Learning-by-doing and the sources of productivity growth: A dynamic model with application to U.S. agriculture

The significance of learning to productivity growth is formulated within a dynamic adjustment-cost framework. Explicitly treating the acquisition of knowledge as a firm-specific capital good entering the production function along with other conventional inputs, the dynamic optimization model integrates the learning-by-doing hypothesis with technical change, scale, and disequilibrium input use effects in the aggregate productivity analysis. The theoretical framework is applied to examining the dynamic components accounting for the growth of U.S. production agriculture over the 1950–82 period. The results imply a less important role for technical change and assign a substantial role to the previously unmeasured contribution of learning-by-doing to the growth of aggregate agriculture industry.The editor for this paper was Melvyn Fuss.     

A social network supported CAI model for tacit knowledge acquisition

Freehand sketching is one of the most important and commonly used methods of generating and sharing budding ideas during the conceptual development portion of the preliminary phase of design. To develop one’s skills, prolonged practice, acquiring instant feedback and suggestions while practicing are invaluable. The two key and indispensable parts of learning draftsmanship are viewing and commenting on large numbers of free hand sketches. However, due to insufficient educational resources, instructors must spend most of their time engaged in class-room teaching, reducing the time allotted for one-on-one discussion and specialized assistance. Furthermore, the lack of sketch grading criteria can prevent students from developing proper insights into the essentials of sketching. As a result, students neither receive personalized feedback nor acquire adequate training in critiquing freehand sketching skills. These factors decrease learning effectiveness and negatively impact learning motivation. In order to solve this problem, this research has created a discussion platform on Facebook that utilizes the learning characteristics essential to developing proficiency in freehand sketching. It includes practice, observation, and comments. It has been found that this cultivates the subjects’ ability to judge freehand sketch quality and increases learning motivation and effectiveness through the process of peer-assessment. After participating in the one-semester teaching experiment, the abilities of the experimental group were significantly better than those of the control group, demonstrating that the online sketch discussion platform has a significant impact on freehand sketch learning.     

Efficiency change and growth in productivity: the Asian growth experience

This paper focuses on identifying the sources of productivity growth in ten Asian economies including China, Japan, the NIEs and the ASEAN-4. We calculate productivity growth and its components using distance-function-based Malmquist productivity indexes following Färe, Grosskopf, Norris, and Zhang (1994a). Hong Kong and Singapore are found to have the capabilities to shift the grand frontier of the APEC economies. But the productivity divergence might have occurred since the 70’s. The FDI contributes to the Asian growth either through catching-up or through technological innovations when a sufficient learning capacity is available in the host economy.     

Myanmar

Myanmar is one of the few remaining Southeast Asian nations that is seeking to re‐establish itself as an economic force in the region. To achieve this, many of the economic reforms in the 1990s were directed toward the opening up of its economy and allowing the market forces to work. We look at some of the present conditions facing foreign businesses and the unique market of Myanmar. The nation's background, economic conditions, and the market conditions facing both the consumers and businesses are discussed. ? 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Building the dynamic linkages between R & D and productivity growth

This study attempts to integrate the dynamic and spillover characteristics of R & D into the explanation of total factor productivity growth. To characterize the dynamic feature of R & D, the dynamic growth model is reformulated to explicitly consider the contribution of R & D. The two different types of spillover effects are characterized as one that can be used directly and the other that needs to be assimilated by firms' own investment. Empirical application of the theoretical methodology facilitates investigating factors contributing to the growth of the manufacturing sector in Taiwan over the period 1980–1991. It is found that the scale-related components have a dominant contribution in the growth of total factor productivity contributing approximately 95.3% of the growth. Although the spillover effect is quite insignificant, accumulation of R & D capital contributes nearly half of the residual growth of the manufacturing sector.     

董事会压力“离间”CEO？

一项新的研究结果表明,董事会收紧控制权对管理层产生了一个意想不到的“副作用”：首席执行官开始吝啬于向自己的同行提供战略决策方面的建议。     

Unemployment information and wives’ labor supply responses to husbands’ job loss in Taiwan

Motivated by declining labor market opportunities in Taiwan, this study examines adjustments to wives' work patterns based on husbands' job loss for both unskilled and skilled labor families. Explicitly taking information acquired before job losses into account, married couples' dynamic labor supply equations are estimated by using a short pseudo-panel data set of Manpower Utilization Survey (MUS) in Taiwan during the period of 1993–2006. Our results indicate that the AWE in skilled families exhibits almost twice as big as those in unskilled families. When husbands' job loss is compounded with district- or industry-specific unemployment information, wives have slightly higher probabilities of labor force entry than those in the traditional model, and the probabilities increase with the length of observation. A comparison of the asymmetric response of the unskilled and the skilled wives suggests that facing husbands' job loss, unskilled wives respond to both economic downturns and upturns, but skilled wives only respond to economic downturns.     

Understanding tourist perspectives in creative tourism

This study explores the interactions of tourists with their surrounding socio-material factors at creative tourism sites in Taiwan. Creativity is generated through the interactions of tourists with the tutor, activity, or the environment; and there is a close relationship between individuals and these socio-material factors. However, how these factors interact has been understudied. Q-methodology was employed to uncover the various perspectives of tourists to determine the important factors that are concerned about when participating in creative activities. Three groups of tourists were identified: relaxers, sensation-seekers, and existential-type. Relaxers emphasize environmental issues and characteristics of the activity, sensation-seekers emphasize tutor-related issues, and existential-type tourists emphasize the characteristics of the activity itself.