts. We establish that a “top-down” approach using available national databases is both feasible and desirable from a policy perspective. In this paper, we address four components of value creation in forests: timber production, carbon storage, fuelwood usage, and the harvesting of non-timber forest products. The results of our analysis suggest that prevailing measures of national income in India underestimate the contribution of forests to income. The income accounts of the Northeastern states in particular are significantly understated by these traditional (GDP/GSDP) measures. We are also able to identify some states which performed poorly in the context of our sustainability framework, reflecting natural capital losses due to degradation and deforestation. Our results highlight the need to integrate natural resource accounting into the national accounting framework in order to generate appropriate signals for sustainable forest management and for the conservation of forest resources which are widely used by the poor in India, as well as being significant stores of national wealth.     

人民币升值及我国的应对措施

人民币升值已经是我国无法回避的问题。总体来看,在现阶段对于我国宏观经济均衡目标而言,人民币升值比不升值对我国经济更有利。但人民币升值的速度取决于我国企业对人民币升值的承受能力、我国扩大内需的能力、我国政府掌控人民币汇率的能力以及热钱流入的速度和资产价格泡沫的大小等。其中,扩大内需是最根本的决定因素。本文提出了在短期内扩大内需以应对人民币升值的两个主要措施,即放松计划生育政策和进行大规模生态开发。     

Relationship between foreign capital flows,domestic investment and savings in the SADC region

The importance of foreign capital in the domestic economy cannot be underestimated as it bridges the gap between domestic capital demand and supply. Given this background the paper studies the relationship between the different types of foreign capital flows in the Southern Africa Development Region (SADC) region – foreign direct investment (FDI), remittances, cross border bank flows (CBF), overseas development assistance (ODA) – and domestic savings and investment, employing the panel cointegration test and the dynamic ordinary least squares method (DOLS). The empirical results reveal that there is a strong positive relationship between domestic investment and domestic savings, FDI and remittances. These findings indicate that FDI remittances help in overcoming the limits on the domestic capital formation in the SADC region through permitting a rate of investment which is in excess of that which can be generated by domestic savings. Important policy implications on attracting foreign capital flows are discussed in the paper.     

城镇居民生活用水影响因素的实证分析——以成都市为例

通过分析影响城镇居民生活用水的因素,根据成都市城镇居民生活用水现状,采取城镇人口数﹑人均日生活综合用水量﹑人均可支配收入﹑水价4项具有代表性标量,通过平稳性检验和协整分析,采用科克伦—奥克特迭代法修正法建立回归模型。结果表明:①城镇居民用水人口数增加1%,用水需求则会上升0.943个百分点。②水价上升1%,居民对水的需求减少了0.016%,而居民收入增加同等的比例,用水需求则会上升0.232%。③城镇人口数对生活用水量的增长最显著作用,水价上涨对用水需求的抑制作用比收入增加对用水需求的拉动作用要小很多。为此为有效管理城镇居民生活用水,给出从完善阶梯水价、加强宣传、健全法规、推动节水技术等方面提出建议。