Impact of modern communication infrastructure on productivity,production structure and factor demands of US industries: Impact revisited

This study investigates the contribution of modern communication infrastructure characterized by high speed broadband access network on the productivity growth, production structure and factor demands for US industries and for the aggregate economy. To evaluate such contribution, we modify the traditional cost function by incorporating communication infrastructure as input in production process in conjunction with other public infrastructures. The network externality and spillover effect of broadband access technology are captured by introducing broadband penetration rate as a shift factor in industry level production function. Empirical results show that the increased use of modern communications infrastructure increases the productivity of all industries with wide variations across industries. Estimated impacts on input demands show that increase in use of communications infrastructure service saves labor and materials and increase the demand for private capital. Finally, aggregate social rate of return on such investment has been estimated for policy implications.     

Managing leverage of infrastructure projects: Aggregate and sectoral risk effect

Funding for infrastructure projects recently shows that debt has a portion more than equity, triggering public debates. Therefore, leverage as an instrument to measure the ability and willingness of project sponsors to fund becomes the utmost importance to discuss. Relating to leverage, risk and government participation are two main factors that can explain the choice of funding decisions by the project sponsors. For this reason, this study would analyze the effect of risk and government participation on leverage through the two main sectors of infrastructure projects, namely the transportation sector and the energy sector, and derivating risk to political risk and financial risk. The objects of research were 976 infrastructure projects listed in the Asian Development Bank during 2007−2016. We use censored regression to examine the model by infrastructure sectors, both as individual and through interaction effects. The analysis showed that overall, leverage of infrastructure projects was rather influenced by financial risk than by political risk. However, the leverage of infrastructure projects in the transportation sector was more vulnerable to risk than that in other sectors.     

Rural taxation and government regulation in China

This paper places the problem of Chinese rural taxation in the context of government regulation and seeks to present an integrated theoretical framework of Chinese rural development in the past two decades. Our theoretical framework reconciles the seemingly contradictory facts that the average level of rural taxation relative to rural net income did not increase quickly from 1990, but rural taxation became a very serious problem in this period. Our findings suggest that this is in large part due to increases in rural income disparity from 1990 and uneven tax distribution among different income groups. We argue that differentiated enforcement of government regulations such as grain procurement and birth control play an important role in the rural taxation problem, and more generally, the problem of local government expansion and rising rural income disparity. The empirical findings support our hypotheses.     

论全面推进农村小康社会建设

我国新世纪“全面建设小康社会”的奋斗目标和纲领,是邓小平“小康”思想的进一步丰富和发展。从目前的经济发展和人们生活水平来看,离全面建设小康社会目标最远的主要是农民,全面建设小康社会的重点和难点在农村。在我国农村,全面建设农村小康社会应从政治、经济、文化和可持续发展等方面全面推进。     

Emerging markets, evolving institutions, and the new opportunities for growth in China's rural economy

In this essay, our goal is to assess the state of China's rural economy and examine whether rural China is capable of participating in the sequence of economic events that will lead to modernization. We examine how agricultural productivity has changed, the nature of the shift of labor moving from rural to urban areas, how commodity markets have evolved, and how the rural industrial sector is adjusting the recent reforms. According to our own work and that of others, we show how the rural economy is beginning to be fundamentally transformed and is contributing to China's modernization.     

股份制取代合作制是历史的必然——对中国农村金融制度选择的思考

目前，合作金融在中国遇到了种种困惑，这不是合作金融本身的错。一方面中国从来就没有建立过真正的合作金融；另一方面合作金融与中国当前的经济环境也不相适应。而那种异化了的合作金融既没有存在的必要，也没有存在的可能。股份制取代合作制是一种历史的必然。     

我国城乡耐用消费品市场用户构成差异的研究——一个创新扩散的视角

创新扩散理论按照用户采用新产品的时间先后顺序将市场细分为创新者、早期采用者、早期大多数、晚期大多数和落后者五种类型。本文在扩散经典理论和中国市场特征的基础上,提出城镇市场和农村市场耐用消费品用户构成差异的假设。研究结果证实了全部假设:城镇的创新者比例显著高于农村,农村的早期采用者比例显著超过城镇,而各类型采用者的采用持续时间农村全面长于城镇。这些结论为更加深入地了解二元经济结构下中国市场的特征提供了有益启示。     

我国城市农民工劳动供给曲线的理论分析和实证检验

从我国存在巨大的区域经济差异出发,如果假定劳动力从落后地区向发达的城市转移,不是决定于两地区的工资之差,而是决定于城市的工资与落后地区劳动力在城市的生存成本和需要其负担的家属在落后地区的生存成本即转移劳动力的基础价值之差,并且假定在城市的劳动力供给市场上,随着工作时间的延长和实际小时工资的降低,存在劳动力的退出,并且退出劳动力减少的劳动供给大于留在劳动力市场中的劳动者增加的劳动量,则城市农民工的劳动供给曲线是一条以落后地区转移劳动力的最低基础价值为起点、向右上方倾斜、其不同阶段存在不同斜率、且斜率随城市劳动力供求状况而变动的曲线.     

Unlocking the potential of advanced manufacturing technologies

This research examines whether investments in advanced manufacturing technologies (AMTs) such as flexible manufacturing systems (FMS), computer aided design (CAD), computer aided manufacturing (CAM), robotics, etc., are more likely to lead to improved performance if they are supported by improvements in the manufacturing infrastructure of the company. This question is evaluated using data gathered from 202 manufacturing plants chosen from industries generally considered to have relatively high investments in technology.Multiple item scales are developed and adapted from sources in the literature to measure investments in technology, infrastructure, and the performance of the plant. Evidence supporting the reliability and validity of these scales is provided. Hierarchical regression is used to analyze the relationship between technology, infrastructure, and performance. The results suggest that there is an important interaction between the adoption of advanced manufacturing technologies and investments in infrastructure. Firms that invest in both AMTs and infrastructure perform better than firms which only invest in one or the other. Separate analyses on sub-samples of firms with the highest and lowest investments in AMTs show that infrastructural investments have a stronger relationship with performance in the high investment group. Thus, the data indicate that infrastructural investments provide a key to unlocking the potential of advanced manufacturing technologies.     

绍兴、吴江农村城市化的情况调研

通过对江苏吴江市和浙江绍兴县两地部分建制镇和部分原农村居民点的实地调研 ,作者认为 ,目前两地农村工业化、城市化处于发展的上升期 :中心镇经济和城市化发展相当快 ;中心镇以下的部分行政村异地或就地实现城市化。在城市化进程中 ,以下问题有待探讨解决 :迁村并点、撤乡并镇的速度与规模 ;城镇建设用地指标及相关政策 ;社区建设改造过程中 ,农民征地拆迁补偿标准和社会保障等。