International and Institutional R&D Spillovers: Attribution of Benefits among Sources for Brazil's New Crop Varieties

Reported rates of return to agricultural R&D are generally high, but they are likely to be biased, particularly because of attribution problems—mismatching research benefits with costs. The importance of attribution biases is illustrated here with new evidence for Brazil. During 1981–2003, varietal improvements in upland rice, edible beans, and soybeans yielded benefits of $14.8 billion in present value (1999 prices) terms. Attributing all of the benefits to Embrapa, a public research corporation accounting for more than half of Brazil's agricultural R&D spending, the benefit-cost ratio would be 78:1. Under alternative attribution rules, the ratio drops to 16:1.     

昆明市部分行道绿化树种经营效益成本分析与评价

在阐明STRATUM模型的研究思路及研究方法的基础上,选用该模型中与昆明市区相近气候区相应树种综合效益计算的参数数据,采用典型抽样调查对昆明市区悬铃木等16个主要行道树树种群体的经营管理效益成本之比进行了计算和比较分析研究,并针对这些主要行道树树种的选择应用及其经营管理现状加以评价,从而提出优化方案和完善建议。     

U.S. National Economic Contribution of Generic Food and Agricultural Product Advertising

Agricultural promotion groups (APGs) promote the economic welfare of agricultural producers by financing generic advertising and promotion activities intended to expand demand for their commodities in hopes that the benefits will more than cover the cost. A review of the most recent evaluations of 27 major U.S. APG generic advertising and promotion programs conducted by many different researchers using widely different techniques concludes that that those programs have effectively enhanced the profits of their respective stakeholders and generated high rates of returns to the dollars invested in those programs. Importantly, this study finds that the success of those programs in supporting and growing their respective sectors of agriculture has spilled over to the general economy. The programs have created an important multiplier effect through the economy. In the process, jobs have been created; income has been generated; and economic growth has occurred.     

农村承包地流转:动力机制与制度安排

研究目的:利用经济学收益成本分析的思路,揭示影响农户承包地流转动机的主要因素及其后的制度安排,并提出相应的政策建议。研究方法:部门调查和农户调查相结合。研究结果:影响农户承包地流转的收益因素主要包括农地经营能力、非农就业选择、集体经济组织发育及流转期限等,成本因素主要包括农地经营细碎化、有形市场建设滞后、基层组织介入不够、流转后的社会保障不足、制度预期的不确定性及农产品安全等。研究结论:农地流转制度改革应重点帮助提高农户流转后的收益水平,并有效降低农地流转中的交易成本和机会成本。     

出口加工区的成本与收益——以发展中国家出口加工区为例

本文在对成本—收益模型进行科学阐释的基础上,分析出口加工区(EPZ)对东道国的影响。进而分析随着工业化的不断推进,从生命周期理论的观点看,市场价格与机会成本之间差距变小,EPZ将趋向于消亡。最后,提出发展中国家可以考虑利用EPZ对就业、工业化和市场化的积极作用,促进东道国经济的发展。     

The Aggregation of Climate Change Damages: a Welfare Theoretic Approach

The economic value of environmental goods is commonly determined using the concepts of willingness to pay (WTP) or willingness to accept (WTA). However, the WTP/WTA observed in different countries (or between individuals) will differ according to socio-economic characteristics, in particular income. This notion of differentiated values for otherwise identical goods (say, a given reduction in mortality risk) has been criticized as unethical, most recently in the context of the 'social cost' chapter of the IPCC Second Assessment Report. These critics argue that, being a function of income, WTP/WTA estimates reflect the unfairness in the current income distribution, and for equity reasons uniform per-unit values should therefore be applied across individuals and countries. This paper analyses the role of equity in the aggregation of climate change damage estimates, using basic tools of welfare economics. It shows one way of how WTP/WTA estimates can be corrected in aggregation if the underlying income distribution is considered unfair. It proposes that in the aggregation process individual estimates be weighted with an equity factor derived from the social welfare and utility functions. Equity weighting can significantly increase aggregate (global) damage figures, although some specifications of weighting functions also imply reduced estimates. The paper also shows that while the postulate of uniform per-unit values is compatible with a wide range of 'reasonable' utility and welfare specifications, there are also cases where the common-value notion is not compatible with defensible welfare concepts.     

Social benefit-cost analysis and telecommunications investment in developing countries

Telecommunications expansion can make an important contribution to the social and economic development of less-developed countries. But that in itself does not mean that telecommunications projects should receive top priority in a country's investment budget. This is because projects in other sectors can also make strong claims to being vital for development. This situation points to a basic problem for development planners: how to allocate scarce resources between competing projects which more than exhaust the available investment budget. The analytical technique that has been developed in answer to this policy problem is a significant extension of social benefit-cost analysis. A pertinent question at this point is: how has the application of the new technique affected budgets for telecommunications investment in developing countries? This paper addresses that question by considering how the World Bank has applied social benefit-cost analysis in the area of telecommunications.