Structural and productivity change in US agriculture, 1950–1982

This paper tests whether structural change in US agriculture is an important channel to TFP growth and evaluates the relative impact of (i) public research and education policies, (ii) private R&D and market forces, and (iii) government farm programs on structural change. We specify a structural econometric model, fit it to US state aggregate data, 1953–1982, and use the associated reduced‐form model to perform counter‐factual policy simulations. The findings include: structural change is a channel to TFP growth in both crop and livestock subsector, i.e. specialization, size, and part‐time farming do impact TFP, holding other variables constant. Public R&D and education have been at least as important as private R&D and market forces for changing livestock specialization, farm size, and farmers’ off‐farm work participation over the study period, but private R&D and market forces have been relatively more important for crop specialization. Changes in farm commodity programs had little impact on farm structure over these study period. Overall, we conclude that if public R&D and education policies had been unchanged at their 1950 values over 1950–1982, major structural changes in US agriculture would have occurred anyway. The forces of private R&D and market forces were at work, including a decline in the price of machinery services and agricultural chemicals, relative to the farm wage.     

“乡镇政府改革”刍议

近年以"撤并"为主要内容的乡镇政府改革被视为解决县乡财政困难的有效举措.为此,有必要就乡镇政府改革的三大问题进行辨析,即乡镇政府改革是撤并乡镇还是功能重构?是撤并乡镇以做大求规模效益还是注重小政府以求公共服务的质量责任和回应性?是对上(上级政府)负责的压力驱动型体制还是对下(本地居民)负责的需求导向型体制?以此来审视和反思当前我国的乡镇政府改革,结论是:"撤并式"乡镇政府改革效果有限.     

信贷/GDP比率持续走高之谜:宁波案例

本文首先通过指标变换.将信贷/GDP比率转为信贷投入率与投入回报率之比,它同时包含经济金融化程度与经济产出效率两方面内容.然后以宁波市1980-2009年数据为样本,采用因子分析法进行实证检验,解释了该比率持续升高的原因,即信贷在经济投入中的占比持续上升和经济生产的投入回报率不断下降.前者源于经济金融化程度提高,后者则由产业结构调整所致.最后,针对研究结论提出了若干政策建议.     

Seeing a new side to seasides: culturally regenerating the English seaside town

The ‘buzzword’ for the 1990s was undoubtedly the concept of sustainability in all its various manifestations, not least in the field of tourism development. Its successor for the 2000s looks set to become the phenomenon of cultural regeneration, which is already dominating the urban landscape of much of western Europe. However, the extent to which regeneration through cultural development and the revival of tourism can become the new panacea for declining resorts is open to debate. This issue will be discussed in more depth in the context of English seaside towns, focusing in particular on a case study of Southend‐on‐Sea. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley &Sons, Ltd.     

Diversification,restructuring and economic performance

During the 198Os, many conglomerates and other diversified firms reduced their diversification by refocusing on their core businesses. This paper provides an economic explanation for this phenomenon and empirically tests the hypotheses that emerge from the analysis. It is shown that refocusing is associated ex post with Profitability improvements.     

Bring institutions into FDI spillover research: Exploring the impact of ownership restructuring and institutional development in emerging economies

Extant studies exploring the influences of foreign direct investment (FDI) spillovers on the productivity of local firms have provided conflicting evidence. In particular, they have largely overlooked the important role of institutional mechanisms in the host market in understanding the sources of the variation in FDI spillover effects on the productivity of local firms, especially in the context of emerging markets. Using a comprehensive panel data set of manufacturing firms in China during 1998–2007, our paper presents an integrative framework of how FDI spillovers affect the productivity of local firms in emerging markets. We identify an inverted U-shaped relationship between FDI spillovers and the productivity of local firms in China. This result suggests the coexistence of and the interplay between the opposing mechanisms of FDI spillover learning opportunity and adverse competition. Drawing on the institution-based view, this study also develops contingency frameworks and arguments to explore the question of if FDI spillover effects are contingent on, or independent of, a local institutional context especially in emerging markets. We find that institutional mechanisms, such as the institutionally determined ownership restructuring and the different levels of subnational institutional development within the host emerging market, significantly shape the variation of FDI spillover effects on the productivity of local firms. This research highlights the importance of incorporating institutional effects in understanding the FDI spillover effects in emerging markets.     

我国农产品进口与农民收入变化的实证分析

本文采用我国1981-2003年农产品进口和农民收入变化的数据,对农产品进口和农民收入变化之间的关系进行了格兰杰因果检验。研究结果表明,两者在短期内不存在格兰杰因果关系,但在长期内却存在双向格兰杰因果关系。     

Enterprise Restructuring in Transition

Abstract

Poland in 1989 was faced with massive and unprecedented change. If we consider what communism was-an ideology, an economic system, a political system, a way of life-we can begin to appreciate the nature, scale, challenge and complexity of the change involved.

This paper evaluates how privatised, post-socialist Polish enterprises have responded to market conditions. In particular, it traces the management role in capitalist restructuring and adjustment to the wider aspects of economic transformation in Poland.

A general introduction is followed by case material from three privatised, post-socialist Polish enterprises. Conclusions reached demonstrate both continuity and change in management behaviour and adaptation to capitalism through incremental rather than radical adjustment strategies. Capitalist restructuring is, however, shown to be more radical and extensive with dominant MNC ownership and control.     

The Impact of Social Marketing on Social Engineering in Economic Restructuring

SUMMARY

Social Marketing is a rapidly growing marketing sub-discipline based on the premise that bringing successful commercial marketing technologies to bear on problems of individual and social welfare can generate positive outcomes. This paper gives an overview of recent developments in Social Marketing in a global context and discusses the relationship of these developments to those in commercial, not-for-profit or third sector and public sector marketing, and public relations. The paper then relates the global context back to developments in Australasian and Asian nations, with particular reference to social engineering during economic restructuring.